A Year About

We decided to have a few modifications done while we’re here. What do you think?

It is barely 7:00 a.m. here in Jackson Center and we are once again sitting in the very nice lobby of the Airstream Factory, while Shackleton finishes up his makeover.





The couches here are made from the same material you find in the trailers. There is a large couch made from the same “leather” as ours and I have been luxuriating on it since yesterday.


Playing with Elise’s Robert E. Lee & Family paper dolls.

Elise has made a new forever friend in Ms. Judy, a lovely woman who is here with her husband to have some work done on their Class A Airstream. Everyone here thinks that Elise is her granddaughter since Elise won’t sit with us. We’re the poor relations sitting in the corner.




Some of the merchandise for sale.

We’ll hang out here this morning and then maybe tear Elise away to go see the bike museum later. It’s supposed to be hot today, though, so we may just be lazy and curl up on one of the couches here and take a nap.

We are in Jackson Center, Ohio, which is north of Dayton and south of Toledo near I-75. It is near not a lot. The bicycle history museum isn’t far away, so maybe we’ll check that out tomorrow. We’re here at the one and only Airstream factory. They are made nowhere else. Our trailer came out of the plant in November of 2004, I believe. It’s one of only about 78 Safari trailers with bunks, and they don’t make ‘em anymore!

Our main reason for coming was to have the alignment checked. When we got to Denver I noticed one of our tires had an unusual amount of wear and needed to be replaced. We replaced it there, but the shop could not do the alignment — neither could the dealer nearest us in Virginia. We decided it was best to take care of it at the factory and here we are.

Our trailer is still under warranty for most things, and we are taking care of a few smaller items too: the front exterior compartment binds just a little (they fixed it); the windows we had repaired in California weren’t done completely right (they fixed them); a drawer under our sink wasn’t rolling on its track properly and I couldn’t seem to get it right (fixed it); a strip of vinyl in the bathroom was peeling (they’ll replace it tomorrow); and our refrigerator was recalled for a repair to keep it from starting a catastrophic fire (!) (they’ll fix it tomorrow).

After the technician finished for the day, I asked him about the axles. He said they were a little out of alignment, but nothing compared to what he’s seen when folks come in — that’s good. Now we are all set for our last 16 days. That’s all we have left! Yikes!

We’ll visit friends near Cincinnati after we leave hear on Wednesday. Meanwhile we are hanging out in the Terra Port. That’s Airstream’s little RV park (24 spaces) with full hook-ups and Wifi. It’s free for customers. Makes me almost want to vacation here. ‘Cept there isn’t anything here, which is a drawback.

We did take the factory tour and Elise got to come too! It was pretty cool to see heaps of Airstreams in various stages of construction. They are changing the branding of the Safari line and calling it “Flying Cloud” starting in 2009. That’s an old Airstream name, but I’m not sure why it will have more impact than “Safari.” Also new in 2009 is a 34-foot, triple axle “toy hauler.” Toy haulers are the trailers with garage doors for your motorcycle, ATV, or other loud motorized thing. We’re kinda disappointed they decided to make one. Nosing about bright and shiny homes on wheels makes us want to keep ours, but that doesn’t look like it’s in the cards. Unless everybody wants to pitch in to the Shackleton Loan & Maintenance Fund. Feel free to donate!

We came upon another gem today, this one courtesy of my mother-in-law. Bobby’s parents have been sending us their copies of Smithsonian magazine and in the May issue this year there is an article about a place that takes you “back to the frontier.” Elise loves historical places with docents (more accurately known as living-history museums) and this place was full of them. We didn’t think we’d make it here (too far north) but it turned out that our appointment with the Airstream factory in Ohio brought us right by Indianapolis, so we happily fit Conner Prairie into our schedule.


