Planes, Trains, and Automobiles... (minus the trains) :)

Tuesday morning I left my grandmothers house and drove to Ann Arbor, MI. I know, it is in the complete opposite direction of TN, but I have to hit all 50 states and what better time then the present when I was only a couple hours away? So I knew this was a big college town and I wanted to check out the campus, but it turns out this a HUGE college town that is built up around the University of Michigan. Just like in Gainesville, (except add a few thousand people) the area around the school is hopping and then just a few miles outside the campus it is back to country farms, and wheat fields. Little did I know that I would be visiting the University which has the largest football stadium in the country (for college football that is). I have to hand the credit of informing me of that little gem to Dawn who I was talking to when I arrived. :) I love the fact that I already had this stop on my list and now I get to add this to my list of cool things seen. Maybe someday I will get to see a game there, but until then I will have to be satisfied with just having seen it.

As far as big cities go I would rate Ann Arbor pretty high on my list. There have been quite a few that I have not enjoyed (and we'll hear more about that later), but this one was nice. The traffic and parking were just like any other (blah), but the downtown area, which was in the middle of campus, looked like it would be a ton of fun. It is a good walking city from what I could tell. Things were not dirty or rundown, and I did not see one area that I would not have felt safe walking around in. I spent some time eating lunch and relaxing at a local park named Gallup Park. It was just a couple miles from campus and the weather was perfect. I fed the geese for a while (which your probably not supposed to do, hehe) and then got back on the road.

This is what I saw during my drive...

nothing.

I arrived in Dayton in the evening and was pleasantly surprised with how nice the hotel was. I guess anything would be better then the hostel. :) I tend to stay in the cheapest places I can find which sometimes works against me, but in this case, was suite! (pun intended)

This morning I went to the National Air Force Museum in Dayton. As some of you may know I had aspirations of becoming a pilot for a long time when I was younger. This desire has never really left and I was like a kid in a candy shop at this museum! There were planes so incredibly huge they had to turn it sideways to get it into the hanger. Planes whose wingspan was so large that the wings had landing gear. Just one propeller on one engine of some of the planes were taller then me. But it is not only about the size; there were planes from every era in history represented, planes that were known for their stealth. planes that rescued soldiers from the battlefield and planes that carried presidents.
I went on a special tour where we took a bus over to the active Air Force base that is across the street. There are two extra hangers over there that house some of the presidents planes which you can actually go inside, and a ton of experimental planes (the R&D hanger.) Again ecstatic! President Kennedy's plane was there for us to walk through and I learned something I found very interesting. After his assassination they did not want to transport his casket in the cargo area of the plane. So they cut out a wall in the interior and put the casket in with the passengers. Apparently, Jackie sat next to it during the flight.
There was a cockpit of a plane open for you to sit in which of course I did. I was pushing kids out of the way to get in... no just kidding. There wasn't a line which made me so happy cause I sat in there forever just playing with all the buttons and checking everything out. :)

Trying to give some perspective. This was not the biggest wheel!

notice the wheels on the wings

in heaven

Uh oh, my feet don't reach the pedals. Shoot, back to earth.

Coolest plane ever! The B-2

This is a SMALL portion of the pictures I took. To check the rest out see my facebook page here.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2206004&id=33407719&l=4d908344a8

I spent so much time at this museum I only had about an hour to see the Indianapolis Speedway Museum. This turned out to be just fine because the speedway museum was nothing to get excited about. It was one big room with cars lined up in a few aisles. There was some info on the cars, but for the most part, if you are not a big racing fan I would not suggest seeing this attraction. However, I did go on a short little bus ride around the track and that did give some interesting info on the history of the track.
The city of Indianapolis, in stark contrast to Ann Arbor, was horrible. Sorry to anyone who may take offense, but I have zero desire to ever return. One word describes it pretty well... scary. Thank God I was there during daylight hours. It may have actually been worse then my experience in Delaware (you have to go way back for that story: 7/20/10).

The speedway was nicknamed "The Brickyard" because at one time the whole thing was paved with bricks. In fact, the bricks are still there. They're just covered with asphalt.

 I know I said no more long posts, but this was mostly pictures ;) Off to the Creation Museum tomorrow. Can't wait.

Sugar and Squalls and everything Falls

On Saturday morning I finished packing up the last of my belongings into my, already extremely full, car. My landlord came over to see me off. She is so nice and I have really enjoyed renting from her and her husband.
Her husband was not able to come and see me off, though, because apparently I chose the first day of deer hunting season to leave. This is a BIG deal in Maine. Multiple generations of hunters gather at 4am for "Hunters Breakfast," which every diner in the area serves. You can imagine what they serve...it includes lots of meat! I heard that some people don't even go hunting afterward, it's just a tradition to go to the breakfast. I did see some hunters on my drive, but I am sure most were deep in the woods. As I headed toward New Hampshire, I drove part of the way on the same road I drove on everyday to go to work. It was nice to see everything one last time.

