Russ and Yogi

After Niagra Falls, we took off for Cooperstown, New York, baseball mecca and home of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Without realizing it, we had scheduled our time at Cooperstown for the same weekend they were having the 2012 Induction ceremony for the Hall’s two newest members. It was a lucky break for us since it meant that lots of Hall of Famers were in town. Luckiest of all, it meant that Russ would have a chance to meet Yogi Berra, one of the people he had always admired.

When we got to Cooperstown the streets were already crowded with fans visiting the BHOF and getting autographs from some of their favorite players. After being disappointed in the College Football Hall of Fame and the Professional Football Players Hall of Fame, we wondered how the Baseball Hall of Fame would stack up. We should have known that history-heavy and stat-crazy baseball would create a hall of fame that has all the history and artifacts that we were hoping for. 

Early baseball equipment

I’m sure it says something about our age that we found the pre-70s displays more interesting than the ones about more recent times. Russ was shocked to hear some kids near us complain about having to spend time at a display about Babe Ruth instead of moving on to the new guys. 

Russ next to Babe Ruth's plaque

Of course the HOF had plaques of all the members but there were all kinds of displays about stats and records. There were even displays about baseball and the movies and sportscasters and baseball-related media.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Hall of Fame included a special section devoted to the role of African Americans in the history of baseball that gave a clear-eyed view of racism in the sport.

And then there was Yogi. After all our years together I’m still discovering new things about Russ, like how the Studebaker Starliner I wrote about in one of our earlier posts sparked his passion for cars. At Cooperstown I discovered that Yogi Berra was someone that Russ had respected for years because Yogi had proved  himself with such dignity and integrity in spite of the naysayers who thought we was too small, too slow, and not talented enough to make it as a major league player. 

So Russ was thrilled to have the chance to get the autograph of his long-time hero. When we went to check on the signing time we were told that due to Yogi’s age they couldn’t guarantee that he would be there as planned so we wouldn’t know until the last minute if he was feeling up to it. We showed up early to get a good spot close to the front of the line of fans that snaked down the sidewalk and a few minutes before the signing was to begin a red SUV pulled up to the restaurant where the autograph session was scheduled and Yogi got out  before disappearing inside. A few minutes later, there he was in front of us where he autographed a baseball for Russ. I was shooting photos as fast as I could but I missed the shot of Yogi smiling up at Russ as they shook hands.

One thing we’ve really enjoyed during our travels is the unexpected discoveries we’ve made at most of the small towns where we’ve been.  To visit Cooperstown we actually stayed at an RV park in Richfield Springs, New York which turned out to have a fascinating history. The first thing was noticed about the town was the streets filled with large, old ornate Victorian frame houses, festooned with gingerbread trim and gables. A few were in good shape but most had clearly seen more prosperous times. It turned out that Richfield Spring had been a thriving resort town in the late 1880s where people came to “take the waters” from the springs there. Even Theodore Roosevelt had visited at one time.   

The town is unusual in that even today most of the houses survive though they clearly need some TLC. The huge wooden barns falling in where they stand in the surrounding area also reflect  better times in the past. Richfield Springs had such a unique look I couldn’t help but think that it would make a great place for an author to use as a setting for a mystery.   

As a final sweet ending to our stay near Cooperstown we enjoyed yet more Amish food at our campgrounds. On Friday night a young Amish couple came and made just-as-good-as-in-my-memory homemade ice cream and on Saturday morning an Amish woman and her young son brought a wagon full of baked goods to sell. Since I make from-scratch homemade pies and cookies I can be a pretty hard to please customer but the baked goods we bought really passed the taste test.

"Johnny Poppit" motor with ice cream bucket

Russ had a good time talking about farm equipment and livestock with the Amish farmer who had a dandy set up to make the ice cream--a one cylinder motor from the 1920s that Russ had always heard called a Johnny Poppit because of the popping noise it made while it worked. His set up sure beat the hand cranking from the old days.

We shot lots of photos at Cooperstown so we've included more of them below.

Some people never grow up

The legendary Doubleday Ball Park in Cooperstown

"Sweet Lou" Pinella signing autographs

Rollie Fingers at an autograph signing

Negro League players Pedro Sierra and Bob Smith

Section of WPA mural in the Richfield Springs, NY Post Office

Barrels of Fun at Niagra Falls

Russ and Dan already planning fishing trips for when we're in Austin

As with any stop there’s the good and bad. Our stop in Niagra Falls was no exception with two goods and one bad.Getting the bad thing out of the way first, we spent three days with Russ’ fishing buddy and nemisis of almost 20 years, Dan Yerges—one of the reasons we left Texas. 

Marie and Jim Yerges

Now the two good things—we  got to spend three days with Dan’s parents, Jim and Marie Yerges as we all toured the Falls and it’s attractions. Jim and Marie are incredibly fun to be with. Even though Jim is 86, he was always first in line and wore us all out. We had a great time with the Yerges’ and enjoyed all the laughter and teasing.

On a platform near the bottom of the Falls

There are approximately 12 million visitors to the Falls and it seemed like they were all there on the first day we were there. While we were waiting for the Yerges’ to arrive Russ and I went to the American side of the Falls. Just like I’d read, we couldn’t see much from the American side. And just like all our trip since we got to Chicago, it was stifling hot—even  near the water and mist of the Falls. Sunday night we stood on a bridge and watched the colored lights turn the Falls rainbow hues and then viewed a spectacular firework show on the Canadian side.

The next day we went to the Canadian side where the view of the American Falls and the Horseshoe Falls was incredible. Before the next two days were over we had ridden the Maid of the Mist boats, gone behind the Falls, walked beside the roaring Class 6 rapids downstream and taken the gondola over the whirlpool at the end of the rapids.

