From: Christine W <christineweir@hotmail.com>
Subject: Kiwis crossing USA: hi from Uhrichsville, Ohio
Date: Fri, 04 Jun 1999 09:08:38 PDT
hi all
We spent a couple of days in Berne, Indiana, and really enjoyed that stopover. Some people
invited us out for a meal at a restaurant was due to be demolished in a couple of years to
make way for a highway, so they allowed people to write their names on the walls.
Naturally we obliged so are now immortalised for a few years anyway.
As we left Berne we stopped to watch an Amish farmer using a team of 4 horses to sow soya
beans. He had about 4 kids on the back, and he was standing on a wee cart thing to drive
the horses. It was an incredible contrast of old and new, because marching through the
field was a row of huge electricity pylons and he was ploughing around them. He was very
friendly and stopped to talk for a while.
Just across the border in Ohio there was a house with dozens of bicycles on the lawn so we
had to stop and check that out. The lady said her husband collects them and repairs them
and sells them, well I think he's being economical with the truth about selling them
because a lot of them were rusty and had grass growing up around them!
Well we are making very slow progress through Ohio, simply because it's so beautiful and
we keep stopping to look at things. We have been through more Amish country, particularly
in Holmes County which is the largest Amish settlement in the country apparently,
extremely commercialised.
The terrain has changed from really flat to gently rolling, then quite steep rolling, and
is all very beautiful.
We are about to go through to Weirton which is right on the border of Ohio and West
Virginia, thought I better visit the town that was clearly named after me! It's only a
short distance to Pennsylvania from there, and we are heading for Pittsburgh for a stop.
We have so much time up our sleeves we are going really slowly, some days only 40 km!
Since leaving Indiana we have had a bit of rain, mostly hot and sunny, ranging from 60-80
degrees, which is about 20-30C I think.
Coming through Ohio we have had a variety of interesting camping spots, a farm field
complete with mosquitos, and last night was behind a shopping mall beside a river, hidden
behind some trees with no through roads.
One time we were out on a county road and stopped to ask a guy spraying the weeds if he
knew anywhere we could stop. He thought for a while and then seemed to remember that he
had a plot of land up the road and around the corner that we could use. We followed him
there and looked at his land, and he said well, my brother lives over there and you could
probably camp on his place. So we followed him to his brother's farm, brother was out for
the evening however we set up our tents on a beautiful flat grassy patch behind the barn
and put a note on his door. Brother arrived later and came out to say hello and was quite
happy that we were staying on his place! He invited us in for coffee and cookies in the
morning, and he is an ace cookie baker!
He is about 70 yrs old, lives alone, in an incredible old house, and he sounds just
like the old guy who talks an introduction on that song Mr Bo Jangles. He was fascinated
with us, and the next day was raining and was Memorial Day, so we stayed for that day as
well and he took us out to lunch. Also another newspaper interview! I think old George
will be dining out for
many years on the story of the 2 ladies who came to visit. He has an old rusty tandem and
we had a ride on that with him!
We stayed a night in the Mohican State Park, which is absolutely beautiful. It's about a
4.5 km ride from the main road downhill into a gorge where the camp sites are, just beside
a river. It rained heavily during the night and was quite windy, and we got woken up by a
huge crash as a tree fell down. Fortunately it was further up the bank behind us. Some
people camping further along came to see us in the morning to make sure we were ok as they
were worried it might have fallen on us. If it had, we wouldn't have had a chance to
escape. Another one fell during the night, and another one in the morning. We waited till
the rain cleared and then set off in the afternoon. One good thing about having plenty
time is that we can wait out the rain now, instead of packing up wet tents.
Coming out from that park we decided to take a county road instead of going on hwy 3, so
we headed off up a beautiful valley with a few ups and downs, until oops, the road
suddenly turned west. Time to find out directions, and a guy printed out a county map from
his computer and gave us good instructions about how to get back out to the main road.
Well, talk about
steep countryside! It was sometimes gravel, sometimes sealed, absolutely stunningly
beautiful, and fortunately the steep bits didn't last too long each time and there was a
good downhill to compensate.
We headed along the main road towards Millersburg and Madi asked a guy if he knew anywhere
we could camp (she gets to ask all the time because she is usually out in front) and he
said we could camp at his place! Talk about the good treatment, we were welcomed in for
showers and a meal, and had a very enjoyable evening. To top it off, Hans their son is
coming over to NZ later in the year so we will be able to return the favour. To top it off
even more, they have a cheese factory and we got a tour of the factory and an almighty big
block of Swiss cheese to take with us! That certainly was a lovely stopover.
Coming through Berlin was interesting, although so commercial it's a bit offputting. We
stopped at a few places out of town and I got some souvenirs to post back home. The Amish
in this area are a lot different from the ones we encountered in Berne, Indiana. Over here
they ride in enclosed buggies (like the Grandma Duck ones in the comics!) and have a
battery, indicator
lights and a horn! Also they have rubber tyres on their wheels. The horses have a lot of
work to do, pulling the buggy up some of the steep hills.
We got a bit off track last night, heading for what we thought was a State Park on a sign,
and it turned out to be a State Memorial. We kept going anyway and found the campsite
behind the shopping mall. There was a drive-through liquor store so I rode through and
bought a bottle of root beer! That was fun, I haven't done that before. Ok, I know, simple
things .... We are a bit further south than we mean to be, however it doesn't really
matter.
Now that we are in hillier countryside, the grid pattern for the roads doesn't work any
more, and we did a bit of unpleasant highway riding yesterday. It looks like we can take
some minor roads today so that will be nice.
The weather has been great, the occasional rain, mostly fine, still tail winds, and a lot
of humidity. One day was 73% and some days it is so misty that it looks like it's raining
in the distance. It's a relief when it rains. I find the nights very humid and it's too
hot to sleep inside my bag most nights so I just sleep in my silk liner on top of the mat.
So, the end of another State is coming up, and it's often a bit sad leaving these
beautiful states, yet exciting because there's new territory coming up and every day is a
new adventure waiting for us.
Bye for now
Christine and Madi