Where was I at? Oh yes, Tippecanoe.
Tecumseh and Tenskawata had built a village there. Tecumseh was out to trying to rally the other tribes when general harrison showed up and built a crude fort. He essentially drew a line in the sand and dared Tenskawata to cross it.
My Two cent summary of the battle.
I spent some time at the museum store (of course) where the Ranger tried to get me to buy several books after he learned what I was doing there. I walked out with a book about Tenskawata, The Prophet. It was the first one I had seen, and I wanted to make I had the details about his life right, as he was a character.
Born Laesheioga (Panther with a handsome tail), he soon acquired the name Lalawiethka (Loud Noise, or the baby rattle) as he had reputation as a braggart. he shot himself in the eye with an arrow, and became an alcoholic.
He drank himself into a Coma, and when he woke up, he announced that the Great Spirit had visited him, and told to if he would stop drinking, He and Tecumseh would be be able to drive the White Man away.
There is a state Park called Prophetstown. Ironically, the main attraction is a 1920's Farm house:
I was more interested in the recreation of Tecumseh and Tenskawata's village:
It was very windy, and I could hear the wind groan through the council house (The Prophet smoked the holy tobacco. The Wind spirit and the Wood spirits told him how to get rid of the Big Knife, Harrison)
There was book explaining the building. It had plastic pages, which were wet due to the gaps in the roof. Makes me glad of modern worksmanship.
I walked back on the prairie:
I decided to press on to Fort Ouiateon:
This was probably a mistake, as it took me an hour to get through Lafayette, it would probably had been better to go to Prophet's Rock, where Tenskawata stood during the Battle.
I have my characters walking down the south side of the Wabash, so I need to check out some of the tributaries, as I wanted to make sure I had the size of the river right.
The Mississinewa was about what I had expected:
it also the the Francis Slocum trail, she was a Pennsylvania woman who was adopted by the Miamis (another theme of my work)
my next stop was the Saalmonie. i had them breaking out Canoes here. There was big problem, It was shallow enough to wade across:
I concluded the day by looking at the Wabash in Huntington. I had them wading through some rapids. the only problem was I looked at the rapids, there were none, and the current appeared too strong:
It was a very long, but worth it. finding mistakes, getting inspiration and details are priceless. hopefully, I get this done and published.
I started out today by going to Church at Trinity Episcopal in Fort Wayne. It was my first experience with Anglican High Mass. I think I knelled at all the Right times.
My Characters walked Down the Wabash from Fort Wayne to Cape Girardeau, so I thought I should drive down it. I had set a goal for today of Fort Ouiatenon outside of Lafayette. I Started out by going to Huntington, home of former Vice president Dan Quail err Quayle.
I was soon outside of Lagro:
I stopped at Wabash, where I noticed a Steep Bluff next to the River(must work into story) and then Peru:
I was following Old US 24. It was mostly marked as Business 24, but some places it had been decomssioned, so I got lost a couple of times. I was going to have lunch at Happy burger in logansport, but there were observing the sabbath, too:
I had to settle for Arby's.
I decided to follow the old Towpath , even it slowed me down considerably:
i had noticed that it was the Pottawatomie Trail of death, similar to the Cherokee Trail of tears that goes through Cape Girardeau:
I wonder why I like this road:
My next stop, was site of the battle of Tippacanoe:
Tecumseh and his Brother, The Prophet, Tenskwata, made the trek to Cape Girardeau:
Tenskwata:
Whose side are you on?
the enemy, gen harrison:
note the bent Rammer:
I spent some time with the Park ranger
more to come on this Story Tomorrow
Well, since it's rainy day here in LA, I'm sitting here packing for my trip next week back to Missouri next Tuesday
The first variable I looked at when planning my trip was what to do once I got to Saint Louis. while I could rent a car, the truth is I wouldn't need one. At $50/flight, Cape Air is hard to beat. Plus, I get take another trip on a plane? What more could an Airline geek want?
Why is it only $50? Well, service from Saint Louis to Cape Girardeau is subsidized under the FAA's Essential Air Service program. Back during the Good old days(tm), if you wanted to fly between Saint Louis and Nashville, you flew on Ozark Air Lines, and you made a stop in Cape or Marion, IL, EAS is a program deigned to keep communities(Marion is also now a EAS airport)like Cape in the airline business. Carriers bid on flying these routes, and the FAA awards the contract based on low bids, community input, and financial stability (Snoopy and his Sopwith Camel probably wouldn't win a bid)
As you can imagine, there are problems with pork-barrel spending and less than sound airlines Cape has had two carriers (Air Illinois and Regions Air) grounded by the FAA due to maintenance issues, and one (Big Sky) went out of business after flying to Cape for a month. Several Aiports in the Program have "normal" airport fairly close , which is counter to the mission of providing service to out of the way places.
And, the EAS program was designed so that, eventually, the subsidy would no longer be needed. Both Cape and Marion have been EAS ever since the program started.
