After a good night’s sleep and a fantastic
breakfast at the Drury Inn & Suites here in Dayton, Ohio. It was time to check
out and head north on Interstate 75 toward my first stop of the day.
About an hour after leaving the Hotel I arrived
at the small town of Wapakoneta, Ohio. While not exactly a bucket list site,
this is a place that I have always thought would be an interesting place to
visit. Wapakoneta is the birthplace and boyhood home of astronaut Neil
Armstrong and just off the Interstate is the Neil Armstrong Air and Space
Museum.
The museum is located appropriately on
Apollo Drive. As you drive in you see a
couple of jets on display in the parking lot. One is a NASA Trainer, and the
other is a Lear Jet. Both were flown by Neil Armstrong.
The Museum itself documents the Life of
Neil Armstrong from his early days here in Wapakoneta to
landing and walking on
the moon and his retirement years. During my tour I met a wonderful man named
Jerry who is a volunteer/historian at the museum. Jerry shared a number of
stories about Neil and many of the artifacts on Display, Thanks to Jerry, my self-guided
tour turned into a super interesting, guided tour.
After walking on the moon and returning to
earth, Neil Armstrong ended his career with NASA. He retired and returned to
Ohio, and for the next 23-years he lived on a farm near Lebanon, Ohio. In
retirement he largely stayed out of public view, choosing instead to work and live
a quiet life. He didn’t give very many interviews, leaving the more public life
to his fellow Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin.
The Neil Armstrong Air
& Space Museum was worth every bit of the $13 admission fee. And once again
thanks to Jerry for really taking the time to share your insight and stories
with me.
It was 12:15 p.m. when I left the Museum
and headed North on the Interstate toward my next stop at the Rutherford B.
Hayes Presidential Site in Fremont, Ohio. The drive from Wapakoneta to Fremont
took about 90 minutes.
The Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Site
is made up of his Presidential Library and Museum, His home, Spiegel Grove and
the graves of President Hayes, his wife and other members of the family.
It was 1:50 p.m. when I arrived at the
Hayes Presidential Site and I had to hustle into the Visitor’s Center to purchase
my ticket for the 2 p.m. house tour, which was the last guided tour of the day.
I met my tour guide on the Front Porch
at Spiegel Grove and the tour started promptly at 2 p.m.
Spiegel Grove is the 31-room house that
was home to President Rutherford B. Hayes. President Hayes and another future
President from Ohio William McKinley served together during the Civil War as part
of the 23 Ohio.
After the Civil War Hayes, entered
Politics serving first in the United States House of Representatives and then
as the Governor of Ohio. In fact, he served two non-consecutive as Governor.
First as the 29th Governor from 1868-1872 and again as the 32
Governor from 1876 – 1877.
His second term as Governor was cut Short
when he was elected the 19th President of the United States, serving
from 1877 – 1881. President Hayes vowed if elected, he would serve only one
term. He was true to his work and at the end of his term, he did not seek
re-election and returned to his home here at Spiegel Grove.
The Hayes’s live at Spiegel Grove for
about 20-years, from 1873 until his death in 1893. Both President Hayes and
First Lady Lucy Webb Hayes died in this house about 4-years apart. Both are
buried on the property.
My guided tour to the Mansion lasted a
little over an hour and our guide was excellent. She passed along a bounty of
information and was able to answer any questions posed by the people in our
group.
After finishing my tour of the house, we
were free to explore the grounds and visit the grave of the President Hayes and
the First Lady. They are both Buried just a short walk from the House in a
quiet corner of the property. Also resting here is one of their sons, Webb Cook
Hayes and his wife, Mary.
Webb Hayes was President and Mrs. Hayes
second child. He participated in the Philippine Insurrection and was awarded
the Medal of Honor for his service. His Medal of Honor Citation reads:
“Pushed through the enemy's lines alone,
during the night, from the beach to the beleaguered force at Vigan, and
returned the following morning to report the condition of affairs to the Navy
and secure assistance.”
