Computer Crash, Wind Mills, and Pioneer Village

It's a real disaster when your computer dies during the first month of a four-month road trip. Carol's laptop had failed to power up on the day of our last blog, but Jack was finally able to get it going. But the next morning it was DOA. (This on top of our Verizon JetPack MiFi device dying just a week before--what's going on with our technology?!?) Fortunately, the Best Buy Geek Squad was nearby. They assessed the dead laptop and said it was surely dead, but they could get the data off the hard drive. (Whew, since Carol had not been overly conscientious about  backing up her work every day--she's been editing some technical books on this trip and had work in progress.)

We looked at the laptops offered by Best Buy and selected another Dell Inspiron laptop, the same type that died, because Carol is used to it and hates to change ANYTHING on her computer, ever. We bought the computer and arranged for the Geek Squad to get all the data off the broken laptop's hard drive and put it on the new one. It would be ready for pick up the next morning. BTW, we were in West Des Moines, a very clean and tidy city, from what we saw of it. We found a nearby Walmart Supercenter to stay overnight at (several other RVs were also spending the night in their parking lot). We had some time to kill, so decided to see the new Star Trek movie. We've been Star Trek aficionados since the days of the old TV show and have seen all the movies, so really wanted to see this one on the big screen. Enjoyed it. Very action-packed. The mall where the movie theater was located was GIGANTIC. We're not used to city malls anymore--we were a couple of rubes walking around with our jaws hanging open.

Carol's new Dell Laptop with i7 Intel processor, 12 GB RAM and 512 GB solid state drive. 

VERY FAST

Next morning we were up early and headed over to Best Buy, since Carol was chomping at the bit to get her new computer and make sure she hadn't lost any work due to the crash. We're impressed with this Best Buy. Both the salespeople and the Geek Squadders were knowledgeable and very helpful. We got a crash course on the new computer and verified that all the data from the other computer was there--yay! Then they let us sit there in the carrel for awhile and download a bunch of software that we needed using their fast connection. Life is good again.

Had lunch at a Whole Foods and got back on the road. We continued our plan of stopping at a rest stop every hour or so, to rest and walk a little. One of the Iowa rest stops was spectacular! Iowa has lots of windmills located in the middle of the corn and soybean fields, and this rest stop was apparently sponsored by the company that's installing the windmills. One of the windmill propeller blades was installed vertically so you could finally see how big these things really are. (BIG!!) The whole place had an energy theme, with beautiful color tiled walls displaying windmills in operation and lots of informative panels. Neat place! Plus you could see the real windmills operating from the rest stop parking lot.

A 145 ft long windmill propeller blade.

Carol at base of windmill propeller blade. Mind you, this is NOT the windmill body but just one of the 3 propeller blades stuck in the ground! The whole windmill is over 400 ft tall.

Nice description of windmills.

This rest area has some very cool tile work. This one shows the interior of the windmill electric generator. Note the technician inside near the hub. Not sure how he gets up there...

There are three tiled walls showing surrounding windmills.
An interesting note quotes a study which concluded there is enough wind power on the plains from Texas to North Dakota to provide 16 times the electrical power needs of the entire United States.

We crossed over into Nebraska and drove through Omaha (it was Sunday so not much traffic). We decided to stop at a motel with a good internet connection on the west side of Omaha, to download some more software (we're trying not to use up all our Verizon MiFi bandwidth) and let Carol play with the new computer some more, clean up the old stuff that doesn't need to be on there, etc. Had a comfortable quiet night at the Super8 and got to watch some of the Olympics for the first time.

Monday we got back on the road for real, heading for one of the stops that we'd planned, Harold Warp's Pioneer Village in Minden, Nebraska. Reading reviews of the place, we weren't sure what to expect, as most of the current reviews mention how rundown the place has gotten. Harold Warp was a successful businessman in the area, a son of pioneer parents. Back in the 1950s he started collecting all sorts of Americana that displayed technological progress from pioneer days till the present (the present being around 1980s, since it doesn't look like much has been added since then). This is an astounding collection of stuff, housed in 20+ buildings surrounded a tree-shaded grassy "village" square. He has an original Pony Express building, a pioneer sod house, an 1890s church (which still hold services every Sunday during the summer season), train station with steam train in it, an old merry-do-round, general store fully stocked, etc. etc. Plus massive buildings holding all kinds of vehicles from the earliest wagons to jets.

