Travel & Transportation

You know how annoying it is when you’re in a hotel, asleep, and around 1:30 in the morning somebody who’s just checked in walks down the hall past your door calling to each other, “here’s the room, down this way” or “do you have that suitcase with my pills?” or “what time is breakfast?” No awareness of anyone else or thoughts to being quiet. So, instead of sleeping, you lay there fuming about inconsiderate people. Well, that doesn’t happen when you stay in an Airbnb.

Just one of the advantages. I’ve been listing the good points in my head because of the spate of articles recently about the problems with Airbnb. Some issues include the chores you’re asked to do before leaving, last minute cancellations, oppressive house rules, potential spyware, and the negative impact on available affordable housing. We have, so far, been very lucky. Rules have been reasonable, chores are minor, generally just: strip beds so they know which ones you’ve used, put dirty dishes in the dishwasher, bag and take out the trash. We tend to do more than that anyway just out of pride – and we want those “excellent guest” ratings 😊. No spyware (I think!!). Can’t do anything about the impact on affordable housing though…

Part of our luck might be down to always staying in houses owned by a “Superhost” – an Airbnb quality assurance rating. And only staying in places with good reviews from previous guests – – and carefully reading those reviews. We passed on renting some places that looked really good but reviewers mentioned a detail that might not have been an issue for some but wasn’t what we wanted (noisy road, shared backyard, barking dog next door). One aspect we do look for is a “walkable” area, preferably near a trail or in an interesting part of town. That was high on the pluses of the house we stayed at in Washington, MO for two days: in a great little town to explore AND within 2 blocks of the river walk, a scenic trail along the Missouri.

We knew we were going to be near a river walk but hadn’t realized until we crossed the bridge into town which river it was, the Missouri. We intentionally crossed the Missouri a few times during our month in Omaha: walking on the pedestrian bridge spanning the river, over to the Lewis & Clark trail on the Iowa side, over to a museum in Iowa City, and then when we left the city to head to our next stay.  And then at least four more times just driving from Omaha to Washington, MO. We felt like we really saw that river.

^{Missouri River sunset}

There is something special about small river towns, where the river has been a driving force in the city. This town was settled by German immigrants in early 1800’s. There was a natural river landing making it a good site to settle. Crossings were by ferry boat for a long time; a bridge wasn’t completed until the 1930’s. In 1854 a brewery was started and the first Busch beer was bottled. A factory making zithers came after that and then a factory making corncob pipes. Washington is known as the Corncob Pipe Capital of the World (or so they say in town). The town has preserved a lot of the old mills and lovely old houses.

^{nighttime walk in Washington, MO}

^{town and river view at night}

The Missouri meets the Mississippi just east of Washington, near St Louis. We left both behind as we headed to our next river town stay, New Albany, IN which is just across the Ohio River from Louisville, KY. The original reason for our stop here was to tour the Louisville Slugger factory and museum.

^{Louisville Slugger Factory entrance}

That place was quite interesting but even more intriguing was the Carnegie Center for Art & History in New Albany. For a small town (about 38,000) it is an impressive building. But it was built back when that’s what the uber-rich did to preserve their legacy (and expiate their sins) – – the 19^th century equivalent of today’s trips into space. In addition to the art exhibits, the museum had a fascinating, and disturbing, exhibit about the history of the Underground Railroad, specifically as it existed in that area. Just across the Ohio River, Kentucky was a slave state while Indiana was a free state. Understandably there were a lot of slaves fleeing from Louisville, across the river, sometimes dying in the attempt. This led to much conflict, not only between the two cities but within New Albany itself. Not everyone there supported the movement and even for those who did the consequences of getting caught were severe. A federal law for much of that time allowed slave hunters to capture runaways anywhere, even in free states. It was only upon getting to Canada that a runaway slave was truly safe.

Here there was a river dividing the factions. It must have been even more confusing, unsettling, where the division between free state and slave state was just an invisible state line through the countryside.

^{Bridge across the Ohio River from New Albany side}

^{part of the Underground Railroad exhibit in beautiful Carnegie building}

Our long-term stay for November is in Greenville, SC. It is a vibrant small town (pop 75,000) with an Old Port-like downtown, lots of public art, and the 20-mile Swamp Rabbit Trail for walking/biking. The trail was built on the bed of an old railroad and is named after a rabbit indigenous to the area.  And another city with a river, the Reedy, which flows along much of the trail but as its name implies, it’s not a big river, more of a stream with some pretty waterfalls. On yesterday’s walk we saw a great blue heron fishing in the river and a kingfisher flew along the banks. Hopefully before we leave here we’ll see a swamp rabbit! Will let you know if we do.

^{Dale Chihuly sculpture, downtown Greenville}

^{Falls Park on the Reedy, downtown Greenville}