Travel Archives

September 3, 2014

Making Pictures After Dark

I rolled back into Cape about 10 p.m., too tired to unload the van and computer equipment, so you’re going to get one of the last photos I took in Athens and one on the way out of Kentucky.

We emphasized to our workshop folks that just because the sun goes down doesn’t mean that you have to put your camera away. The last thing I did before leaving town was to go up to the Athens Diner for a late supper.

On the way back to the car, I thought I’d practice what I had been preaching and see if I could make a night shot in a two-block walk. I took a couple of pictures, but I like this one because of the guy in the upstairs window on the right. He looked like he was juggling a pizza box. Click on the photo to make it larger.

Kentucky sunset over cornfield

I was driving into the setting sun and saw several situations that were neat, but I couldn’t get a clear shot of them. That’s when I noticed that the best picture was alongside and behind me. I waited until I saw a stretch of road that had a break in the trees and a wide enough shoulder to pull off.

The result was a strange collection of clouds over a cornfield.

August 31, 2014January 2, 2015

Throne of Contemplation

I really pulled over to shoot a picture of an old schoolhouse outside Racine, Ohio, but I couldn’t stop myself from taking a couple frames of an old outhouse. I guess the chair is where you could wait until the current occupant of the reading library is finished. (Click on it to make it larger.)

The occupant of the waiting room chair would have an excellent view of the Ohio River and the Racine Locks and Dam.

Cherry bombs and outhouses don’t mix

I can’t say that I particularly enjoyed using the outdoor facilities, but I got where the latrines at Camp Lewallen didn’t bother me. They had a certain “earthy” aroma that wasn’t really offensive if you acquired the right attitude.

I DO remember when an unnamed member of Troop 8 thought it would be fun to throw a contraband cherry bomb firecracker down the chute before one of his fellow Scouts sat down. There was no explosion, so the miscreant waited until his target left, then he lifted the seat to see what happened. Evidently, the cherry bomb had a slow fuse. It went off with an impressive noise and coated the prankster with the aforementioned “earthy” aroma and more.

The red-roofed school

Looks like the old school has long ceased being used, but there’s no trouble spotting it from a distance.

August 26, 2014

Miners’ Memorial Park

Giving Curator Jessica access to my RoadsideAmerica ap just as we were embarking on a road trip to northern Ohio was dangerous. In addition to our normal stops for stuff like interesting buildings, historical markers, cemeteries and just stuff, she announced that we just HAD to make a side trip to McConnelsville, Ohio, to see Big Muskie’s bucket at the Miners’ Memorial Park.

I agreed to the diversion only if she would agree to be photographed with it to give the huge bucket some scale.

In service for 22 years

The plaque at the memorial made is sound like the big, bad EPA was responsible for shutting down open mining and causing workers to lose their jobs. It sort of glossed over the fact that the 1977 Clean Air Act reduced demand for soft coal and that the power costs made it unprofitable to operate. The 22-story-tall Big Muskie, with its 310-foot boom and 220-cubic yard bucket sucked down as much power as 27,500 homes and cost tens of thousands of dollars an hour for electricity alone.

The public’s growing opposition to strip mining added to the decision to scrap the world’s largest single-bucket digging machine ever made. It was parked in 1991 and scrapped in 1999 when no company wanted it because of the cost of dismantling, transporting and operating it.

John Prine’s Paradise

I had to introduce Jessica to John Prine’s song, Paradise, which contains these words:

Then the coal company came with the world’s largest shovel
And they tortured the timber and stripped all the land.
Well, they dug for their coal till the land was forsaken,
Then they wrote it all down as the progress of man

And, Daddy, won’t you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the green river where paradise lay?”
“Well, I’m sorry my son, but you’re too late in asking.
Mister Peabody’s coal train has hauled it away”

Links to Big Muskie Stats

Bucket photo gallery

Click on any photo to make it larger, then use your arrow keys to move through the gallery. Oh, by the way, the only thing that kept me from having to endure a visit to the Feline Historical Museum was that it was closed on the days we were in the area.

August 26, 2014August 26, 2014

“Protector of the Small Things”

On the way from Athens to Kent, Ohio, Curator Jessica and I made many stops at cemeteries. I had to do a U-turn when I saw a simple sign marking the lane to the Ringgold Cemetery in Morgan County. The narrow gravel road with thick woods on each side was easy to miss: the kind of place you might search for if you were a teenager and it was Friday night.

When we got to the end of the lane, there was a small, well-kept burial ground with a scattering of old stones, some broken off and some weathered so much they couldn’t be read. There was one recent stone that stood out from all the rest.

Barb and Butch Martin

I braved chiggers to wander down to see the final marker for Barb and Butch Martin. Barb’s side said she was born April 20, 1964, but the absence of a death date probably indicates that she’s still with us.

Butch died in 2010. His stone says he was a son, husband, father and a “Lover and Protector of the small ones.” Under that slogan was a list of 22 names, none of which sounded like ones you’d give a kid. (You can click on the photos to make them larger.)

The back of the stone

The back of Butch’s stone has the inscription, “I was truly a blessed man. I found love twice in my life. Once in the arms of my wife Barbara and again in the grasp of a small creature known as Scruffy. Both loved me without question.”

His obituary

Marvin L. “Butch” Martin, Jr., 59, of Malta, formerly of Columbus, passed away Sunday, August 29, 2010 at the Genesis Hospice Morrison House in Zanesville after a courageous battle with cancer. He was born June 16, 1951 in Columbus and was a graduate of Franklin Heights High School in Columbus. Butch was a veteran of the United States Marine Corp. and was a retired Maytag repair man. He was an animal lover and hunter. He loved life and the simple things, he always thought of others first. A day at the gun range was his greatest pleasure. He wanted nothing more than to live life and love his wife.

Marvin is survived by his wife of 20 years, Barbara Martin; his mother, Marie Martin of Columbus; daughter, Dusty Noonan of Wilmington, N.C.; step-son, David Cooper of Columbus; six grandchildren, Josh, Matt, Adam, and Noah Noonan, and Taylor and Jordan Cooper; two brothers, Donald and Ronald Stinson of Columbus; good friends, Roger Lemon and Tim Thompson. He was preceded in death by his father Marvin Martin, Sr. and a great love called Scruffy.