From The Road: Ohio and Indiana

November 8, 2007

We promised you culture last time? In Toledo, Ohio, we finally took time out to tour two museums and an outdoor sculpture garden. Of course it helped that there was a friend who guided us there!

The Toledo Art Museum, The Glass Museum, and the sculpture garden are clustered together, and a joy to experience. Collections of old masterpieces, new potential masterpieces, massive and ingenious sculptures arranged amid trees and bushes were the first act. My admitted favorite here was a bench made of snow white marble - in the shape of a polar bear. You can guess it was chilly to sit on.

The new Glass Museum has inner and outer walls of glass; you can see right through the building! The collection here ranges from an ancient Egyptian perfume vial to an artisan blowing a tiny horse as we watched. If you like glass, this is a wonderful LE (Aunt Valerie's expression for a Learning Experience). There are ceremonial, faceted punchbowls, colorful glasses and vases, and more and more.

In Toledo I continued my culinary adventures by eating walleye - also called pickeral - for dinner, along with a magnificent salad of many colors, many vitamins, and a killer dressing.

Ubiquitous in Toledo; "Fifth Third Bank". Huh?

On the way again, we backed up to photograph a nifty barn, decorated to a fare thee well. (This was on a brief detour into Michigan.)The small sign in front says, "Gremlin Parking Only".

From Toledo we headed back into Indiana again, enjoying the Windmill Museum in Kendallville and the restored grand West Baden Resort (mentioned in "Preservation Magazine" and originally the site of mineral hot springs, but, alas, no more). Then on to Indianapolis.

Here we stayed with a new friend, enjoying the Children's Museum, a bike ride, a drumming circle, and dinner at a haunted restaurant. Wow!

The Children's Museum has lots to do, including a carousel on the fourth floor, a great planetarium, and a revolving seat under the "Glass Ceiling" by Dale Chihuly. Awesome.

After Sunday morning with the friendly folks at the First Congregational U.C.C., we left Indianapolis and headed west, past the Speedway, and into more corn and soybeans.

As we traveled through the midwest I was struck with how many butterflies we encountered on the road. It seemed as though they were "surfing" the air flow over Peachy, having a high old time. This is probably nothing but an anthropomorphic conceit, but it made me feel better.

Did I tell you that I saw Peachy's twin in Kentucky, license plate, "Tin Tent"?

Shalom, and we will meet you next time in Illinois.