Midwest Road Trip 2019: Tiki Tour to Omaha & Ohio

[Janus]

A moon rock from the Apollo 11 mission:

View attachment 248002

Looks a bit darker than the sample they had on display up near Seattle, that I recently saw. That one was collected by Apollo 12.

 

[Janus]

Day 16

I spent the afternoon today at the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB. This place is mind-boggling. I had to skip about a third of it for lack of time.

From the pictures I would say that this is a much more extensive collection than the one at the Museum of Flight where they were hosting the Apollo traveling exhibit I visited, the actual Air Museum part was fairly sparse. (Though they did have a V-1 to go with your V-2.)

 

[jtbell]

Day 17

From Dayton I zipped down to and around Cincinnati via the Interstates (motorways), then headed east along the north bank of the Ohio River via US-52. This was my first time on this section of the river.

The first town I encountered was New Richmond.

A bit further on in the village of Point Pleasant, I visited the birthplace of Ulysses S. Grant, commander of the Union Army in the Civil War and later President.

A year after he was born, his parents built a new house in the nearby inland town of Georgetown which I also visited.

After growing up here, he enrolled in the US Military Academy (West Point). I learned something about this today that sounds like a bad Army joke:

His parents had given him the name Hiram Ulysses Grant. When he arrived at West Point, a bureaucratic snafu entered him in the Army’s records as Ulysses Simpson Grant. When he tried to get it fixed, he was told in effect, “Sorry, kid, this is the Army. You’re stuck with it.”

Next came another ferry ride, across the river to Augusta KY.

And then back to Ohio on the next bridge.

Near the southern tip of Ohio, the town of South Point has a little park on the river. The cape on the far bank in the center of the picture marks where the Big Sandy River flows into the Ohio from the south. On the left is West Virginia, on the right is Kentucky.

Tonight I ended up in Louisa KY on the Big Sandy, in the same motel where I’ve stayed on previous trips through this area.

 

[jtbell]

Day 18 (and home)

I didn't stop anywhere for sightseeing on the way home yesterday. I did take a different route than usual between Louisa and Pikeville KY: through West Virginia via US-52 and US-119 instead of directly through Kentucky via US-23.

These sections of US-23 and US-119 are both four-lane divided highways, although not Interstate-highway (motorway) standard. They have grade crossings and occasional traffic signals. They're rather fast anyway, because of extensive cuts through hills, bridges and fills across valleys, etc. US-52 on the other hand is a two-lane road which follows the terrain, mostly in narrow, tightly winding river valleys, passing through small towns, and with a coal-hauling railroad running close nearby.

The coal industry in this area has declined a lot during the past decade, mainly because electric power plants have been converting to natural gas which can now be extracted inexpensively from other areas using "fracking." Also because it's difficult to burn coal cleanly to satisfy environmental regulations. So I didin't see a single train on the railroad that I drove along. Instead, the railroad (Norfolk Southern) is apparently using one of the two tracks to store unused coal hopper cars, miles and miles of them. I would have gotten a picture if I had found a place to pull off the road, which was nearly impossible because of narrow shoulders.

Today I did put together a couple of panoramas from pictures earlier in the trip. Here's a broader view from Clingman's Dome in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (day 1):

And a broader view of the Mississippi River at Wickliffe KY (day 2):

 

[davenn]

Thanks so much for this thread of another of your road trips
So enjoyable to see the history and other interesting sights

Looking forward to your next trip Dave

 

[Andy Resnick]

I warned jtbell I would post some of my recent photos here. As it happened, he posted those amazing Clingmans Dome photos 1 week prior to my family leaving for a couple days in Asheville, NC on our way to the Outer Banks; we had never been to Asheville and had no idea what to do.

Clearly, we needed to check out the Dome. Indeed, it was amazing.

Here's a photo from my first climb up, carrying my 2 smaller lenses (15mm and 105mm). To get to the viewing platform after walking a 6% grade for 0.5 miles, you walk along a large spiral-shaped structure that carries you above the treetops:

Naturally, I then ran down to our car and climbed again, carrying the somewhat larger 400mm lens (and tripod) to get these:

The last one is a 1:1 crop of Santa's Land amusement park in Maggie Valley, 23 miles away... FWIW, I used the tripod like a monopod- not a lot of room up there.

I totally recommend visiting. The one regret we have is that when driving through the town of Cherokee, located within a reservation, is that we didn't stop to find out what the 'rat cheese' and 'bear meat' available for purchase was, exactly.

 

[jtbell]

Ha ha, Santa's Land! I remember driving past the place on US-19 while headed towards the park. Did you drive through Pigeon Forge while coming towards the park from the north? If your kids are the right age, I bet they would have liked stopping there for a day. Lots of tacky tourist stuff. I actually want to visit Dollywood sometime, because they have a live steam train running around a loop through the grounds.

To get to the viewing platform after walking a 6% grade for 0.5 miles

... at an elevation of about 6500 ft (2000 m). The path is paved and smooth, but it's still a bit of work for most people from the "flatlands". You can see the parking lot way down below at the right:

At least you can stop and rest and admire the view and the wildflowers along the way.