6 August 2011

After traveling up the coast road (5) and leaving “The Camp” and Erie behind, we finally drove into Buffalo, New York (the 2nd largest city in New York).  Now I don’t remember if I mentioned on another posting of our journal but we purchased another GPS system in the hopes that we could finally get a GPS that would get us to the right location AND by the right roads.  Well let me be the first to tell you that “IT JUST DOESN’T HAPPEN” !!!  Not only did we get into areas that we shouldn’t have been in, roads that were in no way ready for a motorhome to travel over and though, but we had to pass under bridges that were so low that we probably shouldn’t have even tried to go under…what a day !!!  I guess we could have taken the “TOLL ROADS”, but I’m just TOO CHEAP…  Anyway we finally did get through the bad roads and unbelievable directions and found our way to the Niagara Falls Elks Club and our new home for a couple of days.  Well we thought it would be but 2 or 3 days until we had a problem…our Directv receiver decided to go out.  Not a big problem (so they said….) we can ship one to you so that you can have it in a couple of days.  It happened, we got it in2 days and I got it re-installed immediately.  Unfortunately it didn’t work, we now need a “B-Band” adapter to make it work and we’ll get it this afternoon (now 7 days into this “small problem”).  Wish us a little luck that all goes according to THEIR plan.  In the mean time we’ve been to the falls and had a chance to see them up close and WET.  Our first visit was cloudy but fortunately it didn’t rain, but after our boat ride out and into the sprays of the falls, well we really got wet even with the poncho they provided.  Two days later we went back to see the night falls when they’re all lit up with a rainbow of colors.

The Cave tour which we didn't take...

Horseshoe Falls...

Getting soaked...

That's all folks... (till the next posting anyway)

Erie, Pennsylvania was our next stop and we found another Elks club that offered a real good place to park with 30amp power for us.  With the weather staying hot (mid 80’s) and humid we could still stay comfortable with our air-conditioning.  We also had a contact person here in Erie that we wanted to see.  Bill is the brother of Bonnie and brother-n-law of Doug and the last time we saw Bill was over 20 years ago.  There is a “Camp” that we’ve been hearing about for years that Bill has here and we wanted to take a day trip out to see it.  Not only did see the camp we also had lunch at the local golf club where Tim and Emily were married.  I must say, they do make a great hamburger and I’m sure the rest of the food is just as good.

Back at Erie, we found that we were just in time for one of the festivals (Discover Presque Isle Weekend) that was being held at the Presque Isle State Park.  The Presque Isle is a 23 mile long peninsula that juts out into Lake Erie forming a long arc looking back to Erie

and is a favorite spot for the tourists that make their way to Erie summer and winter.  I’m not much for wintering in an area that is this cold but it would be great to experience it at least once  There were winter pictures that we saw were the wave action coming into the peninsula would freeze and make some amazing and interesting pieces of ice art.  During the summer the beaches are a welcome place to go and do…

doing anything from swimming, sunbathing, kayaking either Lake Erie or one of the canals or smaller lakes on the peninsula, and then another option of bike riding along one of the many biking trails covering the 23 miles. 

As we continue our journey east, we pass into Ohio…. Ohio, a state that is the richest in presidential heritage, home to eight historic U.S. Presidents and their museums and libraries.  Well sitting right in front of us are the Presidential Centers of Rutherford B. Hayes and James A. Garfield.  Unfortunately we arrived in Fremont, Ohio just past 3pm so we didn’t have much time to explore the Garfield Library and his home

although his home wouldn’t be available for us to go through anyway.  Rutherford B. Hayes was the 19th President of the United States, was born the 4th day of October, 1822 and died in January 1893 at 71.  I’ll let you “Google” more information on President Hayes if you want because I really didn’t have my heart into his library.  Maybe I’ll do better next time we’re in town.  Getting back into the coach we continued on.  It was just past 5 when we left and we only had 72 miles of our drive left.  Just after 7pm we pulled into the Cleveland, Ohio east side Wal-Mart parking lot, made dinner, and settled in for the night.  The next morning following breakfast, we took the car and drove up to Mentor to get an early start in visiting the home and museum of President James A. Garfield.  For this “Presidential” stop we had as much time as we wanted and it was a good stop.  As we drove into this historic site we drove past the water tower that has stood at this location since 1854 and if necessary it could still pump water from its deep well.

