Day Two Of Relaxing In Cincinnati

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A note to Nancy.  I'd love to buy a bigger car but it would have to be a motorhome.  If we do you guys are welcome to come along!

I don't like to blow my family off by any means, but they are all adults and have children and grandchildren.  (Mask falls with a thud).  They all have their activities to do and we are not only on a mission to visit everyone but also to enjoy our time on the road seeing new things.

Day two took us to the Cincinnati Art Gallery.  When I hear the name Cincinnati I just don't see it as a huge art and history center.  In 2021, USA Today rated it in the top ten of art museums in the country.  Art and history for me are tops and you just can never go wrong.  In 2014 we visited a small museum located in a house in the small town of Harmony, WI.  We spent two hours there.  So much to learn and see.

This day we had actually gone back to finish what we had seen day one.  It was well worth it.  As we walked in we saw the gift shop.  Always good to see what they have and how we can donate to the museum.  That moment was a bit disheartening when an old bad behind the counter said hello and welcome followed by, "maybe we should check your partners pockets".  What?  Racism and prejudice will always be as long as there are human beings on the planet.

A very nice second story lobby shot to start this off.  The art museum was built in 1887 and a wing was added in 19 philanthropist Jacob G. Schmidlapp in memory of his daughter who, along with his wife, had died in a train crash in February 1900.  Since then five wings have been added and that is why it is a two-day visit.

Anne Seymour Dammer was an 18th century sculpture, again a woman who found it difficult to compete in the world of art.   She was also a actor, writer and director.  This is what we have from anytime prior to 1839 and the advent of photography.  We have to rely on the artist's viewpoint be it painting, sculpture or literature.  It is interesting to see how people may have actually lived in the past.  We found that very true with the giant daily life paintings in the El Prado in Spain dating back to 1500.  

Like any good art museum, you need to have a lot of wood and creaking floors.  The European art gallery is one that is hard to match.  The painting descriptions are somewhat in depth and give you enough information to do further investigation.  Most artists, sculptures and their subjects.  Fascinating to read about a person's life centuries later.  Looking at some of the portraits you can discover who the person was and how they lived.

Saint Jeronimo painted by Phillipe de Champaigne in the early 17th century.  I chose Saint Jerome for my confirmation name.  Saint Jerome lived in the 4th century and was the first to translate the bible into Latin.  He also hung around the catacombs.  In his writing he said, "horror ubique animos, simui ipsa slentia terrent" or "fear is everywhere but the silence is deafening".  I remember looking through books of the saints and chose him based on the painting.  

I remember going to a high school spelling bee when I was 15.  A couple of students from my high school and three nuns in a van.  We had to pray to St. Patrick so that we would have green lights all the way.  There is a saint for everything.  Too funny.

Catrina Van Hemessan was from the Netherlands.  Women painters were almost unheard of in the 16th century.  Her father created minatures for the queen of Hungary.  He had a workshop and Catrina would go there daily and work on her technique.  This was an altar piece that hung in Monestary of Saint Jerome in Santa Ana depicting the old and new testament.

Antonio del Ceraiolo was an Italian painter.  His last name, ceraiolo, was a nickname taken from his father's profession as a candlemaker (cera/wax).  The painting depicts Madonna and child with St. John the Baptist sitting next to them.

A ghar derasar is a personal Asian shrine in the home, also called a Jain house, after the god Jani. Jainism teaches that the path to enlightenment is through nonviolence and reducing harm to living things including plans and animals.

I really enjoyed this painting, The Midnight Mass.  I was raised in a very strict Catholic home.  We said the rosary after dinner every night, never ate meat on Fridays regardless of Lent or not.  I went to Catholic schools through the fourth semester in university.  It was a lot of praying.  We would always attend midnight mass.  We lived close by the church and after mass we would go to my Aunt Ann's house.  She lived two blocks from us.  She had been married for a year before divorcing her abusive husband.  She had my grandparents move in with her and she took care of them until they died some 25 years later.  She was a wonderful person and would always invite me to her house as an escape from the chaos at home.  She'd make tuna casserole and tapioca.  She had the idea that I loved tapioca.  I hated it but ate it with a smile anyway.  So after midnight mass, she would give us all a small glass of sherry along with fruit cake, Christmas cookies and homemade fudge along with aachener printer (gingerbread).   Good times, and always with snow.  

Another view of the lobby from the second floor.

We could have easily spent another day at the gallery.  The grounds are well-groomed and there is also modern sculpture outside.  