View or Horseshoe Falls from the Maid of the Mist boat

It’s pretty amazing to see how much water goes over the Falls but it would have been fun to see the full volume before they started diverting two-thirds of the water for other purposes like hydro-electrical uses. And after reading about all the people who have launched themselves over the Falls throughout the years, I had to wonder what it is about a massive falls with a steep drop amid crushing water into a rockbed below that makes people think “Hmm, I think I’ll tuck into a barrel and throw myself over”?

  

Tons of people, tons of water, tons of amazing views. If you ever visit Niagra Falls if there’s any way possible see them from Canada for the full impact of the beauty and power of the Falls. 

We've always heard about the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow but we discovered it's really a ship.

From Amish Country to Pro Football

While we were in the South Bend area we went to the town of Shipshewana to see the Hostetler’s Hudson Auto Museum, which turned out to be a good private collection of a classic car. The Hudson was a sleek car that had lots of innovations like safety glass before they appeared on other cars.  

True horse power at the gas station in Shipshewana

The real highlight of our time in Shipshewana turned out to be learning about the surrounding Amish community. When our GPS sent us in the opposite direction of the rest of the traffic on the road to Shipshewana we were leery but the back way into the town took us down country roads lined with Amish farms. Driving by them we saw  ground-driven farm equipment we had only heard about. Shipshewana itself was filled with tourists but also with Amish bakeries, horses and carriages, beautiful handmade furniture, and Amish culture. We were lucky enough to strike up a conversation with a local historian who told us about the Amish and how craftsmen in the area still create crafts in the traditional ways.

There were a series of gardens throughout the area planted to mimic quilt patterns.  This garden in Shipshewana is planted in the pattern of a double nine patch.

Another striking thing we noticed about Amish country was the food. Everywhere there were jams, jellies, plenty of baked goods and ice cream. After a long day of sightseeing we couldn't resist an ice cream cone at the Amish ice cream stand outside Shipshewana.

Hey, only one is mine--the other is for Russ.

Our time in Amish country continued when we moved from Indiana to Ohio where we stayed in Mount Eaton, a small town with a large Amish community. Several of the employees at our RV park were Amish as was the only grocery store in town where barefoot kids in bonnets and straw hats followed  their mothers through the store. As we filled up the RV for our trip out of town Russ waved at an Amish boy in a passing buggy who gave Russ a shy wave in return.   

On the county road from Mount Eaton to the interstate we towered over the buggy in front of our RV while we waited for oncoming traffic to clear so we could pass.  Just as we started to pass a little girl in a bonnet popped up in the carriage and looked back at us with a wide-eyed look at our big rig. You can barely see the two little heads of the children in this photo of the carriage I took from the front seat of the RV.

Just outside Mount Eaton we saw an oat field where the oats had been harvested by hand and gathered in shocks before being processed with a thrasher to separate out the grain. We know from experience how hard farm work can be, so we respected the ability of the Amish to farm using only horsepower.

Can you spot me in this photo?

It was surreal passing buggies on the road and 30 minutes later being in the Professional Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. The Hall of Fame was initially the reason we came to this part of Ohio. All Russ has to say about the Hall of Fame is that now he’s been there. It didn't  include as much about the history of the game as we expected like recognition of the outstanding seasons of the great Viking and Bears teams that used to dominate the game.

There were just a few examples of early equipment like this helmet and football. In our purely subjective opinion, both the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame were a let down.

The Car That Started It All

Russ is a car guy. Always has been. From his first car—an old ’53 Chevy that he raced as an “N” stock at the local drag strip--to the Corvettes he had until we took off in the motorhome, if it has a motor and four wheels, he’s interested. So it’s only natural that we’d go to the Studebaker museum when we got to South Bend, Indiana. 

What I didn’t realize was that at the museum we’d see The Car That Started It All—a 1953 Studebaker Starlight. But there it was in the museum, as shiny as the one Russ saw when he was five years old. Once he saw the sleek lines of that car, which was way ahead of its time, he was hooked on cars that looked cool and went fast.  The Studebaker Museum turned out to be about more than cars though. The history of the Studebaker company, which started as a wagon and carriage producer, was really about the history of manufacturing in the Midwest and how it related to the history of America. For instance, we saw the carriage that Abraham Lincoln rode in to Ford’s Theater the night he was assassinated. We also toured the Studebaker Mansion which was built at a cost of $500,000 when the average monthly rent for a factory worker was $12.00.

Russ at lunch in the Studebaker Mansion which now houses a restaurant and event facility

The Oliver Mansion

We also toured the Oliver Mansion on the museum grounds. The Oliver family made their fortune from the sale of the Oliver Chilled Plow, a revolutionary design which was the top-selling plow in the world for many years. The mansion is a beautiful Romanesque structure but the thing that really makes it special is that the Oliver grandchildren left it to the Historical Society with all the contents intact so it’s almost exactly like it was in the 1930s. The place is so big it had 34 fireplaces! And there was a doorbell system for the servants just like in one of our favorite classic movies Our Man Godfrey.

And how could we pass up the RV Hall of Fame? Russ is standing by this crazy house on wheels custom made using an old Cadillac El Dorado. The funniest part about it is that the back of the vehicle looks just like the front.  Same grille, same lights. Looks like it's coming and going all at the same time.

I fell for this little trailer I called Cutie

While we're on our trip I'm on a search for the country's best root beer. Wherever we are I buy local root beers to taste test. I got started on this quest after having a Dad's Root Beer with my fried green tomato sandwich at Pig Iron Barbeque in Seattle. After I discovered the selection at the Root Beer Store in Redmond I was hooked. So far my favorites are Dog N Suds and Dang! That's Good but I'm still testing as I find new root beers to try.