Across the field sat the Garfield house and the remainder of their 100 acre farm.  Garfield’s congressional career began in 1863 and lasted for 17 years.  In 1880 while in the Senate he was asked to nominate John Sherman for president at the Republican national Convention.  When the convention deadlocked, Garfield became the nominee and was elected.  His term was cut short when he was assassinated with two gun shots to the back by Charles Guiteau, a political fanatic.  Guiteau had in his mind that the President was going to appoint him to a foreign political position.  Unfortunately President Garfield didn’t even know the man and if he had he probably wouldn’t have gotten the job because of his mental health…  

We enjoyed the tour through the Garfield home and found that Mrs. Garfield was really quite a decorator.  Most of the furniture and all the wall paper (perfectly copied from the original), hundreds of books, and the pictures are original pieces.

The den of the President was also well appointed and it was his favorite chair that I found interesting...one of the sides was lower than the other because he favored throwing his legs over one side while reading.

Their daughter’s bedroom was interesting.  Today’s teens cover the walls in their rooms with pictures of rock stars or video figures, while back in the 1850’s the Garfield daughter covered the corner of her bedroom and her “Turkish Bed”

(you wouldn’t use your night time bed to lay on or even take a nap on) with all of her favorite Turkish rugs, pillows, and coverings. 

You can’t go to South Bend, Indiana without at least thinking about the University of Notre Dame and if you have the time, you have just got to stop by.  Sooo, after being in the vicinity more times than I want to admit, we found our way out to the campus.

As soon as you see the gold dome of the “Main Building”, which was built in 1879 and stands as the worlds most recognized campus landmark,  you know your close.  Parking today was a breeze but I’ll bet you come Fall it would be one heck of a challenge.  As it was we had to park at the far end, close by the visitor’s center and bookstore and walk in from there.  Like most of the larger campuses it can and was, a good walk to the areas we wanted to see.

High on our list of places to see was the Main Building with its collection of large paintings of Columbus AND the famous dome.

 Right next door sits the Norte Dame Sacred Heart Cathedral.

Overall, this was THE structure of magnificence…  The exterior was beautiful being covered with marble, but the interior, nothing but amazing.

As soon as you walk in you are taken in with a grandeur that not only takes your breath away but gives you an immediate feeling of peace and comfort.

It is amazing…  Just outside of the rear of the cathedral we found one of the two lakes on campus and the famous Norte Dame Grotto.

This Grotto was designed to match the Grotto at Lourdes, France which we visited in 2005 except this one didn’t include the cathedral being built on top of it.  It does have one stone that was placed under the figure of Mary’s feet that came from the Grotto of Lourdes.  I guess I wanted to start off today’s journal with Norte Dame but that wasn’t the way the day started…  We started with our 2nd day at the Studebaker-Center of History Museum again.  We couldn’t finish it in one day and it was so good we had to go back for the second.  A large part of the Center of History exhibit was a visit to the Oliver mansion.  The “Joseph D. Oliver House, also known as “Copshaholm” was built in 1895 by the founder of the Oliver Chilled Plow Works. 