Across from the gallery is Eden Park.  It has a huge tower that is called a stand pipe.  All new to me.   Built in 1894 it stands 52 meters tall.  It provided water pressure to the city but was obsolete after only 20 years when new ways were found to pump water throughout the city.

The park is filled with geese and I know how some Canadians feel about them.  They are mean little shits and wouldn't let me cross the sidewalk.  I tried to reason with them but to no avail.

Well, I'll keep working on the blog.  I'm not sure why it has taken me so long to post. We're looking forward to some special travelers in a few weeks and after that we should be on our way to Quartzsite.  

A Stop Along The Way To Cincinnati

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As always, we could stay longer just about anywhere we go.  Exploring the history of a place just takes you from one day to another.  Hannibal was fun and it brought back a lot of childhood memories.  We had a nice breakfast at the hotel before we left.  In fact, it was the best one on this trip.  Too bad we couldn't find a similarly priced Airbnb.

Our next stop was in Justice, IL.  Our friends used to live in Chicago.  They were from Monterrey and raised their kids in Chicago.  We were there in 2010 and parked behind their apartment building.  They had gone to the U.S. with hopes of becoming citizens but it never happened until last year.  The old neighborhood in Chicago was gang ridden with shootingd and gunfire on weekends.  Now, in Justice, becoming citizens (they had to wait until their kids turned 18), they were able to buy a beautiful home on a huge corner lot.  Imagine, all those years in the U.S. and they could never come home when their parents passed away as they wouldn't be able to return to their home in Illinois.  

We spent the night at their house, never really slept as we had so much catching up to do.  So much happends in ones lifetime that it is hard to tell the whole story.

The boys are twins. One is a reporter and was out on a job so he didn't make it to dinner!

The drive from Justice to Cincinnati was over six hours, not usual for us but we didn't want to make another stop before getting there.  We didn't find anything in between that was of enough interest to do that.

Cincinnati has a population of 331,000 but the metro area encompassed part of Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.  A bit confusing as you wind in and out of them all.  

Our Airbnb was great.  Finally one that was very affordable and had no cleaning fees.  We booked for a week and it was well located between my oldest niece and my oldest brother.  It was nice to get up to our own coffeemaker (can't travel without it) and a homemade breakfast.

Once we arrived and settled, we headed to my nieces house.  My sister, her mother was there.  She had flown from Kansas City (she lives in Reno) so that we could all be together.  My niece Christina's husband was off the next day on a work trip but we had never met except for Face time and I wanted to meet him in person.  What a great guy.  Also, seeing my sister again just a week later was a real treat. 

We decided to have a cookout two days later at my brother's house.  It was convenient for all the nieces, nephews and grandkids who live in Cincinnati.  That way we could have a couple of days to do our own thing.  Believe it or not, the city offers quite a bit.  Our first stop was the botanical gardens.  What a great place to walk around, take pictures and just relax after all the driving.  

I am happy that almost three years later, Juan has not had any issues since his syncope accident in McAllen.  Like I always say, I'm just happy to be here today!

If you remember, we had gone to the city market in Kansas City.  In Cincinnati there is the Findlay Farmers' Market.  Well, it's not really a farmers' market anymore.  I think it is more of a high-class hangout with very expensive food and drink.  I never saw a farmer there 😅  It was fun to walk around and see an area that previously was depressed and brought back to life.  Unfortunately, in most cities where they is a renaissance the upper-middle class moves in and prices go up.  That's good, I like people with money but it seems those that lived there before are pushed out.

Cincinnati is the home of the Reds and they are very proud of their team.

Another new trolley system that transport no one.  Empty every time it passed by.  What a waste of taxpayer money.

This market was in some ways similar to the Mercado San Miguel in Madrid.  The products are definitely good quality and the foods looked and smelled delicious but the prices now match the market.  I'm sure that rent is high and of course they are products the average person wouldn't or couldn't afford to buy.

Funny signs!

More to come.  Stay tuned!

Palmyra and Hannibal To Memorialize An Old Friend

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We left Kansas City and headed for Cincinnati.  On our way we wanted to stop in two places, Palmyra and Hannibal, Missouri.  You are familiar with Hannibal as that was the hometown and impetus for the Mark Twain series of books such as Huckleberry Finn.   Palmyra was founded in 1822 and named after the Syrian city which also grew out of the wilderness and into a magnificent city.

Palmyra never really became a magnificent city although it's intentions were well meant.  Today it has a population of 3600,  It's a typical rural Missouri town with its main street, bank, library, and a few stores.  Many on the main strip are empty.  