Conestoga Pioneer Wagon - outside view

Conestoga Wagon - inside view

A really old steam engine locomotive

Pioneer sod house. Very cool temperature inside on this hot day.

1884 Church still has church service every Sunday during the summer season.

The oldest Merry-go-Round.

Carol with multi-colored animals.

In another building he has kitchens, living rooms and bedrooms from all eras, from pioneer days to modern with authentic furniture (modern again being about 1980). Just about anything you can think of, Mr. Warp collected one (or more) of--musical instruments, glassware, printing presses, boats, sewing machines, refrigerators--anything you want to see the history of, you can probably find an example of it here! We only managed to see about a third of the collection, if that.

The 1830 kitchen display.

We stayed at the adjoining campground. The place is rundown. The original campground bathhouse is locked up and says "closed for renovation" and campers are told to use two old motel rooms adjoining the campground for a bathroom. (Actually it was nice to take a bath instead of a shower.) Their visitor numbers are way down and apparently the heirs of Mr. Warp don't want to spend their money to upgrade the place. So who knows how long it will stay open. It's definitely worth seeing though!! Mindblowing...

This morning we head for Wyoming--one of our favorite states!

Surprise Visit and Quest for Internet

Today, after the predicted torrential rains all last night, we pulled up stakes (figuratively) and drove across the Mississippi into Iowa again, heading west. Some of the campsites were more affected by all the rain than others--ours was not so bad and we had been alerted to the wet forecast, so fortunately we'd put everything away last night.

We had also been alerted to the fact that we would be driving right past our friend, and former Oriskanite, Nathan Cox's place of employment in Coralville, IA, a suburb of Iowa City, where he and his wife Ann live. (We were alerted by his mom, Ninette Cox, who is a faithful blog reader.) Nathan is assistant manager at West Music in Coralville, so we found the address and put it into our GPS. Sure enough it was easy to find and it was good to see Nathan's smiling face again. He looks great--very fit and healthy! He gave us an informative tour of the store.

The West Music store is much, much larger than it appears in this photo.

Calling West Music a "music store" is a vast understatement, sort of like calling New York City a sleepy little town. It's a very impressive and sizable company. This place is huge, and is only one of multiple stores, although we gathered that it's their flagship. We were stunned at the quantity and quality of seemingly EVERY kind of musical instrument imaginable. A whole roomful of Steinway pianos! A whole roomful of fabulous guitars! Walls full of wind instruments, violins, violas, cellos... yes, and even banjos! Ukeleles! Drums! They give lessons in every kind of musical instrument, do repairs, do custom instrument design, and even have an acoustically excellent performance room in the store that will seat 100. Nathan seems to really like his work and we know the company appreciates him and his expertise. (We remember when Nathan and his brother Jonathan were devoted "band kids" during high school.) It was a treat getting to visit and see him in his element! Thanks for the suggestion, Ninette.

Nathan gave us a nice tour,

starting with the numerous (some costing $100,000 plus) Steinway pianos.

And let's not forget Nathan's cubby hole full of $6,000 cellos and much more,

Another perk to the Coralville stop was Hurt's Donuts right across the street from West Music. What an assortment! We ended up with a giant cinnamon roll and a standard glazed. Yum. The coffee was good too.

Then, back on the road, enjoying the Big Sky, roiling cloudy skyscape, and endless huge farms of corn and soybeans, one after another. The farms all look very prosperous, with lovely older houses in good repair, surrounded by barns and other outbuildings. They all appear to be about a half mile away from each other--about the distance we think people should live from each other for optimum mental health!

