Monthly Archives: January 2020

So It’s a Little Fishy

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It’s no secret that I’m a fan of Groundhog Day. I don’t mean the movie, although I like that well enough. No, I mean Groundhog Day the day. I’ve seen Punxsutawney Phil, Buckeye Chuck, and Rosie the Groundhog perform predictions regarding the nearness of spring. I once had plans to observe Woodstock Willy at work but those got knocked off by a blizzard. I have eaten some sort of pork sausage on the second day of February for several decades. I’m quite taken with the holiday and may get out to see one of the furry forecasters next week, but yesterday I checked in with a popular predictor of a very different sort.

Several years ago, some folks in Buckeye Lake, Ohio, hatched a plan to give their community a little mid-winter boost. Winterfest involves many of the town’s eating and drinking establishments. Special food and drink offers combine with assorted entertainment to make it a fun day and fuel sales. A blatantly groundhog day like event anchors and opens the festival.

By 6:00 AM, a crowd had begun to gather in the park near the lake. Around 6:30 Benny the Bass arrived in his hundred-gallon aquarium. Music, dancing, and some lighthearted speeches helped build the excitement until 7:00 when a bucket of minnows was emptied into the tank. According to the six-year-old legend, if Benny downs a minnow in a minute or less, an early spring is on the way. If not, winter will drag on for another six weeks. I’d read that the official chant was “Take the bait. Spring can’t wait”, but chants of “Eat it Benny” were all I heard today as time ticked away. The thirty-second warning was reached then a countdown of the final seconds and a loud moan of disappointment from the crowd. I wonder if the old “Take the bait” chant would have made a difference. 

It was a short moan that got quickly covered by the boom of fireworks and a blast of Springsteen. “Glory Days”, rockets’ red and white glare, “Born in the USA”, and for many, it was time to go get a beer.

The crowd thinned quickly so I was able to see the whole tank for the first time. I walked around it to photograph the bad news that someone had written on the glass on the opposite side, but before long, the same sad prediction was written on the other side as well.

The opening photo was taken yesterday when I first came into town and stopped by the Buckeye Lake Brewery. That’s where Benny will be displayed for the rest of the weekend. The bartender had suggested parking near the brewery and walking to the park. That’s what I did which gave me an opportunity to stop by Our Lakeside Diner for breakfast on the way back. A Groundhog Day breakfast always includes pork sausage. Today was a lot like Groundhog Day but sausage didn’t seem all that appropriate for the occasion. My problem was solved when I saw perch & eggs on the menu. Walleye was also offered but perch seemed just right.

By the time I finished breakfast and walked on to the brewery, Benny had been moved to an adjacent spot. The finned boat and wood-grained wagon make for a really classy ensemble. I don’t think there was an official minnow count so it’s unknown if any are missing but Benny and most — if not all — of the minnows seem to be getting along reasonably well.

Unlike many of the festival attendees, I wasn’t quite ready for a beer. I paused briefly at the brewery then moved on for a walkabout that let me peek at some of the other businesses in town. I eventually settled down in the tent in front of the brewery to listen to Paper Street Music Company while enjoying one of those multipurpose beers that fans had promoted at Benny’s side. Not every business in town was open but those that were seemed pretty busy. Apparently that wintertime boost Winterfest was created for is a reality and bennyfishal to all participants.

Book Review
The Other Trail of Tears
Mary Stockwell

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I read this book by accident and belatedly. The accident comes from a spontaneous purchase. The belated reading comes from me not realizing how good it is. I picked the book up back in June of 2018 when I went to hear Mary Stockwell talk on her just-published Unlikely General about my childhood hero, Anthony Wayne. I knew nothing about Stockwell or any other books she had written but bought a copy of The Other Trail of Tears because it sounded kind of interesting and, perhaps more importantly, I was there. Unlikely General worked its way through the stack in a fairly timely manner; It was read and reviewed by November 2018. I let other books move ahead of this one and even loaned it, along with Unlikely General, to a friend to read. When I eventually did start reading The Other Trail of Tears, I quickly put it aside to accommodate two new road-related books. The second attempt went much better and I quickly regretted not diving in sooner. As is too often the case, my preconceptions were wrong. This is another book that was much more than I expected.

Like most people, I am fairly familiar with the forced removal of Native Americans from the southern United States that caused inconceivable suffering and thousands of deaths during the trek west known as The Trail of Tears. Those were the most horrific of the relocations resulting from the Indian Removal Act of 1830 but there were others.

Several reservations once existed in northern Ohio occupied by Shawnee, Wyandot, Seneca, and others. As an Ohioan, I was somewhat aware of these reservations and even knew a little bit about the forced removal of these people. I assumed that Stockwell’s book was filled with details of that removal. Perhaps that assumption and the accompanying assumption that those details would be terribly depressing contributed to my delay in actually reading the book.