The current airline, Cape(as in cod) Air of Barnstable, Mass, actually does have a history of being able to wean routes off the dole. How do they do this? For starters, they fly small planes. Real small planes. How small? Try the 9 seat Cessna 402. The folks that were on my last flight that Complained that the MD-80 was a “little plane”? The Rental car counter is across from the baggage claim on the lower level in Saint Louis. Most airlines in the EAS business fly 19 seat planes, which means that they have more seats to fill and more fuel to burn. The 402 can be legally operated by a single pilot in good weather, so that cuts the cost even further. By the way Neither 19 seaters or 9 seaters have to have flight attendants.
Cape Air's model is built on increasing the number of frequencies and destinations from their airports with a big serving of Customer Service. Their motto is Make Our Customers Happy And Have A Good Time Doing It or “MOCHA HAGTDoIT” Beats dealing with surly rental car clerks or rude shuttle van drivers and Passengers.
As far as wasting Tax money:EAS does tend to be a scared cow “vote for Sen Smith. he worked hard to preserve airline service to Hooterville International!(yes. it is International. Remember when Mexicana had to divert there 20 years ago? That pilot had such a funny accent and was real mad when Sheriff Jimmy Joe told him he couldn't let his passenger get off the plane” They only way I see to ending this is the Cape Air model.
And then there is the issue of Airlines and Airports. I normally like LA/Ontario International since it quite literally in my back yard, but there are 5 airports(Ontario "ONT", Burbank Bob Hope "BUR", LA International “LAX”, Santa Ana -John Wayne "SNA", and Palm Springs "PSP") with commercial service in a 60 mile radius. Normally, I usually compare Ontario and LAX. The difference is usually only about $60, which is usually not worth the hassle.
It turned out that LAX was about $200 cheaper, which was a little too much to be ignored. Plus American flew there directly. If I flew from Ontario, I would have to stop at Dallas/Fort Worth. so, off to LAX
Why American Airlines? As you can imagine, Cape Air will only fly you to Saint Louis. To make their service even more convenient, They have what is known as a Code share agreement with American. This means I can book my entire trip on American, earn frequent flier miles on my trip to Cape, and most importantly, My checked luggage will make it all the way with out me having to claim it and re-check it. Chances are you have flown on a code share. If you've flown on a regional Jet, You've probably been on a code share. Think “Air Missouri d/b/a Transcontinental and Western Express(a nod to the airline that became Trans World Airlines)”.
American is the only airline that code shares with Cape Air at Saint Louis. The biggest airline at Saint Louis, Southwest, refuses to do code sharing (American is now either #2 or #3 , depending on how you define “biggest”. Delta has more flights, but on smaller planes). I find this somewhat curious, as both Southwest share similar points on their Business models (fly a lot of flights on Smaller planes (yes, a 737 is smaller than a 747.) and have out standing customer service. The big difference is that Southwest only serves major markets, whereas Cape Air Focuses on Rural areas.
I usually do price them all before booking. A site like Kayak.com is nice since it is an aggregator (pulls in data from several website, but then takes you that site to book,so you can enter your loyalty program information). I also compared Airport - I just booked a trip Friday to Fort Wayne, IN (FWA) in April to do more research for my book. It was the opposite (LAX was $200 more than ONT) But you can't look up Southwest fares on Kayak, they're only available via Southwest.com.
And despite their reputation as the "low fare" airline, most of time, the "traditional" airlines are fairly competitive With Southwest. In this case the only difference was the the $25 bag fee (Cape Air doesn't Charge for bags - another plus for them ), That I have never cared for Southwest boarding process:
After Looking at Parking, I began to think maybe I should re-book. I found a hotel (the Hacienda) near LAX that would let you park your car if you stay the night before and the night after, and since I have a 07:00AM departure and a 10:00 arrival, it should come in handy.
So I'll be deserting my "home airport", although since ONT and LAX are both owned by the City Of Los Angeles, maybe I should think of as getting promoted to Major Leagues. or Maybe not, since I'm listening to the Kings lose right now.
BTW, Santa Ana "John Wayne" beat ONT by $20 and one less connection. Considering the traffic: probably not worth it. besides I'll get a free cookie when I get to Fort Wayne:
After visiting the George Rogers Clark Memorial, I walked across Vigo Street. There is a Little Park that has a monument to all the Navy Ships that have borne the Name USS Vincennes: It's named after Patrick Henry, Since he was the Governor of Virginia at the time of the Battle, and Virgina at that time consisted whet we know of Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
A couple of blocks North, I found this sign:
This is actually more important to me than Ft Sackvillle, as this is where the army fort was when my characters pass through here. I paused and tried to recreated what it looked like 210 Years ago.
The next stop was the Broulliet house. It's fairly close to my time period, but was closed. I have been inside a similarly constructed house in Sainte Genevieve, so there was no great loss. They had a Bois d'Arc, or Osage Orange, tree there.
Don't eat the fruit, though, I spied a rock with a plaque nearby:
It turn out that this is where Jefferson Davis proposed to his wife.
I kept on making my way up the street. I stopped to let the Railroad Workers get their truck on the tracks.