Iowa has plenty of rest stops and we  noticed on the signs that they offer Wifi and free dump stations for RVers. Jack has been in search of a good free Wifi connection to do some operating system upgrades to our four Apple devices, so we stopped at a rest stop. However, the connection speed wasn't good enough to do what he wanted to do. We think the state offers the Wifi so as to help keep people from driving and texting--the connection is certainly good enough for texting if not internet surfing. We drove on to a Pilot station and found a great internet connection in their parking lot, and the gas is still under $2!

Perhaps Iowa's way of keeping people from killing themselves texting while driving?

We're now staying at a KOA so Carol can do some laundry...

Buffalo Bill and Lock Adventure

Had another good night’s sleep Wednesday night at the Fisherman’s Corner campground. We got up, did some billpaying and book writing, and then headed off for a little sightseeing. Our first destination was the boyhood home of Buffalo Bill Cody, across the Mississippi in Iowa. After crossing the bridge, we took the scenic drive along the river and went through the little village of LeClaire, which is getting ready to celebrate a 3-day festival called “Tug Fest.” It’s a quaint little town and fortunately we were early enough in the day to avoid the Tug Fest crowds, although their riverfront road is blocked off for booths and some carnival rides. We didn’t have a clue about Tug Fest but were later informed that it’s a 3-day festival celebrating a tug-of-war ACROSS THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER! Yes, tug of war teams from LeClaire, IA and their rivals across the river in Port Byron, IL compete by pulling on a 2700-foot, 680-pound rope stretched all the way across the Mississippi! Sounds like something to see, but since they’re calling for 30,000 to 40,000 people to descend on this place to see it, we think it’s a good thing we’re leaving tomorrow morning. We’re still allergic to crowds.

We got caught in a thunderstorm with spectacular lightning displays on the way to Buffalo Bill’s house, but it didn’t last long. The house was a neat restoration/preservation of an 1840s stone farmhouse with a Victorian frame addition. Buffalo Bill only lived here for a few years, from about age 1 to 6. The rooms are decorated with antiques from two periods—the “pioneer” times around 1840 and early Victorian times—sort of like Olde Surber Station, where we live. We were the only ones visiting, and we wandered around ogling all the old stuff. There were also two bison in a field next to the house. And they had the best, cleanest pit toilet we’ve ever had the privilege of using!

Where Buffalo Bill Cody grew up. Can you see the rain?

Some details about the home.

After that, we found some good “homemade” donuts at Casey General Store and headed on down the road toward Lock and Dam #14. This is the same lock and dam we visited the day before from our campground, but we wanted to see it from the Iowa side, which has the actual locks. We were hoping to see some barges get locked through, and we were in luck. A towboat pushing 15 barges was just entering the lock and we got to see and photograph the whole thing. It seems weird that these vessels are called “towboats” and the massive raft of barges is called a “tow” since they’re being pushed, not towed. According to Wikipedia, this stems from steamboat days when the old steamboats would tow wooden barges alongside to earn extra revenue, and the name stuck.

Towboat and barges in the lock 

We learned that Lock and Dam #14 was constructed in the 1930s and is on the National Register of Historic Places. It can only handle a 600-foot tow but today’s towboats can push up to 15 barges lashed together with steel cables, which is about twice as long as the lock can handle. So they have to break the raft of barges apart and do half at a time through the lock—quite the time-consuming ordeal. It took about 2 hours for the whole procedure. “Our” tow belonged to the Bunge company, a huge international ag/food corporation with its own barge fleet. These barges all held corn (we were told by a lock employee), going down river to St. Louis.

The Thomas K Towboat out of St. Louis. 

