On the Road Across America - Day Two

On Dec 30th, after twelve hours of fabulous sleep - maybe a personal record - we had breakfast and got ready to hit the road again. While checking out we asked about the history of Cumberland as the buildings all looked very old and close together.  The hotel concierge didn't know it's history, but noted that the large church had once been a fortress.  He didn't know what war it had played a part in, but we later learned that it had been under the control of George Washington years before the Revolutionary War. We decided to take another drive through the town just to see the buildings again in daylight.  The fortress is gone but an  Episcopal church was built on the same site long ago in 1803. There are large tunnels underneath it that had been used for food and ammunition storage while the British fortress was there, and later during the Civil War these same tunnels, now under the church, were part of the Underground Railroad for fleeing slaves. In the photo above, the church is the gray one with the tall thin steeple, I believe. The church has great historical information but they are very stingy on photographs.   If you have time to visit the link you'll find all kinds of interesting historical info! 

 Our only stop in Pennsylvania was at a rest area that not only had vending, bathrooms and a gift shop, but also had a memorial for miners! this was a large mural with a display of equipment below.

As we were leaving that rest stop, I noticed two seriously "oversize load" vehicles parked at the rest area.  This was just one of two.  Glad we were getting a head start on them.

Now came another decision!  Since we hadn't heard from Dave and Ruth Ann, we decided to see what route TomTom might suggest as we changed our course to visit relatives in Wisconsin.  When we put in the new destination, our route shifted due West across southern Ohio rather than northwest toward Cleveland.  As we drove along, we discussed past trips to visit my brother and sister-in-law  in Huber Heights, just outside Dayton.  At that time my brother had been in the Air Force and stationed at Wright-Patterson AFB.  Dayton has good memories for all of us because that is where he met his wife and the rest is history!

My daughter is seriously a two-fisted cell phone handler!  Not only does her car have USB ports, but she has all kinds of apps on her phone and mine -- so she had both phones constantly providing traffic, mileage, weather, music, games,  and information on nearby amenities all day long! 

Not for us the pioneer life of fending for ourselves and facing the unknown!  We could choose our stop for the night knowing where the local Starbucks drive-thru might be and having decided already which restaurant we wanted to visit for dinner.

It was getting later in the day when we crossed into Indiana.

This was an amazing sunset. The photo doesn't do it justice, but the center light was like a long red flame which shows up slightly better below. 

As the daylight faded away, we pulled into Lafayette, Indiana and checked into our second Comfort Inn of the trip and headed to the Cracker Barrel Restaurant across the way. The walls, as usual, were covered with all kinds of vintage photos, signs and memorabilia.  We had an old Carhartt tin advertisement on the wall above us,  and a man sitting across from us with Carhartt across his T-shirt!  We also got a call from Dave and Ruth Ann who told us that they had been out of town for several days and had gotten home to our message.  Like us, they had been in Columbus early in the day - so we had been nearly in the same place at the same time!

The Cracker Barrel fireplace was warm and inviting. And the gift shop had all sort of fun things.  Daughter got a new flannel shirt which proved to be a very wise investment for the days ahead!  And thus ended day two of our adventure.  According to Mapquest, a day of 519 miles blessed with blue skies.