Travelog for: Carl

My first voyage was today with mom! We visited the historic town of Old Folsom. I got to browse the stores and wonder the streets. It was so beautiful! Mom took my picture in a toothbrush pitcher outside the famouse Clouds of Folsom shop!

I have been found! I can't believe Mom cleaned and "misplaced" me! Jeeze! Over the Easter Holiday I went with mom to the bay area to visit her family. We had alot of fun, and got some pictures at the Carquinez Bridge! The boats coming in off the bay were so huge! Snuggles and Galaxy came with us.

Happy Easter! For Eater we dyed eggs and ate candy, it was so much fun! After that Mom's Aunts took us to Point Isabel, which has a great dog park! Woof! I got to see the Golden Gate Bridge and the City of San Fransisco. It was really pretty! Later we headed back home, but passed the C and H sugar company.

So Yesterday mom got antsy and we went down to San Fransisco with her friend Ally. It was a bunch of fun, we saw an art school, then headed down to the peirs, and spent the day at the famouse Pier 39. It was so much fun! we saw sea lions, Alkatraz, the golden gate, gulls, an there were so many people! it was amazing!

I am FINALLY on my way to my next host! I said good bye to all my old and new friends and headed East to West Virginia!

Hello!

I made it. I think I've managed to venture to the weird wilderness. It's like a jungle here! I am in West Virginia, now I only have 48 more states to go!

West Virginia's license plates say "Wild and Wonderful" and I definitely see where that comes from. Although spring hasn't quite hit yet, so it's still a little gloomy. With any luck, I'll get to see some more of this place in full bloom.

Upon my arrival, I met another dog named Davey. We had matching tags! Only his says DAVEY HAVOK and a phone number. He isn't lucky enough to have a toyvoyager ID like I do...

XOXO
Carl

Guess what? I was the guest of honor for the party planning committee's welcoming extravaganza. It sounds like a made up name for a last minute party, but I think it was just their way of making me feel more at home.

Because there were more My Little Ponies than I expected. We mingled, we gossiped, we're totally BFF.

Well, after a breakfast that Melissa called "Early Grave Breakfast," my hosts decided to go to Marietta to the flea market.



Goodness gracious! See the 'Welcome to Ohio' sign? That means that I've visited another state! Only 47 more to go! This bridge crosses the Ohio River, which serves as the border of WV and OH.



Our first stop was the flea market. It is a bit unsavory. And filthy. Our hosts made no purchases and were sad they drove all that way for a big building full of worthless junk 



Here we are driving down the main street in Marietta. It's a really nice town, quaint and the buildings are older.

Here are some "fun facts" about Marietta:

-Founded in 1788, Marietta is the oldest city in Ohio.
-The population was 14,515 at the 2000 census.
-Marietta is the home of the Ohio River Sternwheel Festival, which brings dozens of sternwheelers to the banks of the Ohio River.



Speaking of sternwheelers, this is the Becky Thatcher. It is permanently docked in the Muskingum River because it is for sale. It used to be a restaurant. I tried to commandeer it, but believe me, it isn't going anywhere.



We stopped by the box office to try to buy tickets aboard the Becky Thatcher, but no one was there.



Here is a fun cannon we found.



Look at this! There were blue and silver pinwheels all over the place!



There were 1552 of them. They were placed on the lawn to raise awareness for child abuse and neglect. There was one pinwheel for every reported case in 2006. I hope it works!





Here I am on the bank of the Ohio River. This time it's West Virginia that is behind me. You can see the bridge we were riding on earlier in the background



And here we are going back across the bridge home. It's been a really long day!


XOXO,
Crazy Carl

Oh, I almost forgot! Last night we went out in a rush to catch a really nice sunset. Unfortunately, this part of West Virginia is atypically flat and it's hard to catch a good picture. But trust me, it was really, really pretty! Of course, Melissa had a hard time getting the pictures to look right without my mug blurring it all up. So she took another one without me in it to show just how pretty it was. What can I say? I like the spotlight!

Hey everybody! It's been a while, but that's only because the weather has been so terrible. We got a new visitor, Yum Yum the bear yesterday. Which is good, because Strider the cat is very moody.

Anyway, we went to a few parks today. First we visited a wildlife refuge park.



Here is a picnic shelter. Rustic!



Then Melissa let me and Davey run around a tennis court. I am so much faster than he is..Despite my short little legs.



Then Melissa helped me up so I could get my picture taken with this plane. They sure don't want anyone getting too close to it...



Then we found this caboose. In quite the random place, don't you think?





All in all, it was much more exciting than yesterday. A little cold, but much more fun. Yesterday was wet and boring!



I'll update again as soon as we find something else fun to do!

XOXO,
Carl

Hiya! Melissa wanted to formally apologize for taking so long to update. Her school schedule is making her crazy.

So, today we went to hang out in Parkersburg. We went to Point Park, which is where the ferry for Blennerhassett Island docks, but it (sadly) doesn't open until May. So, we just took some pictures since we were already there.



Another bridge. This one bridges Belpre, Ohio to Parkersburg, West Virginia.

Here are a few more. One is in front of the flood wall that closes to protect the city if it floods. The town Melissa lives in doesn't have a flood wall, so I don't know what would happen there if the rivers flooded...