On the way to Indianapolis

Our drive yesterday from St. Louis was interminable. It seemed like we always had three hours left to go. We finally arrived at the White River Campground and found a relatively quiet spot in this very busy place. At dawn, we were awoken by rain –not quiet rain either. Our plan was to get up around 8:00 a.m. and spend the day at Conner Prairie. The rain postponed that. After the first storm passed we went back to sleep, dozed through the second storm and finally got up just as the third storm was coming in. We didn’t get to Conner Prairie until close to noon. We had a fairly clear afternoon with no rain and as I type this back at the trailer, we are experiencing yet another series of storms, with all the thunder and lightning one could wish for.


The Conner home

But back to Conner Prairie. William Conner was a wilderness trader, the first landowner, and one of the first white men in the Indianapolis area in the early 1800s. Once here, he married a Lenape Indian woman and had six children with her. When her tribe left in the 1820s, she left too, and took the children. She did not want them growing up in the white man’s world, knowing they would be considered half-breeds. William tried to convince her to stay, but she wouldn’t, and he had no interest setting up his business in the wilds of the Missouri Territory where the tribe was heading. She left. He stayed. Four months later, he remarried, this time to a white woman. He had made enough money from his successful trading business that he built a home for his new bride. They lived there for 14 years before moving into town, nearby Noblesville. With this wife, Mr. Conner had 10 children. The home is the only structure that is original to the homestead. The best part of the house is the view from the front. It looks out onto the prairie. It does not look like it did in the 1800s, nonetheless it is a view I would be happy to have from my front step.


The view from the front

In 1934, Eli Lilly, an Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical tycoon and philanthropist bought the property to restore it to its former glory. He spent thousands of dollars on the restoration and decades looking for authentic outbuildings, tools and other 19th century artifacts to bring to the site.

The property is divided into four areas, all connected by gravel paths. There is the Lenape Indian Camp, the Conner Homestead, 1836 Prairietown and 1886 Liberty Corner. The only one we didn’t visit was the Indian Camp but not from lack of interest, just lack of time.



Our first visit was to the barn across from the Conner home. In it we saw two lambs, one boy and one girl, both just 24-hours old. The mother went into labor yesterday and in about 15 minutes, she had birthed these two little, leggy creatures. I asked one of the staff if the mother was moved when she gave birth, but he said that she was not. She gave birth there, and the visitors got to watch!


Mr. Whitaker tries to sell us a communal toothbrush.

I loved the docents who were dressed in their period clothing. They never stepped out of character. We found out from Mr. Whitaker, who owned the general store, that the Curtis’ had bought the contract of Sgt. Hastings, a man who had been injured in the War of 1812 and could not work or provide for himself. Since he had no family of his own, there was no one to care for him. For Sgt. Hastings and others in difficult straits, such as a young woman named Maggie Miller whose husband had left her (and young orphans of course), the state paid people to take care of them for one year. It’s a little like today’s foster care system. The one difference is that the contracts for these people were bid out, and the lowest bid won. The state checked on them during the year and the families taking care of the poor were paid quarterly. After one year, the contract was up and Sgt. Hastings, along with the others, were bid on again. If their contract was bought by someone else, they had to move.


Elise plays a game with Mrs. Curtis.

My point in describing this is that when we left Mr. Whitaker’s and headed to the Curtis’ home, I asked about Sgt. Hastings. “Oh, yes,” Mrs. Curtis told me. “Sgt. Hastings lives in that building over there. He’s not home right now. He went down to the Golden Eagle Inn earlier today.” It’s seamless. There was no hesitation about who Sgt. Hastings was or how he fit into things at the Curtis home. I love it.


Schoolmaster John and Elise discuss geography or perhaps math.

The highlight of Elise’s day was the schoolhouse in Prairietown. The schoolmaster, John, was excellent. So good, in fact, that we visited there three times. We discovered going to school cost five cents a day (or an equitable trade of some kind) and you only went to school in December, January and February. The rest of the months your family needed you home to work the farm. Sounds good, doesn’t it? The catch is that school was six days a week from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
To keep the attention of the young ones (the youngest in his class would be 6 years old), a lot of singing was done in the schoolroom. The schoolmaster, who had a lovely singing voice, taught us a few songs the children from the 1830s would have learned. One was a geography song and the other taught the children the vowel sounds in conjunction with the consonants. Elise couldn’t get enough. As we were getting ready to leave after our second visit, we told the schoolmaster of our trip. He knew Elise was coming back and assigned her a task. She was to come back and tell him three places she had visited on the trip that she had really liked and show him on the map where she had been. The map was circa 1830, so she had a little trouble navigating once she got past Texas, but she loved showing him the places she visited.


