My friend Beth from MI was in town to do a book signing and to appear on Fox 19 to talk about her new book:
It is about her dog (abandoned, then placed in the shelter, adopted out, but returned for several behavioral issues). She named him Charlie Darwin and in the 18 mo. she has had him, he has made an amazing evolution into a well mannered and well trained dog.
The book is titled "The Evolution of Charlie Darwin". It's a fantastic book, very easy to read and packed with excellent information anyone can use to train their dog!
The book signing was at Jacks Pets in Harrison on Sunday where Charlie impressed the customers with his skateboarding abilities
He also used an ink pad to "pawtograph" books that were sold.
The next day, we got up early and accompanied her to the Fox 19 TV studio where she talked to Rob Williams about the book and showed off Charlie's new skills.
Dazzle was patient about waiting off camera for Charlie to finish.
Charlie rides his skateboard
And shows how easy it is to teach a dog to go to a mat and settle
After we left the station, we went on a "sightseeing" tour of the area. I showed her some of the unique architecture of downtown, then we headed west. We stopped at the oldest church building still on it's original location. It's a very cool little piece of history!
A better view of the church. The squares under the second floor windows were gun ports to defend the church from Indians and any other attackers. The headstones in the cemetry are so old, they are disintegrated to tiny lumps of stone or have the text completely worn off.
This little gem is open to the public, so we went in to see the wonderful preservation work done by the historical society. It has a charcol pit in the center for cold weather services that are no longer held, a large balcony and wonderful acoustics from the pulpit on the right side of the photo.
From there we continued west and checked out the locks on the canal. You can click on these photos to enlarge them and read the signs.
The lock is on the right, with the spillway on the left. Wouldn't want to be the barge that got THAT confused!
Then we visited Metamora, an artisan community along the canal. Because Monday and Tuesday are the merchant's "weekend" days off, the place was like a ghost town, but we did still manage to find one shop open to get some yummy ice cream. :-)
Metemora is the location of perhaps the only remaining "aquaduct". The sign was on the other side of the canal, so I didn't get a shot of that. But an Aquaduct is a bridge that carries one waterway over another. In this case, the bridge carries the canal water over the river. The river flows left to right under the canal in the photo below.
The dogs check out the view of the river, which due to the lack of rain, was barely there. Just to the right of Dazzle's head, you can see some of the water that is leaking through the canal bridge and being caught and ejected out the side. In the winter, this freezes into a giant icicle.
Below is the foot bridge next to the canal way. The canal water is to the left in this photo and the river bed below is visible through the slats of the foot bridge (when walking across). The dogs had no problem walking over it though. The size of the handhewn logs used to make this bridge is really impressive!
The canal boat that gives rides (when the town is open :-)
About the canal boat (click on photo to enlarge)
Then we went to Brookville Lake. Here's Beth on the dam where I go for bike rides with Dazzle pulling the bike (when it's cooler). It's a half mile to the other end of the dam.
About the dam:
Dazzle and Charlie enjoying the view of the lake and all the scents being carried to them on the breeze.
Another view of the dam
Beth playing tourist :-)
The drive to the top of the park is a narrow, winding, one-way, single lane road that is quite steep in places. This photo just doesn't do it justice. Beth got in the photo to show scale
It was a great visit and I hope she and Charlie will return soon and be able to stay a bit longer!