My assumptions were not wrong but neither were they complete. The stories of the actual treks to the west are properly told and they are indeed depressing. But they do not fill the book. More pages are used telling of what preceded the removals than on the actual journeys. Stockwell’s coverage of the treaties and trades that resulted in the removal and the people and policies involved is rather detailed and seems complete. There is a lot of history here that I was quite ignorant of.

Though extremely educational, the pre-removal history is also somewhat depressing, and the whole book can fuel that sense of guilt we descendants of European Americans often feel when contemplating the last few centuries of Native American history.

Stockwell doesn’t stoke the guilt or overly stress the sadder aspects of the treks. Although she doesn’t completely hide her sense that Native Americans got a really raw deal, for the most part she sticks to accurately reporting the facts about an undeniably sad period in U.S. history.

The Other Trail of Tears: The Removal of the Ohio Indians, Mary Stockwell, Westholme Publishing, March 18, 2016, 9 x 6 inches, 300 pages, ISBN 978-1594162589
Available through Amazon.

My Wheels — Chapter 39
2018 Subaru Forester

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The closing sentence of the  My Wheels chapter for my previous practical car spoke of trading the recently battered 2011 Forester. The Subaru had been quite good to me and I’d had every intention of continuing to drive it for several more years. Instead, that battering caused me to move to an updated and differently colored version. Reminiscent of the move that replaced the red 1998 Corvette with a blue 2006 model, the red 2011 Forester was replaced with a blue 2018. However, not only is a 4-door SUV quite unlike a 2-door sports car, the two blues are worlds apart. The Corvette’s Daytona Blue was kind of exciting. The Forester’s Quartz Blue Pearl is kind of boring.

My first documented trip in the 2011 Subaru included a stop in Columbus, Ohio, where I had the clever (to me) idea of photographing the car under a Denny’s sign. So naturally (to me) I thought I should do the same thing with the 2018 car. That turned out to be much easier said than done. It seems the Denny’s restaurant chain has fallen on hard times and reduced their presence considerably. There are none left near Cincinnati and only one in Columbus and it lacks the big elevated sign I sought. The picture above was taken at a restaurant near Terre Haute, Indiana. Unlike the similar shot of the red Forester, it was not taken on the car’s first trip but on its second most recent, number eleven.

The red Subaru made its first documented trip just about a week after acquisition. The blue one was in my position for over four months before it was so honored and it would be another four months before it actually appeared in a trip journal. It was the middle of July 2017 when I stopped at the dealer with the scrunched and scratched red Forester thinking it might be close enough to the end of the model year to find a bargain. To my surprise, there wasn’t a single 2017 Forester left on the lot and only a few of other models. I didn’t get the close-out deal I’d hoped for but I did get a deal that was reasonable and put me in a 2018 vehicle when 2017 was barely half over.

I believe the new car stood at approximately the same point in Forester model ranking as the previous one had but it had seven years worth of new bells and whistles. Some, like the rearview camera and adaptive cruise control, I appreciated almost immediately, and it took just one road-crossing deer to convince me that the pre-collision braking was a good thing. The lane departure warning eventually won me over but I’m still not a fan of Lane Keep Assist which tries to keep you from departing a lane without signaling. Fortunately, in my opinion, this latter feature defaults off. 

My first trip after the swap was with an uncle and cousin and used the cousin’s Cadillac. The next trip journal involved the Society for Commercial Archeology in Cincinnati where most of the miles were covered in a tour bus. Then there was a trip in the Miata before the Subaru was put to use on a Thanksgiving trip to Tennessee. It also carried me on a Christmas trip that reached into Georgia and an early April trip to Pittsburgh, PA. It served to mark the “Prev” and “Next” links on the daily pages for those three trips but was otherwise out of sight. It finally broke cover on the late April end-to-end drive of the Jefferson Highway. There was a shot of it all clean and shiny at a car wash in Winnepeg, Canada, then the shot at left of the still clean car about to start down the first of many unpaved sections of the JH. A similar view of the car was incorporated into the cover of a book resulting from that trip, Jefferson Highway All the Way.

With the exception of a fly and drive trip that involved a rental car, The Forester has handled every trip since that 2017 Thanksgiving outing. It hasn’t appeared in a lot of pictures, though, and I suspect it has something to do with that “kind of boring” Quartz Blue Pearl paint. On the 2018 Christmas trip, I caught it in a nighttime shot at South 21 Drive In in Charlotte, NC. In April, it posed in Kentucky at the Cave City Motel as I headed to the Jefferson Highway Conference in Natchitoches, LA.