John skillfully parries the many questions from the boy in grey.

One of the highlights for me was the candle making. For $3 each, Elise and I got to make a beeswax candle to bring home. We started with a simple string of woven cotton tied to a stick. The candlemaker taught us how to dip it in the kettle of beeswax. Straight up and down and no lingering. If you linger too long in the wax, the wax already on the candle will start to melt back into the hot wax in the kettle. Between each dip, we walked back and forth to a sign about 30 feet away to give the wax a chance to cool. It took about 45 minutes of dipping and walking to make candles that were almost an inch in diameter. It was, for me, incredibly soothing. The motion of dipping the candle in and taking it out again was very rhythmic and calming. In the 1800s, all the candles for the year were made in November. The cooler the air temperature, the faster the candles cool, so the more you can make. They also had a brace where they dipped eight candles at a time, instead of just the one we had today. That was a little trickier because you had to make sure the candles didn’t touch each other while you were making them.



With only about 20 minutes left to our day, we hurried over to Liberty Corner and met the Zimmermans. To get there we had to cross the Cedar Chapel Covered Bridge. I want one of these in my neighborhood. The Zimmerman home has a beautiful front porch and it was there that we found Mrs. Zimmerman working on some needlepoint. We asked if we could work on the farm and right away Elise was put to work. First she was signed in as an indentured servant — we have the form to prove it — and then she filled up some water buckets to take to the Percheron horses. Next she brought in some firewood for the kitchen. And then the day was over. 5:00 p.m. was upon us and it was time for everyone to go home. The shortest day for an indentured servant ever!


The Zimmerman home


Workin’

We found out today that our visit here was anticipated by some of the staff. Someone there (or a friend) created a Google blog search that watches for mentions of Conner Prairie. Since Bobby had mentioned that we were heading here, they were on the lookout for the family that was traveling full time in their Airstream! So it’s like we’re famous. Or something.


Elise and Mrs. Zimmerman are off to water the horses.

We are sad that we don’t have more time to spend here. A few more days, at least, are needed to fully discover this wonderful place. Besides, I want to make more candles.

We made the most of our day in St. Louis, driving first to the famous upside down parabola thing. Its official name is the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial and its common name is the Gateway Arch. By visiting here, we have been to the beginning (near the arch) and the farthest reaches (the Oregon coast) of the expedition led by Lewis and Clark. They toiled, half starved. We drove, with a fridge and air conditioning. Thank you, Lewis and Clark.

From the outside the arch is a fitting memorial with its clean lines making a simple and elegant form that dominates the downtown skyline. The skin is made of welded stainless steel plates and reflects the sky. It’s lovely.


Downtown St. Louis as seen from a very small window

Once inside, the arch reveals its nutty modernist origins. The tram cars that take you to the top look like they were escape pods from the original Star Trek. Since the arch was completed in 1965, this may very well be true. The tram costs money to take to the top and once there you enjoy a view of 100 other people’s rear ends as they cram in front of the miniscule windows that look out on the Mississippi and downtown St. Louis. We stayed but a few minutes.


A typical view in the observation deck

When we queued up to our tram, a man in his fifties stormed his way ahead of us to get there first. He then peppered the young man directing people with the basic questions about the arch: How tall? 630 feet. When done? 1965. Anybody die while building it? No. Then he struck up a conversation with us while we tried to watch a little movie that provided these very same facts. Once he learned we were traveling around the country for the year he said, “You must be millionaires!” Not quite. Then he handed Elise a five dollar bill and told her to remember him, Tom. Okay. At the top he stormed his way to a window, interrupting family photos and bumping tiptoeing children along the way. We’ll never forget you, Tom.


