Daily Archives: September 18, 2012
Loose Meat and a Ceramic Moose . . .
Despite the overcast, spitting rain, weather today was another day trip day. We headed at about 11am, first over to Batesville to check out Weberding’s Carving Shop.
Celebrating their 70th anniversary, they’re one of the largest suppliers of custom church furniture in the US. They even have a display of miniature versions of some of their offerings.
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Need a finely detailed camel? This one is only $6500.00!
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They even have a line of all-wood furniture made with a tree limb frame.
Our next stop was a few miles up the road at Metamora, IN. Metamora is the home of one of the last visible sections of the Whitewater Canal. Built between 1836 and 1847, the seventy-six mile canal, ran between Lawrenceburg, IN on the Ohio River and Hagerstown, IN.
Developed after the opening and immediate financial success of the Erie Canal, the State of Indiana financed the building of the Whitewater. But the steep route, twice as steep as the Erie Canal, required 56 locks, seven dams, and even 4 aqueducts to carry it over other rivers.
The high cost of this route, plus the damages caused by heavy rains, delayed construction several times, and even led to the State of Indiana going bankrupt in 1839.
The canal was only open along its entire length for a few months before severe flooding took parts out of commission. It never was completely open after 1847.
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The Benjamin Franklin III is a replica of the boats that actually plied the canal, and you can take a ride on it today.
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This grist mill opened in 1845 and is still in operation grinding corn and wheat.
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This 12 foot waterwheel powers the mill through an underground shaft.
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After getting to Metamora we found that most of the many shops were closed on Monday and Tuesdays, but the Canal House was open.
Home to over 2600 cookie jars and a thousand salt and pepper shakers, the jars range from Darth Vader and Batman to Hopalong Cassidy and Dilbert.
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But now they have one less cookie jar since I brought home this moose jar for Jan.
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Leaving Metamora, we headed up the road about 50 miles to Greenville, OH, home of the KitchenAid appliance company, where Jan was looking for a new hand mixer.
And while we were there we saw this KitchenAid mixer that used to belong to Julia Child.
It’s late and I’m tired, so I’ll finish up our trip tomorrow.
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Thought for the Day:
"Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys." – P.J. O’Rourke
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