by In early May, we needed to make an emergency trip from Kansas back east to New Jersey (1,100 miles in just over a day, woo-hoo!). After a few weeks on the East Coast, we reversed course on another crazy trip to get us back to the Midwest (and beyond) so we could meet our obligations there.
As a result of this unplanned detour, we more or less flew through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin on our westbound journey, making just a few stops along the way. We didn’t even exit the van in Indiana, but did have some time to explore in northern Ohio and Illinois, thus unlocking two new states (#25 and #26) in our journey!
In Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, we stopped for lunch at Forgotten Taste Pierogies.
Perhaps you can see that they are glistening due to the pound of butter they were made in? So yes, these potato and cheese pierogies were delicious.
We were able to get tickets to see a rugby game outside of Chicago, a rare treat given how few professional rugby teams (12) there are in the U.S. Major League Rugby. This game featured the Chicago Hounds (in green) against NOLA Gold (in white, who we got to see play earlier this year when we were passing through Louisiana). It was close for a while, but eventually New Orleans soared ahead 25-13.
Near Akron, Ohio, we stopped at a heronry in Cuyahoga Valley National Park. I’ve never heard of such a thing, but it’s a nesting colony for Great Blue Herons! You can see in the picture one nest with four very large birds in it, but what you can’t see is that just feet away was another nest with multiple large birds, and another, and another–there may have been 40 herons in a single tree! The more you looked around the tree, the more nests there were. A Great Blue Heron will never get old for me. I think they are beautiful, so it was quite thrilling to see so many in one place! The breeding season lasts from mid-February through June, so we got lucky on our timing. We also got to see a stunning Yellow Warbler for the first time.
On a very wet day we stopped at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois, to pay our respects to Emmett Till and his mother Mamie Till Mobley. The exhibit on the Tills that we had seen in Atlanta made a real impact on us, and we felt it was important to make this stop. At Emmett Till’s grave we felt horror and sorrow for what he went through, but at Mamie’s we honored the tremendous courage she showed during the most painful time in her life.
Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum
Pepin, Wisconsin, is the birthplace of Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867-1957), so naturally there’s a museum there. There’s not much to it, honestly, and it takes just a short time to visit. Wilder is of course the author of the Little House on the Prairie books. There is just one item that belonged to Laura, a few items that belonged to her relatives, and then mostly period pieces or items related to Pepin’s history. A reproduction of her birthplace cabin (cover photo) is a few miles away on the original site. The Ingalls moved to Missouri the year after Laura was born, so her town affiliation is very short. The Little House books (affiliate link) that Laura was famous for are worth a read as an adult; I listened to the whole series not too long ago and was impressed with how educational they were.
Wisconsin is known for cheese, glorious cheese. Many moons ago, cheese-making Europeans came to Wisconsin to partake in its growing dairy industry. Today Wisconsin has nearly 1,300 licensed cheesemakers who create 26% of the country’s cheese. We went to Carr Valley Cheese because it’s won numerous awards. Pictured up front loose are cheese curds, about which WisconsinCheese.com says, “The most famous thing about cheese curds is the ‘woo-hoo’ they make with every bite – a squeaky shout out to the joy of eating cheese.”
Also pictured is some Wisconsin-made Spelcher Root Beer, which was so mild it hardly qualified as root beer, in my opinion.
The sculpture in Akron, Ohio, is of an American Indian carrying a canoe. The work is by Peter Jones, but I couldn’t find the official name. It is located on the Portage Path, which “formed the vital link in the shortest and best water route between the great lake to the north and the rivers flowing south” (per Walk Portage Path).
We listened to 67 Shots: Kent State and the End of American Innocence by Howard Means as we drove through Ohio. We drove right by the museum related to this, but it wasn’t open while we were there, so we’ll have to go back. As per usual, Doug enjoyed this book more than I did. (Affiliate link.)
An Assassin in Utopia: The True Story of a Nineteenth-Century Sex Cult and a President’s Murder by Susan Wels came on my radar as a book to read during our time in Ohio, though in the end its only real tie is that President Garfield (the murdered president) was from Ohio. None of the action in the book actually happened there. (Affiliate link.)
We listened to Janesville: An American Story by Amy Goldstein as we entered Wisconsin. It’s the story of what happened to Janesville, Wisconsin, when General Motors shut down its plant there. (Affiliate link.)
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