Maysville, KY

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Monday, October 10th, 2011. Starting out at 9:00 this morning with mileage today at 18161 and the sky is overcast with temperature at 59 degrees. Maysville Wal-mart parking lot.

Maysville was once a very busy stop on the Ohio River like Independence, MO; a limestone rock shelf stuck out into the river and, therefore, became an easy place to dock flatboats and barges. We found the visitor’s center and discovered that the museum, miniature display, and library we wanted to visit were closed on Mondays.

Talked awhile with the visitor center’s staff and then drove around the old picturesque downtown and then down to the city’s RV Park located right on the Ohio River. There we found a large number RVers who spend the whole summer at this spot and then head south to winter in FL and other warm places. They had built various wooden patios, grown flowers and veggies, and really settled into this location. They all seemed to use golf carts to run into town for errands. Many of the set-ups were decorated for fall and Halloween. We decided to relax here and work on blogs and naps. Looked for someone to pay for the night, but no one at the office. Plugged into the electric outlet and spent the night.

Tuesday October 11, 2011 Maysville City RV Park. 59 degrees and quite overcast. Starting mileage at 18168.

Stopped by park office and looked for someone to pay camping fee. Absolutely no one around and office locked tight.

Drove into town through a residential area with many very well decorated homes along the way. Our first stop in town was Limestone Landing where the murals are painted on the floodwall showing the history of the town and honoring Rosemary Clooney who was born and grew up here. The first movie she made was premiered here in the local movie theater.

The history of Mason County, the miniature collection, and the genealogy library were housed in one building with a fee to enter each. The history museum was small but well done for a small community. The miniature museum was fascinating and extremely well done with houses, rooms, cottages, and scenes displayed all at 1/12th scale. Tiny dishes, household goods, paintings, books, furniture, musical instruments, animals, trees, flowers and plants were all done in miniature. Unfortunately, Valerie had to check her camera at the ticket/reception desk, so here is a link to a slide show: http://www.kygmc.org/media/video/miniatures_exhibit_128.wmv We found them really interesting, especially that someone would a) collect all of them and b) be willing to spend the money for them. One of the newest displays was the ancestral home of the Spencers, Princess Diana’s family, which she commissioned for £200,000 plus all of the furnishings, such as four miniature silk carpets, each costing £3,000; seven crystal and three gilt chandeliers, each costing £1,000; and a £5,000 copy of Louis XV's roll-top marquetry desk.

We were most disappointed with the genealogy library that was the supposed repository of family history for 5 counties. We were looking at the possibility that one of our ancestors came from a family by the same last name that lived in adjacent Lewis County. The offerings of this library were in no way extensive and I saw no reason for them to charge $5 entry fees let alone $1 per page copy fee that was announced. It was also the kind of place where a lot of stuff was kept behind the counter and only the librarian could search in it. After browsing for no more than a half hour we left and headed up the road to the regular library to post to our blog.

We crossed the Ohio River and drove along its edge on highway 52. We needed to get gas but decided to eat lunch and get gas at one of the small towns shown on our map. The problem with that idea was that along the 46 mile stretch of road the gas stations and restaurants were all closed down and out of business. Really a depressed area with many closed and out of business places that reminded us of parts of our Alaska trip.

Since it had gotten late, with no café in sight, we pulled into a rest stop and had tuna sandwiches for lunch. We skirted through the town of Portsmouth and turned up highway 23 toward Waverly. Outside of town we got the needed gas. Rosie II was low by this time, so took 24.29 gallons at $3.259 per gallon. Spending a total of $79.17 with mileage at this point of 18214.

The Ohio Welcome center was the next stop for maps of both Ross and Pike Counties. We wanted the more detailed county maps in order to find possible cemeteries or property that our ancestors might have been buried in or owned in the 1800’s. Highway 23 went right by the Waverly Wal-mart. Decided to spend the night there.

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Comments

[ella nichols]

i really like your blog it's fun to read about other places because sometimes when i read something that i really like it feels like i am really there. i always wanted to go to france dad said he would take me one day merry christams from:ella nichols