…Can we go back to my vacation for a bit?

Really, I wish I could.  I talked to my boss about a week on a week off schedule. 

He didn’t buy it!  So, I guess I’ll have to tough it out.  But on the trip, along with the mountains, monument, motels, and motorcycles I saw, I saw a few bumper stickers.

I hate bumper stickers, I don’t have any, won’t have any, and really think they make a car look tacky. 

Here are a few.  (That I can actually show you!)

It’s a bit much, but at least it hides an ugly car.

That’s workin’ well!

Some people just come in dead!

I don’t!

He probably would!

Aren’t you supposed to?

Ouch!

I met them!  They’re aptly named.

Nice try, but I still think he was drunk!

At least he doesn’t hit them!

Probably my favorite!

Charlie don’t surf!

Well, it costs a lot to run a country!

Working for a living is a burden!

OK, I was in the mountains!

1-800-Safe Auto?

Like I said, it takes a lot to run the country.

So many to choose from.

And finally…

She wasn’t kidding.

Vacation’s over!

and

It’s always nice to go,  But it’s always good to get home, even though I had a wonderful time. 

I drove, as I usually do.  I like to drive.  I can stop, see more, and find new things to enjoy.

2138 miles later, the car needs another oil change, a bath, and a serious cleaning out.

Unpacking’s a chore, laundry will take all day, and it’s back to work today.

The lawn needs mowing…for some reason, the trash didn’t go out…I have nine AJC Crosswords to do …. and did I mention the laundry!

There is mail to sort, blogs to think about, blogs to read, email to answer, calls to make, bills to pay, and house plants to toss.

I’m glad to be home, have a job to return to, and people who missed me.

Some people I must acknowledge for making my trip so special:  My brother, Charlie and his wife Diane for putting me UP in the “cottage” they call Blue Ridge Blessing in VA, Mother and Daddy for welcoming me home, my Aunt Willie for not making me eat since I’d eaten before I got there, my sister, Zola for going through old pictures with me and sharing memories,  Judy and Ann for the quick break on the way, my nieces and nephews for coming to see me, and making dinner so much fun, Andrea of mommysnacks fame and her family for coming to meet me, it was nice to put a face with the name, the charming toll taker on the West Virginia Turnpike who took the $2.00 toll in pennies and dimes and ignored the line of traffic behind me while she counted it, Dale and Tiffany at Frisch’s in Chillicothe for making one of my favorite meals more special, Gayle at the Waffle House Dayton Mall (across the interstate from the new Carmax which opens June 19), and Beverly at the Waffle House in Lexington for getting my Redneck Latte Right, the countless gas station clerks who eyed me from behind glass windows while I paid at the pump, the awesome people at Marion’s Pizza by the Dayton Mall who make the best Yankee Pizza ever, AT&T and Carolyn who sold me the Wireless device that allowed me to “blog from the road”, all the people along the road who shared a smile, wave, or kind word, and who agreed to read my blog and DID, and the wonderful people at the Exxon in Buena Vista who made coffee I could stand to drink during the long morning drive to the Waffle  House in Lexington, really, 12 miles without coffee…you gotta be kiddin me!!

And of course, Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Interstate Highway Commission!

I’ll get Redneck Latte Ravings back on track with the things you are used to this week.

Thanks for reading!

It’s back to abnormal.

…Ohio isn’t famous for a whole lot, but it’s pretty, quaint, and a “great place to raise children”.

It’s the home of Emily over at MomminitUP, but it is best known for it’s Covered Bridge, the only inverted bow bridge in existance in the world, Miss USA 1981, Kim Seelebrede, the Pretzel Festival, the Germantown Dam,  three State Football Championships, beautiful Victorian Homes, the By Jo theater, Camp Miami,and a couple of nasty murders. It lies in the heart of Montgomery County, Ohio, and is considered “The Jewel of The Twin Valley”.  Twin Valley meaning Twin Creek, an off shoot of the Great Miami River which runs through nearby Dayton.

The Covered Bridge…

…has fallen in a couple of times due to idiotic drivers in delivery trucks trying to miss all the “busy in-town traffic”.   After all, there are over 4,000 people living there!  And was nearly destroyed in the 1960s.  It was restored some time about the time I was twelve.  I remember being an  historic conservationist at an early age and helped to “campaign” for it’s salvation.

Kim Seelebrede…

…left Germantown after becoming Miss Ohio and then Miss USA, and is now a Life Coach and Licensed Therapist in New York City.  She has a great website…you should check it out.

The Pretzel Festival is fairly new, they never did that when I was a kid. 

We had homecoming parades, Memorial Day and Fourth of July Parades, and Founder’s Day.  But not much else.

Speaking of Founders, Germantown was founded by Philip Gunkle back in 1804, only one  year after Ohio became a state.  Phil hailed from Germantown, PA, and brought his German work ethic, Lutheranism, and a great town plan with him…along with a large family and following.  The German names abound, and there were at one time nearly as many Zs in the phone book as Bs…all forty pages of it.

