Sunday, July 26; OHIO CAVERNS and then HOME!

On Saturday we left Winchester, VA about 9 a.m. and in the sun. We continued driving west on U.S. Hwy 50. Within a short distance we left Virginia, traveled into West Virginia, then into Maryland, and then back into West Virginia....do you think that we got schizophrenic? There are little parts of all three of these states right up there south of Pennsylvania. We wound up and down hills all day. It was beautiful. Couldn't really take any pictures, because there were no places to turn off. There were loads of motor bikers out because it was a truly beautiful day. We ended up in Athens, OH, home of Ohio University. Sunday morning we went to Mass very near the campus, a 115 yr. old church. We were fortunate we had an African Archbishop offering the Mass. (We had a bishop offer our Mass in Anchorage, AK, too) Since I had my camera there because I like to take pictures of the different churches we attend Mass at on our travels, I had to sneek in a picture of his very colorful vestments.
We had given Dawson the choice if he wanted to go to the air museum at Wright Patterson Aif Force Base, or go to the Ohio Caverns. Well....the following pictures tell you what was his choice.

These caverns were discovered in the 1890's by some farm person who found a sink hole in the farm and saw how deep it went. It has been a family operation since 1922. We took our kids there about 15 years ago....and now we take a grandson. The person there said that happens all the time. It was a wonderful 1 mile walk in a constant 54 degaree cavern.

Our tour guide was a geologist who graduated from Ohio State University. He certainly was knowledgeable. There are some types of formations here that one can find nowhere else in either OH or in the U.S.

This is called a "soda straw" type of formation. Looks a little bit like a water pump, doesn't it?

Dawson was obviously enjoying this out of the ordinary walk.

Then it was a mere 3 hour jaunt home to sleep in our own bed.

It's been an adventuresome month. Done many things and saw many beautiful and varied sights. We hope that Dawson will have many memories. I know that we will.

Won't miss the amount of rain that we had. Perhaps that rope is tied from a cloud to our bumper and it travels with us, just like it did in Alaska and the northwest U.S. Hope the next jaunt leaves that cloud at home.

We will be taking a short trip next week back up to the Icebreaker Maritime Museum Mackinaw, where Chris will attend his crew reunion. Will update the blog then about the reunion.

Until we "connect" again....