Great Lakes Trip - Day 2

We were up and driving early this morning.  We were on the road for two hours before our first stop at Hopewell Culture National Historic Park.  The kids are still recovering from their week at camp and haven't quite had enough sleep to catch up so they were moody teenagers before our arrival.  Once at the park, the enthusiasm of the ranger mixed with the sunshine and blue skies over the earthen mounds brought everyone out of their funk.  The ranger took Luke as a challenge and convinced him to do the junior ranger program even though he has really stopped being interested in them.  The both collected their first badges of the trip and learned about an interesting native American people.  Of course we had more questions than answers about what these people were thinking in building their mounds and in their elaborate artwork.  A great site overall.

We made a quick stop at a Walmart for a few forgotten things like frozen vegetables, hot dog buns and Lorelei's toiletries then onward another two hours to William Howard Taft National Historic Site.  Of course on the way, we all were commenting on the fact that wasn't this the fat president that had to have an extra large tub put in the White House.  That's really all we knew about him.  Turns out he was quite an interesting guy.  The only person to have served as both President and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.  We've been in many presidential homes and this one was very nice.  While most of the furnishing were reproductions, there were a few pieces that had actually belonged to the Taft family.  Another junior ranger badge completed more quickly than the one at Hopewell and we were back on schedule and on our way with another hour long drive to Dayton, OH.

Dayton, is the home of the Wright Brothers.  We were able to tour their bicycle shop where the ranger asked the kids if they would like to ride and ordinary bicycle.  That's what the first bicycles with giant wheels, based on leg length were called.  He explained how people got on them (a running start and a leap) then explained that they were not very safe, nor very popular.  Next came the "safety" bicycle, the kind we know today with less bells and whistles of course.  The popularity of these allowed the Wright Brothers to transition from the family business of printing into bicycles and ultimately to flight.  Not bad considering that neither of them even graduated from high school.  Lorelei's 100th junior ranger badge completed and we were headed to the campground 30 minutes away for dinner and relaxation.  I officially hit 168 National Park sites today.  Two more and a state capitol tomorrow.