Vacation - On the Road (19th-21st)

So I think I'm only a little sick now. That is, I'm well enough that I can start what amounts to my version of a photo album about the family vacation. I think the pictures get more interesting as the trip progresses (with the exception of the bike ride), which is good. I mean, I don't even include any pictures of South Bend, Indiana where we spent our first night. I know - how could I possibly be willing to miss the College Football Hall of Fame? Believe me, after 500 miles and my general apathy toward college ball, it was an easy decision. I know I went to the U of MN, and that should engender some sort of college spirit in me, but I also went to RPI and Hamline, and I feel I was shaped more by their ball programs - go Engineers! I really doubt any of them are in the football hall of fame.

On our way out, slicing through the midwest via the scenic turnpikes (annoying, but fast, and the GPS kept routing us back toward them), we stopped at Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio. After a lot of ripped down gas stations, we got to some very pretty scenery at the park. These are stones cut by WPA workers for the park. If you're laying down, it looks sort of like a mini stone henge.


Cuyahoga also boasts Brandywine Falls, which were pretty, although not nearly as inspiring as Niagara. It was a lot of walking. Which was good, because we were trying to stretch our legs between bouts in the car reading A Series of Unfortunate Events and Harry Potter. But it was incredibly hot, which made going up and down all the stairs some sweaty work. Pooteewheet and Eryn had me walk back to get the car so I could come get them.


Here's Brandywine Falls. Pretty, no?


Here's the pasty, bald, old guy who kept getting in Pooteewheet's pictures at the falls. No, not me. But he deserved to have his picture taken and his splashing bald head posted for his inconsiderate presence in scenic natural beauty.


No, Eryn! WPA does NOT mean "Will Poop Again." She was having a great time for most of the trip. She watched like a video and a half, and instead stuck to reading, being read to (her favorite), playing with her dinosaurs, and singing along to Elvis on the iPod.


Monroeville, PA, where we stopped for some sodas for our cooler, and a horrible meal from Wendy's. It was about the only time we broke my soft rule about eating at little local diners, because it was late, and it was a good reminder about why I have that rule. Pooteewheet was very amused that either this woman is sad because her baby lost its head, or this woman ate her baby's head, or if you look at the picture this way, the baby is being carried by a headless woman. It's all in the interpretation.


Apparently, when I was so tired of driving, Jesus carried me into my hotel room by walking across our walls.


Some pictures from the end of my bike ride day, when we stayed at Williamsport. Me falling asleep against a post on the trail while Eryn runs around, all full of energy.


The Potomac River from an aqueduct on the C&O Canal in Williamsport. One of the highlights of staying in Williamsport is that my inlaws' GPS was going to take us to a grocery store, and instead took us to a grocery shipping/trucking warehouse. That was absolutely not what we were after.


A nice view of Williamsport across one of the flooded areas of the C&O Canal.


While I was bicycling, Pooteewheet and Eryn went to Rocky Gap State Park in Maryland, where they saw rocks, a lake, and some graves. This was to characterize a lot of our trip - rocks, water, graves - so it was appropriate they were subjected to it even when I wasn't around.


Eyrn standing in a lake at Rocky Gap.


A tombstone at Lemul Bucy Cemetery at Rocky Gap.


Tomorrow: Antietam, Great Falls Tavern, and Scooter gets a haircut in West Virginia.