The Highways Traveled

This trip served five purposes:

INDIANA: My great grandfather Wilson, before moving to the Kansas City area, was married in Terre Haute. That was a surprise discovery since no family, as far as I know, was in that part of the state. His oldest brother, and possibly his father too, owned some land in Indiana but that was much further north and east. I would have loved to have spent a day at the library in Ft. Wayne researching the family history. And I would have liked to have checked out the Logansport area where the earlier-mentioned great great great uncle owned property and may even have lived there a short while. But, alas, my Indiana visit was limited to the state capitol building and President William Harrison.

MICHIGAN: I have been to Michigan a few times in years past including one of my birthdays. And one of my best friends grew up here and graduated from two of the major Michigan universities. But this trip was limited to photpgraphing the state capitol.

OHIO: My Wilson family roots runs DEEP in this state. A first cousin still lives in the state. The Wilsons have lived in numerous Ohio towns since the Civil War. I could easily spend two weeks researching all those places. But this trip was limited to photographing the state capitol and visiting all of the many U.S. Presidents that came from Ohio.

KENTUCKY: The only reason to visit Kentucky was to photograph the state capitol and to visit President Taylor's home. While there, I also visited the University of Kentucky. But I may never return to this state after the treatment by the highway department. Twice, mind you, TWICE, on the same day, we were stranded for just under an hour, both times, because of construction. Poor planning for traffic. I was joyous when I reached state line the next day.

TENNESSEE: I was born and raised in this state. On my mother's side, I am seventh generation Tennessee. That family lived in the western half of the state (the half I call the flat boring half vs. the pretty mountains of the eastern half). So I wanted to once more visit my main home town of Jackson as well as try to find the graves of my great great grandparents in Memphis. In Greeneville, in the northeast corner of the state, is the home of President Andrew Johnson (whom historians rate as one of the worst Presidents ever). In the Nashville area are the homes of two U.S. Presidents that I had visited many years ago. Also here is a college roommate of two years and a distant cousin who helped me quite a bit with family history resaerch during the 1980's and 1990's. I wanted to visit both.

ARKANSAS: My family lied in Fort Smith just long enugh for my sister to be born in that year there. On this trip, I drove through the northeast corner of the state on a highway I had not been on before. I really have no reason in the future to return to this state.

MISSED VISITING:
-- Genealogy research in Ft. Wayne
-- Genealogy researach in about a dozen towns in Ohio
-- Genealogy research in Nashville and Memphis in Tennessee
-- Sandusky in north central Ohio and the War of 1812 site (plus 1812 shipyards at Erie PA)
-- Daniel Boone home in Frankfurt
-- University of Louisville
-- Actually touring the inside of several of the homes of the U.S. Presidents, most were closed when I arrived and one is privately owned
-- President Ford in Grand Rapids -- I had been there many years ago
-- Michigan hometown of a good friend of mine

OBSERVATIONS: Some observations made while traveling in this area:

The Bests:

  1. Seeing all the cousins, fourth cousins and first cousins
  2. Getting five more state capitols photographed -- after the next trip in September, only New York remains of the 48 states
  3. Nearly completing the visits to the home/library/museum of every U.S. Presidential -- 9 left to visit
  4. Seeing my Tennessee hometown once more, first time in over 20 years......ah, the good memories from here, but, my, has it changed/grown!
  5. Being on the road by myself and doing whatever I wanted with the freedom to travel
  6. Seeing the multitude of U.S. universities and realizing what an amazing higher education system we have
  7. President McKinley's library in Niles, OH


The Worsts:

  1. Kentucky highways
  2. Cloudy days dampening the chances for great looking photographs
  3. Kentucky highways
  4. Too many PT Cruisers still on the roads, and some of those drivers drive like maniacs
  5. Oh, did I mention Kentucky highways
  6. The road rage between two drivers on a Kentucky interstate after tempers were raised from being stranded nearly an hour, their rage nearly cuased me and four other drivers to collide, missing only by a few feet
  7. Arkansas highways were pretty bad too, maybe that is why they set the speed limit at 60 MPH

The Totals: