Liberty Hill

Late November we started a post about our mini vacation outside Nati City.

Then our computer crashed.

But today perhaps the post is relevant for our city became a  "sanctuary city" today.

We have Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport just 14 miles away and we are the home base for Procter and Gamble.  We are a diversified city which believes in freedom for all.

In 1861 Ohio sided with the Union and became a free state.

Our mini vacation took us on the Freedom Trail.  If you were a slave and you made it across the Ohio River (which is to my right in the picture) you could have some help in making your way North. The further North the safer you were.

I, Sweet William The Scot, and Lee are going to climb that hill just like the slaves escaping the South.

At the top of the hill sits the Rankin House, the house has great history.

It was one of many Underground Railroad Stations.

It commands one of the most beautiful views on the Ohio River. Seven bends may be seen on a clear day.  Can you grasp running for your freedom from the other side of the Ohio River.

The climb took Wills and me most of the morning.

One hundred steps led from the town of Ripley to the house on the hill.

http://www.ripleyohio.net/htm/rankin.htm

A minister, Rev. John Rankin  felt with the houses proximity to the river and its owner's fierce opposition to slavery, the Rankin home was a perfect choice to become a stopping point on the Underground Railroad.

Lee is going to interject here that her Quaker ancestors were also a stop on the Underground Railroad at Lebanon, Ohio.

The Rankin family (which included 13 children) was proud of never having lost a "passenger". Most of the 2,000 escaped slaves who traveled through Ripley stayed with the Rankins.

Harriet Beecher Stowe heard Rankin's account of a slave who carried her child across the thawing ice of the Ohio River and was saved from the bounty hunters that chased her when the ice broke up. Stowe later included the story in her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. Six of Rankin's sons and one grandson fought in the Civil War, all survived.

Under this porch floor many hid.

The Rankins would keep a light burning in the front window as a beacon for runaway slaves to guide them to their home.  His wife and thirteen children protected the home from bounty hunters and escorted slaves to neighboring stations.

Although slavery was never legal in Ohio, The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 made aiding escaped slaves a crime.

Allies aided the escape of more than 100,000 slaves along the Unground Railroad.

Rev. Rankin aided more than 2,000 being one of the most active conductors.

Lebanon, Ohio where Lee's ancestors had a stop would be the second dot on the left from the bottom.

Our next stop was the Parker House which I will tell you about next time.

We said goodbye to this stop and climbed back down the hill to our car.

We will show you where we stayed and ate in another post.

Some day we will take you on the barn quilt tour.

Lee has never said what our politics are and we won't but we are humanitarians and have deep roots in believing and promoting human welfare for all.

Thanks for being a friend
Traveling down the road and back again
Your heart is true and your a friend of  mine

Signing Off 

Sweet William The Scot

How Do You Measure A Hero

Several of you have asked don't we have a new computer yet!

Well we do.  We have just been sad for our city and not going places and not feeling like continuing our story about the Freedom Trail which we had started in November.

We had an incident with a man before Christmas who was banishing women with preaching repeal their right to vote and women should not be working etc. etc.  We jaywalked across the street to avoid eye contact but three hours later on the way back to our car I got assaulted.  I have been pretty beat up and sore. One picture of my backside my whole left bum still bruised.

Wills was my hero ~ I had Will's breakaway collar on.  When I was kicked to the ground I let go of his leash.  Will went under our car.  I could see him pulling on his leash to get it free from under our tire where it was caught but Will lunged forward when the man kicked me a second time and his collar released him. 

Will tore the guys sweat pants to the knee and when he grabbed for Will, well Will ran either under or around our car.  When the jerk was pulling my hair Will was back in the mix. Will got hold of his puffer down jacket sleeve pulling and tugging and tore it open up to the shoulder. Every time I got kicked Will was back again trying his bestest to get him off me. Four nasty bruises in all one in the face.

My darn vertigo was keeping me from getting up fast but I stumbled forward knocking the jerk to the ground.   Will got on his back where he could not reach him and tore the back of his jacket like a stuffie. Feather down was coming out everywhere. Will was yanking on the collar of his jacket.

I found my keys in my hand and falling forward with all my weight inflicted some damage to his junk!  I rammed my funky long old house keys into his junk and twisted, he screamed.  I shoved myself back and got away at that point.

When I yelled "Will car" I looked back and the guys head looked like a bobble head with Will pulling on the collar of his jacket.  The jerk was crying and trying to touch his junk but I think it might have been to painful.

Wills came flying jump in the car over to the back seat and into his crate and grunted like well I took care of that piece of crap.
We have no idea why he attacked us.  We had no verbal contact with him whatsoever.
My only thought was we were carrying books and maybe a women being educated does not fit his mindset either.