A view inside a tram pod and pod people boarding

If you dislike heights and small spaces and want to torment yourself, go on up. If you believe humans are closely related to cattle and you would like to exercise your herd instincts, please, go on up. If you don’t like paying to be shoe-horned in small spaces with strangers, don’t bother. Enjoy it from the outside and check out the museum underneath it.


Thomas Jefferson’s peace medal

The museum has a lot of neat stuff on Lewis and Clark as well as the settling of the West and the unsettling, as it were, of the many native tribes. There is a big display on peace medals. These are handsome, giant coins made with the graven image of the president at the time and some peace-inducing image or phrase. Lewis and Clark handed them out like Halloween candy. In exchange for receiving these fine medals (as well as any number of deadly European diseases free of charge), the native tribes would no doubt peaceably vacate their lands for the sake of settlers until all they had was a dusty few acres in Oklahoma or a desolate stretch of Arizona where they could, one day, build a casino. If I were them, I’d make my slot machine tokens look like peace medals.

Once away from the herds, we drove to a tasty joint featured in our Road Food book called Crown Candy Kitchen: the oldest soda fountain in St. Louis. It serves delicious malts and shakes as well as sandwiches and chili, among other things. We waited for a table to clear, sat down, and ordered our lunch. Danine had a BLT with one and a half inches of piled bacon. The thickest BLT we have ever seen. We all had shakes: Danine, banana with nuts topped with whipped cream and fresh nutmeg; Elise, chocolate; me, butterscotch malt. Mmmm. We were full almost to the point of being incapacitated. But we soldiered on to Forest Park.


I wanted to get picture of these fish, but the hippo ruined it.

Forest Park is a huge city park with many great sites, museums and the zoo. Much of this stuff is free — just like home at the Smithsonian! We hit the zoo where we spent our afternoon and early evening. It’s pretty nice. It seems well kept, but is older. This means the buildings are elegant and lovely, but the animal habitats, for the most part, are just a little cramped.


Grizzlies dealing with the summer heat


No one could tell us what happened to this king penguin’s head.

We enjoyed the bushdogs and giant anteater, the hyena, the bat-eared foxes and the freaky-cool wild hog. We had a nice chat with the young woman on hand to answer questions about the Asian elephants. She was happy to hear about our trip, having considered doing something like it with her family. We hope we inspired her to take the plunge!



At one point we were walking along a transitional path, from one enclosure to the next, when a prominently toothed man in a tennis ball yellow tank top and with a thorny tattoo circling his right bicep said, “Them snakes er hatching!” His kids were popping around a big fake log like hounds at a rabbit hole. On one side of the log was a knot hole covered with plexiglass. Inside you could see several oblong snake eggs and a couple of slender green snakes emerging. Something wasn’t right to me though. That’s when Danine said, “They’re fake.” Indeed. We didn’t have the heart to tell the excited family. It was the highlight of their day.


Free hugs! Who’s ready?

On no less than three occasions during our visit, we heard people compare the animals they were viewing with Disney’s Lion King. Their sole knowledge of lions and hyenas comes from this animated movie. I find this disturbing. Almost as disturbing was the kid who reached over the glass and poked a penguin in full view of her mother. Should the penguins have signs on them that say don’t touch? Apparently they should.


The black mamba is a handsome snake, behind glass.

We saw many more cool things like barking sea lions, a lady vehemently shouting at the sea lions to Fight! Fight! Fight!, the incredibly deadly black mamba, a python that could swallow Elise and not show it, spooky legless lizards, a hairless chimpanzee, and an orangutan with a face the size of a Michelin light truck tire. I love the zoo.



Vicky, our GPS, sent us home by a more scenic route and we gladly took it. With the sun low in the sky, we drove a curving country road through glowing, green fields dotted with coal black cows and across a one lane bridge spanning the muddy, quiet Meramec River. Tonight we’ll sleep in this quiet woodsy state park before the long drive to Indianapolis tomorrow.


