September 2, 2016–Origami and Butterflies

Woke to a beautiful sunny and cool day.  What a relief from the 90s and humidity!  Today we visited the Franklin Conservatory a couple miles east of Columbus.  Having seen so many fantastic gardens and conservatories in our travels, we came with some pretty high expectations.  This park was OK, but did not impress.  There were however three elements that made it worth the visit.

First were several pieces from Dale Chihuly.  We’ve become big fans of his work, so these were a treat to see.

The second was a display of Origami works.  If you’re not familiar with Origami, it is a Japanese art form that creates objects from a flat sheet of paper through a series of folds and creases.  Actually, a paper airplane is a form of Origami.  What surprised us were the several large sculptures on display throughout the park.  These were not paper.  Since they were outside in many cases, being made of paper would be a problem in the rain.  Well, they are actually stainless steel cast from an origami paper object.  We have no idea how they did this, nor how they are coated to look like paper.  We think it maybe some type of powder coating.

Here are a few pictures.  The first shows the Origami object along with the sheet of paper showing the creases neccessary to make the object from a single piece of flat paper.

How do they figure out where to make the creases???

 

The third cool feature in the Park, was what they call Butterfies and Blooms.  They have a large conservatory of tropical plants where they release butterflies into the area.  But the most interesting part is a display area showing the butterflies emerging from their chrysalises.  Some pictures follow.

 

The chrysalis is hung upside down, as in nature, allowing gravity to assist the butterfly in emerging.   Most butterflies only live 2 to 3 weeks.  They fly around, eat, try not to BE eaten, and lay eggs.  Not much of a life.

The chrysalises that Franklin uses come from all over the world.  These are mostly from South America.  They have to be very careful not to let any of butterflies get loose.  They use double doors and the last set are monitored to make sure none escape.  Their larva could raise havoc with our eco-system here.

Campground is full tonight.  Activity picked up big time since yesterday.  Not sure what we are doing for the next couple days.

September 1, 2016 – Brooks Was Here

Today’s journey takes us to the Ohio State Reformatory.  What?, you may ask.  Well, it was the set for the movie “ The Shawshank Redemption”, one of Dan’s favorites.  In the movie, Shawshank prison was in Maine, not Ohio.  It follows the the life of Andy Dufresene, convicted of killing his wife and her lover. If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth the watch.  Many of the scene locations are identified on the self guided tour we took.

Historically, the prison was built between 1895 and 1910, as a halfway house with the goal of educating and training inmates to allow them to get jobs once freed.  It worked and was well known for its success.  That all changed in the early 70s when a fire destroyed the max security prison in Columbus.  They sent over 1000 inmates to OSR, nearly doubling its population, which was already pushing 90% capacity.  7x9 foot cells that housed 2 inmates, now held 4 and they were very, bad guys.

The reform programs ceased.  Violence and crime escalated until the prison was finally closed in 1990.  There are two replacement prisons, on or near this property.  Richland, a minimum security prison with the “reformable” inmates like those that used to be at OSR and Mansfield Correctional a max security facilty for the really bad guys.  Some were transferred from OSR when it closed.  To make way for these, much of the original Reformatory was torn down.  It is easy to see Richland out the back windows of OSR.

So who was Brooks?  He ran the library in the movie. His engraving was in a hotel room he lived in.  Oh, there is no longer a license plate shop or any other out buildings.  So we couldn’t enjoy a cold “Bohemian” on the roof.

The “patina” and the place’s popularity with Hollywood reminds us of the old train depot and Packard Plant in Detroit.  They have done some minimum restoration, but do not plan to go much further.  Mostly just to accomodate laws for public access.  

 

A pretty interesting day.

August 31, 2016 - On Our Way

Got an early start this morning for our trip to Alum Creek State Park, near Delaware, Ohio.  Even though the trip was only 200 miles, we were a little concerned about delays related to road repairs on I 75, especially in Ohio.  There was significant construction until well south of Toledo, but very lttle delay.  We got to Alum Creek about 2 PM.  Luckily we beat the big rain storm which hit about 3:30.

The campsite is really nice sized, good spacing, treed perimeter, paved, with good park roads.  The bathouse is OK, but not as nice as we’ve seen.  Our home for the next 5 days.

The worst of the trip was Michigan’s end of I-75.  Since we run 60 to 65, we get relegated to the right truck lane.  Even trucks pass us.  They should rename it Michigan’s Baja.  Anyone who wants to make a case for Michigan’s crappy roads and too heavy trucks should drive the right 2 lanes of this poor excuse for an Interstate.  Many areas were too rough to run above 50 mph.  Geez, the truck traffic, in the 100’s, nose to tail, occupy both lanes.

Fortunately, we tie all our cabinet doors shut, because as usual, the bumps unlatched a couple of the cabinets, but being tied kept the contents from escaping.  We’ve learned that lesson the hard way.