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Well, updating the blog real time on the road did not work out --- we stayed so busy each day & WiFi typically slow when we finally stopped for the day--so will add some trip highlights now that we are back home. Since we visited several places we decided to organize our photos on 4 different blog pages (Road Trip Parts 1 - 4).
We started with a spontaneous stop on day # 2 of our 2018 road trip! We realized the night before leaving home that our route would be only 30 miles from Milton, West Virginia the home of BLENKO GLASS Company. BLENKO GLASS is a family operated company that has been making artistic hand blown glass for 125 years-- a true handmade piece of American art history! Watching the glass blowing process was a fascinating choreography!! You can watch the active glass making process from an observation deck where you see the workers known as Gatherer, Bit boy, Carry-In boy, Stick-up boy, Finisher, and Glass Blower. The wooden molds for the vases, bottles, bowls, and glassware are hand made on the premises (we briefly met the mold maker on his way to lunch-- a very nice gentleman ). There was no modern technology in sight at BLENKO-- this place is old school all the way.. there was even a well worn wooden peg board used to track the inventory of finished products on the workshop floor. We could have watched the glass blowing process all day but there was also a garden, gallery, shop, and sheet glass section to visit.
The BLENKO garden is near a pond and is whimsical & colorful with small artsy glass objects, a large bottle tree, and many fence panels embedded with sun catching glass panels in every color of the rainbow and lovely flower beds.
The BLENKO shop was a colorful candy shop of glass goodies which made it very hard to make a decision. We left with a box of carefully packed treasures in cobalt blue, turquoise, and emerald green (that survived 2000 miles of sometimes very rugged & bumpy roads!).
The BLENKO gallery had a small inventory of stained glass pieces and glass objects on display, as well as, designs from the various in house designers over the years.
At the BLENKO sheet glass building I picked out a few pounds of various colored scrap sheet glass (for future glass fusing projects) and 4 dalles (colored glass slabs) for display in our backyard. The guy working the sheet glass building was very passionate and informative about glass. Since 1893 Blenko has produced sheet glass in the ancient and traditional way where skilled craftsmen mouth blow cylinders of glass, which have the ends removed, are scored, and then heated again. The final heating opens the cylinders into rectangular flat sheets.
Next up on the trip was a few days stop in Ohio Amish Country and historic Ohio Erie Canal. We visited Berlin, Millersburg, Walnut Creek and Coshocton. I am really fascinated by so many Amish horse & buggies on the roads.. I think it would be just a wonderful way to travel. I found the Amish to be very polite but not engaging people. There were many cute country restaurants and shops operated by the Amish. The lush gentle rolling farming countryside was so peaceful and very picturesque for driving. We never saw a junkie spot in Amish Country--- every yard had perfectly groomed grass and flowers galore! Our hotel had a nice balcony so in the evenings we sat outside relaxing while gazing over the tiered landscape of farms, barns, cows, horses, and buggies driving by in the distance. As always the air seems so fresh in the country!
Wineries! We like to visit wineries when out of town since they are usually off the beaten path so plenty of back roads to explore, idyllic landscapes, and we can meet local people. Over a few days we stopped at a few wineries:
The first winery we visited was Breitenbach Wine Cellars where we learned about their special Dandelion wine. Each spring the landscape is covered in dandelions and in a few days the Amish handpick over 6000 pounds of flowers so the wine can be produced. Dandelion Wine is refreshing on the sweeter side.
Next we visited the Yellow Butterfly Winery where several adorable Alpacas reside-- they were quite sassy! The Yellow Butterfly winery is WAY WAY OFF the beaten path and the landscape simply amazing with good wines from Ohio grapes! The wine hostess was very lively and shared lots of tips for mixing and serving! She recommended the next winery...
In Baltic Ohio we stopped at Baltic Mill Winery which is housed in a re purposed old flour mill (complete with antique mill machinery to view). They make a wonderful blackberry wine and also had a unique Strawberry Blonde wine!
The last winery stop was at Silver Moon Winery--mainly it was convenient stop and I liked the name but they did have tasty black cherry and apple fruit wine.
Cheese! Our timing was good as we stumbled onto a tour at the Pearl Valley Cheese Factory that has been producing regional cheeses for 80 years. The staff at Pearl Valley was the best and very proud of their heritage, production facilities & products ...AND the cheese was superb! Pearl Valley Cheese is a top notch place to visit and support! We especially liked their aged strong Swiss cheese. We also stopped at Guggisberg Cheese but found there was a definite lack of customer service and was too touristy for our preferences. We did have a great cheese fondue dinner at the Guggisberg Swiss Chalet.
