25.08B - Ohio & Pennsylvania
En route to our morning destination, we passed through Moundsville, WV. “There’s got to be a mound here, let’s go find it,” I said. And a few mins later, we found ourselves in front of Grave Creek Mound, complete with visitor center. We hiked to the top, which peers out over the WV Penitentiary.
Welp, I’m falling further and further behind on trip photos. No surprise, as we’re planning as we go and packing in a lot, and I’d like to write a bit more than a quick blurb about some of our stops.
We visited the Hopewell Culture NHP yesterday, which was one of the two remaining UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the US that Jen hadn’t yet visited. We’ll hit some of the other Hopewell mound sites on a subsequent trip.
The hometown of General Sheridan.
Bank burglars beware.
Just a boy and his dog… BOTH DEAD 😵😂
One of my fav pastimes while traveling is figuring out “how many stickers I’ve been to” at breweries we visit. I played against the brewer’s mom tonight, closely edging her out, 17 to 15. Also fun to see our local place, Wren House, on the wall. They gave me a sticker to deposit somewhere during our trip.
Peace out, Cincy! We’re back to Dayton, stopping in at Branch & Bone Artisan Ales, plotting tomorrow’s agenda.
It was then on to a much more sobering experience: the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. Lucky us, it happened to be a free admission day! This is an excellent museum, worthy of its Smithsonian affiliation.
We then caught the Reds-Cardinals game to mark Cincy off Jen’s MLB ballparks quest.
Then it was off to William Howard Taft National Historic Site, park unit 384 of 433 for Jen. I had forgotten about this crazy long sign at the visitor center. And this might be one of my favorite Preidential quotes about their own tenure 😂
First stop today was Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument. Gen Young was an impressive individual; I had forgotten that he was also the first black park superintendent! I had visited this site just months after its designation in 2013, so it was nice to see the subsequent renovation.
Saturday was a full travel day, with what seemed like an especially long flight to Cleveland, then a ridiculous car rental fiasco, then a quick stop at a mediocre brewery, then a 4-hour drive to Dayton, while also trying to follow the (also mediocre) ASU football game, which ended around 2am.