We met a young towboater named Josh who is working on this tow, and we discussed how most people in this country have no idea what his job is like, or that jobs like his even exist. Yet these boatmen perform a crucial service by transporting grains and lots of other commodities from America’s heartland to markets both domestic and global. Josh works 30 days straight, living on the towboat, and then gets 15 days off. Watching Josh and the other towboaters work this tow through the lock was impressive—it’s physically demanding and dangerous work. Hats off to them, and to the skillful pilot of the towboat, who had to do some serious maneuvering to get both of the barge rafts safely through the lock and then execute an immediate left turn to keep the whole massive thing in the channel. Wow! Talking to a couple of the lock employees, they are obviously proud of the service they perform. One told me that this 15-barge tow carries as much as about 1,000 semi-trucks or 200 railway cars and it’s MUCH more fuel-efficient and cheaper than either of those alternatives. [Jack comment--Finally, here's a way to get the hated 18-wheelers off the interstate highways.]

After watching the tow disappear around the bend, we headed back to our campsite. We had purchased some firewood and tonight was our designated campfire night. Jack finally got the fire going after we sacrificed a roll of paper towels for kindling and we cooked our hot dogs over the fire. Yum. Just the way Jack likes them! (Except Carol only brought Gulden mustard instead of the plain yellow kind he prefers.)

Josh walking the first part of the tow barges.

Josh up close with Lock #14 in the background.
We were not allowed inside the lock area, hence the fence.

Leaving the lock and heading down river.

It’s currently about 11 pm and it’s raining hard. Torrential rains and flashflooding are expected overnight. We’ll see what the morning brings.

Mississippi Sunset

Hot dogs roasting on an open fire.

On to the Mississippi

In our last blog we were staying in a Walmart parking lot near Dayton, OH and planned to see some of the Wright Brothers historic sites before heading on down the road. As it turned out, we ended up spending a second night in that Walmart parking lot (a great campsite by the way), due to having a problem with our Verizon MiFi, our hotspot that keeps us connected to the internet and allows us to publish this blog. We spent Monday morning in the Verizon store, a bustling place that reminded us of Apple Stores: lots of competent geeks pitching their wares and helping customers with their various problems. Our personal geek was very good and determined that, yes indeed, our device wasn't working any longer. He tried a new part but that didn't work either so we decided to upgrade to the newest model. This took a while so it was now early afternoon. We decided to proceed on to see some Wright Brothers stuff.

Our Verizon MiFi after many years of excellent service could no longer give us 4G speed. 

Who can live in the dark ages with 1X speeds?

We plugged in the address for the National Historic Site called Prairie Huffman Field Interpretive Center, the spot where the brothers got really good at flying their plane and perfected it. Interestingly, our GPS directions took us onto the Air Force base and the nice gentlemen guarding the gate said we couldn't come in and turned us around. We managed to get someone on the phone and they directed us to the entrance, which was very difficult to find and not at all well marked. It was a nice visitor's center, however, with a good movie and informative exhibits. The most exciting thing was finding out that Tom Hanks and HBO are now working on a Wright Brothers miniseries! Ever since we visited Kitty Hawk almost 20 years ago and read some good books about the Wright Brothers and their incredible accomplishments against all odds, they have been our heroes. Talk about stick-to-it-iveness! We've been lamenting the fact that there's really no good movies about them and wishing that Tom Hanks/Steven Spielberg would pick it up as a story and do it justice. Ever since the new book by David McCullough, The Wright Brothers, came out last year (New York Times #1 bestseller--read it!), Carol predicted that this would finally be the impetus for a good movie or miniseries and sure enough, it looks like it will happen. Can't wait to see this one!!!

Carol before we entered this National Park (uh..Interpretive Center)

The grounds surrounding the Huffman Field center are on a tall bluff overlooking the actual 80-acre Huffman Prairie field where the first real flying (long flights, circles, figure eights) took place. Near the center is a big monument to the brothers. The fact that the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is here in Dayton is due to them--this is where aviation as a science really began. The brothers were AMAZING men and it was good to be reminded of how much our modern world owes them.

The Wright Brothers Monument

Up close with the monument.