The purpose of the trip was to find out more information about a well-known Palmyra celebrity, Rayford Lyndsey West.  Quite a character and local celebrity, Ray came to our family before I was born, somewhere right after WW II.  My dad had enlisted for the second time and left my mother with two kids.  A neighbor let out rooms and Ray had rented one while he was studying at the Univeristy of Missouri.  Ray was born with severe cerebral palsy and moving around was difficult for him.  He had good use of his right arm and hand, was able to walk but with a severe limp, and had difficulty with speech.  My mom befriended him and he would visit and keep her company.  After the war my dad returned home and Ray stayed in our lives.  He finished the university, returned to Palmyra to become the head librarian of the town and county for several decades.  

Ray would visit us every year for his two-week vacation.  Obviously he was very intelligent and hard working even doing work at our Kansas City library during the day probably to get a break from the chaos at our house with the ten kids running around.  He never missed a visit and we too would go to Palmyra every summer for a weekend.  Ray's dad was the bank president for most of his life.  The bank building was sold to become City Hall.  The new bank eventually closed and was turned into a library.  The vault houses all the statisical records of births, properties, deaths and burial locations.

Rayford Lindsay West, his portrait hangs in the Palmyra library.

It didn't take long to find information.  We walked into the library and asked if they knew of Ray and his work at the library.  Everyone turned and looked at us as if "well of course, who doesn't?".  They were very nice and pulled out library records with information as well as newspaper clippings of all the work Ray had done.  It made me feel good that I had something to take with us to Cincinnati to share with other siblings. 

Information showing the year Ray became the librarian and his starting and ending salary.

The bank vault that houses the records for the town and surrounding counties.  Many families have stored their ancestral records in the vault.

The bank which now houses city hall.  I should have taken an interior picture, the woodwork is spectacular.

Palmyra and Hannibal are only 30 minutes apart and it was nice weather driving through Missouri.  We stayed at a very nice hotel, again a better choice than an Airbnb.  It was right on the river, well a block away.  Very friendly people, great room, an indoor pool and jacuzzi as well as a gym.  They had a huge breakfast that we took advantage of before taking off for Cincinnati.

Hannibal, Missouri - Home of Mark Twain

When I was a kid and we would take these weekend trips, we would stop into the old Mark Twain museum which was actually his house.  It still exists, but they have turned it into an enclosed city block that includes other buildings.  Tours are daily and very expensive.  We weren't here just for that we were to find "the hair".  In the original museum there is a lock of Mark Twain's hair with a date on the small glass case.  I always said I would someday save my hair and I did.  I have locks from as far back as 1985 and 1997.

I'm not a saver and don't like clutter.  My personal things I will leave behind are all the souvenirs in the form of tickets for places we have gone, driver's licenses, gym cards, credit cards from as far back as the 80s, my hair, a mold of my teeth, and so on.  It will all fit nicely into a small box that some distant relative might want to rummage through and they will think, "what a strange man".  

We found one of three museums and this one was a bust.  Good thing it wasn't expensive and offered a senior discount.  There he is in all his glory the man who made my childhood reading so much fun and entertaining.  I'm glad we didn't have the internet or cable television.

A portrait of the man himself, Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain.

 

Mark Twain was known for many things.  When he was born, they didn't expect him to live.  He was born two months prematurely but survived.  His first years were spent being cared for as a pretty sickly boy.  He moved to Nevada to become a miner in the silver mines.  He didn't like that and found a job working as a typesetter and then a newpaper reporter in Virginia City, Nevada.  He was a real cat lover and at one point had 19 cats.  I wouldn't have guessed it but after reading Huck Finn I thought it was a good book, easy reading and interesting but it took him over seven years to write it.  His job that really got him writing was his years as a riverboat pilot.

Riverboat on the mighty Mississippi!  We arrived in time to see the captain come and start up the engines.  We didn't take the boat, they have two tours a day.  

The captain at the helm of the ship.

Hannibal first appears to be a huge tourist attraction.  We didn't seem to find much of anybody anywhere or anytime of the day.  Weekends probably fill up along with summer vacations.  We took a walk downtown at night, empty streets and a few bar/restaurants were open with a few locals knocking some back.

He is the man of the town that's for sure and his name and face appear on just about everything!

We ate at a small Mexican restaurant.  The food was pretty good but the service sucked and the people weren't very friendly.  They ended up charging us for splitting a plate which we do now.  Way too much food.  I mentioned it to the waitress and she said I could talk to the cashier.  So I did, and she said, "I'm not going to fight with you" and walked away.  I thought we were being very polite.

We took off the next day after taking some pictures down by the river.  Again, a nice ride through country roads.  Next stop, Cincinnati!