They were a little embarassed that I was waiting for them to put their truck on the Tracks, but I told them that they were working, and I was on vacation.
Across the tracks was the famous Walnut Grove, where William Henry Harrison and Tecumseh sat down and hashed out several treaties (and almost came to blows).
I do have Tecumseh in my story, but he mainly appears when he was in his late teens to early 20's, so it's not that germane to me, but good to know. Maybe I can have him look at the grove and get a sense of dread. :)
And across the Street is William Henry Harrison's home, Grouseland
It wouldn't have been there yet, but the tour did give me some ideas, and I got to support the DAR.
Vincennes was the First Capital of Indiana Terrortory. The state has moved several buildings next to Grouseland and created a State Historic Site:
The red building was the first Capitol, and the White Building was the Offices of the First Paper in Indiana, which is still being published to this day (Vincennes Sun-Commercial). There was also the house that the author of “Alice of Old Vincennes” was born in. I Thought it made a nice Contrast to Grouseland
I looked at the map that ranger had given me. I decided to wander over to the courthouse and take a look at the Civil War Memorial, fully expecting it to be the run of the mill fountain that nearly every county east of the Mississippi has. I was pleasantly surprised
The Courthouse wasn't too shabby
I walked downtown and had lunch at the Saint Louis Street Soda shop. A ruben, chips, and a diet coke.
I was debating what to do next. One of the Bishops of Vincennes had a 5,000 volume libary. The guides wern't clear if it was open to General admission, so I tried the lock. No luck. I had almost called and made a reservation, but I couldn't think of anything to research. I did come up with one while I was there: who was Jean Hamtramck's (who was the Commander of Ft Knox at my "time") second-in-command? At the same time, I wasn't sure that the information was there, and I would probably waste my time find yet another story from the Past. They supposedly have the Correspondce between Fr. Gibault and his Bishop in Quebec. Bishop "You have not been to this Church in over a year and you were seen in a Log-rolling contest on the Wabash." Fr Gibault "It is too far to make regular trips there, and I must have some recreation" (Fr Gibault was a Voyageur before taking his vows).
So I went back over into Illinois, and drove up the river.. The Park Ranger had recommend that I stop by the Military Museum. I was debating as it seemed to mostly focused on World War II. Unlike the Civil War Memorial, it lived up to my expectations
A couple of things
I thought this was plane was somewhat ironic. It's a Lockheed Shooting Star. One of the Translations of 'Tecumseh' from Shawnee to English is 'Shooting Star'.
This truck caught my eye, as I associated George Air Force base with the Airport in Victorville.
Turns out , there was a George Army Air Field across the river, which is now the Vincennes airport
I then headed over to the Quabache (french spelling) Trails County park, which is the site of what is Called "Fort Knox II", which was the army post present during the War of 1812. I didn't get that far:
I then headed back to the Super 8. I was debating heading out for Dinner, but there was a Mc Donald's, Pizza Hut. and Hardee's within walking distance. I had my usual from Hardee's - The Mushroom and Swiss - which I found lacking compared to what I remembered, and called it a day well spent
well, I took a Vacation. I had done a a blog post a week for a year or two, so I would giving it a break.
So, what did I do , well I went on the one eighty west century:
but mostly i've been working on my other writing. I decided to combine two of my hobbies by taking a trip to Vincennes, Indiana to do some research.
It would have been cheaper to stay here , but some times it does pay to get you boot wet, so to speak.
As an example, My Character were living near Fort Wayne,, In when the Shawnee moved to Cape Girardeau. The route was to take the Portage ("The Glorious gate") from the Maumee to the Wabash and trudge down the Wabash to the Ohio, and the Mississippi. I had my folks walking across the plan and down the Little Wabash to the Forks at Huntingdon. I had them take some canoes across the main channel and the ford the next stream, the Salamonie, where one of my minor characters would fall in, catch Pneumonia, and die (Yes, I'm evil).
Only I started to use the Satellite services available with google maps. and lo and behold, there appears to be some rapids in Huntingdon:
View Larger Map
A least the appear they appear to be rapids. I tried using Street View to get a better look, but no luck,as Google hasn't driven their van down the street that runs by the rapids yet.
So , while I'm probably go going to be doing some rewriting here in the evening(not only That, but my character is staging a miraculous comeback), it looks another Trip in order. I need to do some other investigating while I'm there. now do I fly to Ft Wayne, Indianapolis, or Dayton? and from La/Ontario OR LAX? Southwest, where I don't have to pay for my bags, make my friend Phil (the SWA pilot happy) , but only goes to Indy (Lots more driving). Or fly United, Make my other friend Liesel (The United Pilot) happy, get to fly into Ft Wayne ,where I'm thinking should start (or Dayton), or make my Uncle Henry happy (I think he told me his company had the toiler paper contract with Braniff before they went under) and fly American and schedule a nice long layover in D/FW, pay for my luggage and fly in an Embraer. (they do make it to my AAdvantge. how do i get the little eagle to appear between the A's)
Actually, I don't mind flying in Regional Jet. I've got some time before I have to commit, so it's time to go (for now)