Is the Mississippi River high? Yes. This statue only waves his hat in times of distress.

While we were grabbing some lunch at Subway in Independence, Missouri today the sky fell. I had left the windows of the truck and the roof vents of the trailer all cracked to release some of the hot, humid air that has been saturating the area since Sunday. As we watched the rain fall in oblique sheets across the parking lot and the trees sway, we hoped the vents would still be attached when we got home.


Inner courtyard and grave of the Trumans

The beginning of the day started well. We drove to the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum in Independence. It was nice to get a good overview of Truman’s life, his rise to prominence, and his presidency. The mural surrounding the doorway from the lobby is impressive and reminded us of the murals we saw in Fair Park, in Dallas.



When we returned to the Airstream all was well. Roof vents were attached and nothing was soggy. Here’s what I’ve learned. In the West the landscape is larger than life, the mountains, canyons, trees. In the Midwest the weather is larger than life, probably because you can see it for such a long distance and clouds have such room to grow and billow. Even after months of traveling, I’m still used to the modest proportions of landscapes and weather (‘cept for ‘canes) in the East.

We have planned our next few days. First we’ll stay at a state park near St. Louis and spend a day going downtown there. Then we are heading to Indianapolis for two nights where we plan to check out Conner Prairie. This is on our way to Jackson Center, OH, which will be our stop for next Sunday and Monday. What is in Jackson Center? Nothing but the Airstream factory where Shackleton was made. We’re going to get it checked out and maybe take the tour before our final leg home.

I looked at our Google map this morning and chuckled. There are lots of stops in Utah and Colorado and then a large gap as we blasted our way across Kansas. Then there are two stops right on top of each other as we visited Matt and Marina and now Ruth and Curtis. It’s becoming clear that there are places we are not going to be able to see this time around, so expect to see more gaps in the map as we get closer to home.

We had a wonderful time visiting with Ruth, Curtis and Lesily, their daughter, last night. The only problem is that we all stayed up too late and are paying the price for it today. We decided to stay an extra day here and explore Independence, Missouri. We have stolen Lesily from her daycare and she is playing hooky with us today. Tonight we’ll all convene for dinner again in the air-conditioned house (it’s hot here!) for more yummy food and laughter.

All good things must come to an end and so today we leave one good thing and head to another. The real world has intervened here in Olathe. Matt went to work this morning, Amelia has a piano lesson later today and Bobby went to get an oil change for the Titan.

After lunch, we are heading to my friend Ruth’s house. She lives just outside of Kansas City, MO now having moved from Blacksburg, VA this winter and is one of a select few that we have been able to visit twice on this trip.


Matt and Will work on the world’s tallest Tinkertoy rocket.

We have had a great time visiting Matt, Marina, Amelia and Will. They were fun to be with and were exceptional hosts. Bobby and I even got to go out by ourselves yesterday afternoon! It’s another great family connection we were able to make because of our travels and we’re grateful.


Elise and Amelia watched two different versions of Annie this weekend and here they are singing their hearts out to “It’s A Hard Knock Life” while cleaning. Poor little orphans.

One of the chief problems of the Kansas City area is that there are too many family friendly things to do and places to see and you have to somehow narrow it down. We managed to make a day of it despite this difficulty.



After an easy drive into town, we parked and walked over to the mall where a puppet show was being perpetrated for free and in full view of a hundred or so kids. We watched, we laughed, we enjoyed the serendipity of coming upon this performance by chance. Our goal was lunch at Fritz’s. This is a burger joint in the mall. The food is good in that average, fast food, greasy way. The gimmick for this place is clumsily brilliant. Above the tables near the ceiling runs a track that circles the whole restaurant. On this track travel little trains. Beneath the trains hang trays on which bins containing orders are placed. As the train chugs around the restaurant everyone watches hoping it’s their order. If it is, a little bar whacks the bin off of the train’s tray and onto a metal platform that lowers the bin to your table. No server takes your order either. You have a phone at your booth and you pick it up and place your order — as best you can over the din of the trains and people around you. The place was completely packed.




