August 19 & 20, 2008

Tuesday 19~~~ We drove about 210 miles after we left the shop from getting our suspension on the trailer fixed. We stayed in East Harbor State Park in Marblehead, Ohio. We got the Dish to work by putting it on top of the picnic table, we can't miss any of the Olympics or our favorite shows. We were actually pretty tired from such a short nights sleep last night that we went to bed early for us, and spent no time on the computer. We found out in the morning that we could have stayed near the island where there was a National Park we wanted to see that we missed on the way in. Darn !!!!! Wednesday 20~~~ Today we drove to Mentor, Ohio to the National Historic Site where the home of James A. Garfield stands on 6 acres of the original several hundred acres of land. (Pictures) In November 1880 he was elected 20th president of the United States. His term was cut short on July 2 1881 when he was shot by a deranged political fanatic. He died on September 19, at the age of 49 leaving his wife with 5 boys and one girl to raise. His wife and children were able to give comfortably and make substantial improvements to the house thanks to financial contributions from the American public. Mrs. Garfield had another wing added to the main house for a memorial library and vault to safeguard her husbands numerous books and papers. The new addition was the size of the original house, she added gas lighting replacing the oil lamps and a pump house/windmill (picture) to pump and store water into the house for running water. The addition was made into a National Library and museum to honor her husband so people wouldn't forget him. That was very important to her that her husband always be remembered. She is given credit for starting the first Presidential Library. Mrs. Garfield lived to the age of 85 dying in 1918. She, her children and grandchildren had many years to enjoy the beautiful home. It remained with the family until 1936 when, because of increasing cost of upkeep, it was donated to the historical society as a shrine to the memory of James A Garfield. Most of the furnishings and personal effects in the main house are original Garfield family pieces, which is rare to find so many original pieces in a home left by the family. It was authorized as a Nat. Park in 1980 and is administered jointly by the Historical Society and the Nat. Park System. From here we drove on to Cornet, Ohio and stopped for the night. It is just on the border before you cross into Pennsylvania. The park here was real nice, but we could not get the dish to work no matter what we tried or did. Our antenna worked good enough to get the Olympics, so that was OK. We want to get up early in the morning as we are anxious to get to New York and to Niagara Falls.