Maidei goes on a world tour-Part 1 of the Bicycle Mystery Tour

[OakLeaf]

We visited the Great Circle Mound, part of the Newark earthworks. Here's Maidei at the entrance. You can just see the edges of the borrow pit, inside the circle, where earth was dug out to create the mound.



This diagram illustrates how the Octagon Mound - another part of the earthworks that's open to the public only a few days a year (the rest of the time it's a private golf course, grrrrrrr) - was used for astronomy.



This bridge and walkway cross over the borrow pit and the mound opposite the entrance. A plaque on the bridge says it was "thought to have been built" by the Civilian Conservation Corps. I didn't realize that was prehistoric.



Modern builders also erect structures that 21st-century residents can't really understand the point of. This is the headquarters of the Longaberger Basket Co.





Later, we went for a ride along the National Road. US Rt. 66 is nicknamed the "mother road," but US 40 follows the route of the original National Road that connected Cumberland, MD with St. Louis, MO. The "mother road" for pre-motorized (and present-day non-motorized) transport. Milestones were set every mile along the road; many of them still remain.



We stopped in front of the Nelson T. Gant House. The house is in the early stages of restoration - several later additions were tacked onto it, and it was used as a restaurant for many years. Not much to look at, but here's the historical marker.



Weller Pottery was famous in the area from its founding in 1872 until the pottery closed after WWII. Several years ago, 100 seven-foot-high reproduction Weller vases were made and hand-painted as a benefit for the Appalachian Pottery Guild, The Artists Colony of Zanesville and a Weller Museum in the former Weller Pottery manufacturing facility. Some of the vases are displayed outside sponsoring businesses; a number are arranged at the foot of the World Famous Y-Bridge.



Here she is closer to the bridge:



We walked the bike to the middle of the bridge and turned left.



Then it was time to go to work. Maidei doesn't fit on the spin bikes either - and the room is too dark, none of the pictures came out. I tried to get her to teach my aerobics class instead.

[lph]

ooh, very cool photos! Love the vases. But that... basket.. thing?? Doesn't look very weatherproof. Gorgeous weather the two of you had!

[OakLeaf]

Where's she going next? So far Catrin is the closest person who's expressed interest. Someone send me a PM.


(PS - I like the idea of a book, too )

[Possegal]

(PS - I like the idea of a book, too )

Anyone with photos of Maidei on her tour of the world, you can load them up here - http://maidei.shutterfly.com/ in an album with the location as its title. If you need any help, PM me and I can walk you through it.

[OakLeaf]

I tried to sign into Shutterfly, I let it temporarily run a bunch of scripts, including atdmt.com which I really hate to allow, but it still wouldn't work for me. There's a limit to how far I'll relax my security settings....

[Possegal]

I have no idea what to tell you. I've never had to relax any security to work with shutterfly, even from my work computer which has some pretty tight security measures in place. I don't know enough about computers though to be of any help with that. Sorry.

[malkin]

So the Longaberger place is really an office building that looks like a basket?!

http://www.longaberger.com/homeOfficeFacts.aspx

The things people think of!

[Bike Chick]

Where's she going next? So far Catrin is the closest person who's expressed interest. Someone send me a PM.


(PS - I like the idea of a book, too )

Oak, I think Catrin gets her next and then me unless there's someone else in Indiana that's wanting her. If we work this right, I can take her with me to do the Memphis St. Jude Marathon December 4. Wonder if she has time to train for a half-marathon before then

[kmehrzad]

Nice pics, Oakleaf. I enjoyed the history lessons ... quite interesting. The Longaberger bldg. is a very cool architectural piece. I'd like to see it in person sometime.

And the photo with Maidei at the mic - I could just imagine her giving spinning instructions while Disturbia was playing in the background.

[Possegal]

No one HAS to do anything. The shutterfly page was not intended to take the place of this thread. I personally thought it would be fun to be able to make a book of her travels and that can be done through shutterfly. I didn't realize it would cause such trouble. Was trying to do something nice actually.

[shootingstar]

No one HAS to do anything. The shutterfly page was not intended to take the place of this thread. I personally thought it would be fun to be able to make a book of her travels and that can be done through shutterfly. I didn't realize it would cause such trouble. Was trying to do something nice actually.

It's not a big deal, Possegal. No need to read too much into comments as overly negative or whatever.

I'm just lazy and like to avoid registering for a password for yet another web based tool that I probably won't use much/at all again. I'm just a jaded user of web based tools and online services which require user ids and passwords..

I look forward to Maidei's adventures.

[HoosierGiant]

Maidei had a quiet Thanksgiving. So quiet, I forgot to take photos. We dined on homemade deep-dish pizza and fresh veggies, followed by mock pecan pie and chocolate-chip pie.

Travels around the area began with a trip to the Knightstown Academy, which was built as a Quaker Academy in 1877. Designed in Second Empire style, the structure has a mansard roof and twin, four-story towers topped by the building's unique and most notable features -- a globe and a telescope. The Academy served as a local high school before being taken out of service and nearly torn down. In the end, it was renovated as senior apartments.




Attached to the Knightstown Academy is a small gymnasium that now holds world acclaim. This was Maidei's second stop. That old-time gym was the setting for the home court of the Hickory Huskers in the 1985 movie Hoosiers. No trip through this area is complete without a visit to the Hoosier Gym, as it is now known. Visitors can not only sit in the stands and tour the downstairs locker room, but also shoot a few hoops. Maidei didn't try to put the ball in the basket, but she did take a close look at center court.




In what may have been a first, Maidei took her bike onto the court. Note the banner in the background, one of the remaining props from Hoosiers. While a road bike on the playing floor is a bit out of the ordinary, the Hoosier Gym is regularly used as a SAG for the Raintree Ride (formerly Stride & Ride), which includes a metric century.