I got back to Louisville last night after a trip to Ohio. I spent Sunday night in Seville and Monday and Tuesday nights on Middle Bass Island, where I grew up and where the State of Ohio is engaged in a massive construction project. The 500-slip marina is being dug out, and the southern half of the island is filled with heavy equipment, piles of dirt and rock, and snake fences. I'll be posting photos of all of the above, as well as the Lonz Winery new press house (built in the 1950s) and other island sights.
But that's not all. On the drive home, I stopped in Milan (pronounced my' - lun), the second largest shipping port in the world (Odessa in Russia led the list) in the 1840s. Ships from the east coast would fill up with wheat and other vital commodities and use the canal in Milan to circle back up the Huron River, connect to the Erie Canal, and travel to New York, the eastern seaboard, and the world. The history of the canal is presented in a museum complex. There is also a blacksmith shop; an early potato harvester (the machine was invented in Milan); a splendid doll collection; an equally splendid glass collection; and a building that houses thousands of items collected by a Gulf Oil executive and his wife during their extensive travels (and shopping sprees) around the world. A block away is the Thomas Edison birthplace and museum, which I last visited on a school trip in 1957 or thereabouts. I couldn't take photos inside the house, but I got some great shots of beautiful and unique summer flowers in the remarkable gardens at the house. Wait until you see the passion flower; it looks like it's made entirely of cheap plastic.
Stay tuned.
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