Not the Taj Mahal, but Buildings in Celina, Ohio are Beautiful, Memorable--Look Like They Came from a Fairy Tale

Another Ohio wonder!
Celina, Ohio is probably not among your “must see” travel destinations, but if you are ever, ever near this town in west, central Ohio—go there because you will see some of the most amazingly beautiful buildings anywhere.
No, they are not the Taj Mahal, but they are incredibly beautiful and totally unexpected--almost like something you'd see in a fairy tale. I say unexpected because what do you expect to see in any small town? Not much as a general rule, right? Yet when I saw these buildings one Sunday morning and just by accident and enroute to somewhere else, they stopped me.
They are that unusual and that beautiful.
When were they built? I have no idea. Why were they built? I have to idea? Who occupies them? I have no idea. Who owns them? I have no idea? Do I know anything about them other than the are so stunning and so wonderful to see? No, but one day I will go to Celina or call there and ask around to learn more about them.
In fact, that may happen at the end of July 2009—when Celina has a community celebration! I just happened to read about it on a web site about the town. So, I will go as every Ohio community seems to have its special celebration, and everyone of them are fun! Lots of fun!
So, while you may not have ever heard of Celina, Ohio, if you go anywhere near the town, go there! See these beautiful buildings for yourself and in person. You will enjoy them as much as I did.
In the meantime, enjoy these photos.
And, if you learn anything about them, pass it along to me. I'll up date this blog!

Also, Celina just happens to be right on Grand Lake St. Mary, one of the largest man made lakes in the world. That means the whole world. So after you ooh and awe over these beautiful buildings, you can enjoy the water!

Lafayette Hotel, Marietta, Ohio, Surprise, Fun, Elegant and---Get this a Room for $45!

Contrary to what you might think, you do not have to get in an airplane and fly thousands of miles to some exotic destination to really have a good time.
No, you can do like I did not too long ago and have a lot of fun just enjoying something close to home.
Fun!
I always like to have fun, and what always seems to be the most fun to me is to find something totally unexpected.
The Lafayette Hotel in Marietta, Ohio is one of those totally unexpected experiences that is fun even now as I think about. The hotel is located downtown and right at the junction of the Ohio and Muskingum Rivers and about two hours by car south east of Columbus, Ohio.
I’d gone to Marietta to attend one of the events associated with the town’s annual celebration of its founding on April 7, 1788. I’d looked forward to that event because I’ve read a lot about the “first 48 men” who founded the town and all they went through to do it. But, that will be another whole topic, maybe two or three. Before moving on, though I will say that all those “first 48” were from New England, and they named one of the boats they took down the Ohio River to found their new town was the “Mayflower,” of course!
Back to the Lafayette and why it is so much fun.
First of all, I’d heard about the hotel located on the very spot or very near the spot where those “first 48 men” stepped ashore in 1788. Generally, the reports about it were good. Although, one friend said the rooms were awfully small, even to the penthouse he and his stayed one night.
I decided on the Lafayette sight because because I wanted to stay in something besides the typical motel, the Holiday or Comfort Inn, type place, something put together by marketing firm or focus group.
And, the Lafayette turned out to be a wonderful choice.
First, when I called to make the reservation, the clerk offered a standard room at $65 per night and then when I hesitated just the slightest, she quickly offered a “cabin room” for $45 per night. Now that was my kind of price, though I did not know what a “cabin room” was and had never heard of anything like that related to a hotel or motel. The clerk might have told me it was small, but since I did not plan to spend much time in the room, size did not matter.
Well, as it turned out, the “cabin room” was perfect—no not just perfect, but fun! So was everything else about the Lafayette Hotel in Marietta, Ohio.
So, what is a cabin room?
It was a room just barely big enough for a double bed, and by that I mean the space between the walls on each side of the bed is small. Yet, seeing the bed itself, with a headboard that looks like a steamboat with two smoke stacks is coming right at you, made up for the size of the room.
So did the bathroom which was large, clean and even sparkled as light sparkled off all the tile on the floor and walls and the mirror!
What a nice room and bathroom they were and how clean, too!
Then there was the rest of the hotel, a really spacious lobby with furniture that looked brand new. From the lobby was a view right onto the Ohio River where the temptation was great just to sit in one of the comfortable chairs and just watch the river and the occasional towboat go by! Oh, what a nice past time to think about, again even now.
The lobby, my, what a nice lobby the Lafayette Hotel has.
The dinning room is a typical hotel dinning room, and I paid a bit more for breakfast there than I like to pay for breakfast. It was a good breakfast, though.
There also was a small room with a computer right off the dinning room that I conveniently used to check emails.
The hotel is named for the famous French general who helped the Americans win the American Revolution. He stopped at Marietta when he made his famous tour of the United States in 1824 and 1825 at the invitation of President James Monroe.
The French connection goes beyond the General Lafayette in Marietta, though. Marietta was named for Marie Antoinette the Queen of France who’d been particularly supportive of the American cause during its war for independence.
So, again, you can go way off to some exotic clime, or you can go some place like the Lafayette Hotel in Marietta, Ohio—and be really surprised at what a nice time you can have there.
And, by the way, there are several excellent museums in and around Marietta—in case you get tired of sitting in the lobby of the Lafayette Hotel and watching the towboats pass by on the Ohio River.

