even though they might sound dull to others.
First one. I was 16. .My brother was in the Navy, stationed in Charleston, SC, with his wife and 2 sons. My parents drove, with my sister and me, from Erie, PA to Charleston. On the way we went onto the Skyline Drive in VA. Got a view of the Shenandoah Valley that made me realize literally the meaning of "breathtaking view." In SC, I saw the ocean for the first time.
I stayed for the rest of the summer to help my SIL with the kids bc my brother spent most of his time in Savannah for ship repairs. Had to take a Greyhound back to Erie bc there was an airline strike at the time. About 5:00 am I was dozing when murmurs on the bus and my seatmate woke me up. We had just reached DC and were able to get a glimpse of the White House.
Second time. My husband and I had planned a a 3 week cross country drive from Cleveland to LA to visit his aunt. But one of his key employees accepted another job with very short notice. So we cut our vacation time to one week and spent it driving around Ohio to indulge my interest in the preColumbian mound sites. I got a couple library books on the subject and we use a Rand NcNalley road map book (long before GPS). I was from PA and my husband was from NY.
We drove south from Cleveland to Columbus, then to Chillicothe and on to Portsmouth on the Ohio River border with KY. Crossed into KY for lunch, just so we could say that we had been there. On our southward drive, we veered off onto various side roads tracking down mound sites, some small, others large. Read historical markers, met other tourists, and found some good deals at farm auctions on collectible household items.
From Portsmouth, we headed west toward the Serpent Mound. It is so long that there is a lookout you can climb to see the entire snake effigy. From there we went to Cincinnati and then crossed the state again, back to Cleveland.
The Serpent Mound and Mound City were the most impressive looking of the sites we saw. At Mound City, excavators left a cross section of their dig visible for viewers, protected by glass.
The mostly rural drive was relaxing after the hectic lives we both had in Cleveland at that time. I have been interested in archeology and anthropology since childhood, so it was fun for me. My husband's interest in history kept his attention on how the first Europeans in the region regarded the mounds.
Today we know much more about the builders of those mounds, the Adena and Hopewell Cultures.
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