Next, we went to Studio Arts & Glass in North Canton, a family owned studio where we were greeted by their two beautiful dogs, a St. Bernard and an Old English Sheepdog! The studio specializes in custom stained glass windows, skylights, and lamps. They also do a lot of restoration of historic windows including the Ohio State House, Frank Lloyd Wright home in Springfield, Ohio and many historic churches throughout the US and Canada. We got to see how they cut the glass, apply the lead and some glazing. It was all pretty interesting but my favorite part was the colorful gift shop packed full of handmade jewelry, ornaments, and all kinds of art from Ohio artists and others. We ran out of time for shopping so we made plans to return after lunch and our last tour of the day.
Next, we had a wonderful buffet lunch of meatloaf and chicken marsala with all the trimmings at the 356th Squadron Restaurant. Meatloaf was General Dwight D. Eisenhower's favorite dish! As we ate, Eilsenhower's thoughts and actions are brought to life as he approaches the eve of "operation Overload", D-Day and June 6, 1944 which was the Longest Day. Kenneth Neff Hammontree, historian, lecturer and author from Living History Productions in Ashland, Ohio and formerly a history teacher at Akron area schools, is a one man show who is fighting to keep history alive in our schools. He was dressed in the same uniform Eisenhower would've worn and spoke very eloquently and from memory. We, the audience, were assigned to play the "press" and were allowed to pose questions after stating which "newspaper" we were from. He fired off answers as though he were Eisenhower, without any hesitation at all. This has been my favorite part of the entire trip so far! Ken is amazing... He also portrays Daniel Boone, Tecumseh, Johnny Appleseed, Meriwether Lewis, George Washingtonn, Paul Revere, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and many others. I understand he even does Father Christmas, but Eisenhower is his most requested character. You can check him out here:
After stuffing ourselves once again [I much would've rather taken a nap on the bus] we loaded up on our bus and headed to the Maps [Military Aviation Preservation Society] Air Museum, an all volunteer, non-profit organization dedicated to educating people about the history of military aviation. They had a Russian Mig-17 fighter jet and anyone who wanted, could sit in the cockpit. It was very difficult to get in and even more difficult to get out of! They had a ton of memorabilia but we didn't have enough time to see it all because we had more important things to do, such as return to the Studio Arts & Glass to do some shopping! I think everyone was pretty pooped out afterwards, it was a pretty quiet bus ride back to the campground.
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| Interior of MAPS Hangar, April 2007 • photo © Gary Haught |
Saturday was a free day so we decided to drive to Berlin and Millersburg so I could visit some Amish quilt shops. We ended up at Miller's Dry Goods [ http://www.millersdrygoods.com/ ] which was so big, it was in two separate buildings! Luckily, they had a nice, comfortable sitting area for Kris to hang out. I quickly made my way through the store and eventually to the sale area where I found a couple of books as well as patterns. They also had very reasonably priced, ready-made quilts and anything else you could think of related to sewing. I headed over to the next building where the fabrics were located. They advertise over 8,000 bolts of fabric! I went straight for the clearance fabrics in the basement. I bought several remnants and am quite happy! I didn't realize how much time had passed but it turns out Kris watched a movie on his iPod AND had a nice nap.
We were hungry when we stopped in at Miller's Dry Goods and by now we were starving! It's funny how when you're doing something you enjoy, you forget all about food. And Kris is so good to me, he doesn't push me to hurry. That's so when it's his turn to visit the hardware or surplus store, he doesn't get pushed! We drove around looking for a fun place to eat and discovered a Mexican restaurant advertised to be authentic. We were the only customers at the time. The food was outstanding and yes, authentic! They gave us a lot of food so we had plenty of leftovers to take home.
Kris decided to forego the hardware store since it was a long drive to another town and instead we went looking for a Verizon store to pick up an air card. We were warned that sometimes GPS doesn't work so well in Amish country. We chose the closest store listed, loaded the address into the GPS and it took us out in the middle of nowhere. The Amish we came across were looking at us like, "what are THEY doing HERE?" It was too funny. The next store took us to Coshocton and even though it was 5:30 p.m., they were still open! We bought an air card and headed to Wal-Mart for some things we needed. By the time we got out of there, it was starting to get dark and we had a long drive to get back. The Amish drive their buggies after dark so we didn't dare drive the speed limit! Fortunately, they do have reflective safety equipment mounted to the front and back of their buggies as the roads are curvy and there's not much shoulder so they are right in the road. We saw a lot of these signs:
Gabbi was very happy that we finally made it home safe and sound!
Sunday morning we got up way too early for an 8:15 a.m. buffet breakfast at the Olde Mountain Top Restaurant, a short walk across the street from the campground. The weather this weekend has been great for walking. The rest of today is basically free until this afternoon when we're gathering for Hors d'oeuvres, pie and initiation for first timers. There are six of us including Kris & myself. We have no idea what to expect but we were told to bring an appetizer, our rain gear and galoshes . . . will report back on that later!
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