Road Trip: Ohio
Day 4: Monday, April 08, 2019 - Columbus, OH
Day's statistics:
Weather: Low 70s, scattered showers.
Steps: Steve 12,861; Linda 10,653
Drove: 240 miles
Today's breakfast was "grab and go". We didn't have a choice, because it was set up in the lobby, and there was no seating. I ran down to get breakfast while Linda got into the shower. Slim pickings, unfortunately: muffins (no butter or jelly), granola bars, and oatmeal. And coffee. That was it. We would obviously be having a regular lunch today.
For our first stop, we were stopping at the Chadwick Arboretum and Learning Gardens at Ohio State Univerisity. They also had a rooftop
garden that we wanted to see. Parking was $2.00 with curbside meters. We shoveled an hour's worth of quarters into the slot and headed
off. We found what we thought was the "learning garden" - a 10 x 20 foot area with a number of different plants with placards
showing the different species. That only took a moment. Off to the rooftop garden. Sadly, I am sure it is a wonderful site IN season.
But not now. The idea is a good one, though. This is a stitched image, showing a full 180° view..
Well, what to do with the remaining time... we looked at the GPS and it told us that the "EnCORE House" was supposed to be nearby.
This house was supposed to be a net-zero status home - minimizing energy losses and maximizing energy efficiency.
As we started off in that direction, we came across this interesting sculpture.
We continued walking in the direction that we thought we were supposed to go. But ... something was awry.
It seemed like it was getting farther away. So we walked back to the car and drove over. Still no.
Hmm. We exited the app and went back in and found where we were supposed to go. Sadly, the house wasn't open. But here are a couple shots from the park area across the pond near where the house was located.
We didn't spend as much time at OSU as we thought we would. No matter, off to the next capitol - Columbus.
We arrived about 10:30. We located it and passed by a spot directly in front of the capitol. We drove around the block, and it was fortuantely still vacant. Parking was only $0.75 per hour. AND there was already 38 mintes on it. We put enough into the machine to give us about an hour and 20 minutes. Took a couple pictures before going in (that's the roof of our car in the lower right corner of the first image), the second one a little further away.
The base of the flagpole in the images above has a dedication to the branches of the military: Army, Air Force, Coast Guard, Navy, and Marines.
The tours started every hour on the hour, so we had about a half-hour before the next tour. We were in the gift shop, so of course, we got our stamp.
Here are the book pages:
After visiting the gift shop...
We saw that the floor in the main section of the building was made of of pieces of marble, each in the shape of the
county they represent, collected to arrange in the shape of the state.
We saw the Ohio State Seal in stained glass in the building museum, that is at least six feet in diamter. The seal is the sun
setting over the mountains (which are not in Columbus), hay (signifying agriculture), and spears (signifying industry).
Right outside the capitol museum was a replica of the Liberty Bell. We were told every state got one.
While making our way to the House, we were in a courtyard sort of area. Originally, the lights were gas and the ceiling didn't exist.
Still making our way to the House, we stopped in the George Washington Williams Memorial room.
And we passed under the dome. The second image is a close up of the lit portion of the dome - notice the state seal in the very center.
The view down a couple hallways.
We finally made it to the House, including some interesting colored squares in the skylights.
There were some small figurines on the chandeliers.
And a view of the Senate.
This was a painting - rather large too - on the wall along a flight of stairs. While not the best image, can you tell
anything picular about it? (Hint: it has something to do with a famous Ohian.)
OK, in case you didn't figure it out (I didn't even when I saw the picture in person), it is Thomas Edison. At three different ages.
A stained glass window in the ceiling of a hallway. Notice the appearance of the seal, again.
And some of the interior architecture.
Our tour ended at about 11:45. Uh oh, time had certainly expired on the meter. We headed out and were blessed with
no ticket. Though it was a little early - and especially early when considering our late lunch / early dinner times the
last few days - we headed to Schmidt's Sausage Haus. It
turns out their Autobahn Buffet is only $10.50 (at the time of this writing [April 15, 2019]). So rather than spend more
than that on an entreé, we both opted for the buffet. There was salad, potato soup, knockwurst, bratwurst, garlic
knockwurst, Bahama Mama sausage, sausage stew (sausage with pasta in a sauce of some kind), corned beef and cabbage, saurkraut,
German Potato salad, macaroni and cheese, spatzel and green beans, red cabbage, and maybe a couple other items.
Here are our first plates, Linda's and mine.
I'm not sure what that plate of greenish stuff is in Linda's photo... We only have one photo of each because each of the following
plates were pretty much the same as the others. Linda had one plate with a little more on a second, and that mystery plate I mentioned
above. I had three plates, with a chaser of a little more. We got a cream puff to go, for dessert this night - they are
discounted with a buffet purchase, and they weigh about 10 ounces each (about the size of a grapefruit, or perhaps a little larger).
We headed on to the Thurber House. For those not in the know, such as me, James Thurber was a famous cartoonist for The New Yorker,
wrote books, was a humorist, playwright, and more.
There is a closet that invited authors are invited to sign when they are invited to visit.
James' original typewriter.
And few autograhped photos from people we know, that play a part in our lives.
Janet Evanovich - the author for whom we were listening to her books on audio CD during this very trip.
Jane Pawley - who hosts CBS Sunday Morning.
Chris Matthews - who we sometimes watch on MSNBC.
And a shot of the garden outside the house.
We departed for Indianapolis - out of one state, and into another.
We spied this huge cross in Indiana. The car in the foreground should give you perspective.
We also came across a massive - MASSIVE - solar array. This is just one image of it. We had already passed some of it and
decided to take a picture of it.
This was the "Big Glow Candle" Store (or something similarly named).
On our search for a shot glass from, preferrably Indianapolis, or at least Indiana, we stopped at Wal-Mart and, sans a shot glass, got some wine for dessert instead.
After checking in, we had our snack - the cream puff from Schmidt's. This is about 60% or perhaps a little more (it was my portion).
We then reviewed the day (and I wrote most of this day's events), and went to sleep.
Fun fact: the waste baskets in the Ohio Senate are Longerburger baskets.