We Were Kids Again.

Milan Travel Park
Milan, Ohio

We had such a great time yesterday at Edison's birthplace that we decided to go back to the Merry Go Round Museum and see if they were open today.  I did find out the winter hours were  Wednesday to Saturday from 11-5.  Sharon and Roger Hime toured it, so I know it had to be good.  

I thought the "open" sign would show up in this photo.

The museum is housed in an old round post office building which is one of two round P O  buildings in the United States.  It was built in 1927 but is in good condition and perfect for this musuem.  

The docent had one other couple in her tour.  

 Nearly all the exhibits were at least 100 years old.  

It's hard to believe these are all hand carved out of various woods.  

The carvings were all very unique and colorful.  Bill and I learned that only one side of the carvings had the "jewels" on them as it took longer to do both sides. 

This one was one of my favorites.

It's difficult to see all the details that go into these carvings from the photo.

This rooster, that was uncommon for carousels, is still in its original factory paint.  New wood was added due to damage sustained from being used as a target for bow and arrow practice.  Gustav A Dentzel carved this around 1895.  Courtney are you reading this?

Giraffes seemed strange for carousel animals to me.

This was Bill's favorite.  Of course, his astrological sign is Leo, the lion.

Do you see the ostrich facing in the other direction?  It's a British one because their carousels go clockwise instead of the Americans that go counter clockwise.  

These tigers were carved by two different carvers years apart. 

This dog is much larger than it looks in this photo.  The giraffe has a snake with an animal in its mouth around its neck. One wonders what goes through the artist's mind.  

These fantasy animals were very colorful and unusual .

All of the deer have natural deer horns.  

I guess this deer must be famous.  Our docent said that the White House called them about it.

The horse in the center of the photo is being raffled off.  Value is quoted at $10,000.  What are we going to do with it, if we win?

It was interesting to see how the horses were carved.

Here's an example of the four stages of restoration.  The first quarter is the way they receive the horse, the second is stripped of paint, carved and then painted last.  One of the docent showed us a can of paint that they use.  It costs $49.00 a quart. 

This is a better photo of the horse they carved and painted for the raffle. Notice on the wall that the horses are hollow and held together with wooden dowel pins.   

I forgot to mention that they have eight volunteer carvers that work in the basement.  Here's another volunteer that is working on restoring a miniature mechanical carousel.   He doesn't carve, but says he does a lot of sanding and mechanical restoration.

Here's another British one facing in a different direction.

We've visited the House on the Rocks in Wisconsin and have seen their carousel, but they didn't let you ride on it.

Our $5.00 senior admission included a token for a ride on the carousel.

Bill picked out the ostrich.  I rode on a live ostrich when we were in South Africa and now he says we're even since he's now ridden on one too.  

I picked out a beautiful palomino for my ride.

The music was wonderful but the ride went much faster than we expected.  I was actually glad when it ended.  

This was one of those, well why not, museums.  Never sure what to expect, but very interesting.  We were both very glad that we visited it.

After we left the museum we crossed the street to see the gardens.

The grounds were spotless.

I guess we should have checked to see what was  the name of the building.

Somebody has job security--notice the correct date on the clock that is changed daily.

Notice the leaves changing on the trees.

We walked down the street to Lake Erie.  It was nice walking the streets with very few people in sight.

I was glad to enjoy the day as earlier in the day I found something that wasn't fun.  When we were in that campground from hell, I found some damage.  

Notice the dent on the satellite.  I thought we couldn't receive satellite because of the trees.  I think it must be the dent in the top of the satellite.  I hope that's all that is wrong but since we don't do roofs anymore we won't know until we find some friends that will climb up there.

Turtle Safely.......