The next morning we rose a little late, but not so late as to not have time to eat the cinnamon bread we'd gotten at Dollywood. And, particularly, to have it while sitting in the plastic chairs on the small patio overlooking a creek and a sleepy cat and, I am reliably informed, squirrels very active about their business when I was in the shower. ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger used the room's microwave to turn it into piping hot cinnamon bread too. It may not have been as good as fresh-from-the-oven at the park, but it's nothing we would ever complain about, past that we needed to wash up afterwards too.
In-between loading the car I also took a moment to stop in the enclosed sun porch room attached to the front of the motel, looking out on other strip mall areas --- the lure of SEXY STUF remained --- as well as the helicopter tours that bunnyhugger swore she hadn't noticed before, or she would have rejected them sooner, not that they were ever going to be considered.
We had one last tourist thing before getting out of town. This was stopping at the Buc-ee's, signs for which we'd been seeing for hundreds of miles. We don't have these locally, just the occasional person with a T-shirt or hat featuring what my brother-in-law, unbeknownst to us, was even then picking a fight on Facebook over. (He argued it was a shoddily drawn mascot, like the kind the decent-but-not-great artist in high school might do. It's a better beaver than I can do.) Not just any Buc-ee's, either, but according to the signs, the largest convenience store in the world. Maybe North America. Maybe the United States.
Nevertheless, it's true that it is big. Maybe not the size of a Meijer's, but of that magnitude. We ended up walking the aisles more than we expected, finding fewer snacks than we anticipated. Also the smells of the big meat counter in the center reminded me how oh yeah, I did like brisket, back when I ate meat regularly. This prompted bunnyhugger to reassure me she wouldn't be offended if I ate meat and I know that. I try to eat vegetarian and it's pretty easy most of the time and maybe sometime I will have brisket, when I feel like it.
Anyway it was all fun visiting but we'll be fine if one doesn't get to the Lansing area. And it happens we didn't find any cheap wristwatches there; I think we didn't find any wristwatches at all, in fact. bunnyhugger's aggravation that she didn't have her regular watch and her Fitbit had died for loss of power would last until we took a bathroom break somewhere in Kentucky and found a spinner rack of watches at some gas station's regular-sized convenience store.
Our goal for the day was a drive north, and we were alert this time to the Campbell County, Tennessee, rusted Ferris wheels and rocket (though we didn't take the time to get off the road and make a side trip to it for some reason. I think neither of us thought to see if it was even accessible). Our destination was a hotel that proved to be under renovation. As in, the restaurant's windows were all covered with white plastic bags, and the hallways on the first floor were bare drywall, signs for everything resting on the floor beneath their hanging spots. It was a 50/50 chance where the elevator was as I managed to miss both times the clerk told us which way to go and felt it easier to be lost than to look again.
Here (if I remember right) we also had an actual drip coffee maker. bunnyhugger observed that the rooms we'd stayed in in different hotels had run the gamut of kinds of room coffee-maker we might get. Good for her, as she likes coffee; me, I had been filling Taco Bell cups with water and leaving them in the fridge overnight and really, really loving that in the mornings.
All was looking good and the day wasn't done yet.
Now, some more pictures of the U building, or as it's properly known (thank you, bunnyhugger) the Universal Clay Products company. They made insulators. Her research offers this great little piece from 1920 and reprinted at insulators.info.
The building is opposite a marina that's still in use and, as you can see, has Cedar Point way off in the background behind it.
The other side of the U building, with a friendly hand pointing out bunnyhugger.
I'm entering this in the county fair, in the ``gates with amusement parks in soft focus way in the background'' category.
They had been a member of the Sandusky Area Safety Council, which does still exist. Their headquarters aren't far from the Merry-Go-Round Museum.
Definitely not a subterranean side quest down under this slab of metal!
And a last look at the U chimney, standing bold against the light overcast skies.
Trivia: In 1786 a Mr Arfird suggested that theater curtains could be made fireproof by dipping them in a solution of ammonium phosphate. The idea was impractical as the substance was not commercially available. Source: The 13th Element: The Sordid Tale of Murder, Fire, and Phosphorus, John Emsley. However, Joseph Guy-Lussac picked up the idea in the 1820s and yes, phosphates can make good flame retardants.
Currently Reading: Lost Popeye Sundays Supplement Volume 10: 1948, Tom Sims, Bela Zaboly. Editor Stephanie Noelle.
PS: What's Going On In Rex Morgan, M.D.? What's with this 'Randy' and 'Parker' thing? April - July 2024 and I failed to even mention here's a third story strip with an explicitly nonbinary major character. Although it falls behind Mark Trail and Gil Thorp in that the character isn't part of main cast (yet).