By the time we had our fill of adulation of the Wright Brothers, it was late and we decided to go back to the Walmart and spend another night and get an early start on Tuesday morning. The early start, however, was not to be--to make a long story short, our brand-new MiFi device wouldn't charge properly. It said it was charging but didn't. Something wrong with the battery apparently. So Tuesday morning we headed back over to the Verizon store and were first in line at the 10 am opening. Our geek (female this time) quickly established that we were telling the truth--it absolutely would not charge--and changed it out for another one that appears to work. Yay!

Finally back on the road and heading for the western border of Illinois. We planned to stay at a campsite on the banks of the Mississippi on the Great River Road scenic byway. We had a smooth trip--took about 6.5 hrs driving time but we stopped a few times. Gas was cheap, under $2/gal. We decided to stop at a rest stop every 50 or 60 miles to stretch our legs on this trip, so we did that. Hit one very bad rest stop in Greensburg, Indiana--looked very run down, not mowed or maintained, and when we got to the door to the restroom buildings, there was a handmade sign (looked like a child's scrawl in crayon!) saying "Sorry. Restrooms not working." The doors were locked. (These are the times when we're very grateful for the toilet in our Roadtrek.) We were very sorry for some of the people we saw from a distance, especially older folks who didn't walk very well, making their way slowly to the door only to find that no restrooms were available! Once we got into Illinois, that situation changed drastically. They have some of the nicest rest areas we've ever seen! Paved walking trails, beautiful blooming flowers, one even with a lake and fountain. Good job, Illinois!

The rest stops in Illinois are the best we have seen. A well manicured path with trees and flowers invite you to take a meditative walk before getting back into your vehicle.

We gained an hour when we passed into the Central Time Zone, and arrived at the campsite about 6 pm CT. This campsite, named Fisherman's Corner, is run by our bitter enemies, the Corps of Engineers (enemies because they've been trying for years and years to flood our Virginia mountain home by damming the river that runs through our property)--but it's a great campsite. Right on the river and we discovered that our National Park senior card gets us half price here, so only $10/night. We have electricity at the site and a nice bathroom/shower nearby. We decided to stay 3 nights and catch up on some of our work, bill paying, relaxing, etc.

Had a great night's sleep and got up Wed. morning and took a walk on the bike path by the river. Just below the campsite is a lock/dam combo and we climbed onto the dam to explore it. Some folks were fishing. The campsite host says they catch mostly catfish and some white bass off the dam. We were hoping to see a ship or barge go through the lock but nothing much happening this morning. We'll try again later. We did see a pair of swans--maybe tundra swans, but we didn't take our binoculars with us so not sure. Looks like a good birdwatching spot. Tomorrow we're going to do a little driving around and see Buffalo Bill Cody's homeplace.

Looking upstream of the Lock and Dam is this large area filled with algae.

The River looks nicer downstream.

Looking across the dam, on the far side is the lock.

Closer to the spillway, a lone fisherman tries his luck. 

A somewhat better view of the lock can be seen in the background. 

Jack's attempt at taking an artsy photo of the sky over our campground and the green Mississippi.

More Family Visiting in PA

We had a pleasant night at the hotel in Ligonier, and then headed for Uniontown, PA, arriving on Thursday late morning. We wanted to spend a couple of days visiting Jack's 96-year-old sister Hazel in Fairchance, PA, who is currently in a personal care home due to some health issues, and also to do some research at the nearby Uniontown library. Uniontown has a Pennsylvania Genealogy room and Jack was hoping to find copies of a newspaper published in the town during the Civil War, the Genius of Liberty, to get some info for his novel. With the help of an excellent librarian, he was able to locate it on microfiche and spent a couple of hours doing research. Carol is also working on a historical novel for children, and she was able to do some research there as well.

We contacted great-niece Wendy to let her know we were in town, and she graciously offered to let us stay at Hazel's apartment while we were visiting, since no one is staying there right now. We're very grateful, as it's much more convenient and comfortable than the nearest campground. We went to Wendy and her husband Garry's house to pick up the keys and had a nice visit with the family before heading to visit Hazel at Horizon Personal Care in Fairchance. The place is more like a real home than a nursing home and it seems that she is getting very good care there. We helped Hazel to navigate out to the front porch and had a good sit and chat and watched the birds on the feeder. We discussed a lot of things, including options for the future. It's hard to see Hazel so frail after her recent hospitalization for pneumonia. As one of her "buddies" at the facility, also in her 90s, said to us: "Don't get old!" Perhaps good advice. However, the alternative isn't pleasant to consider either!

