I was awakened at about 4:00 in the morning by a terrific thunderstorm. Bright flashes of lighning and loud crashes of thunder went on for close to half an hour. Terry slept though it all.
But when we got up, the storm had passed and the sky was clear. I went out and walked around and took some pictures. There were lots of birds chirping, and I heard the sound of woodpeckers in the trees. I saw a little bird fly by that was colored bright yellow. I also saw a rabbit sitting by the side of the road, and I tried to creep up close enough to get a picture. Alas, the batteries in my camera died, and by the time I replaced them, the rabbit had gone.
We drove to Pataskala, a small town town about 20 miles east of Columbus, and a little over an hour's drive from where we were staying, and spent the day visiting with Bob and Jean. We had breakfast (well, brunch) at Bob Evans (w), a popular restaurant chain in the Midwest, and dinner at the Hickory House, a local barbecue restaurant. And in the afternoon, Terry and Bob and I drove out to visit the Newark Earthworks (w).
The last time we visited Bob and Jean in Ohio, four years ago, I read something about the Newark Earthworks in an Auto Club guidebook, and was interested. So we drove out to see them, but we left too late in the day, and it was almost dark by the time we got there. So this time, I made sure to go see them in the daylight.
The Newark Earthworks (which are in Newark, Ohio, not Newark, New Jersey - Newark is about 20 miles east of Pataskala) are a series of prehistoric mounds, built by Native Americans somewhere between 250 and 500 AD. Only portions of the original earthworks still exist, including the Great Circle, a ring-shaped mound 8 feet high and over 1,000 feet in diameter.
The Great Circle mound is preserved in a public park, and there's a small interpretive center, which we visited. On one wall is this diagram of the layout of the earthworks:
The Great Circle is at the bottom of the diagram, labelled with the letter "C." There was also this artist's rendering of what the mounds may have looked like when they were built:
In this picture, the Great Circle is farther away from the viewer, on the right side.
And here are some pictures of the mounds in real life:
This is the "gateway;" the opening that serves as an entrance to the circle:
Along the inner rim of the circle, there's a ditch (maybe where they dug the dirt to build the mounds?):
In the center of the circle are a set of smaller mounds, known as Eagle Mound, arranged in a sort of arrowhead pattern. Archaeologists have discovered that these mounds cover the site of what was originally a Native American longhouse. I walked into the circle and took some pictures
...while Terry and Bob waited for me:
Driving back home after dinner, I looked out the window and saw this huge thundercloud:
..and sure enough, it started pouring rain. The rain was so heavy that I began to get nervous about making the drive back to Apple Valley. Fortunately, it started to let up shortly after we left Bob & Jean's house, and had stopped by the time we got back. That's the good thing about thunderstorms - they tend to be short and localized.