When we checked into our hotel this evening in Richmond IN, I was asked a question I had never been asked before. When the young clerk saw that I was from Washington, she asked me: “Are you a politician?”

It was in fact the second strange conversation today. We filled the gas tank just outside of Springfield OH (you know Springfield, the home of dog-eating Haitians) and the receipt didn’t print out on the machine. So I went inside to get it from the cashier. I had put about 9 gallons at just over $3 per gallon at Station #4. The cashier handed me a receipt for 9 gallons for $41, and stated it was 9 gallons of super duper premium. That worried me because I knew I had bought regular

After I told him that this was not mine, he printed another, also for 9 gallons at about $29 and handed it to me. He then asked me why I waited an hour and a half to ask for a receipt. An hour and a half? I had just bought the gas

Then, he told me I bought my gas at Station #2, not #4. I told him I was at #4. He then said, “No, I saw your car at #2. It’s black, right?” My car is white.

He then realized he could trace the receipt by my credit card number, and asked me the last four numbers

I told him, and he could print out my receipt. He treated the entire sequence as if it was absolutely normal.

And, no, he was not Haitian.

We started in Washington Pa and ended up, about 270 miles later in Richmond IN

But the most interesting part of the day was spent in Zanesville OH. It was the third time we have made a lunch stop in Zanesville. The first time, it was lunch downtown, near their fascinating county government building.

We looked at the street sculpture of Alan Cottrill, ate at a food court and moved on.

The second time, we ate at Muddy Miner’s, and learned that this restaurant’s deck overlooks the Muskingham River, where young Zane Grey learned to fish under the tutorship of Muddy Miner, an elderly man who lived to fish. Today, the chilly weather forced us inside and we were able to see all of the items they have regarding Zane Grey’s fishing career.

Zane Grey (Zanesville was named after his great grandfather) was a remarkable fellow. A dentist who attended the University of Pennsylvania on a baseball scholarship, Grey moved west and wrote about Ohio history, baseball, fishing, and of course the American West.

On our second trip to Zanesville, we saw there was a Zane Grey Museum, but opted instead to visit the extremely nice Zanesville Museum of Art, where we learned (among other things) about Zanesville as a historic center of both practical and artistic pottery.

Yesterday,  we skipped the art museum and went to the Zane Grey Museum, and highly recommend it. It has three sections. Only one focuses on Grey. The others are focused on Zaneville’s pottery, and on the National Road. The National Road was the first federally supported road (unpaved at that) heading west, running from Cumberland MD to Vandalia IL.

The top picture is Zane Grey’s office in Altadena CA. The middle picture shows a handwritten draft of a part of a book by Grey, the same pages typed by his wife Dolly, the galleys back from the printer, and then the book.

The bottom photo is one of the many pottery examples in the museum.

The National Road section of the museums includes bicycles, carriages and cars. One interesting old car is a model T chassis, with a different passenger area, designed to pick up people from the railroad station. Originally called a station hack, it was later changed to a station wagon.

We also went to see the house Grey grew up in, still a private residence.

Finally, we went back to see the Alan Cottrill sculptures, and saw a new one.