Tuesday, August 14
Today was our last day of our trip. Well, tomorrow really is but we are just flying back so I count today as being the last real day. And it was a good day. We left Matt and Susan's early in the morning but not before we had our picture taken for posterity. We got on the road toward Oxford, OH. Unlike the Oxford that everyone knows about (which I am sure is really convenient and easy to get to), this one is far off the interstate and takes a while to visit. It is the home of Miami University, which is the alma mater of Benjamin Harrison. In his honor, Miami University named their first building after him - Harrison Hall. It is important to note here that there are many other better sites for Benjamin Harrison but they are all in Indianapolis. If you have more time than we do you will probably enjoy those a lot more. Unfortunately, this was the one we could do given our time constraints. Poor Andy really agonized over it and I don't know if he has fully forgiven Harrison for not having lived in a more convenient place. But, we snapped a shot of the building, looked for a plaque or something to commemorate the former president but were not successful in finding one and then moved on. We had a long way to go. This is where things started to go a little awry.
Luckily,
we have had smooth sailing all along this trip. No accidents, no lost items
no major problems at all. Now, though it seemed that everything was conspiring
to keep us from our goals, today. Long, windy slow roads, construction and
traffic, even a small brush with the law. Yes, poor Andy was pulled over for
speeding. That wouldn't have been so bad but when the officer started to misunderstand
Andy's innocent inquiries as to the proper procedures he was to follow, he
found himself in the back of the car having his rights read to him. No, he
wasn't arrested, thank goodness, but he did have to be very careful with what
he said. He was afraid that the officer was thinking he wanted to bribe him.
Luckily, we got it all straightened out with the officer and only paid an
$80 ticket. I have had much worse so I thought it was not too bad. We promised
that we wouldn't let it ruin our day and headed on.
The only problem was, with the traffic and time taken on the side of the road, we were left with a tough decision. We knew that the Ford Library in Grand Rapids Michigan was only open until five. We wanted to be there with plenty of time to enjoy our last big museum of our trip. We also had one more stop before Grand Rapids, which was in Fremont, OH, for Rutherford B. Hayes. If we went there, we would surely miss Ford. We considered many options - we could be really crazy, go to Grand Rapids then back to Fremont to take pictures of the home, go to Fremont and miss Ford or skip Hayes and just do Ford. Well after some discussion, we decided that since we have done Hayes on a previous trip and since we still had memorabilia from that, we would count that as having been done and go straight to Ford. We further remembered that we hadn't planned on doing the JFK library, either, but added that in at the last moment and that it was a very appropriate trade since we had never seen JFK's museum. So, knowing that we made a good trade, we raced for the Ford museum.
We got there by four knowing we would have an hour, even though we were hoping for more. When Andy came out from having bought our tickets while Vienna and I parked the car, he looked quite sheepish. He had bad news . . . the library was open until 8:00 that night. We were a little sad knowing that we could have done it all but knew that we had made a tough decision. It turned out to be a great decision because the Ford museum was excellent, and we spent plenty of time there. Ford really was a man who took a bad situation that was dumped on him and did a great job of healing the nation after the very difficult Watergate era. He was not elected, not even for Vice President. Nixon had appointed him after his VP was forced to resign because of Watergate. When Nixon then resigned, Ford was tasked with picking up the pieces of that administration. The one thing he did that people didn't agree with was pardon Nixon for his crimes. He did that so that he could get to work on the big problems he was left with - the gasoline crisis, troops in Vietnam and helping to give the people confidence in the White House again. He did this last one better than just about anyone could have done. He was honest and forthright and hardworking. I am very proud that he was there to be the leader at such a difficult time. He was also very courageous and stuck to his guns when difficult decisions had to be made. I hope that more people will remember his presidency and give him more credit than he has received. Jimmy Carter even acknowledged his success in his inaugural address when he thanked him for healing the nation. In the museum, we had the opportunity to be on the "campaign trail" and use a teleprompter for a speech. Great fun!
Another
exhibit that was in the Ford museum was Andy's favorite part of the trip.
It was an exhibit of presidential portraits. All the presidents were accounted
for with short statements about the portraits and their presidencies. It was
a perfect summation of our entire trip and we feel we were very lucky to have
been able to see it and that it was last. It was a great ending to a great
trip. After our time at the Ford museum, we headed back to Chicago, with dinner
at one of Vienna's favorite restaurants, Red Lobster, on the way. It was a
three-hour drive and Andy and I were both really tired but we made it. Tomorrow,
we are on our way back to California and home. We miss our kitties and our
beds. We are all looking forward to getting home. We love having our adventures
on the road but when it comes time to go home, we are always ready and very
happy to be able to rest and relax in our most comfortable surroundings. We
can't wait to get there and to plan our next adventure.