Art Where You'd Never, Ever Expect It--South Eastern New Mexico! Yahoo!

If you are ever at or near Hobbs or Jal, New Mexico, look sharp. There is a lot to see that will wow you! South of Hobbs, maybe 35 or 47 miles, look carefully to your right as you travel to Jal. There, there on that ridge line, you will see a couple of cowboys herding some cattle. They look real.
Then go north of Hobbs, just north of the hospital and what is now the public golf course, and there, there on you left you will see a large airplane. Look closer and you might recognize a B-17 bomber of the World War II era and some of the plane's crew members standing under one of its wings. Look closely, and you will see an American flag to the right of the plane and a wind sock just off it's nose.
Then, if you get a chance, get to down town Hobbs and ask where the bar with the mural on the outside walls is. Find it, and you will certainly smile, maybe even laugh right out loud as I did. It almost like a small western town painted on the side of the bar, to include a saloon and whatever. Wow!
Oh, and, by the way, on your way out to see that B-17 bomber, look carefully, also to your right as you drive north. There on your left is a cowboy riding a horse and twirling a lariat over his head!
Well, the murals, as you can imagine, are just that the imagination of a remarkable artist who has long since gone no telling where. I lucked out and met her and her helper when they were painting the saloon and so forth on the walls of that bar. But, I haven't seen her since, and the fellow who owns the bar said he hadn't either.
"The Trail Ahead"
Oh, the cattle you see on that ridge line just north of Jal and south of Hobbs are not real cattle. They are metal sculptures called, "The Trail Ahead," by Brian Norwood of Jal. And, wow! How beautiful it is to see. And, if you stay long enough you will be aware of how though the sculptures do not actually move--the sky seems to change constantly to give the whole scene--400 feet long--a sometimes dramatic background.
That plane north of Hobbs is a metal sculpture, too. There is meaning to where it is, too. You see it stands on ground once used as an air base to train crews to fly the B-17. So, it is not only wonderful too look at now, but there is meaning for it.
That cowboy getting ready to throw his lariat rides his horse right next to the county museum and New Mexico Junior College. How nice to see, how nice all of it is to see!
So, if you ever get to Hobbs, look for these pieces of art that are right out there in the open for the whole world to enjoy.

Plane Crashes in Venezuela Rain Forest--But Wait There Are Flares! Maybe Survivors?

Great luck with the Internet so far, so here goes again.
Probably 20 years ago a plane carrying six people, including a relative of the president of Venezuela, crashed in the rain forest in what must have been the southern part of the country. The airport the plane intended to land at was not far from the famed Angel Falls.
The story at the time was those on the ground at the airport heard the plane fly over, but visibility was so low no one could see the plane. And, no one on the plane could see the ground, let alone the airstrip.
The plane subsequently crashed in the rain forest.
Again, according to the the story, several times over successive nights crews of other airplanes flying over the same area reported seeing flares flashing into the sky. The view was survivors from the plane crash must have fired the flares.
Soon someone requested help from the US Air Force, and it dispatched a C-130 from Howard Air Base in Panama.
Once in Venezuela, The Air Force C-130 launched its search from the same air field that was the missing airplane’s destination.
There was some hope for success because on the plane's first pass, a crew member aboard the C-130 spotted what he thought to be a metal shard hanging from a tree. Encouraged and hoping the metal could be from the missing plane, the C-130 winged its way back and forth over that area over and over again. Crew members intently looked for the downed plane and, hopefully, its survivors.
If the US Air Force plane found the survivors, then a US Army Special Forces team stood by to be dropped in to give aid to people from the missing airplane.
Alas, no one saw that metal shard again or anything else to give them the slightest hint as to the location of the downed planed.
Finally, the C-130 aircraft commander decided further searching useless. He called off the search. The aircraft returned to Panama, and no one connected with the C-130 or the Air Force, at least, heard anything more about the missing plane and its passengers.
The question that still remains in my own mind is: were the people from that crashed airplane ever found—dead or alive? Does anyone have the slightest idea what happened to them—even any speculation as to what might have happened?
I was in Panama the time that Air Force aircraft made its search, and I was there a few years later with another Air Force plane when it stopped briefly at the airport in Caracas. I asked several people I met at that airport if they knew anything about that missing plane. None did, though I’m not sure anyone I spoke to really understood what I was talking about.
So, I post this on the web, in hopes that someone somewhere will solve this true mystery for me!
Thanks!