Old Sturbridge Village Takes You Back In Time

by Jamie Rhein on

One of my most patriotic 4th of Julys was spent at Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, Massachussets two years ago. Old Sturbridge Village is a living history museum that is an entire rural New England town set in the time period 1790 to 1840. Even though the buildings look original, several are reconstructions, but honestly, you won’t be able to tell the difference. All are situated just as they might have looked way back when. My favorites are the buildings where crafts people make their wares like candles and tin lanterns. There is also a working farm that follows the seasons. The whole place has the aura of a time warp since the people who work there are in period costumes and talk to visitors as if they are living way back when. Here’s the on-line tour that highlights the buildings and their purpose.

On the 4th of July, in addition to walking around the town to take in the various homes, business establishments, and the school house, you can gather at the village commons to hear the Declaration of Independence being read by a person dressed like a government official. My experience with the Declaration of Independence before this was reading it in some social studies textbook with a quiz attached. This way was much better. The reading was only part of the day’s activities. There was baseball game, crafts, a fife and drum band that marched around the commons and a hot air balloon.

Tom Sawyer Days: Hannibal, Missouri

by Jamie Rhein on

When I got out of the Peace Corps, a friend and I traveled across the U.S. mostly by bus. This was a grand plan to avoid getting a job for four months and to take the time to see parts of the country we hadn’t seen before. It worked beautifully and that was the best summer ever. My most favorite place we visited was the place she wanted to go to the least.

“HANNIBAL, CANNIBAL! Why DO YOU WANT TO GO TO HANNIBAL, MISSOURI?!” was her reaction when I told her the very one thing I thought we should not miss on our journey from the East Coast to the West Coast.

I was stubborn and turned to the pages in Lets Go USA to show her the wonders. “Tom Sawyer Days, that’s why. This is small town America at its finest,” I said, hoping I was right and wouldn’t regret my determination.

Hannibal is the town that inspired Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) to write the books Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. What more reason is there than that when it comes to rediscovering an important part of Americana?

Still grousing a bit, my friend finally went along with my plan to buy a bus ticket to Hannibal from Des Moines, Iowa and from there we could buy a ticket to St. Louis for our continued trip westward. Hannibal was everything I imagined and even more charming than I expected. We splurged and stayed in a Bed & Breakfast, and spent the 4th of July going to the town parade, grabbing whatever candy was thrown our way, went to the free ice-cream social in the city park (We were the only ones there I think who were under retirement age), toured Mark Twain’s Boyhood Home and Museum, took The Mark Twain Riverboat trip on the Mississippi River and went to the family barbeque of the couple who owned the B&B. It could not have been a finer time. As for my friend, she was happy that I won the arguement.

“Tom Sawyer Days,” July 3-July 7, is going on its 57th year of celebrating Mark Twain and what might be called, good clean, family fun. There is a variety of entertainment options throughout the week. There was a lot we missed.

Hot? Bothered? Cool off in a Public Pool

by Jamie Rhein on

Las Vegas’s casino pools aren’t the only pools to lure visitors. Parks and recreation centers across the U.S. are also places to jump in for a cool off whether you are from a town or not. If you are out of the U.S., swimming at a city recreation pool is also possible. One of my most favorite times in Taiwan when I went as a visitor was swimming in one of the community pools in Taichung.

Because the aim of today’s pools, at least in the U.S., is to draw people in for recreational and leisure fun, many have added slides, wave pools, and play fountains. Whenever we visit our friends who live in Bolingbrook, Illinois outside of Chicago, we head to Pelican Harbor. This place even has a lazy river.

Here are some links to other public pools in the U.S. where you can take a dip.

Tony Hawk’s Big Spin: New Roller Coaster in Two Places

by Jamie Rhein on

Dollywood isn’t the only amusement park to get a new roller coaster. Here’s another one. If the name Tony Hawk’s Big Spin makes you feel dizzy, it’s no wonder. This new roller coaster, made by Gerstlauer in Germany, is patterned after the moves of professional skateboarder Tony Hawk. Instead of zipping along on tracks where each time you ride you move in the same pattern of ups, downs and arounds, this roller coaster has cars that spin as if you’re free-styling on a skateboard. None of the spins match each other so each time you ride, the experience is different.

The cars are also what make this ride unique. Each seat only four people who sit across from each other. Both Six Flags Fiesta Texas in San Antonio and Six Flags St. Louis have one of these new rides.

The question I want answered before I climb aboard is how sick does the spinning make you feel? Because people sit across from each other, getting sick could be a bit of a problem. Here’s a link to the promotional video that gives a pretty good idea about what this ride is like. I’d get sick for sure. That’s a lot of spinning.

New Roller Coaster in Dollywood: “Mystery Mine”

by Jamie Rhein on

The Mystery Mine at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee is a ride I’m just going to have to go on one of these days. Not only is it a roller coaster, it has some sort of light show as a feature. The theme of this 2 ½ minute ride is an abandoned mine that takes you on a journey of a vertical climb followed by 55 mph of straight down tracks-think 95 degrees. Then there’s a feature called the “heart-line roll” and another called a “roll-over loop.”

This is the first such roller coaster in the United States. According to the description of it, this is a Gerstlauer’s Euro-fighter ride which adds a twist to the interactive experience. If you spend some time on the Mystery Mine Web site, you can watch a series of videos of a man telling a story of the mine to two children in the tradition of a campfire ghost story. There’s also a cool mine animation video complete with mood music, screaming, and roller coaster wheels clickety-clackiting against the track noises.

In pure ghost story spirit, the ride opened on Friday, April 13 (Friday the 13th). The first 56 people who road the rollercoaster paid $625 each for the experience as a way to raise money for charity.