We had men wearing Trump hats sitting in at meeting at our libraries (it was on the national news) with holstered guns. I don't even like acknowledging them here but if you listen to the video one says guns facilitate conversation.  I doubt if any who died in gun violence would agree with that statement.  They say they were at the library to monitor people.  Who appointed them the monitors?
Oh they appointed themselves!

men with guns at kenton county kentucky library 2016 - Bing video

We are not going for our reader students anymore.

Then yesterday the beautiful big old high school where I went was painted with racial slurs and swastikas.
This has never happened in its history which opened in 1919.

http://www.fox19.com/story/34317825/swastikas-racial-slurs-painted-on-withrow-high-school

This is not a place I recognize anymore.

So in ending I would just say hug your dog more. 

A pet is a part of a human being's life, but a human being is a pet's entire life.

Lee & Sweet William The Scot

On The Road

Update ~ Our computer motherboard blew today 11/18/2016.
We are going to be taking a long Blogger break till we can afford a new computer which might be awhile.
I am typing this from the library as a person let me have five minutes of their time.

For November the weather has been exceptionally nice.  Lee said Sweet William The Scot pack your bed and lets do a little road trip so we can show our friends things outside of Nati City.

On the road again

Seein' things that I may never see again

We're the best of friends
On the road again.

Here is our first turn off!

Yep first stop is Captain Anthony Meldahl Locks & Dam.

The Dam opened in December 1964.

Its length is 1,756 ft (535.2 m)

The amount of coal transported down river from Pittsburgh jumped greatly following the Civil War. The size of the tows also grew with the amount of coal hauled.

The Rivers and Harbors Act allowed the production of a system of locks and dams along the Ohio.

Which made the river navigable all the time.

The dams are non-navigable and made of concrete and steel. Each dam has two adjoining locks, one 600-foot by 110-foot chamber, and a 1,200-foot by 110-foot chamber to accommodate fifteen barges that can lock through in one maneuver.

We see two barges coming from the east.

The first barge is maneuvering into the spot closest to us.

He dinged his bell and waved at us. My ears went back with the ding.

See the man standing at the point.

He is getting into place.

And the Marathon Barge is going in.

See his top!

The barge is going down.

Down.

The barge is so low you can hardly see his top!

On the Kentucky side of the river in the distance you can see The Meldahl hydroelectric facility .

The river hydroelectric power plant provides new, renewable generation to the region. Located near Maysville, Kentucky, the facility is the largest hydroelectric power plant on the Ohio River.

It became fully operational just this past April 2016.

Currently they are planning three more turbine hydroelectric plant and spillway addition to the Meldahl Locks and Dam.  Clean energy isn't it great.

At normal pool elevation the length is 95 miles (153 km) upstream encompassing an area of 21,700 acres (88 km).

If we were on the other side of drive we could see the barge come out at a lower river level.

The second barge is going into the second slot.

On the other side of the river is Maysville, Kentucky where George Clooney, the actor is from.

We could take the ferry across but that is not our destination now.

His maneuvering was not so great, we could hear the barge scrape the far wall.

Diagram shows you how the lock works.

Here is a hand forged anchor.  Type used in the early 1800's.

Estimated weight 1800 pounds.  If we could lift it we could take it home.

Well we are back on the road and the field has round hay bales covered with white water repellant sheets.

Our next stop is Freedom Hill.

Yep we are on the Underground Railroad Trail.

Thanks for being a friend
Traveling down the road and back again
Your heart is true and your a friend of  mine

Signing Off 

Sweet William The Scot

Silverton Tracks

Silverton had its beginnings in the post-Revolutionary War land grants.

The future of the community was forever changed in 1883 when the Cincinnati, Lebanon & Northern Railroad opened a line through town.

Well here I am in Silverton at the village green style park.

Honoring those from the village who served our country.

A replica of the station was constructed in 1976 and serves as a museum.

It houses historic photographs and artifacts from the City’s past, including the Olympic uniform of Barry Larkin, a retired Reds player and Silverton native son. 

The pole says May Peace Prevail On Earth.

 

Do I hear a train coming?

We are having lovely days in the midwest. 

The temperature is in the high sixties and lows in the mid forties.

Lee and I, Sweet William The Scot, are in our car going up river this week.

We decided to do a mini vacation.

Oh my gosh the bench here at the station says donated by the Republican and Democratic Parties in 2006.  Yep guess that was the last time they worked together and they actually managed to get a whole bench together!

Thanks for being a friend
Traveling down the road and back again
Your heart is true and your a friend of  mine

Signing Off 

Sweet William The Scot