More Sight Seeing

Loudonville, Ohio              High 88 Low 64

It was another nice day.

Yesterday we drove to Mansfield to see part of what is called the Shawshank Trail. It is various locations of places that were used in the film The Shawshank Redemption. I always thought it was supposed to be New England when it was actually filmed in Ohio.

The first place was the prison which was actually the Ohio State Reformatory. It is an old neat looking building. While we were there we got to see a large number of geese. The building wasn’t open to tours because of the Fourth of July.

This was only part of the Geese.

The next shop was The Bissman Building and was the site of the Brewer Hotel where Brooks stayed and hanged himself soon after being paroled from the Shawshank Prison. Please note that only the front of the building was used in the movie.  The actual "hotel room" where Brooks stayed was staged at The Ohio State Reformatory.  The building was also utilized in the film as the front office of the Portland Daily Bugle.  

This building and the Reformatory were both by the same Architect and were built the same year.

We drove a little waySouth to the Historic Carrousel District, you'll travel a little over halfway up Main Street in Downtown Mansfield. Look to the left for Carrousel Antiques. In the movie, Red peers through one of these same windows and sees the compass that later leads him to the Oak Tree.

Some of the buildings next to the Antique store.

That was as much of the trail that we saw.

We then drove back to the RV Park by way of a secondary highway and got some pictures of some of the old buildings and even an old car park in a field.

Today we went to Millersburg and Berlin to see some of the quilt stores in the area. We also went to two different cheese stores. The second one, Heini’s, was by far the better of the two. They had lots of samples of cheese and spreads and fudge. The spreads were so good that we bought 3 of them. The fudge, while good, wasn’t our favorite fudge so we didn’t buy any.

 Another neat old building.

This was by one of the Quilt Stores.

Amish farmer selling things across from the Cheese Plant.

The first Cheese Plant.

 These Amish buggies were out side one of the Quilt Stores. The quilt for sale was probably the most expensive I've ever seen.

 Some of the scenery outside the second Cheese Plant. The stained glass is on the cheese plant building.

Lots of people sampling.

 These are inside their manufacturing plant.

 This mural on the inside of the Heini's shows some of the history of cheese making.

After we left Berlin I decided to let Mable, our GPS, bring us back to the RV. For a while it was questionable whether we would make it because she took us over some narrow dirt roads, one of which said no RVs. Finally we crossed the river and it turned out we were only a half mile from the RV Park. Her way probably saved us 15 miles over taking the main Highway but I'm glad I was in the truck and not pulling the fifth wheel.

Because of my Mother-in-laws health, we have decided to leave here early and head slowly back to Utah and shorten our trip.

Thanks for visiting.

Longaberger Basket Company

Loudonville, Ohio            High 84 Low 59

After the rain last night the weather cleared up and we have had a nice day all day today.

Before we came to this RV Park we went to Newark, Ohio to see the Longaberger Basket Company’s former headquarters. It is a 7 story building built to look like a market basket. I read that in 2012 the Company owed $605,000 in back taxes and were given 2 weeks to pay or the building would be sold for back taxes. They tried unsuccessfully to find a buyer and the building now sits vacant. The inside through the glass looks very nice but the outside looks neglected.

The handles weigh 75 tons.

This is supposed to be the largest basket building in the word.

We then drove about 18 miles east to the site of the Longaberger Homestead and the present factory. They have a 20 foot high basket filled with fake apples. The basket reminded me of Cindy’s grandpa. We used to have a dish filled with large plastic apples. The apples looked very real and every time he came to visit, he would tell us that they were the biggest apples he had ever seen. We always told him they weren’t real but he always forgot and told us the same thing three or four times each visit. Anyway the apples in the giant basket, which is a real basket, are really the biggest apples I have ever seen (even though they are artificial)!

I'm in front of the apple basket to give some idea of the size.

They also have a very large gift shop filled with baskets for sale. There is also a Museum that tells about how the Company got its start. We also got to visit the original workshop which had lots of antique tools that were used to make the first baskets.

The office building may be gone but the Longaberger Basket Company is alive and doing well.

After we left the Longaberger Company we drove through 50 miles of back roads. We got to see lots of Amish farms and even saw a horse drawn trailer being loaded with wheat which was ready to harvest but the roads are so narrow, we weren’t able to stop and get a picture. We were able to stop for a few pictures of old building along the way. I guess my Utah license plates told the locals that we were just dumb tourists as a few times cars had to stop when we did because of the narrow roads with no shoulders.

 This is the first time we have seen a church falling down.

Amish lady selling quilts.

This RV Park is very tight and full with no sewer connections. We are here with Coast to Coast.

Happy Fourth of July!

Thanks for visiting.