Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Aberdeen Ohio

This place, Aberdeen Ohio, really intrigued me. The thought that a family member 8 generations back was the first to settle here, set up a ferry across the Ohio river at the end of Zane's Trace, became quite wealthy and ended up owning a large chunk of land, and, oh by the way, fought in the Revolutionary War as well... Well I just had to check this place out in person.

Got a leisurely start to the morning, as I had no real time agenda. Decent breakfast at the Comfort Inn which I would have to say was a pretty nice hotel. Oh, and extra points toward the Comfort Inn for NOT tuning into Fox and Friends in the breakfast room.  I could get used to this lifestyle real quick, it's going to suck next week when reality hits me in the face and I have to get up early and head downtown...

The hotel bills itself as being close to the Horseshoe Casino and the Creation Museum. All true, the casino is just down the road and the Creation Museum is right over the river in Kentucky. I have absolutely no interest in gambling, but a part of me wanted to go to the Cretin, er, Creation Museum for a hoot. But thinking about it, any money that I give them supports THEIR cause, even if I'm doing it in jest, protest, whatever. I can't do that, they are building a massive lie out of a work of fiction that has no basis in reasonable, rational human thought. So I drive on by with a little wave...

Leaving the greater Cincinnati area, I headed east on RT52 which hugs the banks of the Ohio River on the Ohio side. Nice drive, the river is big, the bluffs are tall and wooded. I'm in no rush, just soaking up the scenery as it rolls by. That is so not like me, I'm the worst A-type speeder normally.
One thing that I can't help but noticing is that the main industry of the region appears to be VERY LARGE coal fired power plants. I think that I passed 6 of them on the way. Now I totally get it that the river is an easy pathway for delivering the coal via barge, but so many, so close together... Must be serving a large geographical area...

Aberdeen is a nice enough little town. It's main claim to fame is that there are two bridges over the Ohio River, with none in-between here and Cincinnati. I spent some time just  driving about town trying to soak up the atmosphere and looking for any Ellis references. Well, there were none that I saw, only a sign for Ferry St. which so happened to be right under the present bridge.
Now, whether or not this had any relationship to where Captain Nathan Ellis had established his ferry remains to be seen... but I like to think so...
Nathan had helped route Zane's Trace to his ferry, giving him a monopoly on travel across the Ohio into Kentucky.


The bridge stands in what I assume to be the path of Nathan's ferry. There are still some remains of a ferry landing under the bridge on this side.

In Mabel's " Ellis Family History", she states that Nathan and family members were buried in the Ellis Family Cemetery on Old State Road, just 350 yards off RT 52. There is a cemetery in town, but it's not named "Ellis", it's Oakwood or some such... Still I took a look there, it's the only place in the area where 350 yards from RT 52 doesn't put one in the river or into a bluff. Also, Old State Rd. doesn't come anywhere near 350 yards from RT. 52. Found one Ellis there, but there is no mention of a W.R. Ellis in Mabel's work. May be a relative, but most likely not.

So the mystery of the old Ellis family grave still needs to be researched. Google marks a Ellis Grove on Old State Rd. which is consistent with Mabel's other descriptions of a cemetery up and out of Aberdeen proper. I had saved pages of Google Maps of the backroads around Aberdeen in a couple of scales on my lap top and iPad, thusly armed I set off... Oh my, the state route out of town is a narrow 2 lane and the first road that I turn off on is even smaller, 1 and 1/2 lanes at best... But at least it's paved... the next road is a narrow, single lane (maybe) gravel and rock affair. And it's steep and twisty and did I mention narrow? I'm glad for the 4wd truck, actually it's kind of fun, but I'm sure glad that I didn't encounter anyone coming from the opposite direction. I traversed the area in both directions a couple of times and ended up following Old State Rd. for it's entire length as one can never be sure with the Google maps locations. Nothing, not even a sniff. There might be an old graveyard back in those hills, but I couldn't find it. Might well have be on someone's present property, or the descriptions that I have are corrupted through the passage of time... The nearest that I could pinpoint was the intersection of Old State with Wilson Rd ( Google's mark ), but there was a nice, well kept, newer looking farm there. Maybe once upon a time there was a graveyard there but has since been plowed over... who knows...

There were other sights to be seen and these weren't a mystery, the little hamlet of Ellsberry and from it, Ellis Run Road.



 Here it should be noted that there are a lot of " ____ Run Roads" in the area. A "run" must refer to a creek / valley that cuts through the massive bluffs of the Ohio river valley. The roads hug the banks of the creeks as they twist and turn their way down to the mighty Ohio. I of course, just had to drive Ellis Run... It was, umm, interesting, it was one lane and paved, my mirrors and radio antenna were getting thwacked constantly from the tree branches... some ok looking places along the way with the majority of homes being the mobile variety, really quite a few were just smaller, old RV's that were functioning as homes. Some places weren't so nice.


It was still bloody hot and humid here today and I had had enough exploring. Off to my hotel across the river in Maysville Kentucky. The Hampton Inn is fortuitously located in a shopping center with a Kroger Foods at the other end. Right next door is a Tumbleweeds restaurant, a local chain of Tex -Mex joints. All set for the night then. I did something out of character for myself, I went for a swim in the pool before dinner. I usually avoid motel pools as they are usually filled with rug rats, today it was all mine! Sweet...

Walked across the parking lot to dinner. I wasn't holding out high hopes for culinary excellence as all of the Yelp reviews were lukewarm at best. The other places in town fared worse in the review status, so here goes... Picture a Chili's only smaller and with more emphasis on the Mexican part of the menu. On the positive side, Tumbleweeds really works on the Margarita business. My drink was right up there, a 8 out of 10. I'm surprised at myself for only having one... if I had this drink in Chicago or Santa Fe I would have been happy. My only demerits for the cocktail was the use of a mix versus using fresh squeezed lime juice. Otherwise they nailed it. The other thing that they have going on is something that you just can't teach, train, put in your company manual... the world changes south of the Ohio River. The waitresses all refer to one as "sweetie, dear, honey"... They don't mean anything by that, it's not flirting or anything like that, but to this old cynical yankee, it's a nice touch. The food was only so so, but the Margarita and the "sweetie" made for a nice experience...

I walked across the shopping center to walk off some of the burrito and to get some toothpaste. Still pretty warm but tolerable. Back in the hotel room I'm writing this blog entry at the desk with a weird old naugahyde chair that lists considerably to the right, it's most disconcerting and uncomfortable. Last night's hotel had a really good office chair. Funny how these things matter in one's experience...

Tomorrow I'm heading back home. My work here is done and Friday is a full track day at Autobahn, something that I have not taken advantage of over the past couple of years and the race car is running strong for now...





No comments:

Post a Comment