The mansion was named for the little Scottish village that Joseph was born in.  It has 38 rooms including 9 bathrooms and 14 fireplaces and sits on 2 ½ acres with a few blocks of the center of the city of South Bend.  The business that brought the wealth that it took to build a “home” like this was The Oliver Chilled Plow Works.  Now before going into what the business did, I wanted to make sure that I made known that the home was built as a “home”, a home for Oliver to go to after a full day at the plant, but also a place for his wife Susan (Doty) to enjoy, entertain guests in, and raise their family.  The Oliver’s didn’t entertain a lot as the house wasn’t set up that way but he would have a guest or two come by and meet in his den, someone like the President of the United States…they were good friends.  Otherwise the rooms were just the size that the family would feel very comfortable in.  Now back to the business of the Chilled Plow Works.  It got started in 1853 when Oliver bought into an already existing small foundry.  He had worked in a foundry since 1836 but just knew he could do better on his own.  The plows used by the farmers in the eastern US prior to 1853 just weren’t doing the job.  They would quickly wear out because of friction and they were time consuming because the sticky soils would stick to the plow and not roll off or “scour”.  There was a real need for a new plow so Oliver started looking for a process that would work.  James Oliver finally developed a process of annealing by rapid chilling of the molten cast plow bottom, which resulted in a bottom that had a thick annealized surface that had far greater wear ability than competing annealized plow bottoms thus, doing very well for himself and his family from that point on.  Fact is the last family member to live in the mansion left in 1957 and at that time gave the city of South Bend the mansion, grounds, and ALL furnishings (including dishes, pictures, and ALL) so that the legacy of the Oliver family could live on and on…

Well now I know a little bit more about the Studebaker AND the Studebaker family… Right here, just around the corner in South Bend, Indiana, sitting on the shores of the beautiful St. Joseph River, home to a long lineage of wonderful history, and the very famous University of Notre Dame.  Now you can’t say the name Notre Dame without thinking about the legendary football coach Knute Rockne. Well Knute Rockne not only made a name for himself on the football field, he made a name for himself with the Studebaker family and the Studebaker automobile.  He was a spokesman and salesperson for the Studebaker automobile factory AND he even had a car that was designed especially for him and the world around Knute Rockne. 

Today we spent a FULL day walking the halls and isles of the Studebaker National Museum and Center for History Museum, which are shared in one building.  I’ll tell you right now, this was one of THE BEST museums we’ve ever visited…it was “well done !!!”.  We spent the first 2/3rd of the day walking through the fantastic Studebakers

and other items that the Studebaker Corporation (the largest wagon manufacturer in the world starting in 1884) manufactured, such as the huge motors that powered the B-17 and the Jeep during WWII to name a few.  My number one Studebaker is the 1953 red convertable...amazing car.  They also manufactured the horse carriage and the horse LESS carriage.  One of the carriages that they had on display for us was the one that President Lincoln took to the Ford’s Theater to see the performance of “Our American Cousin”.

Unfortunately at approximately 10:00 pm, John Wilkes Booth fatally shot President Lincoln.   Leaving the museums for the day, we drove down the street about 50 yards for a very good lunch.  Tippecanoe Place Restaurant was once the “Tippecanoe Mansion”.

The mansion of the Studebakers is the embodiment of everything great wealth could bring in the late 1800’s AND today it’s a great place to have either lunch or dinner for a surprisingly reasonable price.  With a rather small square footage of only 26,000, a finished construction price in 1889 of $250,000, the Clem Studebaker family lived quite well and after we ate, we had a chance to see just how well with a self-guided tour of all 4 floors.

St. Paul’s Memorial United Methodist Church was completed in 1903 after nearly two years of construction.

The church structure was a gift to the congregation from Clement Studebaker and his wife, Ann.  After construction started the Studebakers went to Europe and while there they visited and re-visited churches of all ages and types to see if there was some idea that they had left undone back home.  In Munich, Germany they came upon a glass works that impressed them very much, so much that they contracted with him to design and build the 30X18’ key window for their church in South Bend.  This window shows Peter preaching at Mars Hill in Athens.  After returning home Clem became ill and died before the church was finished.  Designed into the window we could see where Clem was placed (right side of the picture with a beard and wearing a blue robe) so that he will be forever immortalized.

At the left corner of the sanctuary sits a baptismal font (12th -13th centuries)

that was presented to the church by J.M. Studebaker in loving memory of his brother Clem Studebaker.  It is believed to be the oldest baptismal font still used in the US.