| The first night
I spent at the back of a corn field, a stone's throw from the Mohican river.
I assume the opossum was the screecher in the night but perhaps it was
a bobcat. Yet there were no night visitors at the tent.
The morning had normal dew and the droplets on the corn plants were worth the pic. I pitched tent right next to the corn, a flat dry location I thought, but the next morning the normal dew provided a stickiness to the soil which when rolling up the tent, in turn provided a promise to find a bed of grass next time. The treated corn soil although fine grained was solid enough to support the bike on its kick stand throughout the night. Sounds in the night - a band perhaps playing at the Saturday evening football game, the very short bust of the medevac horn when the home team scored, AND the screaming of the motorcycle locals piercing the straight stretches of state route 97. An unrelated siren of a law enforcement vehicle. And another assumedly unrelated helicopter, possibly a life flight. |
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Wildflowers,
a sea of soybeans, a layer of mist, the trees floating on the mist, the
bluffs of the Mohican valley, the clouds alit with the coming sun, and
if you imagine, the arc across the pic as if the morning were blessed with
a rainbow (or mist bow) of sorts.
The world at this location was awakening to a new day. And the locals were talking of flying WW2 planes at air shows while I ate my powdered sugar donuts washed with 1% chocolate milk. (Many true vets are past.) I seem to make these donut and other mistakes in judgment the second day out, since I could have used the McDonald's internet locator to realize that Franklin had a McD, but I hadn't planned the trip to take that direction. With a night of little sleep I was heading for a motel. |
| Bridges are
a favorite rest stop especially if the railing is shaded. I drink some
diet 7 up (remember no caffeine) and wonder how nice it would be to wander
up stream with water shoes and another youthful spirit.
But the better place would be the Trace at Caesar's Creek State Park, either in the heat of summer or the cold of winter, especially if it's snowing and you are dressed for the conditions. |
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Another creative invention - drive up sleeping. |
| Interesting that today being Sunday, this miles long cathedral would be my choice. |  |
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With crosses but no crucifixion. |
| This site recalls
the Blackhand of Indian lore which "marked the boundary of a sacred Indian
territory where no man was to raise his hand against another."
No matter that the engraved petroglyph has gone, replaced by the loving work of the canal builders, specifically the tow path shown here. The Licking river, now at low levels from the assumed higher dammed level that made the canal days a marvel. (And I remember riding a bike two miles on gravel farm roads to buy a pack of Marvel cigarettes for $0.19. They tasted so bad that I threw them away. Certainly no marvel for a youthful human spirit.) |
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The Licking water level, to me, had to be higher so that the water would come down this lock on the north and west of the Licking river. The lock sits much higher than the river. Additionally, the dam would be necessary to make the Licking navigable for the miles back into Newark where the canal water was from Buckeye Lake far to the south. Only when absolutely necessary did a river also serve as a canal. Remember that the Whitewater canal was abandoned due to flooding problems. That's why rail replaced the canals so quickly. |
| An interurban
rail tunnel provided a much faster method of public transportation. In
a few years, state highway 16, a handful of miles to the north, will be
a four lane limited access road all the way to Coshocton.
Thus humans have progress or progression - the canal, the rail road, the interurban rail, and the interstate type road. As for bikers and hikers, we have bike ways, rail to trails, and the old highway 16 with a good deal less traffic and even a two foot shoulder. Thus I relish, at 62, having the fitness of body, dollars, mind, and youthful spirit which can take me from Columbus to Coshocton and eventually down to Zanesville. And of course, there's heaven on earth, with friendly McDs all along the way, located via the internet. |
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Current concrete
structures can hardly be referenced to the claims of the past.
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Yet the education industry, education within the family, and now internet publication - all attempt to retain and refine the bits and pieces of the human spirit so that joy, love, and freedom can oppose sadness, hate, and fear. Here we have a Squire Whipple Bowstring Truss, a preeminent technical actualization of the canal days.
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And in the
present here's the OSU Newark and the Central Ohio Technical Campus. Let
the buyer beware (and let the buyer, or spender of time, be aware).
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For the human spirit, roots are not unlike that in nature. Some could conclude that the technological corn rows are natural, or that the Ten Commandments are natural, or educational dominance is natural, but little things like the signs of the Indians or a root structure may bring more perspective to a youthfully spirited life. Another book title from this trip, "The extended self: Over extended, under extended, and just right. I began the walk up this stream but only for the pic. Up the stream or down the cathedral tunnel extends the self in both distance and depth. At this point the doc makes the self whole. |
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And as an interest perk for Sue's coming trip to Wyoming, this Ohio hill ain't no WY.
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