Taking the back roads instead of highway is such a wonderful way to go. You save on the tolls and you get to see the real side of the towns.
New Hampshire was very similar to Maine (big surprise), except for one part when I was going through the White Mountain range. Seeing the mountains off in the distance was really nice until I couldn't see them anymore due to the clouds.

Then, it began to snow on my ride. Turns out I made it out of Maine just in time cause my landlord sent me a picture of  her house on Sunday with at least a few inches of snow on the ground.
My first stop on Saturday was at Sugarbush farm in Woodstock, VT. As I was driving down this dirt road, and wondering if my GPS had steered me wrong it finally dead ended at this wonderful, family owned, working farm. I won't say it was the prettiest thing I have ever seen, but it was the real thing. The family has lived and worked there for decades. They make cheese and real maple syrup. They have a self guided tour through the farm, sugaring house, and though the maple trees that they tap. It was really interesting. I learned that there are 2 grades of syrup and they never know how much of each grade they will get per year because the grade is based on the temperature of the day they collect it. If it is warmer they will get a darker, more maple flavored syrup (Grade B) whereas, on a colder day they will get a lighter syrup (Grade A). The grade A's are broken down even further into Vermont Fancy or Light Amber, Medium Amber, and Dark Amber. I tried each of these and was very impressed with the Vermont Fancy. It had a very light flavor, but was still very sweet. I also learned that Vermont has a slightly different grading system then the rest of the US, so their syrup has a slightly higher density (more sugar!)

they link all the trees together with lines of hose and collect all the sap in a big bucket

The cheeses I tested were good. My favorite was the Smoked Hickory and Maple. I later found out it was The American Cheese Societies first prize winner for Best Smoked Cheese in America. I knew I had good taste. ;) As I drove around the town afterward I found some of Vermont's infamous covered bridges...

Afterward, I headed for Syracuse, NY where I was staying the night in a hostel. I stayed in hostels all over New Zealand when Coralie and I went there and they were all wonderful, and I read a few good reviews about this place so I thought it would be great. Well, the neighborhood was nice enough, and the host that was there to greet me was nice, but the house itself was really creepy. It was a large, 3 story house built in 1895, and I don't think they had made many changes to it since then. I was one of only two people staying there that night and the other person was not very talkative. There was a stair case leading up to the 3rd floor right outside my room and the light in the stairwell was flickering on and off making that creepy buzzing sound you hear in all the scary movies. This is why I can't watch horror films; even though I have never seen any my mind still goes crazy. I distracted myself by talking to a couple friends on the phone till I was so tired that it didn't bother me that I was almost alone in this old, creaky, light flickering house while it was raining outside. *shiver*

The hallway with the flickery light. Its off in this pic.

Well, I made it through the night, and headed for Niagara Falls. When I could actually see Syracuse during the day I found that it was nothing to get too excited about. I would not go back to visit, but that's just me.
However, the area surrounding Syracuse I must exclude from this assessment. For miles upon miles along the highway in NY from Syracuse to Buffalo there was rolling farm land and big country homes scattered here and there. That was pretty! As I was approaching the falls, probably 5-10 miles away, I noticed a pillar of what, at first, I thought was smoke coming really far up into the air. Then I thought maybe it was mist from the falls so I got my camera out and snapped a few pics... thinking the whole time I was gonna feel stupid when I found out it really was smoke and had nothing to do with the falls. But lo and behold, it sure was mist from the falls!

The falls were great. It was a little overcast, but still pretty. I was able to park on the American side of the falls and walk over to the Canadian side. That way I did not have to try to pass customs with all the stuff I have packed in my car.

The American falls as seen from Canada

The mist covers the middle section of the Horseshoe falls. I guess you can see the whole thing when it is windy enough for all the mist to dissipate as quickly as it is made. Unfortunately, (or fortunately for my freezing cold fingers) there was only a slight breeze on Sunday. But every once in a while the wind would blow the right way and the mist would rain down on everyone nearby.

Horseshoe falls Canadian side

Horseshoe falls from American side

Then I drove to my grandmothers house in Ohio. On the way I drove along the Chautauqua Wine Trail. This is 45 miles of road with houses and towns just like normal, but behind, between and around all the houses there were grapes growing everywhere! These houses had no backyards, just vineyards.

Today I spent the day with my grandmother, her sister and my cousin (once removed or something like that) :) and her new, adorable baby. Even though I have only been on the road for two days it has been nice to take a little break, and I always love to see family; especially family that I do not get to see very often due to the distance between us.
Tomorrow I am off again. Don't worry my other posts won't be this long. :)