Skip to main content

Head Out On The Highway, Looking For Adventure Part 4



Head Out On the Highway, Looking For Adventure




Went with Mr. and Mrs. Wombie to G-Burg.  Mrs. Wombie needed something at the Mall and took this picture of a very quiet, almost empty cavernous building.  I understand it is  being auctioned off soon.  Hopefully they will find a purpose for it and keep it a part of town.  



Naturally we took a few well aimed detours on the way home to see what was lurking on the back roads.  And there are always things worth seeing when you get off the main arteries.  This stretch of road was home to a long long line of those common day lilies that  seem to sprout along country lanes and weedy cemeteries.



We crossed this creek (or is it crick?) and noticed the sign hanging on a tree:  "Security Camera In Use".   




This crumbling stairway to nothing lined the roadside not too far from Little York.  



The decorative structure went all along this section of road.  An old cemetery?  There were no stones.  No house or sign of a house.  What was here?  It didn't remain a mystery for long.  We saw an older guy on the outskirts of Little York mowing his lawn and the Wombie asked about it.  Turns out a rather regal and large home belonging to a wealthy landowner was there and burned down.  It was unique for its spiral staircase.   




Again on the outskirts of town we noticed this marker attached to a large stone in the front yard of a farm house.  It reads, "William Martin, a pioneer settler of Warren County,  killed on this farm by Indians from the Black Hawk tribe, August 9, 1832."   Pretty fascinating when you think of it.  Just a half century before  birth of my grandfathers there were still Indians running around the countryside killed the settlers.  

Great trip and roaming the back roads will usually net you some memories besides an empty Mall and hunting kids stuff for care packages for the grandgirls.   Oh, and I'm a sucker for a Pizza Hut buffet.  Perfect.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Flashback Friday

Class, Or Lack Thereof The Dwight Vice gravestone in Oquawka, Illinois. I bring this old chestnut out every so often just to remind me that class is classless.  Dwight Vice was killed in his home near Oquawka in 2001.  It was one of those things that can generate crime:  two guys thought Dwight had a lot of money stashed at home because of his pot-selling sideline to supplement his fishing job.   Not really one of those big drug deals gone-bad things.  Marijuana was, according to the trial, about the only stuff Dwight sold.   But these two guys barge into the house and killed Dwight and attempted to kill his 11 year old kid, Darryl, before they took off with what money they could find.   His son, now 23, was stabbed in the back and left for dead.  He survived and is wheelchair bound and has undergone several surgeries to repair his wounds.  He will be paralyzed for life.   None of this is pleasant.  Reading the f...

Philippe Park and The Tocobaga Indian Mound

About ten miles or so north of Bedlam is a place called Safety Harbor.  Its the place that has the 300-500 year old oak that the city tried to kill I featured a couple weeks ago on BFE .  They have a pretty nice park that has some interesting history, too.  Count  Philippe landed here and introduced the pineapple and cigar making to the Tampa Bay area. Today, however, I want to mention something else about this area, besides the really nice scenery.  Phillipe Park was also the home of the Tocobaga Indians.  The Tocobaga occupied the Tampa Bay area from around 600 A.D. to the 1600's.   This is a fairly common view of old stately moss-laden oaks down here.   This shot was taken atop the only Tocobaga Indian mound in the area.  This exact spot is home not only to the Tocobaga until they died out, but then to Count Phillipi who settled the area after the Tocobaga died out.   The place is full of oak and ...

The Mary Davis Home - Part 2

None of these pictures were taken by me,  they came right from the MDH website.  I am posting these so that friends who have never seen inside where I worked can gain access.  After 27 years I have many stories, tales and acquaintances.  But, I wouldn't know how to express them appropriately in a few paragraphs.  I enjoyed 98% of my stay there and hope I made a difference in the lives of a fraction of the kids who entered.  The original MDH at this site was just the front part.  The large red-roofed area in back was added on in the 90's. This is the Jerry Carlton library.  It was unofficially named after one of the counselors who truly loved the place.   He passed away around 2002, I think.  Mr. Farber looks like he is explaining a few things to a client. The classroom. Activity area with the gym behind the windows. Another shot of the classroom. It was a little different area to teach since we had 2 classes and 2 teachers i...