October 3, 2014

Long Day

What we thought would to be a relatively short day turned into a very long day.  We left Port Huron around 9:15am and headed south towards Marblehead, OH. About 30 miles later, the rain we had hoped to beat to the south side of Detroit, caught us. Combined with high winds, the rain made driving difficult in three- lane wide traffic. We had been dreading this part of the trip through Detroit, but the alternate route would have added nearly 50-60 miles to the ride.

Rain on I94

Everything went fairly well until we left I96 in the middle of Detroit and started down I75 towards Toledo. Just before we crossed the Rouge River, I75 became a parking lot. We were in a 6 mile backup caused when a semi took out a section of the concrete divider. Traffic was reduced to one lane; 50 minutes later, we finally had an open road! Along with several work zones, additional rain, and one 8 mile detour, 4 hours of driving became 6…white knuckles have returned to normal! 

Parking Lot

Our only planned stop today was Sandusky, OH at the Merry-Go-Round Museum. We have visited twice before, but always stop because they continually rotate items in the museum.

Sandusky, OH

This visit yielded several new horses. New menagerie animals had also been added to the carousel, or placed on display.

This Wolf was Carved by a Volunteer at the Museum

This carousel is a small “traveling carousel”. It was used in fairs and disassembled at the conclusion.

Then it was packed, and trucked to the next destination, reassembled, and used once again.

Traveling Carousel

While passing through the Carroll Township near Marblehead, we passed the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station.  In 1998 the station was hit by a F2 tornado, and had to rely on backup generators to run pumps for cooling until external power could be restored…nerve-wracking.

Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station

While driving through Sandusky, we happened upon this sign...now we know where they come from!!