A unique thing about the graveyard here at
Spiegel Grove is outside of the fence. There are two stone on the hillside
inscribed with the Names Old Ned and Old Whitey. Old Ned was a beloved workhorse and buggy horse
belonging to Rutherford B. Hayes' uncle, Sardis Birchard. He was known for his
age and longevity, even being featured in a local newspaper article during his
lifetime. Old Ned died in January 1871 at the age of 36.
Old Whitey was President Hayes war horse.
Old Whitey survived 19 Civil War battles. He was pure white which made him an
easy target for sharpshooters. However, because of his speed, stamina and
jumping ability he was able to survive the war. After the war Old Whitey was
brought to Spiegel Grove and lived here until his death at the age of 20 in 1879.
Before Leaving the Rutherford B. Hayes
Presidential Site it dawned on me that I hadn’t made my Hotel Reservation for
the Night. The only Drury Property was about an Hour away in Findley, Ohio.
That was about an hour away and would require me to back track several miles.
I don’t like to back track and chew the
same ground twice, so I looked ahead and compared hotels in both Lansing and
Ann Arbor, Michigan. The rates at Ann Arbor were about $40 a night cheaper than
the ones in Lansing. So, I turned to the
Holiday Inn App and made a reservation at the Holiday Inn Express near the
University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
I pulled out of the Rutherford B. Hayes
Presidential Site at 4:15 p.m. and headed toward Michigan. An Hour Later I left
Ohio behind and entered Michigan.
I have not been to Michigan before, and
this is the 44th state in the lower 48 that I have visited. I have
only Wisconsin, Idaho, Washington and Oregon to visit and I will have made it
to all of the Lower 48.
I made a quick stop at the Michigan
Welcome Center U. S. Route 23 before driving the last 30-minutes to Ann Arbor.
I still have some daylight left so I
decided to pay a visit to Forest Hills Cemetery. Forest Hill was founded in
1857 by a group of prominent Ann Arbor Businessmen and Professors at the
University of Michigan. It is a well maintained garden cemetery that is the
final resting play of a number of notable citizens.
There is one grave here that I want to
visit. That is the grave of long time University of Michigan Football Coach,
Glenn “Bo” Schembechler.
Coach Schembechler served as the head
football coach at Miami University from 1963 to 1968 and at the University
of Michigan from 1969 to 1989, compiling a career record of 234 wins, 65
losses and 8 ties.
In his 21 seasons as the head coach of
the Michigan Wolverines, Schembechler's teams amassed a record of 194–48–5
and won or shared 13 Big Ten Conference titles. Though his Michigan
teams never won a national championship, in all but one season they
finished ranked in the top 20, and 16 times they finished the season ranked in
the top ten of both major polls.
After paying my respects to Coach
Schembechler, I headed toward my Hotel which was near the University of
Michigan. My play was to try and visit the Stadium and Crisler Arena on the way
out of town in the morning.
But the route to the hotel took me right
by the stadium. So, with it being Sunday Afternoon I found a parking spot and
snapped a few photos.
Michigan stadium or “The Big House,” as it
is commonly known, is home to the University of Michigan Wolverines. It is the
largest stadium in the United States and the 3
rd largest stadium in
the Western Hemisphere. The stadiums has an official seating capacity of
107,000 but has hosted a crowd as large as 115,000.
Right Next door to the “Big House” is
Crisler Arena, home to the Michigan Basketball Team.
The Arena was named for Fritz Crisler who
was the University’s Athletic Director from 1941 through 1968. It opened on
December 6, 1967, and has a current seating capacity of 12,707.
My hotel was only about 3-miles away from
the University of Michigan sports facilities. Before leaving the parking lot at
the big house, I checked Google Maps and found that there is no places to eat
anywhere close to the Hotel.
The drive to the hotel was largely through
a residential area with some office buildings sprinkled in for good measure. On
the way I did pass a Taco Bell and decided to stop and grab supper before and
take it to the Hotel.
It was 7:05 p.m. when I arrived and
checked into my room. It was clean and the front desk staff was very friendly. I
just hope the Pancake roller is working for breakfast in the morning.
Today’s adventure from Dayton, Ohio, to
Ann Arbor, Michigan covered a total of 243 miles that coupled with yesterday’s
323 miles make the total miles traveled in the past two days, 566.
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