What More Do You Need?

 

We've got glass, carvings, toys, buttons, injuries and dead people.

I'm moving east and I'm traveling quickly. Well, quickly is a relative term. I only like to drive 2 ½ – 3 hours at a time. JoggerCat and Miko do not like to be in the truck and being the good mom that I am, I indulge them. I'm actually pretty happy only traveling that fast also but it means that getting across the country is a slow, slow process.

I lucked out and was able to score four days in a state park. Being able to do this was amazing as most state parks are booked out a year in advance. I was in Salt Fork State Park, Ohio's largest state park. I did something rather stupid when I was there. My first day there, I take Miko for an evening walk. I was planning on just walking around the campground roads, but then I saw a trail head. Wow, just ¾ of a mile, piece of cake. I did not take into account that it was starting to get dark, that it was drizzling and I had no idea what type of trail it was. The trail was marked by Orange squares on the trees. It started getting so dark, that I could hardly see the orange. Then it started pouring rain, which made it even darker. Have I mentioned that it started lightning and thundering? Not off in the distance, but like right on top of me. I started trying to run thru the woods, trying to get to the end of the trail quickly and my foot caught in a root. Bam, went rolling down the hill. All in all, I made it out, but my leg is bruised up and swollen. Oh well. The rest of my days at the park went well, got some hiking in and only ended up with two wood ticks – one on Miko, one on me. It still was enjoyable.

I made a side trip up to Dover, Ohio to see the Ernest (Mooey) Warther Carvings Museum.  Warther was a self-taught Master Carver.  He was particularly fascinated with trains.  Each train was anatomically correct with thousands and thousands of pieces.

Made totally out of Ivory.  He would only use ivory from elephants that had died natural deaths

Ebony and Ivory

Functional pliers all made from a piece of wood shaped like the bottom. 
Mooey could carve a single set of pliers in under twenty seconds

Mooey's wife was no slouch either.  She collected buttons.  

In this room, there were over 73,000 buttons

Ok, we all know I'm a sucker for "Specialty Museums".  Also located in Dover, Ohio is the Famous Endings Museum.  It is located in a mortuary.  Evidently, the owner of the mortuary started collected memorial programs for famous people and decided to display them.  There were astronauts,  generals...but the ones I found most interesting were the ones for people in the entertainment business.

I head for Wheeling West Virginia to another Harvest Host business. This one is the Kruger Street Toy and Train Museum. I will have to tour the museum as part of the Harvest Host deal, but I'm not particularly excited about it. What I am excited about is the Oglebay Glass Museum. Love, love, love glass. I unhook the truck from the camper, kiss the animals goodbye and head up into the mountain. West Virginia doesn't have very many flat surfaces. The Oglebay Glass Museum was interesting in that it was not focused on “art glass” but on everyday glass. Evidently, Wheeling WV was the glass making oasis of the east coast.

Pretty

Named after the First Lady Frances Cleveland (late 1880s)
Frances is not a pattern but a decoration characterized by a yellow rim on frosted glass

Wheeling Peachblow

Iridescent glass with a metallic finish.  It was developed in 1908 and became widely popular until World War I.  After the war, it was given away as prizes at fairs and carnivals, hence the name. 

I just thought this was pretty

The Kruger Street Toy Museum was not particularly interesting to me. That said, there were some little tidbits that entertained me. It is located in an old school and it was rather dark. On the positive side, they had four free pinball machines that you could play as much as you wanted.

Lots of different train layouts where the trains were actually running.  
This one was made all of Legos

I've become a sucker for beautiful old cars