A Vietnam era friend of mine and his wife and mine decided to drive out to Conneaut and watch the Reenactment of the D Day landing at Normandy. However. since it was a multi-day event and it was a good hour and a half drive we found an Airbnb home in Ashtabula which was nearby that we could rent. We left early on August 15^th and went to the Reenactment first which gave us more time there.

We did spend most of the day at the Reenactment and had a good time there looking at the military set up and also looking at what venders had. The people in the Reenactments were by invite only and they had to have prior experience and uniforms, web gear and weapons that were from that period or new stuff made to the same specification of what was used then. All the participants were organized into the units they represented; American, British and others. They had tents set up and you could go and talk to them about what the unit they represented did that day and beyond as the allied armies moved toward Germany.

Besides the D Day landing there were also reenactments of several key battles that the American led invasion got into with the German army. They were well done. There is a picture of the beach landings.

Next is a short video (MP4 file). I was having trouble with my phone when trying to record videos as the sun was to my back and shining on the phone so I could not see what I was recording. The one that follows was the only decent one I got. I should have brought my Camera.

After the Reenactment we drove to Ashtabula, had dinner and then went to the Airbnb. When we got to the home we had some surprises that makes this trip very interesting. First the house was on a steep hill that was paved with the original pavers so it was a bit scary getting up to the house and onto the drive way to the home which was about half way to the top. After parking the car we got out, walked over to the steps going to the front porch, got our key, and then went to open the front door where we saw on right side of the front door there was a large bronze plaque picture below

This plaque was installed by the present owner of the house. It was a well made plaque refering to when the house was first made. We opened the door and walked  in, unloaded the car and after getting settled we found it was a very well done updated home. We also found a book with the history of the city and the home and found that the plaque was more accurate than we thought. The .house was a brothel and so it was a real whore House and not an oar house which was a very clever wording by the owners.

Apparently, during this period the house was built when the steel industry was developing and ore was going into Ohio and Ashtabula had a more efficient unloading system than Cleveland and so they were very busy. So there were a lot of men that were working here and the prostitution business was flourishing. We had a lot of fun talking about sleeping in a whore house, while we were there.

Later that evening we had one more surprise. While sitting in the front room watching the TV, I noticed that the book shelf next to it looked odd so I walked over to check it out.

After checking it out I saw that it was really a door to someplace and so I opened it and this is what was in inside there.

This was what I saw, which was sure not anything I expected. I did not check to see if it was a real monster or a doll. To the lower left of the doll were the stairs to the basement but after seeing that Doll we decided not to go down there … lol

The last day we were there we also tock a look at a number of Covered Bridges in that area. They were all on dirt/gravel roads. My wive’s granparents lived in this area and she remembered some of the places we pased through.

All in all we had a great time including spenting the weekend in a “oar”  house .

PS For the entire time I was there I could bot get my laptop to onnect to the internet. I had the code and that has never happened to me before? Maybe it was good that I didn’t go down to the basement!