That’s our food descending from on high.

Once we were stuffed with grease, we walked over to Science City in Union Station. This is a fun children’s museum of sorts with lots to do and explore. We started by watching a cool 3D Imax movie called Wild Ocean about the massive shoals of sardines the move into the coastal waters off of South Africa and provide a bonanza of food for birds, dolphins, seals, sharks, and people.



Somehow the kids still had energy in the afternoon, so Matt, Danine and I took them to the pool while Marina made a great salad and steamed artichokes for dinner. We ate and the kids played more. They are going to bed now, and you would think they’d drop right off, but they’re unstoppable.

We are liking Kansas City and the weather we’ve been having. To be fair, we enjoyed our second day of driving through Kansas. The eastern half of the state was green and rolling with trees lining the creeks and washes. Matt and Marina really like it here and it’s easy to see why.

Elise and her second cousins Amelia and Will

There’s really no reason for us to move on from Kansas. Matt and Marina are taking good care of us. The trailer fits in the driveway, mostly. We are being well fed. The kids keep pretty busy. Weather’s nice.



It was a particularly nice Fourth of July. We got up and ate Marina’s made-from-scratch pancakes — delicious. Then we geared up and drove about five minutes away to a really cool park. It’s called Deanna Rose and is named for a police officer killed in the line of duty who had a special affection for kids. The park is free to enter, but some activities such as pony rides, schoolhouse crafts, and feeding the animals cost a very little bit. There are numerous animals, including a bald eagle, two bobcats, a red tail hawk, a great horned owl, and all of the barnyard animals you can think of. There is a reconstruction of a one-room schoolhouse, a barn, and Native American lodge. You can feed baby goats a little bottle of milk, but you must be brave and not easily pushed over.


Matt scares the living wits out of Will, Elise, and Amelia


Will discusses the finer points of quantum theory with a skeptical audience.

The girls went for the pony ride, but Matt and Will bought a small bucket of worms and took a bamboo pole over to the pond in the hopes of catching some blue gill. This is nominally called fishing. In actuality, you are feeding the fish. They know this too. As you wrap a worm on your hook the blue gill look up from just beneath the surface. Once you swing your line over the water, they sink out of view, preparing for their next move. You plop the worm in the water. The bob dips. You pull out your line. The worm is gone and you have done your part to feed the fish. Actually the boys caught four: two small and two big. Not bad!




The big one

After a full morning at the park we went home for lunch. Marina made rubens — delicious. We then took the kids to the pool and chatted while they played. When we got home we ate hamburgers for dinner — delicious. Then we sat on the patio and chatted while the kids played. Are you sensing a pattern?

The neighbor a couple doors down had 250 pounds of illegal fireworks, which he lit off in the street and we gladly watched and cheered. It was a pleasant day.


This hot air balloon drifted right over the neighbors’ houses.

We got to Matthew and Marina’s house close to 3:30 this afternoon and I haven’t seen Elise since. It’s 10:00 at night. I think she’s in bed, because I hear girlish shrieks from one of the bedrooms upstairs. Not sure how much sleep she’ll be gettin’ tonight.

Matthew and Marina have two kids — Amelia, age 8 and Will, age 4. The three have been getting along great. Already Bobby and I have taken showers and I am just finishing up my fourth load of laundry. Family is awesome.

Matthew and Marina are wonderful hosts. We were treated to made-in-front-of-our-eyes fresh salsa when we arrived and dinner was one of our favorite meals, grilled chicken and vegetables — tomatoes, mushrooms, zucchini, eggplant and peppers. We’re never leaving.

The biggest bonus of all is that we have been given a beautiful guest room in which to sleep. That works out really well, too, since I washed our sheets tonight but haven’t put them back on the beds in the trailer!

We’re here through the weekend. I promise to post some pictures tomorrow so that you can actually see what Kansas looks like.