A tapestry and a mural, both depicting the African American experience
Wednesday was a travel day. We got up early and had breakfast at a Bob Evans restaurant. Bob Evans is a popular restaurant chain in the eastern part of the country. Terry likes to eat there whenever we're back east, because her dad's full name is Robert Evans Dittmar. Interesting side note that I just discovered: Although there are no Bob Evans restaurants on the West Coast, the company also owns the Mimi's restaurant chain, which does have California locations, and where Terry and I have eaten quite often.
So then we hit the road for Louisville. But on the way, we made a stop in downtown Cincinnati. There's a museum there called the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. I discovered it while looking at a map of Cincinnati, and when I told Terry about it, she wanted to go see it. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to explore the museum thoroughly, but we did see some interesting exhibits. Here are some pictures:
A tapestry and a mural, both depicting the African American experience
The floating head at the bottom of the second picture is not actually part of the mural - just another tourist getting in the way of a good picture.
The Slave Pen
This one was a little chilling. It's a actual building used to hold slaves, transferred to the museum from a farm in Kentucky. This Wikipedia article describes it better than I can. Inside the pen we found some actual leg irons:
...and displayed outside is this letter from John Anderson, the owner of the slave pen and its contents.
Creepy.
But other portions of the museum were more uplifting. There was a short film called "Midnight Decision," in which a young slave has to decide whether to run away and leave his family behind. There was also an interactive exhibit, featuring the same actor as in the film, in which the user has to make a series of choices about how to escape: Run in the spring, or in the fall? Take your little brother and sister with you, or leave them behind? And so on. At the end of the process, I had successfully "escaped," although I wasn't sure if that was because I had made all the right choices, or because the exhibit is programmed for a "happy ending" no matter what choices the user makes.
Another exhibit was about a man named Henry "Box" Brown (w) , who escaped slavery by having himself put in a box and mailed to Philadelphia:
I showed Terry the size of the box, and asked her if she'd like to try to fit into it. She declined.
After leaving the museum, we went to Skyline Chili (w) for lunch. Cincinnati style chili is a very different dish from the chili we're used to here in California. It was originated by Greek immigrants, contains cinnamon and chocolate (yes, chocolate), and is served over spaghetti, topped with beans, onions and cheese. Terry and I have made Cincinnati chili at home, but we wanted to have the genuine article, right there in Cincinnati:
After lunch, we continued on to Louisville, and got to Kris and Terrie's house by late afternoon.
Terry met Kris in her last guide dog class, when Terry got North, and Kris got:
Bower
Kris lives in Louisville, with her partner Terrie, and Terrie's guide dog, Wiggins:
Terrie, Wiggins and Kris
...and their friend Lynn, who I don't have a picture of - sorry, Lynn.
Kris and Terrie had had plans for our entertainment when we visited. Unfortunately, the week before we came, all three of them were sick, and by the time we got there, they were sufficiently recovered for us to visit, but not enough to be very active. Terrie, in particular, was coughing up a storm, and couldn't speak above a whisper. So it was a very low key visit.
We didn't do much the rest of that day. We visited for a while in the back yard:
...admired Kris' vegetable garden:
...ordered pizza for dinner, and did laundry. It was also that evening that I got the phone call I had been hoping for for days - confirmation that I had a job offer! Everyone cheered.
After dinner, we went back to our motel - Terrie and Kris don't have a guest room, either.