Where On Earth is Bucyrus?

We did intentionally go to Bucyrus, Ohio. No, seriously, we did mean to arrive there. It's pronounced Boo-sy-russ, by the way.

This is one town we saw online before we came over here and we thought if we were anywhere near it, we'd have a look. Everyone said, "Bucyrus? You actually want to go to Bucyrus? On purpose? There's nothing there!" These comments were followed by gut-busting laughter.

We had a great time in this little town. To get there we had to take the back roads through Ohio. The countryside is so pretty. It's flat with huge farmlands of plowed paddocks that literally go right up to the houses and towns. Ohio is full of wonderful scenery. I could have taken hundreds of photos of cute little towns and solitary farm houses that popped up in the middle of freshly planted fields. I put a couple of photos in the previous blog entry.

Actually, there's plenty to see in Bucyrus. The town is very quaint, old, and pretty.  The most obvious thing that strikes you as you enter are the beautiful murals.

To learn about this town and its murals, we went to the information centre and took the walking tour which I highly recommend. You get to see the most amazing things, as well as hearing about the town.

As well as learning all about the murels, you go through the Picking copper kettle factory which is the same as it was 130 years ago. The daughter of the original owner is still working there. I kid you not! She's an amazing woman in her 90s who dresses up and goes into work every day at the factory and still does all their accounts.

Look at the size of this hand-made copper still. The Picking factory is amazing. It is living history. Well worth taking a look.

Then we were taken down into the gloomy depths of the Bucyrus Speak Easy.

During prohibition, people used to meet below the hotels in the "speak easy" to have a drink and entertainment.

We were taken down these dingy stairs into this old musty place that is exactly as it was back then.

 The big surprise for us was that Alphonsus Capone had his own booth down here. So there it is. This is the exact booth where Al Capone used to sit and drink. The dingy store room below is where his escape tunnel out to the railway used to be. 

It still is there, but they've boarded it up.

Geoff listening to our guide talk about the old days when Al was in town.

 The boarded up tunnel that used to lead out the back onto the railway line where Al Capone had his escape trolley waiting in case the police came down for a raid.

This was one of Al Capone's escape routes. It leads up onto a back lane behind the hotel.


Everyone in the tour wanted to search through his other escape tunnel but we weren't allowed. Bummer!






How cool was that? We sat right in Al Capone's booth!

 The old streets of Bucyrus. Mostly as it was back in Al Capone's day.

This was the other amazing murel in Bucyrus is this tribute to all the fallen soldiers from all the wars.

Looks like Geoff's standing before a statue, doesn't it. That is a flat wall. It's just a painting.

If you look closely, you'll see that all the faces are of different soldiers. The artist had all the people of Bucyrus who'd lost family members in any of the wars to bring photos of them to him. He then painted all those faces into his murel. It is awe inspiring to look at it.

The Circle E ranch just out of Bucyrus has long horn cattle and bison.

How's that for a set of horns?

This is the young buffalo bull. He's shedding his thick winter hair, getting ready for the hot summer ahead.

So, next time someone asks us why we'd ever want to go to Bucyrus, we'll jump up and say: "Hell, yeah! We love it!"
 

Port Clinton Ahoy!

From Flint we drove down through Michigan and into Ohio. It was great watching the change in the terrain from hilly and marshy to flat farmland. We loved the vast open spaces.

 There are huge farms out here. Acres and acres of ploughed and planted fields of corn and wheat mostly.


We were amused at how they ploughed and planted right up to the edges of roads, houses, even towns.

This is real farming America. All the farms were so neat and tidy, it was amazing.

We'd drive for miles and suddenly there'd be a quaint old farm house and barns. 

A typical farm house in Ohio. 

A lot of Americans said "Don't go to Ohio, it's flat and uninteresting." We found it really pretty. Flat farmland has its own beauty.



We continued on until afternoon and decided to stop at a pretty little place called Port Clinton right on Lake Erie. We stayed in a B&B here and really enjoyed it.

Pretty Port Clinton on Lake Erie, Ohio.

You guys getting envious yet? Look at that gorgeous weather!! 

 Shit! I've got to lose some weight. Far out! Anyway, that's me at the lighthouse at Port Clinton.

Geoff looking out to... not sea, but lake.

I couldn't resist it. I took my shoes off and paddled in the rock pools around the front of the lighthouse.

I've had my feet in Lake Ontario, Lake Michigan and now, Lake Erie. Michigan was by far the coldest.

You probably can't make out what these are, but they're fossils. 






There were fossils in the rocks everywhere.

Can you believe this view? This is where we stayed for the night.

Check this out. This is what Lake Erie looks and sounds like....

In the morning we took off for Bucyrus. Everyone laughed. What the hell would we want to go to Bucyrus for? There's nothing there! Nobody goes to Bucyrus. Well... we did.
 

 






 

"Don't go to Flint!"