In June of 2019, on my way to the Lincoln Highway Association conference in Wyoming, I stopped by one of my favorite gas stations in Grand Island, NE. This was my first time at Kensinger Service since the 2016 passing of long-time owner Dick Grudzinski. I missed out on what is still a full-service operation by arriving after the day’s closing. That’s just one of the reasons this is not my favorite picture of the station. It might, however, be my favorite picture of the car.

To date, the blue Subby has carried me on an even dozen documented road trips and, as a very active member of my current two-car fleet, I expect it to carry me on many more. That’s assuming, of course, that I can avoid being stopped at the wrong light at the wrong time.

My Previous Wheels: Chapter 38 — 2003 Mazda Miata
My Next Wheels: Chapter 40 — 1997 Schwinn

Treasures of the Spanish World

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When the Cincinnati Art Museum announced this upcoming exhibit near summer’s end, I was interested but not overly so. In fact, I didn’t put it on my Gotta-See-That list but on my I’ll-See-That-If-It’s-Convenient list. That was a mistake and I’m sure glad there was a day when taking in Treasures of the Spanish World was convenient and it didn’t end up on my Sorry-I-Missed-That list.

First off, it’s big. Its more than 200 objects fill several of the galleries I associate with temporary exhibits. And it’s not just big in terms of space but in time as well. The oldest items in the exhibit are from the middle of the third millennium BCE; The newest are from the twentieth century CE. Most items, including intricately decorated fabrics and ceramics, call for some up-close study. The pictured “books” are letters patent of nobility (cartas ejecutorias de hidalguia) that attest to “the holder’s gentility” and social position. They are wonderfully decorated and often contain images of the holder and/or grantor.

Numerous paintings, including quite a few portraits, are on display. These, showing a wide range of scale, are the work of Domenikos Theotokopoulos (a.k.a, El Greco).

At the beginning of a section named “Golden Age“, visitors are reminded that “In the 1500s Spain was the most powerful country in the western world”. The western world was getting a whole lot bigger in those days and Spain played a huge role in that. The large map, from which the clip of the Americas was taken, was created by Giovanni Vespucci in 1526 as a royal wedding gift. Giovanni inherited the job of maintaining Spain’s master nautical chart from his uncle, Amerigo.

Of course, Christianity was really big in both Old and New Spain. The large wooden relief sculpture was once part of an even larger piece in a Mexican Church. It dates from around 1600.

The exhibit is organized chronologically and physically divided into two parts. The second section is certainly interesting enough  — there are a few Goyas among its several paintings — but I only have one photo from it. I seem to like my history with a side of art more than the other way round. “Advances of the Nineteenth Century” is a set of tiles recounting recent progress from the vantage point of 1903. The bicycle, locomotive, flush toilet, and sewing machine are clearly steps forward. Not so clear is whatever advance the bullfighting tile is touting.

This touring exhibit was made possible by a major renovation project at the Hispanic Society Museum & Library in New York City. That’s where the items in the exhibit normally appear and many of them have never been displayed elsewhere. The exhibit initially appeared in Madrid, Spain, and appeared in Mexico City and Albuquerque before reaching Cincinnati. There’s still time to see it but not much. This is being published when just one week of the fourteen-week run remains. As I said in the opening paragraph, I’m glad Treasures of the Spanish World avoided going on my Sorry-I-Missed-That list. I recommend you keep it off of yours, too, if you can.

2019 in the Rear View

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The year in numbers with 2018 values in parentheses:

  • 5 (6) = Road trips reported
  • 69 (67) = Blog posts
  • 47 (66) = Days on the road
  • 1641 (1941) = Pictures posted — 543 (473) in the blog and 1098 (1468) in Road Trips

Trips, days on the road, and pictures posted are all down and I believe it can all be blamed on that July through September gap when a variety of life’s activities kept me off the road and close to home. The slight uptick in blog posts comes from me doing a couple more reviews this year than last. Two of those new-for-2019 blog posts join three oldies in the top five list. For the second year in a row, all of the top five trip journal entries were for major trips which is the way I always thought it should be. One was even a 2019 outing.

Top Blog Posts:

