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In Park City, why we didn't have water for a day . . .
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Judy went to "Neighborfest", a monthly arts-related block party in downtown Columbus IN
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These folks had a mobile brick-oven pizza baker, and would also be at Brian's graduation party
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Some of the little kids added to the entertainment at the performance area
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The front of the Columbus Children's Museum is one of many interesting buildings and entrances . . .
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The old Bartholomew County Courthouse is a downtown standout . . .
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The night before graduation, Brian patiently posed for pictures all over town. We followed along . . .
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The Piersons, looking good as always . . .
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We got into the pictures too . . .
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Brian and his grand-dad Tim Irwin . . .
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And the whole famly once again
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Brian spotted us! We can prove it!
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There were over 600 kids in the class . .
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All that to get to these 5 seconds on stage . . .
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Brian's graduation party was held under the eaves at the Columbus North Christian Church
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It took Brian to get the slideshow running on the laptop . .
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The brick pizza oven was a big hit, and put out some good stuff.
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Lots of Brian's friends were there
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A good time was had by all . . .
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The slideshow of Brian's life was a big hit . . .
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He didn't seem embarrassed by the little-kid pictures
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Luther's Mom was there . . .
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And a big display of memorabilia . . . .
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After an hour or so, the table games came out . . . and we left.
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In Dayton OH, the Aviation Trail features the Wright Brothers, among others
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The Visitor Center tells the story of the Wright Brothers before and after flight . .
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The park rangers used a replica of a Wright glider to demonstrate the control principles
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Upstairs, an informative parachute museum . . .
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We've seen these Golden Caterpillar pins on several British Antiques Roadshows
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The freefall parachute - not tethered to an aircraft - was developed in and around Dayton OH
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Dayton was also home to Paul Laurence Dunbar, one of the first published black writers in the Americas
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His talent for rhyme shines in this gem
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This is a reproduction. We'll see the original in July in Michigan . . . (Judy and Al are originals, though)
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In Wilmington OH, we couldn't resist a meal at the local Big Boy . . .
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It's at Ohio State University in Columbus
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We went specifically to see this exhibition
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Before Calvin & Hobbes, Bill Waterston did editorial cartoons
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He did all his own artwork . . . and painted the colors separately.
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All the art displayed were originals from the Museum collection
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Many strips displayed were classics
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This has always been one of our favorites . . .
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One of our other favorite cartoonists is Richard Thompson, who drew the Cul de Sac strip. He also did some marvelous caricatures
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He worked mostly for the Washington Post, but was also published in New Yorker, among others
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We were so engrossed in the art we didn't get any pictures of the Cul de Sac strips.
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If you wondered, this explains how a cartoonist's brain works . . .
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These are two frames from the very first Dick Tracy comic - October 4, 1931. Originals from the museum collection
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This is generally accepted as the very first published cartoon, in Punch Magazine July 15, 1843
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Jim Borgman, who draws "Zits" did this tribute to the many comic strips from Ohio artists. How many can you name?
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And as we left, one of Billy Ireland's most famous cartoons . . .
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Now we're at Fort Ancient, Ohio's first state park, and home to many, many Indian mounds
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The park's museum tries to interpret the life of the mound builders going back some 2500 years
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This mastodon skull shows signs of having been burned, perhaps to cook the flesh
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There were displays of ancient pottery and other relics
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This birch bark canoe dates to the 1870s, and was made by Chippewa indians to sell to Europeans
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There are over three miles of mounds in the park . . . anything that's not flat is a mound
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This excavation isn't of a mound - 12 years ago they found a structure buried under a flat field
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We were lucky to be invited into the dig, now in its 12th year.
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You can see the layers of material deliberately laid down to cover the structure or settlement - they're not sure yet
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They can only dig about 3ft down - the water table is very high.
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They wet down the strata to make it more visible in photographs
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We ended our stay in Ohio when the Piersons drove over from Columbus for a wonderful dinner
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Brian was in Ireland, but we all ate enough to make up for the one empty chair
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They put the bibs on us just before the ribs came out. Smart move. We'll end here . . .