We also went to Riverview Cemetery to take some pictures. Melissa goes there from time to time to take pictures of the statues. It's really pretty there despite being, you know... a graveyard.


Here we are on the path around the perimeter of the cemetery. Look, the leaves are popping out!


We played in the ivy and I was almost completely covered!


This is a gravestone that is really creepy. There are stories that sometimes the statue cries. I didn't see anything, but I certainly didn't stick around too long!





Then we just followed Melissa along while she took some photographs. Here are two of them:

Hello again! We had a little bit more adventuring today.


This is a bird's eye view of Parkersburg. We went to Quincy Hill park today and stayed there until a tree fell down and scared the crap out of Melissa.


Apparently, in 1909, there was a terrible disaster on this hill.

Quote:

At 5:10 a.m. on March 19, 1909, Parkersburg's two reserve water tanks, sitting atop Prospect Hill (now Quincy Hill), burst and sent two million gallons of water cascading down the side of the hilll and into the streets of the city. Each tank, made of iron and sitting on a stone foundation, was 40 feet high and 60 feet in diameter. They were pumped full every night from the city water works located at the foot of 12th Street. Apparently one of the 26-year-old tanks broke first, and the gushing water smashed its bottom plates against the companion tank, ten feet away. A cottage on the hillside above Avery was washed away and carried down Tenth Street to Market, killing the young newlyweds who lived there. A couple of other houses were shattered, and St. John's Lutheran Church on Avery at 9½th Street was nearly demolished. Trees were washed through the walls of Sumner, the city's black school, and several streets were choked with the debris of other trees and lumber from the destroyed houses. A barbershop in the basement of the Blennerhassett Hotel, six blocks to the south, had two inches of mud on its floor. In all, three people died and several were badly injured.

So I am standing where the tanks were, and everything down below me was flooded and destroyed. That's kinda scary.


These stairs go from Quincy Hill all the way down to Avery Street. Melissa says people run up and down them to train for all the marathons they hold in the summer. Those people must be nuts!


Here's a tank in the park. Melissa had no explanation for the tank or why people here put weird vehicles in playgrounds. Bizarre.



Then I climbed this pretty tree for no particular reason.


Goodbye, Quincy Park. It's been lovely.


XOXO,
Carl

I think after crawling around in that tree, my allergies are kicking up a little. Every morning, Melissa's car is covered in pollen. It's a really bad place to be for your nose.

Yesterday we went a few more places.


This is the gate to the Julia-Ann Square Historic district. We were just passing through.


This is the Chancellor house in the historic district. Melissa says if it wasn't so boring in this town, she would storm this house and claim it as her own and live there forever. She would probably die of boredom at age 30, though. Isn't it a pretty house?

Our last stop for the day was the Blennerhassett Museum in Parkersburg.

Quote:

Harman Blennerhassett (8 October 1765 – 2 February 1831), Irish-American lawyer, born in Castle Conway in County Kerry, Ireland to Conway Blennerhassett and Elizabeth Lacy. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and in 1790 was called to the Irish bar. After living for several years on the continent, he married in 1796 his niece, Margaret Agnew, daughter of Robert Agnew, the lieutenant-governor of the Isle of Man. Ostracised by their families for this step, the couple decided to settle in America, where Blennerhassett in 1798 bought a (now-eponymous) island in the Ohio river about 2 miles below what is now Parkersburg, West Virginia. Here in 1805 he received a visit from Aaron Burr, in whose conspiracy he became interested, furnishing liberal funds for its support, and offering the use of his island as a rendezvous for the gathering of arms and supplies and the training of volunteers. When the conspiracy collapsed, the mansion and island were occupied and plundered by the Virginia militia. Blennerhassett fled, was twice arrested and remained a prisoner until after Burr's release. The island was then abandoned, and Blennerhassett was in turn a cotton planter in Mississippi, and a lawyer (1819-1822) in Montreal, Canada. After returning to Ireland, he died on the island of Guernsey in 1831. His wife, who had considerable literary talent and who published The Deserted Isle (1822) and The Widow of the Rock and Other Poems (1824), returned to the United States in 1840, and died soon afterward in New York City while attempting to obtain through Congress payment for property destroyed on the island. The buildings on his island have since been restored and the location is now Blennerhassett Island Historical State Park, a popular tourist attraction.

Here's a really old car in the museum. I wonder why they don't make wooden cars anymore?



Here is a machine they used to use for broom-making. It looks more like an evil torture device to me.



Here is a case with the death mask of Aaron Burr, the scoundrel!



Here's a painting of a lady that was from an important family in the area. I think she's a snappy dresser.



Here is a whole lot of paintings of a whole lot of important people from a long time ago. And some classy metal folding chairs.



They had a display of all of these old dolls. Some of them were really, really old. Melissa was hoping to find a Blythe doll and an unlocked cabinet 



Here I am in front of an exhibit of a typical Victorian-era living room.



Here I am in front of.... That's just plain silliness. The First Shoe?!!!



Then Strider, Yum Yum and I watched a video about Blennerhassett Island.


We went home and said goodbye to YumYum, who's off to Malaysia!

XOXO,
Carl