Quilts! Of course, I made my way into a few of the Amish quilt shops and brought home some new fabric friends! At The Helping Hands Quilt Shop I picked up a great 2018 row by row kit with a country barn scene complete with horse & buggy applique! They had a large frame set up where groups of Amish ladies sit & quilt by hand (no long arm in site!). There were several racks of hand quilted quilts for sale-- just beautiful work. In Charm, Ohio also visited Millers Dry Goods which is a more modern quilt shop and had great selection. There was also a local outlet Zincks Fabric where the Amish buy their fabric to make everything from quilts to dresses to shirting and blue jeans. This place definitely had some unique items !!
Ohio Erie Canal way! On one of our days we went to Roscoe Historic Village which is a restored 1830's Ohio Erie canal town. It was small but offered interesting living history -- especially liked the print shop and broom making. The manual printing press still works and so many vintage font sets. And who knew broom making requires a great deal of skill with so many varieties! One of the highlights of this day was definitely taking a horse drawn boat ride on the Ohio Erie canal -- the horses walk the tow path and pull the boat along. This is how the term tow path came to be and it was exactly how canal transportation took place on the Ohio Erie in the mid 1800's-- what a slow paced way to travel -- wow-- certainly one could never be in a hurry back then. The Ohio Erie canal was a huge success for Ohio and resulted in the state becoming the 3rd most prosperous state once the canal opened. The canal was abandoned in early 1900's due to major flooding and train travel. We loved the interesting history of the Ohio Erie Canal.
Misc ! The Holmes county fair was going on so we took some time to wander around to see the livestock and local craft entries. Of course we had to seek out a local random roadside America attraction-- Sugar creek Ohio is home to the world's largest cuckoo clock!!
Next we traveled North to Cuyahoga Valley National Park and Cleveland / Lake Erie area.
Cuyahoga Valley National Park! We hiked to view the beautiful BrandyWine Falls. It was a nice walk with many stairs and passed some very craggy ledges. We went to the visitor center in Boston, OH which was once an important town where the canal boats were built. Many people were out biking the scenic canal tow path but unfortunately we didn't have time to rent bikes. We took a half day vintage train ride on the Cuyahoga Scenic Railroad. The train trip started just below Cleveland down to Akron Ohio with is the length of the national park. We had plushy seats in a restored 1940's style parlor car. The scenery from the train was serene passing by the Cuyahoga river, wildflower meadows, the canal tow path, forested and swampy spots with herons, an eagles nest and a few deer sightings. After the train ride we stopped at the Winking Lizard for quick lunch. Next stop was at Sarah's vineyard which is voted # 1 winery in Ohio and part of the farming program that resides on Cuyahoga Valley National Park owned land. They grow 9 varieties of grapes and we left with a bottle of their yummy sangria (perhaps best we ever tasted) and also some Ohio grown grape table wines.
Cleveland! is a vibrant historic river city and we really enjoyed our visit! We visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame which was okay. There were many random exhibits -- and a really fun exhibit with a collection of vintage rock-n-roll themed pinball machines you could play for free-- we had a blast playing pinball for awhile! In hind sight would have been better to spend that time at the world class ( also free admission) Cleveland art museum. We took a fast paced fact filled city tour to learn about the history and neighborhoods of Cleveland, then rode the free city sponsored water taxi across the Cuyahoga river to have lunch in the flats district. The weather was gorgeous so we ate at restaurant on the Cuyahoga River. The river was super active with kayaks, boats, yachts, a party cycle boat and even saw a ship wit iron ore navigate the windy river. After lunch we made our way to West 25th street for a walk through of the bustling West Side market (dating back to 1840 it is Cleveland’s oldest publicly owned market). The market definitely has an international feel due to the diversity of cultures found in Cleveland. Again we found another random road side America attraction-- downtown Cleveland has the world largest rubber stamp located in an urban park-- love it !!! Next stop was at Edgewater View park on the Lake Erie with great views of the Cleveland skyline. There was a nice little rocky shoreline on the lake and the water was clear and very cool! It was our first time at Lake Erie and was a nice scenic spot to chill out a bit! We ended that day with a stop at Sweetie Candy Company-- a local company since 1950 has a warehouse stocked full of current & retro candies. For us it was a quick novelty stop but we were surprised just how many people were shopping there with their carts full of candy! They also had a cafe with homemade ice cream and indoor swings at the tables for the kids that was just too cute!
Well --- we departed the state of Ohio relaxed and with several bottles of local wines -- just couldn't help it!!! Ohio is a great place to visit with lots of nature and fascinating American history!
.... soon I will add more details about the next leg of our road trip to the Niagara, Ontario & NY regions.