Ohio

We are officially back on the move and have spent the past week plus in Ohio. It’s good to be on the move and experiencing new places. To get from the Rochester area to our first destination in Ohio, we needed a one night stop so we consulted Harvest Hosts for a location and found a gem.

Sprague Farm and Brew Works

Sprague Farm and Brew Works is a fantastic place to spend the night. Getting there and getting to the RV parking can be a challenge if you don’t know exactly where to go. If you do, then there is no issue and it is well worth your efforts. The place is very large and the beer is fantastic. We had wood fired pizza with our beer and were entertained with live music while we ate and chatted with fellow Harvest Host travelers, Ken and Karen. Our adventure getting here involved back tracking several miles to avoid crossing a bridge with a weight limit that we exceeded and then entering the brewery via their main entrance was a mistake because of the need to navigate a very large tree. We managed to get past the tree after a few adjustments only to learn that an unmarked dirt road off the highway took you straight to the field for RV parking with no obstacles to speak of. Even with all the trouble we went through, this is by far our best Harvest Host stop to date.

Cuyahoga Valley National Park

We spent two nights in Woodside Lake Campground so that we could explore the nearby national park. The Ohio and Erie Canal Towpath Trail runs through the park and we wanted to ride our bikes along a stretch of the trail. We started out on a hike and bike path that ran parallel to the towpath trail and eventually found a connector to bring us to the trail we wanted to ride. All in all, we covered 26 miles on an out and back ride and made it back to our RV before it got too hot and settled in for a Sunday afternoon of football. We left Woodside Lake Campground on Monday morning. We don’t think we would recommend this campground and we were glad to be heading to a state park and seeing some close friends again.

Guilford Lake State Park

We had noticed through social media that our friends, Brian and Cindy, were traveling in Colorado and were planning to return to their home in Maryland about the time we planned to be in Ohio. We contacted them to see if they could route their return trip near the Guilford Lake State Park and they said, “Sure!”. We had them over to our campsite on Monday evening to feed them dinner after their long day of driving and to make plans for the following day.

We all met at the trailhead for Little Beaver Creek Greenway at 9:00 AM for a morning of biking followed by lunch. The trail was very nice and paved the whole way. We had a great time biking the 13 mile length of the trail and then turned around and biked back for a total of 26 miles (just like we did 2 days prior). Once we got back to our vehicles, we walked through Lisbon to Pondi’s Restaurant for lunch. We went here because it was recommended by a local we met in the parking lot before our bike ride. The food was very good! We returned to our respective dwellings to clean up and then Brian and Cindy would came to the state park again for dinner. This time, Brian was the chef. It was wonderful spending time with old friends and will look forward to the next time our paths cross.

On Wednesday we ventured into Canton, OH to visit the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Amy had threatened to ask them where they were planning to build the Tom Brady wing but chickened out in the end. I must say, however, for a currently active player he was pretty well represented in the place, including a display with his uniform from the 2017 MVP season. Dan got to see the busts of several of his Cowboy heroes like Roger Staubach, Tony Dorsett, Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smitt, and Michael Irvin. We spent the majority of the day walking through the exhibits. Our favorite was getting to play referee and sticking our heads into the replay booth to decide on a challenge. We got all the calls right!

On Thursday, we got the kayak out and took it for a ride around the small lake. It was a little breezy but the lake wasn’t too rough with only small waves. It was definitely more interesting than paddling up and down the Erie canal. It was fun to be able to carry our kayak from our campsite to the water. We look forward to more kayaking at places down the road.

Carthage Gap Campground

As we were leaving the Guilford Lake State Park, we mentioned to our neighbors that we would be in the Athens, OH area (Carthage Gap Campground is in Coolville, about 10 miles south of Athens). He told us we should check out Hocking Hills State Park while we were there. The campground was planning a bean soup dinner and gathering for Saturday so, after checking in, we drove to Athens for some groceries and supplies to bring a dish to pass.

On Saturday morning, we drove to Hocking Hills State Park for some hiking before getting back for the bean soup dinner. The park has a lot to offer and is pretty neat. We took a more extensive hike than most seemed to be doing and ended up covering 7.1 miles on our loop. So, for the record, this week had 2 bike rides of 26 miles for a total of 52 miles of biking, a kayak ride of 2.5 miles and a hike of 7.1 miles. Not bad for 7 days of activities.

The bean soup dinner was fabulous and we chatted with some of the seasonal campers. The owners, Chris and Teresa, are very nice and do a wonderful job with this campground. If you find yourself in this area and need a campground site, we would recommend this place.

It’s safe to say after more than a week in Ohio ,we have officially earned our sticker on our map of where we’ve stayed. We were feeling a bit guilty about having put the sticker in place after only spending one night at a turnpike rest stop. Next stop is the Kentucky Bourbon Trail and touring some bourbon distilleries. Something tells me we won’t be burning as many calories as we did while in Ohio.