Hazel and Carol visiting on the porch.

Friday and Saturday were spent in much the same way as Thursday, with mornings at the library and afternoons spent with Hazel. We had one adventure Friday night--Wendy gave us free tickets to the county fair so we went for a while in search of corn dogs (Carol) and good hot dogs (Jack). (Temporarily off our usual healthy diet in honor of the fair!) I was happy with my corn dog, but Jack not so much with his hot dog. In fact, he lost half of it when it slid out of the bun onto his pants, and he wasn't even sad. Jack is very particular about his hot dogs (Jack:buns MUST be steamed and onions MUST be chopped extra fine--HOT hot dog goes on first, then HOT chili, then finely chopped onions, then French mustard). "They didn't even steam the buns," he said. We did enjoy playing bingo for a little while and then walking through the animal tents. We especially enjoyed the big draft horses. A pair of giant draft mules were really interesting--their ears were about a foot and a half long! (We'd never seen draft mules before--the owner said they were a product of a Percheron mare and a mammoth jack.)

Sunday morning we packed to leave. Carol went to church at Hazel's church, Brownfield United Methodist, and enjoyed seeing and talking to some of Hazel's good friends there, some of whom we'd met before. Wendy and her kids Garry Junior, Phoebe, and TJ were all there. The kids are going through the church confirmation class now and are very involved in church activities. We gave them a tour of our Roadtrek after the service and they seemed ready to go on the road with us!

Garry Junior, Hazel, TJ, Phoebe, and Wendy.

We headed back on the road after church and are now camped in a Walmart parking lot near Dayton, OH. We just realized that Dayton was the home of our heroes, the Wright Brothers, so tomorrow morning we plan to visit some of the Wright Brothers museums and memorials around here.

Our deluxe campsite at Walmart.

August 3, 2016: More PA History

In summary, our Gettysburg visit was enlightening--the first time we've really grasped the terrain and how it influenced that battle. (Forgot to include this shot of us with Mr. Lincoln in the last blog--his Gettysburg Address also gets a lot of play in Gettysburg, as you might imagine.)

Jack, Lincoln, Carol

Wednesday we departed the Gettysburg KOA and headed for Altoona, to visit the famous Horseshoe Curve, a railroad engineering masterpiece. We had a message in the morning before we left from Dick Parady, saying that he had something for Jack and asking if we could meet them on the road. So we had another nice visit with Dick and Rita, at a rest stop on 81. He had a lovely and very appropriate book for Jack--a flyfishing memoir written by a friend of his, which we'll both enjoy reading on this trip.

Rita, Carol, and Dick at rest stop

We arrived at Altoona about 3 pm and stopped first at the Railroader's Memorial Museum. Altoona was one of the largest, if not THE largest, railroad yards/facilities in the country, in the heyday of the mighty Pennsylvania Railroad. We looked around and watched a movie about the Horseshoe Curve, and then headed for the Curve itself, about 6 miles from the museum. The facilities for visitors at Horseshoe Curve are mighty impressive. Located on a scenic flat grassy area right in the middle of the curve but a couple hundred feet lower down, several buildings offer historical background. Then you can either walk up the 150+ steps to trackside, or take an old-fashioned funicular train up the side of the ridge; it runs every half hour.

Entrance to the once mighty Altoona yards of the Pennsylvania Railroad (now a museum)

Greeting us as we walk inside the museum

When we arrived in the parking lot, a train was going around the curve; it's a novel sight to be surrounded by a train. The noise echoes off the mountains. Jack took some photos and then we looked around in the buildings. The curve was designed and built in 1854, to solve a major engineering problem of how to get the railroad connected through these mountains. It was ingeniously conceived and engineered, and was built by 450 Irish miners imported to do the job, using hand picks, wheelbarrows and dynamite. (A lot of their descendants still live in the area.) The Curve considerably shortened the time between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, going from 4 days using the jerry-rigged previous method, to less than a day. It's been heavily used by the railroad ever since.

