Wendell Stop #19 "Day 10" Start guessing!!! Reveal pics tomorrow!!

And here I thought no one liked them as there were very few guesses going on, lol

Day 1 That's my stuffed Meli, though Krista calls it Amadeus. I forgot where I got it from, but I had heard about it from some eskie list about 8 or 9 years ago. Krista has since taken it over, lol I also have a Webkinz, it's supposed to be the Samoyed but looks more like an Eskie. I thought about getting a pic with all 3 and then 2 months later repost that Wendell had had puppies, lol

Day 2 Just some pics at the mall. It's the River Valley mall in Lancaster. I love Lancaster so wanted some kind pics to tie it in. I wish I could have gone to Mt. Pleasant and have his pic taken there, it's beautiful. While I was getting the shots at the play area there were 2 older women sitting there by themselves, and here I was laying on the floor to get the money shot and felt pretty silly. They must have really wondered what I was doing, but then again, I was wondering why they were sitting in the play area with no kids, lol

Day 3 I had to get a covered bridge pic as covered bridges and Ohio went hand in hand by the day. But these particular bridges are special. The wooden one used to sit down by Eric's house. They have an old newspaper clipping of a photo someone took when they were going across it with Eric, a little boy at the time, sitting in the back of the truck. And the steel bridge was even rarer than the wooden ones. Both of the bridges now sit on the campus of OU-L (Ohio University-Lancaster), where Eric went to college.

The "rock wall" is actually a Lock. Wink

The picture of that particular lock was taken in "Lockville". There's also another one in Groveport, which has just a trace of the original Ohio-Erie canal remaining. Obviously the Ohio-Erie canal was very important and made it possible for towns to pop up and grow, with Groveport being one of them. (I just found out 2 weeks ago that a main back road I take all the time sits ontop of the actual canal and follows it!) We also live next to "Lockbourne". This used to be part of Lockbourne, but they changed the name to Rickenbacker years ago. So, the bridges and locks may not look like much, but they both hold a special significance to us. Wink

Day 4 & 5 The Ohio Renaissance Festival, in Harvesyburg, of course! I had been wanting to go this year something bad and thought that'd really throw people off. Then I saw Danielle had done the same thing. Before I knew I was getting Wendell I had even posted a link about it on Face Book and talked about it, so when Danielle posted hers I was sure Jen would think it was me, and I was sure she'd be onto me when my time came and saw my pics, lol

Day 6 The Ohio Historical Society. I went there for the sole purpose of getting Wendell's pic taken with the Mastodon skeleton, but since the bones were not bleached and kept in the original condition in which they were found, they were very dark, and with the low lighting on it, you couldn't see the Mastodon at all. (He too was an Ohio native, found on someone's farm near Springfield).

The first pic was a horse powered trolley. The second pic was a primitive dog treadmill, but they weren't used for exercise purposes but as butter churners. The third pic was a water mill. They had it running when we were there. And the 4th of course was the 2 headed calf. It was born on an Ohio farm in 1915 and died a few hours after birth. That's one of my favorite exhibits there. I didn't realize there were more than one 2 headed calves though! I've been getting in the Laura Ingalls Wilder books lately so found the early part of Ohio history that much more interesting, as it helped to put to life what things were back during Laura's days.

Day 7 Nope, that wasn't Meli! That was Tasha, Connie Hoffer's (okay I think I just butchered the spelling) girl. I figured people would be onto me by then and did that to try and throw off my scent. Wink

This was taken at my club's Agility trial the night before, during set up. (Wendell was in my X-pen). I was hoping to get a group picture with Glen and Rebecca's and Gale's bunch too, but Rebecca's girl just wanted to eat Wendell and Gale was busy, lol

Days 8 & 9 These were taken at my club, Columbus All Breed. They had run thrus that night and I needed the extra practice for the Agility trial so I took him along. I took the Agility pics while people were walking the course and they got a lot of chuckles out of it. The pic of him doing the 2o2o was actually on the A frame, not the teeter, he couldn't tip the teeter Wink

I wanted to get a picture of him missing his contacts or flying off but it wasn't feasible, lol The Rally course was set up in the other building and there was no one in there practicing. If they had Flyball set up I would have taken pics of those too, but Rally has pretty much edged Flyball out. And considering Laura and I are the only ones that really did Flyball....lol Last time we did it the Rally people griped and complained because they didn't get the whole building.

Day 10 The best for last. The statues also have great significance. The man is John Rarey, THE horse whisperer, who was from Groveport. The horse is Cruiser, the horse who led him to fame. A man in England had a stallion he called a "fiend incarnate", and he heard about Rarey and contacted him. Cruiser had to wear an 8 lb muzzle iron to keep him from killing too many stable boys. Rarey went into the stall and, 3 hours later, came out riding Cruiser without the muzzle and gentle as a lamb. The owners thus gave Cruiser to Rarey, and he brought him back to Groveport. When Rarey died, despite detailed instructions on how to care for Cruiser, Cruiser reverted back to his wild untamed ways where he lived for 9 more years. Cruiser died in 1875.

The site of John Rarey's mansion and Cruiser's stable is now where the Groveport Elementary school sits (and where my FIL went to school). The school mascot for Groveport is, obviously, Cruiser Wink

The school colors are black and red, to represent the "fiery stallion's" temperament. Legend has it that Cruiser is buried where the football field is, but I haven't purchased the DVD to find out the truth of it yet, lol

Here's a link about Rarey and Cruiser http://www.rarey.com/sites/jsrarey/

Oh and those statues are right outside of the Groveport Rec center, where we go to the pool and gym. Eric's work is also in Groveport, where he works for Gap Inc. Direct, and also where I worked at Wendy's. I love Groveport! If you click on the link http://www.groveport.com/ you'll see a pic of the gym, and they took a pic of the Gap Inc sign under the "business" section.

The very last pic of the Tuskegee memorial is just behind our place not too far. I had hoped to use it as the last picture but just ran out of days, so I had to make it the revealing picture. Again notice the "Lockbourne", (in reference to the lock pictures).

It might not have been as exciting as some of the other tours, but my focus was on the local stuff that we had a connection to. (And did I ever mention how much I love Groveport? lol)