When I mentioned to several people that I had a friend in Flint, Michigan, who I'd like to meet up with, everyone without fail all said, "Don't go to Flint." "It's a terrible place."

Yeah, well, I wanted meet up with Teri Henderson, so we went to Flint, Michigan.

And...

We had the best time ever!

I contacted Teri from our hotel in Davison, just outside Flint, the day before and arranged to meet her in a small shop called Stir The Imagination.

We foud our way to the shop the next morning, but Teri had been held up by her car breaking down. As we waited, we talked to Rhonda, the shop owner, and before we knew it, Geoff was off on a fishing trip [he caught a bass] with Rhonda's husband, Darryl, and I was in the shop having a lovely healing done by Becky Johns.

We stayed the next couple of nights with Rhonda and Darryl. Geoff got to go to Detroit to see a baseball match between the Detroit Tigers and the Pittsburg Pirates at the Tigers Stadium in Detroit. The Tigers won.

Geoff said that despite its reputation, the area of Detroit they were in looked a lovely clean city. We could also say the same about Flint. There were parts of Flint we only drove through, but didn't stop. They were run down and shabby. Unemployment and the downturn of the economy has taken a huge toll on places like Flint. It made us feel really lucky to live in Australia.

Teri and I in Stir The Imagination. It was wonderful to catch up and spend a day just talking.

Flint's main street looks amazing with its arches all lit up at night. The main street is all paved in bricks!

 And check out this amazing weather ball that lights up in different colours to tell you what the next day will bring. I can't remember the whole poem that goes with it - I'll ask Rhonda and then post the whole thing here later. The first part goes: When the weather ball is red, warmer weather lies ahead. That was true. We had amazing weather!

We took a day trip from Flint up to Muskegan to see Lake Michigan. More picture postcard stuff.

You would swear, would you not, that I was standing in the sea? That's Lake Michigan. And it was COLD! Glacier lake. Brrrr! There were people swimming in that!

 The sand dunes are being revigitated so they'll be like they were originally. It's very pretty.

A walk through the woods from the "beach".

We were shopping for caps and t-shirts when a couple of Flint's finest came in for their daily shoe shine. Very nice guys, quietly spoken and ready for a laugh or two, but you wouldn't want to tangle with either of these two.

Eventually, as in Benton and Brentford, we had to leave our new friends and venture onward across this great country. Photographs really do not do this place justice. The grand scale of the scenery, the colours, the wildflowers, the smells, it is all breathtaking. 

Spring time is definitely the best time of the year to explore this vast countryside. We've struck a few gray days, but very little rain. Now the days are getting warmer and the nights very pleasant. Yes, definitely come over here in late spring to early summer.

Port Honey & Port Severn

 While taking a quick look around Ontario, we drove up to Port Honey and Port Severn. Such pretty little places along the lake shores. Everywhere we looked, it was like a picture post card. I even stopped taking photos after a while. It is impossible to capture everything. No camera would do the scenery justice anyway. It really is like you see in books and on TV.

The colours are amazing. The birds and wildlife is amazing. So different to ours. Even the common, every day nuisance animals up here are beautiful to me. I've fallen in love with squirrels, chipmonks, red winged blackbirds, and my favourite so far, the turkey vultures. Yep. I love them. They are so graceful and powerful. Such a beautiful bird.

Here's some more scenery from around Port Severn to keep you amazed, and hopefully, just a little jealous!

 The water looked blue from a distance, but up close when you peer down into it, it is quite dark. Almost black. This is due to tannins in the water.

There were heaps of these pretty little islands all over the place. All the bigger ones had houses on them. Imagine owning your own island. Unreal.

A Day in Toronto

Instead of driving to Toronto, we took the train and walked and took public transport. Mostly we walked! This is what we saw...

 The grand station of Toronto

 Us in front of the famous needle.

We're on our way up to the top for lunch.

Colourful statues of woodpeckers climb poles right in front of the needle.

They were doing a lot of construction at the base of the CN Tower [the Needle].

They're building a huge aquarium there. It will be spectacular when finished. Maybe we'll have to come back and see it.

 It was such a clear day, we had all these lovely views from the restearant as it slowly revolved.

There were two of these little drawings on the windows. I thought it was cute. Yes, that's the sky as the background.

Squirrels! I finally got some photos of these cute little creatures.

 Yeah, I know they're technically vermin, but.... they're sooooo cute!

 Kings College of Ontario.

 King Edward VII

New glass buildings stand beside the old buildings in this city.

 The old parts of Ontario.

This stunning building is the Royal Ontario Museum. 

We spent most of the day in there just looking at the exhibits. We didn't see it all.

See how the old museum seems to have been swallowed by the new, glass structure? On the inside it is wonderful. You walk around the old building and suddenly you are in the new building. They have preserved all the old building inside the new one. Quite stunning to see.