can you get a merit badge for this?

Rain.  That's what they've been telling us is on its way with a vengeance.   So we awoke with a mission.  Shoot stuff before we wouldn't be able to.   After yesterday's "issues" (and thankfully, we did find a place to imbibe last night) the realities of guerilla TV-making were rearing their ugly head.

After a Starbucks stop we resumed the Appalachian road regimen-- hills and curves and potentially stomach churning drops.  Hey, no problem.  We made it without incident to the Miners' Memorial Park near Reinsersville, Ohio, better known as the home of the Big Bucket. A 13 ton coal bucket from a machine called the Big Muskie.  (Yes, it even put Kansas' Big Brutus to shame.)  That's it above, being occupied by a Boy Scout Troop and the Big Ball.  We played some catch inside it, proving once again we're only ready for "the minors."

Lunch was taken in Cambridge, a town we realized we'd stayed in 6 years ago.  We didn't stop at the Hopalong Cassady Museum then, and we didn't this time either.  Sorry, Hop.  But Ruby Tuesday's did have a vegie burger on the menu and a right plentiful salad bar.  A new option for eating has arrived!

On the way up to Wilmot, we remembered to pimp the good folks at Hampton Inns, who've been doing some work to restore old roadside attractions.  Why not help us a little bit too? One of the places where they'd assisted was the World's Largest Cuckoo clock at Grandma's Alpine Inn.  We were primed for some oversized animated timekeeping, but when we finally found it, the giant parking lot was empty and a "for lease" sign told the tale.  Eventually, someone came around to ask what we were doing, but they clearly didn't really care to talk about it, except to say we could "tell PBS it's for sale."  Wonder how the Hampton folks feel about that...

Still no rain, though, so we trudged on to Canton, took a spin (actually two) past the Pro Football Hall of Fame ("underwhelming" was the term we could all live with) and flew on to North Canton.  We'd seen a tip about a UFO shaped office building, and sure enough, a saucer seemed to have landed atop a bug eyed base with very few markings except a "psychological services" sign on the back.  Kinda suspicious don't you think?  We didn't think too long, although Don did point out that if they wanted to turn it into a revolving restaurant someday, that might be an option...

Music In the Van--Cat Power, "Dirt Farmer" Levon Helm, "Madman Across the Water" Elton John, "Nashville" Solomon Burke

Don's money count (apparently I've missed several key finds) --$2.65