The Buckeye State

Ohio

(Sightseeing and seeing family)

November 14, 2017 - November 22, 2017

We got a late start (which I must say is fairly typical) leaving my aunt's place and of course we needed to dump and get propane.  The dump station my cousins told me about cost $10 so we passed on that option and decided to dump at our next campground.  The propane dealer we found was a gas station with only one person working.  It's kind of hard to handle the store and pump propane from way across his lot but he managed to get it done. It felt good to have that taken care of.  Having heat when it's cold is a good thing.

We drove through Toledo and on down to and through Ashland to a campground on Charles Mill Lake.  It consisted of a large number of permanent sites with various types of recreational vehicles parked on them but hardly anything was occupied at this time of the year.

Charles Mill Lake

A lake like this must draw huge crowds in the summer.  There are numerous coves and bays, many with docks which were all pulled in for the winter.  Houseboats seem to be popular as there were quite a number of them pulled up onto the land waiting for spring.

Tom, my first cousin once removed and his wife Irene live in Ashland.  Tom and my mom are first cousins.  We spent the first of two and a half days with them at their home.  These two are both so talented.  Although Irene does many artsy things she is an amazing painter.  She painted many of the pictures in their home and they are beautiful.  Tom has a complete wood shop in his basement and he's a whiz at home improvement projects as well as making furniture.  They both bemoaned the fact that they can't ski or go boating any longer, both of which they love.  They lived in Glenwood Springs, Colorado for many years so they did a lot of skiing there.  They also once lived in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho where boating is absolutely first rate.

The second day we went over to see their grandaughter's horses.  Andrea has been around horses all her life and has a really special connection with them.  She's even written and published a book called "Confessions of  a Horse Crazy Girl."  She not only trains horses but also trains riders.  She currently has 5 horses and the one pictured below will actually give a horse version of a kiss to her.  I just couldn't catch it at the right time but it touches the side of her cheek with it's nose then, without moving it's head, it moves it's upper lip back and forth on her cheek. Wish I had thought to take a video of it!

Andrea getting kissed by her horse.

The day we left we went out to eat in Ashland, taking off towards NE Ohio from there.

Tom and Irene

Sometimes a wrong turn can be a good thing.  While trying to get ourselves straightened out we went by an Amish barn raising!  Unfortunately there wasn't a good place where we could just stop and watch but we did manage to get this picture.  It's missing a lot of interesting subjects such as the huge number of horse and buggies parked and tied (separately) all over a field to the left.  It was quite a sight.  We later saw a postcard showing a barn raising and it said they put a barn up in a single day which I find astounding!  I imagine there is a lot of planning that goes into getting all the materials needed to the site not to mention organized.  I also suppose that each man has a specialty or certain tasks to perform.  It seems like it would be chaotic but it couldn't be put up in a day if that were the case.  We were sooooo glad we made a wrong turn.  Irene told us about seeing a 5 horse hitch pulling a wagon one day and that would have been a sight to see as well.

From Ashland, we drove on up to Punderson State Park near Burton, Ohio to see a young friend of ours from Seattle.  Her parents are good friends of ours and Laura was present and took pictures at Adrianne's birth.  We had hoped to surprise her but the surprise was on us when we were unable to make contact with her. On the way there we say lots of evidence of Amish farms as shown below.

Shocks of hay in the field.

Burton, Ohio is on the western edge of the 4th largest Amish community in the U.S.  While we were there we spent a very rainy day driving around the country looking at Amish houses, buggies, stores, restaurants, etc.  I was amazed to see how many people were out driving their buggies here and there in the awful weather.  We ate at an Amish food restaurant (very tasty), sought out an Amish hardware store (lit only with lights run by a battery (a flashlight would have helped)), and wandered through an old general store.  It was really interesting but, given the choice, I'll take electricity and modern conveniences.

This is the one picture we got of a horse and buggy, only because it was "parked" while the owner went into a store.
I don't know if the horse is covered only while it waits or if it had it on while it trots down the road. 
What I can say it that most of the horses had no rain cover on them at any time. 

From Burton we drove to Alum Creek State Park north of Columbus, Ohio, then drove to Aberdeen, Ohio.  On our way to Aberdeen we stopped at Serpent Mound, an ancient animal effigy mound, thought to date back to about 1000 AD.  It's unclear what significance the mound had to the people who built it but it really is interesting.  There is a large observation tower (built in 1900) which helps to view the mound.  Unfortunately the museum was closed but we climbed the observation tower and wandered around the area.

View from the observation deck, looking toward the tail.

View from the observation deck, looking toward the head.
If you look close you can see the undulating curves of the mound.

This picture is from the Serpent Mound website.  It shows the true beauty of the design.

In Aberdeen we stayed at a campground right on the Ohio River. We had a very strange experience at this campground.  The office was closed and locked with nothing to indicate what to do or how to pay.  There must have been 50 RV's parked in long term rental spaces.  Not a single person seemed to be around anywhere. We decided to park and wait for them to come to us. We stayed 3 nights and no one so much as came by or left a note about what and how to pay.

The town of Aberdeen has seen better days but right across the river is the town of Maysfield, Kentucky, home town of Rosemary Clooney!  More on that in the next installment.