Wow, it's been weeks since we posted an entry into this travel blog. We arrived in Holmes County, Oh (Amish country) on July 14 and are still here. Been so busy, haven't the taken time to post. We'll post an entry about Holmes County soon.....now what did we do before we arrived in Holmes County.
On July 7 we made the short drive from Cincinnati to Fort Loramie, Oh. We got settled at our campsite at Lake Loramie State Park and started that night to attend the big Country Concert '11. The next 2 and 1/2 days would be filled with country music starting in the early afternoon until past midnight. We saw some great artists perform and enjoyed people watching. Attendance figures are not announced, but estimates for the 3 days probably were 50,000. Being a country concert, we saw a wide range of people, some a little different than others.
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| Main stage for the country concert |
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| some of the vast crowds |
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| you see all kinds at a country concert |
We enjoyed artists like Carrie Underwood, Montgomery Gentry, Darius Rucker, Lady Antebellum, Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean and many more. We discovered a trio of sisters from Australia, The McClymonts, who were wonderful singers, musicians, and performers. Their harmony is wonderful. They had an autograph sessions after their performance and the line was quite long. We got to meet the 3 gals and they were very personable and gracious.
The next morning of July 8 we visited The Bicycle Museum of America
bicyclemuseum.com in West Bremen before the country music festival continued that afternoon. This 3 story museum was chock full of exhibits. Tim could have spent all day there. Linda finally drug him out, so we could make the first concert of the afternoon. All the exhibits were well organized and labeled.
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| Tim in front of The Bicycle Museum of America, West Bremen, Oh |
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| 1 of the oldest bicycles in the museum. Frame, wheels, & spokes made out of wood! |
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The following pictures show some of the progression and styles of bicycles through the years.
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| Strings on this bike protect the dresses of lady riders. |
The picture below show a woven saddle instead of leather, steel, rubber, or plastic.
Other bikes are shown below:
Now here's a bike Tim would have liked as a kid.
Some more bikes from the museum are pictured below.
After dragging Tim out of the bicycle museum, we returned to the country music festival for the afternoon and a late evening.
On Sunday afternoon, we visited the Armstrong Air & Space Museum in Wapakoneta, Oh. Neil Armstrong was born and raised on a farm just outside of the town. Everybody knows he was the first person to set foot on the moon in 1969 saying "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Linda & Tim remember exactly where we were watching the monumental event. The museum chronicled Armstrong's life, but also gave many insights to the space programs of the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R.
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| This tire for the shuttle withstands 250 mph & 42,000 lbs. I wonder if it will work on the bus? |
On July 11 we drove southwest of Fort Loramie to the town of Greenville, home of the KitchenAid mixer division of Whirlpool. We received a KitchenAid stand mixer in a 1970's fashionable light green color (not cool now) over 40 years ago as a wedding present. It has been well used during the last 40 years. It works as well today as the day we received it. We thought it would be interesting to do a factory tour. The tour was fascinating. The lobby contained mixers of old and new design along with special edition models (usually a unique finish i.e., red, white, & blue or copper, or a NASCAR theme. The plant tour was great. Processing vary from extremely automated like robotic painting and milling to piece by piece hand work like setting gears into place. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures in the plant. The plant is rather large and involved a fair amount of walking led by a very enthusiastic guide. We wore safety glasses and headsets, so we could hear the guide. The guide was a long time production person and she knew most of the workers by their name.
After the tour, we visited the KitchenAid Experience, which is their showroom store and outlet in the center of town. This store also contained a museum of the development of the mixer and interesting designs Below are some pictures from the plant and showroom.
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| KitchenAid plant |
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| Tim in front of the showroom/outlet store |
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| What color do you want? |
After touring KitchAid, we hopped in the car to make a quick drive to Jackson Center, Oh, which is the home of Airstream trailers. We had a 2 p.m. plant tour reservation. Well, we drove behind a funeral procession for 20 miles. Yikes, we didn't think we'd make it. Fortunately, a storm hit Jackson Center just before we arrived and knocked out power to the plant. We arrived late, but had to sit in a mostly dark lobby until power was restored. The storm passed and power was restored.
Our long term employee tour guide (we think he started work before the 1st Airstream) began the tour inside the service shop and make-shift museum. We saw the Bowlus Road Chief, which was the predecessor to the first Airstream.
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| Our tour guide next to the Bowlus trailer. |
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| Airstream motor home. Airstream no longer makes motor homes. |
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| Trailers in the service department. |
Again pictures were not allowed in the plant tour. Airstream trailers have been built in Jackson Center since 1952 and in some ways the plant shows it. Automation in this plant is minimal. Hand-built is the order of the day......and for the last 6 decades. Since our tour was delayed by the storm, most production workers had left for the day. The tour guide explained most of the processes. Of course there were trailers in various stages of completion. Airstream is a company who makes changes very, very, slowly. I guess if it works, why change. Airstream has an aura of quality. What we saw in production was sometimes crude, but it works. Customers pay alot for them. They are light and have an enduring style. Most Airstreams built decades ago are still on the road.
We made 1 more stop before arriving in Amish Country in Holmes County. See our next post.
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