T2Tampa - Day 16 at DennyGibson.com

Day 16: September 9, 2001
The Final Day


Hagerstown was the first reference point on what we expected to be our last day on the road.	Granny's Letters: March 2nd---Got an early start but had so much mountains don't make much time. Saw large orchards, one had 20,000 apple trees and 2,000 peach trees. Our brakes gave out coming down Sideing mountains, sent for a garage man he came out, fixed us up so we got to the garage, they are now putting in new bands. I am sitting in the office where it is warm. Got ourselves together again started on but the machine did not work right so we turned around and went back and had the man look after it again, all together it cost us $6.75. We went on over one mountain after another, reached Cumberland and got through there. It rained almost all afternoon and toward night a fog raised, it was very disagreeable. Got permission to pull the machine in a building at a farm, it was almost dark they had a forge in the building and Frank sharpened a drill for them. I went to bed almost as soon as we landed. I think it was 20 minutes of six, Frank came to bed soon. We had bought our lunch at the last town back, Frostburg. March 3rd---Got up this morning waited until 7 o'clock, no one got up at the house so we pulled out. Had fairly good luck all day, but had several more mountains to cross, got across them at last and into the hills, they were not as bad. We made 132 miles today. We came over the old trail pass that Washington used during the war. We got in a blacksmith shop where we have a fire and are real comfortable. We are in the town of Loydsville Ohio, just a small place. It got colder today and is snowing. March 4th---The blacksmith came he is a nice man, Charles Hammersle. Pretty chilly, we had our breakfast and got an early start. Had a loom and timer put on the car. Did not help much and had to stop again for a man to finish the job, put a timer roller on, stopped at Zanesville and got our dinner and then run out of oil. Frank had to walk about a mile to get oil and that was the way it went all day, just stop and start on. Come on through Columbus to Mechanicsburg, it was then dark. Stopped at Mutual and tried to get a place to stay all night but people seemed to be afraid of us so we came on, had our supper in Urbana and thought we could make it home, but when we got a mile west of St. Paris we got hung up in the mud, got to the side of the road and got to bed. March 5th---Raining this morning just a pouring down, laid in bed until half past eight, when we got up the roads did not look half as bad as we thought they would, we only had 3 miles to pavement, we soon made that and were not long in getting to Piqua. Frank went to a restaurant washed up had his breakfast and brought me some warm sandwiches to the machine and we came home through Covington and Bradford. Got home about half past one just 4 months to the day after we had left Greenville. Grandpa Gephart and Millers boys helped us unload the machine and so ended our trip to Florida.

This is Sideling Mountain where the brakes "gave out" on the Model T. This massive cut was only completed in 1984 so Frank and Gertrude had to follow the more round-about route shown in the scale model pictured here. The last picture is our forward view coming down the reduced grade of the modern I-70. Rather frightening to imagine descending the old dirt road in a brakeless Ford.

Next, still very much in the mountains, came the town of Cumberland.

Much of the route we are following eastward is on the Historical National Road Scenic Byway. This existed long before even Model Ts were puttering around. This toll house was erected around 1833 and charged 6 cents for sheep & hogs and 12 cents for cattle. Fortunately, we had none.

Just past Frostburg, we came on this collection of farm buildings that looked like they would have been there in 1920 and seemed a candidate for the place where the machine was pulled in a building and Frank sharpened the drill.

When we saw this gathering of old Fords we just had to stop. It was a collection of seven Model As from Youngstown, Ohio, returning from an outing to Cumberland. We were torn between a respite at the tavern and getting home and getting home won. We'll definitely stop here next time.

We found the cluster of houses called Lloydsville but there were no city limit signs. We moved on to Zanesville with its impressive courthouse and famous 'Y' bridge.

Being in Ohio gave us a little more incentive to get home and we breezed through Columbus and would probably have done the same at Mechanicsburg if the streets had not been blocked for the Music and Crafts festival. It's kind of like Cincinnati's Jammin' on Main except it's more peaceful despite a higher percentage of streets being blocked. Frank & Gertrude camped in backyards and barns throughout their travels but when they reached Mutual, about 50 miles from home, "people seemed to be afraid" of them. Huh?

We're almost done now and Urbana, St. Paris and Piqua go by quickly. We were once again flirting with rain and it caught us as we left Piqua. Finally, the top went up.

We had both rain and darkness when we reached Woodington and even the camera seemed a little blurry after 4448 miles. We're home and we're done (except for the 100 mile drive home in pouring rain).

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