World United States Ohio Cincinnati

Our Electronic Gypsy Journal Gypsy Journal - 12/1/05 - 12/31/06

Lebanon, Ohio Sep 5, 2006

9/5 - 9/30

It took us three days to drive the 373 miles from East St. Louis, Illinois to Lebanon, Ohio. Basically, US50 travels through farm lands in both Illinois and Indiana where there is nothing interesting to stop and visit. We did find a restaurant with 4 star meat loaf called Uncle Bucks Restaurant and Pub (US50, Loogooter, Indiana). We stopped for the two traveling nights in Vincennes, and Seymour, Indiana. Both cities providing deluxe accommodations at the local Wal-Mart.

Lebanon is a very picturesque town located about 25 miles north of Cincinnati. The town was started in 1802 and there are a number of homes and buildings in town that date back to the early 1800's. We stopped in Lebanon to visit our son Peter and his wife Tori. The plan was to visit for a few weeks and then be on our way. Ken decided to visit the dentist and the dentist has requested that we stay in town for awhile so that we can help finance her son's education. Looks like we will be in Lebanon for at least a couple weeks into October.

We are staying in a very nice campground in Lebanon called Cedarbrook. Luckily they provide free WiFi since there is too many trees to use our satellite dish. While in Lebanon:

>we checked out Peter and Tori's new house. Beautiful place in a very nice neighborhood. Their location is ideal, a few miles to malls and large stores, a mile to farmlands and only 25 miles to Cincinnati.

>Ken added some lights and a light switch to Peter and Tori's basement.

>Joan started painting some nursery rhyme characters on the nursery wall of Peter and Tori's house.

>opps - did you miss the hidden special announcement? Yes, we are going to be grandparents. Tori is expecting in March and we are very excited (so are they).

>we went to a neat store called Jungle Jim's. This a huge international market, kind of like a Trader Joe's on steroids. We bought a number of spices and some great sausage.

>we visited the Caesar Creek Pioneer Village which is a collection of old restored homes, most of them built in the early 1800's. Unfortunately they were closed for the season and we could not go inside the homes, but we could look through the windows.

>we had dinner with Peter, Tori, Louise (Tori's grandmother) and Alycen (Tori's mother) at the Black Horse Tavern which is in the Golden Lamb Inn. The meal was mediocre but the Inn was interesting. The Golden Lamb Inn opened in 1803 as a stagecoach stop. It is the oldest continuous hotel in Ohio.

>we drove into Cincinnati to visit the Underground Railroad Freedom Center. This is an excellent museum which covers the history of slavery starting in the decades prior to the civil war to today. Much of the museum is dedicated to presenting the history of the Underground Railroad which hid and transported slaves from the south to Canada and their freedom.

In September we put 373 miles on the house and 573 miles on the Jeep.