Robert Pence

Still sweet and innocent, eh? Absolutely. I would never do anything illegal.

I've often said that I'd rather attend a funeral than a wedding. At a funeral, one person's earthly troubles are over. At a wedding, two people's may be just getting a good start. More cookie tables at weddings might get me to relax my misgivings a little. Maybe I should stipulate a cookie table at my funeral! :-o

A day late with this small set of photos, but anyway, enjoy. Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial Spencer County, Indiana A National Park Service Property, the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial, preserves the site where Abraham Lincoln lived from ages 7 to 21 (1816 - 1830). Lincoln's father moved the family to Indiana from Kentucky because Indiana's system of maintaining property records better protected small landowners from fraud and encroachment. The recreation of the Thomas Lincoln farmstead is staffed by historic interpreters during summer tourism season. Note the rain gutters and downspouts fashioned from split and hollowed-out saplings, that collected roof runoff in rain barrels. Wood ashes were saved in the V=shaped wooden hopper, and rainwater was poured through them to leach out the alkali (potash) that was used along with tallow from butchering to make soap. Note the dearth of windows. Considering that almost everything you see here was fashioned by the farmer and his family from materials at hand, not much time was spent indoors during daylight. Window glass was frighteningly expensive then; it had to come from Cincinnati by wagon, and even a single small pane cost more than a day's wages for a laborer, let alone for a small farmer for whom mere survival was a full-time job, and a tenuous one at that. The above photos are from the Indiana Road Trip -2002 set at Urbanindiana.com.

I've gained three pounds in the last two days just from looking at this thread. Never too many cookies! There's a nice Italian restaurant in downtown Fort Wayne that has wedding soup. Pretty good stuff.

Good times! I always love Chicago and Chicago photos. Few younger people in Fort Wayne know about the local connection with the Berghoff restaurant, because the Berghoff name faded from prominence locally a couple of generations back. There was a Berghoff brewery, bought by Falstaff in the sixties, I think, and long since closed and sold. Much of the original brewery was razed, but part still stands and has been rehabbed for commercial space and a reception/event venue. There was once a Berghoff Gardens restaurant downtown, but most people who remember it at all, remember it as a seamy, run-down night club/piano bar called the Rathskeller and more popularly know as the Rat Cellar before it closed and became a parking lot more than 30 years ago. In the 1950's my aunt bought a rolling, 80-acre estate west of town from an alcoholic ne'er-do-well descendant of the Berghoff family. I spent a lot of time out there, especially in summers, and on several occasions he came around for social events. I never saw him anywhere near to being sober.

Thank you for posting those; they're beautiful photos, and the places are interesting to see.

Geez, yes! I could use the extra money! :-D

Those cookie tables make me want to move there just so I can crash weddings!

This isn't fun any more! :x The December ice storms did about $3,500 damage to my rental property ($1,000 deductible insurance) and about $750 damage to my residence (also $1,000 deductible), and then the ensuing cold snap ran up some unprecedented heating bills. Then we had a few days of faux spring that melted all the accumulated snow. Now we've had about a day and a half of torrential rain on top of frozen ground, and the river came up and the ice went off all at once and the water is still rising rapidly. In a few hours the temperature has dropped from 57 to 35 and is still falling, and the wind is blowing at around 40mph, gusting to the high fifties. Gusts are expected to exceed 60mph tonight. I thought the ice storm and ensuing winds would have given the trees all the pruning they needed, but I'm occasionally hearing stuff fall. I don't expect to get flooded, but I think people at the low end of the block might see some problems by morning. Weather-wise, the worst should arrive soon.

That has to be some of the best-preserved and most respectfully maintained building stock in the Midwest.

Same general idea. Noodles & mashed potatoes generally aren't done with just plain noodles; usually there's beef or chicken, and the liquid is thicker, like gravy. The version I'm familiar with spared the beef or chicken but not the salt. The generation that raised me came of age in the Great Depression; it well may be from those times - an economical way to feed a hard-working family. After working outside in winter as a teenager, I was always happy to see it on the table. Nothing satisfies a hungry stomach quicker.

So, that was you! :-o

Good set; I don't know how I missed this one before. The courthouse originally was symmetrical. I remember reading somewhere that the second tower was removed, along with other changes, during a remodeling. Too bad they did that! I visited Canton en route to Pennsylvania in 2006 and was impressed despite a very dreary fall day. It looks like the improvements had progressed farther by the time you visited.

Noodles over mashed potatoes - maybe not specifically Ohio, but definitely midwestern and probably rural. A lot of urban dwellers seem shocked when it's mentioned. Nothing like it when you really need your carbs!

Faaaab-youuu-luss! Thanks for sharing your beautiful vacation with us! A standing :clap: :clap: :clap::clap:

Stunning scenery, gorgeous photos!

I have encountered atheists who flaunt their atheism with the same zeal that other extremists publicly profess their Christianity or Islam. Anti-religious fanatics, if you will; a mirror image of what they reject.

Before I put on my glasses, I thought you wanted to be a flamer. :wink: Kstay2, does come across as a size queen! LOL David a flamer? LOL I could see him now with a big rainbow flag. I was thinking voluminous blonde wig, feather boa, and pom-poms. :-D

Wonderful set! Some of those towns I've seen, and the rest are on my must-see list! Good stuff.

Sinister-looking character!

I enjoyed them! Nothing is ever big enough for some people! Before I put on my glasses, I thought you wanted to be a flamer. :wink:

I think Rob just means that the windows should be cleaned up and the awning removed/replaced with something more appropriate. Otherwise, the facade is beautiful. I wonder what the inside looks (/looked) like. Yep! That's exactly what I meant. It's a balanced, dignified design with some subdued but attractive deco features, and would be a handsome termination to the street that approaches it. The red awning and other signage spoil the facade. I don't know what that gridwork thing is in the center above the awning, but typically there would have been another pair of windows like the ones on either side of it.

It's an American film (independent). It's a crime thriller that maintains an undercurrent of apprehension; you sense early on that bad stuff is going to happen, and it does, in spades. Lots of dark, complex Russian intrigue and an appreciable level of violence, without computer-generated special effects and gratuitous gore. It's really intense. The visuals are awesome. I had to go back a second time just to pay more attention to those, after I gave myself a few days to sort out exactly what happened in the plot. Check out the IMDB listing for the cast and a couple of trailers. If you want to see the film, DO NOT read the Wikipedia entry. It's a total spoiler, and a badly-written one at that.

Great set! It's interesting that, although it's not a row-house neighborhood, some folks built stand-alone houses using row-house architecture. They look rather odd standing by themselves in the middle of a lot. I haven't yet made it to Clayton or the Frick Museum/Frick Park. Those are high on the list for my next visit. You should have put "favorite" in quotes in that comment :wink:. Frick was an apt student of ruthlessness with Andrew Carnegie as mentor, and he continued to hone his talents after their partnership disintegrated. If the two of them are in Hell now, you can bet they're fighting to be second in command of the place.

Beautiful building stock, some of it fairly intact. This one (fitness club), at the head of a street looks like it might have been something important, like a municipal building. The front needs to be de-crapped, and it would be a handsome structure.