Skip to main content

A Sojourn in Sayler Park

When last I wrote, we were in Russellville, Alabama. We backtracked west a few miles at Muscle Shoals to catch the Natchez Trace Parkway again on the flip side. It was a gray and rainy day, so it was not at its best, but we still enjoyed the drive through that corner of Alabama and then up to the outskirts of Nashville on the pleasant road that followed the path of the old Trace.

When we reached the outskirts of Nashville, we sort of had to get on a highway, which is no fun when towing a trailer, but our timing was good—there wasn’t much traffic because most people were getting ready to watch a Super Bowl. We got off the highway north of Nashville and found US 31W, which took us up to Bowling Green, Kentucky, where we stayed the night, then discovered there was a winter storm brewing. So instead of a leisurely drive back, we hightailed it up I-65 to the outer ring road around Louisville and then crossed the Markland Dam and puttered through Patriot, Rising Sun, Aurora, and Lawrenceburg, Indiana, right along the river. Following US 50 into Ohio, we turned up Kilby Road and made it to Harrison, Ohio, where we had motel reservations for a couple of nights until our temporary residence in Sayler Park was ready for us.

There was snow, though not as much as they had threatened. Then, the next day we went into Cincinnati and there was more snow while we were there and had a fun time getting back to Harrison, but it all worked out. We took the camper to a friend’s sister’s carnival storage area and spent a couple of hours out in the cold setting it up, moving the bike rack to the van, and so forth. We actually had spent some time the day before sorting through what we needed from the camper, so we learned it’s a lot of work not camping for awhile.

Driving through Cheviot in a small snowstorm

We’re staying in an AirBnB in Sayler Park, and it is quite nice. It's a three-room house similar to the house we lived in on McHenry Avenue in Westwood back in the 1980s--living room/bedroom/kitchen in a shotgun arrangement. However, the bathroom is in a different place than the McHenry house, so my muscle memory keeps me heading to the wrong place, or at least expecting the bathroom to be in a different place. Mike says he has the same problem . . .

The cozy living room in our pied à terre

It's nice and quiet in Sayler Park, which I  enjoy, except when a train goes by. They are noisy, and close, but I like them too. The other night I woke up confused, however, because there were trains that came through during the night at the park where we stayed in Waveland, Mississippi. For a moment I thought I was back there in the camper. ("I'm there with you in Mississippi, and I'm here in Sayler Park," to misquote Warren Zevon.)

I made a trip to Findlay Market while I've been in town, and from there I took the streetcar down to see the renovation at the Mercantile Library on Walnut Street. It is really a splendid space; they have the whole twelfth floor now, as well as the eleventh floor they've always had. The new top floor part of the library looks like a wonderful place to sit and read. And they have more shelves than books, so Cedric the acquisitions librarian is having a good time filling those shelves.

The newly renovated full 12th floor at the Mercantile Library

My sister Amy and I made a day (a rainy day) of visiting a coffee shop and some thrift stores and artsy places in Covington one Saturday, which was a lot of fun despite the rain. Of course we've had Skyline Chili (which has seriously increased in price) and met with friends to catch up and visited with our daughter Alice and son-in-law Rory as well. We expect to see more friends and relatives in the coming week or so.

It is looking like we might expect snowfall every other night while we are here, which makes things a bit exciting. I think between us we have about a dozen routine appointments with doctors, dentists, testing places, hair cutters, and so forth that keep us busy and on those snowy roads. We are cramming a lot into our stay here, which will be about two-and-a-half weeks all told. I have a few adventures coming up during our sojourn in Sayler Park, but we are also already looking at places to go when we get back on the road in our Scamp around mid-March. Stay tuned!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Waterways and Wetlands of Western Ohio

  Though we are still not technically on the road for awhile, it’s spring in the Midwest and we are occasionally getting out to see some sites nearby. Last week we had a sunny, warm day that followed many days of rain, so we decided to head out somewhere to hike where there were boardwalks—or at least solid rock paths. We started at Charleston Falls, near Tipp City. The preserve was far more crowded than usual; the warm weather after a long winter apparently brought out the crowds, especially homeschooled kids and their families. We took the path less traveled back through prairie meadows (only slightly mushy) to the top of the falls, then wandered down the stone paths to the bottom of the falls. There was water going over the falls, though not a lot. The falls are fed by small underground springs several miles to the east, and the stream creating the falls plummets almost 40' as it flows to the Great Miami River, one mile to the west.  Charleston Falls Preserve in western O...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Great Platte River Road . . . and Big Rocks

The North Platte River runs the entire length of Nebraska, almost right through the center of the state. It’s a braided stream, a river or stream with many intertwined channels separated by islands or sandbars, so it looks somewhat like the strands of a braid. The folks heading west followed the main channel of the river, where there was grass for the oxen and mules, water for everyone, and fairly flat going. The government built Fort Kearny along the North Platte fairly early—1848, my guidebook tells me—to help protect the travelers along the Oregon and California Trails. Fun fact, both of those were the same trail until far western Wyoming, and they were on the south side of the river. When the Mormons started heading west to Salt Lake City, they walked with handcarts along a trail on the north side of the river, a route that was called the Mormon Trail, and met up with the other two trails around what’s now the border of Nebraska and Wyoming. North Platte River in Nebraska The tow...
Post a Comment
Read more

Living with the Chill, Waiting for the Warm Up

 The Coastal Bend area of the Texas Coast is known as a birder’s paradise, and we have seen some pretty cool specimens, up close, including roseate spoonbills and brown pelicans and willets. This heron believes that he owns the wharf down at the harbor park in Port Aransas. He clearly is accustomed to posing for photos. Harry the Heron surveys his domain There’s also a tower to climb at the harbor park, giving you a good view of the waterway called Aransas Pass, where the ferry crosses to the mainland, and some of the huge ships that go through the pass. We often see dolphins in the water up there, but they are very tricky to photograph. The circle on the photo below shows a dolphin fin just popping up out of the water. This one stayed for quite awhile until we left to get a seafood dinner at Grumbles on the other side of the harbor. After dinner we drove around to the University of Texas maritime research facility and then past that, to the beach road which is amazingly well maint...
1 comment
Read more