An old photo of an eastbound train going around the Curve, pulled by a steam locomotive. 

The engineer and fireman could look across the bend and see the end of the train.

An engineering marvel. 

We opted to take the funicular train up, which was quick and fun. Even neater was the view from trackside. It's a very peaceful and remote-feeling spot, with three train tracks going all the way around what looks like a picnic area, with lots of tables and benches, with ridge and mountain views all around. Some folks were visiting from Ohio and had apparently spent the whole day watching trains go by! (About 60 trains traverse the curve in a day, so we had lots of opportunities to watch trains and wave at the engineers while we were there.) A number of other visitors were there besides us. Looks like a popular spot, and that's understandable. We hung around until 5:30 pm or so. Lots of fun.

The ride to the center of Horseshoe Bend

At the center of the curve waiting for a train to go by.

Train pulled by three diesel engines entering one leg of horseshoe. 

This west-bound train consists of empty coal cars.

Nearing center of curve, lead diesel blows horn and all spectators wave.

Engines now on other leg of horseshoe .

Engines on right leg and trailing coal cars left leg. A sight to behold. 

Even though it was late, we decided to drive on to Johnstown and see if we could see anything related to the big Flood. We put the address of the Johnstown National Historic Park in our GPS and wound up and down through backroads to get there. We weren't sure what to expect but we were blown away by what we learned. Even though the Park visitor's center was closed when we got there, lots of explanatory plaques scattered around told the full story. The Historic Park is located about 14 miles above the city of Johnstown, in another high, scenic and peaceful spot (these spots seem a dime a dozen in this pastoral, mountainous part of Pennsylvania--our kind of place!).

This particular place, however, used to be the site of a large lake (about 2 miles long--one of the largest manmade lakes at that time, made by a big earthen dam). The lake was originally supposed to provide water for a canal system, but the railroad did away with the need for the canal system. Some of the rich guys in the area, including Andrew Carnegie and Henry Frick, bought the lake and surrounding acreage and set up an exclusive hunting and fishing resort, members only. They built a big lodge and numerous cottages where the swells came to entertain themselves.

One weekend in May of 1889, the rain poured down like it never had before. The lake quickly filled up and started overtopping the dam, and eroding part of it. The President and caretaker of the resort, who lived in a house overlooking the lake (which is still there and is part of the Park), organized work details to try to make the dam higher and patch the eroding. He sent the resident engineer down the mountain a ways to telegraph down to Johnstown that it looked like trouble was coming, but apparently false alarms had occurred previously so the Johnstown authorities didn't pay much attention. Besides, the huge amount of rain was already creating flooding problems for them in the city streets.

Late in the afternoon, it became obvious that the dam was going to break, and break it did--the entire giant lake drained out in less than an hour and headed downhill toward Johnstown. (Later studies said the flow rate during that short time was the same as the Mississippi River's.) It took the flood water about 45 minutes to get to Johnstown and by then it had picked up mounds of debris, trees, houses, animals--and a warehouse full of barbed wire from a nearby wire factory, just to make the whole thing more hellish! The outcome was the worse natural disaster in US history--over 2200 people died. Man oh man. Did you have any idea that's what the Johnstown Flood was about? We didn't. Shocking. And the courts found no liability for the folks who had the nice resort and lake up there, even though they had modified the dam and had failed to replace some essential valves and pipes that had been sold for scrap. Act of God. (Laws changed after that.) Following photo borrowed from Johnstown Flood Museum web site.

We messed around up there for quite a while and got stuck driving in the dark, so we stopped for the night at a hotel in the quaint little town of Ligonier (c. 1760), site of a French and Indian War fort and lots of George Washington and Colonel Crawford stories.