The Germantown Dam is part of the Miami Conservancy District and was built after the Great Dayton Flood happened back in the early 1900s.  I’m not so sure what was so great about it.

There is a beautiful park there, and many a church picnic,  high school party, date, and conception have taken place UP there.

The park is beautiful.

The By Jo was big doings when I was a kid, but now, not so much.  They still show movies though. 

The football Championships were back in the 1990s, and after 80 years of lethargy, Germantown became Football Crazy.  When I was in school, the football games were a social event.  We rarely won many games, and we never won the fight after!

…But we were the first class to graduate from the new High School…back in 1970!

The old Victorian Italianate Homes are stunning and well preserved.  People in Germantown for the most part take pride in what they have and what they’ve worked to accomplish.  It’s a pretty place.

Camp Miami was a military school at one time; when I was a kid, it was a Methodist Camp.  After the Baptist Church, where my dad was pastor, and the Lutheran Church, the Methodists had the biggest crowd.

And of course, there’s the Fish, er Florentine Hotel. 

Someone famous stayed there, but I never knew who!  It was too late for George Washington, though some claim it was he.

Germantown, it’s a pretty place, you should check it out! 

The murders I’ll leave alone.  I don’t like to gossip and all!

It’s funny how the terrain can change in just a few hours of driving. 

When I started out Tuesday AM, I was UP on the Blue Ridge Parkway, checking the blog and making sure it was ready! 

When I ended the day, I was speeding through the rolling farmlands of Southwestern Ohio.

Both beautiful in their own way. 

The Timberlands of Virginia gave the settlers wood for fuel and homes; the farmlands of Ohio, food for the nation and the world.

I left Buena Vista about 6 AM.

This town tells it like it is, and I think I met two of them while I was there.

They don’t have one of these…

So I had to drive to Lexington and get coffee and breakfast.

On the road….

Some things I saw along the way…

Wild and Wonderful West Virginia…

The ride is different than it was when I was a kid some eons ago.  The WVA Turnpike, the only toll road in America that never earned enough money to pay for the interest on the loan, has become one with Interstates 77 and 64, and one no longer sees the old sites or goes through the old tunnel. 

As kids, we looked forward to the tunnel and badgered Dad to honk the horn all the way through. 

He did sometimes.

The old lady selling Chenille bedspreads is long dead, and I never got the huge king-sized one with the big purple butterfly that I wanted.

Maybe that’s a good thing.

The travel plazas sell Starbucks!

And have Burger Kings!

The Road we used to follow was US Route 60, now called the Midland Trail.  A beautiful and exhausting drive, it’s truck free.  Back then, hours could be lost if we got behind a log truck or any other semi.  Now, they whiz by at 65 and 70 miles an hour on the pike.

They still charge on the turnpike though!

I passed by signs instead of towns.  We used to see Hawks Nest and Gauley Bridge and Alloy and Cheylan, but now we see exit signs telling us how far from the exit they are…progress…maybe…but, I’m not sure.

I stopped to get gas, and the lady behind the counter was kind enough to wait on me after she finished balancing her check book.   But, really, it’s all good, I wasn’t in a hurry!

I waited patiently until she finished her phone call too.  But, again, no rush.

Off I-64 and onto US 35, my never UPdated Garmin went crazy trying to figure out just exactly which road I was on.  It finally did, once I hit the part of 35 that’s “old” in Ohio.   Garmin woke UP, and we were both on track!

Then on into Ohio.

The Silver Bridge fell in November of 1967, several people died.

And apparently, I see too many Richard Gere movies, because he was in the Mothman Prophecies, which is VERY loosely based on the real life tragedy.

The new bridge…

…is taller, wider, and safer.

That was the first year we didn’t go home for Christmas, Daddy hadn’t found a new way.  But we had to go in January because Grandpa died. 

Once I crossed the Ohio River over the Silver Memorial Bridge, instinct made me look for a Frisch’s Restaurant!

…where I a Swiss Miss Sandwich and French Fries…

…quite the international meal for small town Chillicothe!

I passed the Bob Evans’ Farm…yes, there really is one.  All that sausage at the grocery store may not come directly from there, but Bob was a real man, had a real farm, and put Rio Grande (pronounced RYE-O Grand), Ohio on the map.

Along 35 through that part of Ohio, it’s town after town, farm after farm, and field after field.   Trippies is gone, The houses have changed, and the New 35 goes over the Hog Farm that held UP it’s progress for so long.

Through Dayton, Kettering, and into Miamisburg on i-675, it’s all suburbia…

…but you cross the Miami River head UP the hill, and a left on route 4…Germantown is just down the hill.

More on that on Thursday…it’s time for dinner with Mother and Daddy.

Just a note to the Honorable Governor Strickland, that 2 speed limit thing, one for cars and one for trucks, “what UP wid dat?”