  1. Twenty Mile’s Last Stand
    This post takes the number one spot for the third time. It was published in 2012 and was the most popular post that year and again in 2013. It ranked fourth in 2014 then dropped out of this list until reappearing last year at number five. That was quite a mystery and it climbing back to number one this year even more so. A follow-up post, Roadhouse Down, also got a fair amount of attention. As I said last year, I’d like to think some of the visits are from people involved in the demolition of this historic building who are feeling a little remorse.
  2. An Awesome Travel Accomplishment
    There’s not much mystery in this post making the top five list. Hugh Donovan’s awesome accomplishment was reaching all 3142 United States counties in less — a lot less — than a year. Of course, Hugh had lots of followers as he racked up the counties, and visits from some of them helped make this my second most popular blog post of the year. By wonderful luck, the feat was completed about three miles from my home so I could attend the celebration, meet Hugh and his family and supporters, and snap the opening photo.
  3. My Wheels – Chapter 1 1960 J. C. Higgins Flightliner
    This post has been on the list since it first appeared in 2013. This is, in fact, its lowest ranking after three firsts and three seconds. Does that mean interest in the first brand new vehicle I ever owned is fading? I wouldn’t count on it.
  4. Much Miscellany 2, Sloopy at 50
    Just cracking the top five when it first appeared during Hang on Sloopy‘s fiftieth anniversary year of 2015, this post reappeared last year at number four and hangs on 😉 to the same spot this year.
  5. Portsmouth Road Meet
    Technically the fifth-ranked blog post of 2019 was the follow-up to the number one post mentioned above, but assuming that many of the visits to those two posts were connected allows me to slip another new-for-2019 post into the list. This post benefited from having a targeted audience in those who attended but probably even more from those who wanted to but couldn’t.

Top Non-Blog Posts:

  1. Kitty Hawk Holidays
    This was last year’s Christmas trip so it had a full year to accumulate visits. It was scheduled around the anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ first flight and began just over a week before Christmas. The 115th anniversary of that historic flight was celebrated on December 17 and I’m sure some of the post’s visitors came for reporting on that event and the Kitty Hawk area. But there was also a lot of driving around the Outer Banks (It was my first visit.) then through North Carolina on US-64. I spent Christmas in Knoxville, Tennessee.
  2. Sixty-Six: E2E & F2F
    The third of my four full-length Route 66 drives returns for its second consecutive and overall fourth top-five appearance. It was number four last year, number five in 2015, and number one in 2012. I can’t explain why it has returned and moved up two places, but I can explain that E2E means End-to-End and F2F means Friend-to-Friend.
  3. JHA 2019 Conference
    The Jefferson Highway Association held its eighth annual conference in Natchitoches, Louisiana. That’s not only a great place for a conference but makes for a great drive to and from. It’s nice to see a trip journal in the top five during the year it was posted.
  4. Dirk and Lincoln
    I had never seen Dirk Hamilton perform with a band before and took this opportunity to see him in a place where he used to perform in a reunion with the band he used to perform with there. I rounded things out (and cobbled up the title) with some Lincoln Highway. Three recent and consecutive trips made the top five. This November 2018 trip was followed by the Kitty Hawk trip (#1) in December and the JHA conference (#3) in April.
  5. LHA Centennial Tour
    Like the #2 Route 66 trip, this one is back for the fourth time. It was also ranked fifth last year and in 2016 after debuting at number four in 2013 when it was new. The journal and a resulting book (By Mopar to the Golden Gate) cover a drive on the 100-year-old Lincoln Highway in a 50-year-old car.

Both website visits and blog views were again down. Website visits went from 100,878 to 96,512. Blog views dropped from 6,757 to 5135. A chart of blog views looks like a near-perfect arch with steady increases to a peak in 2015 and steady decreases each year since. Total visits to the website haven’t been quite as well behaved. A lack of support for small screens triggered a huge drop in search engine hits in 2015 when Google got serious about searches from mobile devices. Adding the support brought a partial recovery over the next couple of years but it looks like a steady decline similar to that seen with the blog has now set in. Visits are less than half of the 2014 peak. Curiously, page views have again increased to 726,399 from 2018’s 658,425. Fewer people are looking but they’re looking at more.

While I believe, and accept, that the popularity of this site is in decline, there is an actual explanation for some of this year’s drop. Sometime around the middle of the year, shared servers at my hosting company, Arvixe, were identified as spammers by Verizon and its Yahoo and AOL divisions. The result, without getting into technical details, is that some, most, or all messages sent from my journal and blog mailing lists to a yahoo.com, aol.com, or verizon.net address have been rejected. There has been some progress since I became aware of the problem but it is far from solved. I am considering changing providers but am reluctant to undertake the effort involved. I am otherwise fairly happy with my current provider and fear trading a known mess for an unknown one. I am, for the moment, undecided. The RSS feeds, incidentally, work just fine.

Last year’s summary spoke of two books nearing publication. There were actually three books published in 2019 and all were “reviewed” in the blog: A Canadian Connection, Jefferson Highway All the Way, and Six of Each. All those and a couple more are listed at Trip Mouse Publishing.

Even though the blog entries for them weren’t popular enough to make the top five, I think three events of 2019 deserve mention in this look back. In July I visited my 200th brewery (200 Breweries), August saw the twentieth anniversary of the first trip reported on this site (It Was Twenty Years Ago Today…), and I celebrated ten years of retirement in November (A Decade Driving and Such). The brewery count is now at 224, 158 trips have been reported on the site, and I’ve now been retired 10 years, 2 months, 3 weeks, and 1 day.