T2Tampa - Day 1 at DennyGibson.com

Day 1: August 25, 2001
Getting Started


Here are the original cast members, plus a few friends, ready to go camping. This picture is not part of the Florida trip but the car may have looked about the same when it did head toward the Sunshine State. That's Blanche with the puppy on her lap and her father, Frank, on her left. Gertrude is at the far left of the picture. I'm thinking that this was taken after the 18th amendment was ratified but before it became law. So, even if those are beer bottles they're holding, they are, I have no doubt at all, perfectly legal. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.	Granny's Letters: Left home at noon 4th day of November. Went to Woodington to Greenville and took the machine to the garage and got new spark plugs. Did not find Carrie's until late stayed at Eva's all night, started on the 5th at 7:30, stopped and got the spark plugs fixed again, from then on the machine worked fine. At Hamilton we ate a lunch and started on for Lem's, had a puncture fixed that had a blowout. Went on to Millville on the casing and got a new tire, got to Lem's about 6 o'clock Sat. Nov. 6th, it was their 25th anniversary. Lem and Frank went to Cincinnati and brought some people out with them, the people who bought Lem's place, their names were Shudley, they stayed for dinner, had 4 young chickens for dinner, made cider in the afternoon, had a fine time at Lem's, got to Cincy Mon. morn at 9 o'clock, stayed until 3:30 and at last got started on our long ride, was delayed at Cincy as Carrie had business to attend to, he took out an agency for the Dort car. We had dinner at Orville's, we made about 23 miles that eve stopped for camp in a big sugar grove, belonging to Mr. Hopkins. Did not put up the tent, he did not charge anything but they gave him a dollar (50 cts. apiece). Our next town of any size was Williamstown, the roads were very solid but full of holes. We saw where there was to be a funeral, the only one we have seen so far. Stopped at Corinth Ky. And sent some cards. We were ahead and the roads were crooked and we hadn't seen anything of Carries for some time, we stopped and waited almost an hour and still they didn't come so we started back and found them about 3 miles back in front of an old house trying to get their machine to work. The men went back about a mile to a phone to call a man, while they were gone I went and cooked our dinner on the woman's stove while Mrs. Burns set the table. The people were named Wood, they had a silly boy he was ten years old but had no spine, he could not walk, could talk some and wore dresses and diapers. They had a boy 18 yrs old his name was Aubrey, he took Franks little gun and killed a rabbit and gave it to us. After dinner the man came and fixed the car, charged 5.00 and went on to Georgetown. It is a nice big place but it was raining and getting night so we did not terry long.

This is part of the current crew ready to travel. That's my sister & step-mom looking for the rear seat and my dad all set to navigate. Uncle Eldon was also there to see us off but, although he was drafted for some photographer duties, we somehow missed getting his picture.

From Woodington, the small caravan had a pleasant cruise through Greenville. Here's a shot of the Darke County court house and one of folks attending the last day of the Great Darke County Fair. Dad and the others turned back at Castine and I headed on solo.

Another court house, the unusual octagon topped Butler County version in Hamilton. The log cabin dates from 1804 but not in its current location by the Great Miami River. It was moved here after being donated by its 57th(!!!) owner. From there it was on to Millville and lunch.

Here are a couple of Cincinnati landmarks that were present when Frank and Gertrude passed through. Music Hall and the Roebling suspension bridge. Although they probably drove across this classic bridge they did not have to negotiate the maze created by a sports arena, a football stadium, and 1 & 1/2 baseball parks.

Chris joined me in Cincinnati and we managed to visit a few of Granny's places before night fall. The teepee was some sort of marketing gimmick. The stone building was one of several in a complex that looked as if its better days must have been interesting ones. This particular building had been a Shell station.

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