Cincinnatti

Finally found a great campground in the Cincinnati Area, it's about five miles from the I-75/I-275 exchange. It's in the middle of a wooded area on a large lake and close to everything you could ever want. WE sent up the camp and took off for a drive trying to find a historical road marker that Cathy wanted to see, all she knew was the town it was near. This area of Ohio is one of those places where you can't get there from here. Due to the mts. rivers and streams very few roads ago straight from point A to point B. After doing the best that we could we found the little town and started wandering,
good news we stumbled onto an old cemetery,

The Congress Green Cemetery.

What was great about this is that The ninth President of the United States, W.H. Harrison's tomb is right across the street, the tomb is open so you can walk inside and see and see his vault and that of many of his family. Harrison's before becoming president was a great war hero being connected with the battles of: Falling Timber, Fort Meigs, the Treaty of Greeneville and Tippecanoe (Tippecanoe and Tyler Too). Harrison was the first president to come out of Ohio and only served for one month as president before dying.

While we were trying to find our way back to camp I missed a turn in the small town of Cleaves and a 1/4 of a mile down the road Cathy spotted the marker see was looking for, (Boy I'm Good). I'll let you look at the pictures to explain what happen here and let her point out one of her ancestors. We got back in camp in time to see the TIGERS LOSE and THE LIONS WIN, I think we're in Blizzaro World.

Monday
Today we took all surface street from the north side of Cincinnati to the south end and other then a little construction it was a pretty easy drive, it almost seemed faster then taking I-75. The reason for the trip was to see some of the city and visit the President Taft House located in the Auburn Hills area of the city. We drove past the University of Cincinnati, which is huge, not on the same scale as UM, or MSU but at least twice the size of Wayne State. Any way we stopped at the Taft National Historical Site. This is where he was born and lived till his mid 20's, the house was owned by his family until around 1900 when it was sold, at one point it was converted to an apartment house until the 1940 when the historical association bought it and started the restoration, in 1969 it was deeded over to the National Parks System. The have a nice one room information center with a lot of information about the Taft Family and the President, also a 20 minute film on his life, then a ranger takes you on a 30 minute tour of the house. He takes you through the first floor explaining the history of the house and the family then they do something very unusual, they let you tour the upstairs and basement on your own for as long as you want. Taft by the way was the 27th President of the USA and is the only man to be President and Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, he only served one term as president but was the Chief Justice from 1921 till he resigned in 1930, one month before his death. We ended up being there for about 2 hours before we headed out to find a new addition to our new feature, America's hidden Diners.

It was about a 30-minute drive through some very high-class neighborhoods and also a few nasty neighborhoods; we just lock the doors and remember what or goal is. In the northern suburb of Glendale we found what we were searching for the "Friendly Stop Diner" This is a small place that sits about 20 people at tables and another 12 at the bar, it was 2pm so there were only a few people there. I had done my research on this place and knew exactly what I wanted, a peppercorn burger and side of onion rings, Cathy opened the menu, saw a salmon burger and that was it we were ready to order. The food was pretty damn good and the prices were cheap, all appetizers between 2-4pm are half price, you could stuff yourself on those alone. When we finish with our meal the waitress appeared and asked if we were planning on desert, normally we don't get deserts, but as I said, I did my research. The same person owns the restaurant across the street, which is only open for dinner and is very very high priced, and it is know for their deserts, well Monday through Wednesday they serve the deserts in this little dinner at lunch. With all this knowledge we ordered the apple cinnamon cheesecake, the waitress told us that they were very large pieces and that we would probably want to split one, which we agreed to. When she walked out with the two plates I thought that she forgot that we were splitting one, when I mentioned it to her she said this is spit in half. This was twice the size of any slice of cheesecake I've ever seen and this was a half order, plus it was almost three inches high, gee I almost forgot all deserts are the same price here $2.00, which made this even better. Cathy insisted that we get a second order to take home with us and after promising the waitress that we would return Wednesday we headed back to camp with our precious cargo. I should keep this one a secret but it is located on the SW corner of Sharon and Congress Ave in Glendale, Ohio, 1.4 miles west of I -75 at exit #15

NEWS BREAK !!!!---NEWS BREAK!!!!
Cathy just got an Email informing her that she was a runner up in the Michigan Lottery Tigers second Chance Drawing. She or should I say Nick & Suz won: a Prize Package consists of an Authentic Collection Home Jersey, MLB Plaque, MLB WindShirt, Two (2) MLB Baseball Caps, MLB Embroidered Baseball Jacket & Two (2) Stadium Seat Cushions, this totals probably around $600.00 worth of stuff.
and now some more Baseball stuff.

Tuesday Today was our day to tour Downtown Cincinatti, but only after our tour of Covington Kentucky because I made a wrong turn. Once we got back on the right side of the river it was staright to the Great American Ballpark, We got there a little early for the 10:30 tour so we spent some time checking out "PETE the Exhibit" the first floor of the stadiums hall of fame is dedicated to Pete, not Pete Rose because according to MLB they can not use the name Pete Rose if it's connected to baseball. To avoid this they have the "Pete Exhibit", the Charley Lounge (Charley Hustle) and the 4192 Club (the number of hits he had when he broke Ty Cobbs record) but nothing that sez Pete Rose. The stadium tour takes about an hour and a half and you get to go to some restricted places in the park, the dugout, on the field, the press box, locker rooms, owners suite, and all the fancy restuarants that you need $200 ticket to get into. We had a really great guide and had a lot of fun seeing all the hidden places, after the tour they turn you loose in the Hall of Fame. Here you have about another hour of stuff to see and do, there are quite a few hands on exhibits, you can get in their bull pen and try your luck at pitching or step iinto a batting cage to see what a 90mph fastball looks like coming at you. But we save the best for last the have an announcers booth that you go into, close the doors and pick what historical event you want to broadcast, once you pick it it comes up on the screen and with both of use sitting at a mike we broadcast Ken Griffy Jr's 500th homerun. Cathy gave it the Chicago White Sox's flair by yelling "You can put it on the Booooooard" and I did my Harry Kerry by just repeating "HOLY COWS" about 6 times. We were both laughing at how bad we sounded, when we stepped out of the booth one of the workers looked over at us and said hey, you guys sounded pretty good, we both stopped dead and I said something about it being a sound proof room. He just smiled and yelled HOLY COWS, we then found out that there are speakers outside the room so everybody can enjoy it. Another place we can never return to. We took a little walk along the waterfront, their working on it but they have a long way to go to catch up with Chattanooga. No great restaurants today just Buffilo Wild Wings.