June 30th: Fish and fowl and a zebra or two

After three very hot days Saturday morning wasn't looking too good.  Much cooler and rainy off and on.  So we hung around a bit and played some card games and Chinese Checkers with Nolan.  Eventually we decided to check out the local fish hatchery and then go to Deer Park that promised a zebra, Nolan's current favorite. 

On the way from the fish hatchery to Deer Park the GPS took us across a causeway that bisects Pymatuning Lake.  In the middle was a spillway with a large parking lot full of cars that totally looked out of place given the circumstances.  Okay we have ot investigate.  It turns out that this is the spot that the local community of Linesville is talking about when they say that they are "Where the ducks walk on the fish".  Alongside the dams are literally thousands and thousands of carp as well as hundreds and hundreds of geese and ducks looking for handouts of bread from the spectators.  Wheneveer someone throws some in the water there is a mad scramble between fish and fowl for the handouts.  A great spectacle! And while wwe were there the sun reappeared and it turned into another lovely hot day.

Deer Park turned out to be pretty cool for a small town attraction too.  Nolan got to feed lots of different animals including deer, camels, birds, minature horses, a Zedonk (must have been a wild party at Deer Park to cross a zebra with a donkey) and two zebras.  He was in his glory.

But the highlight turned out to be the visit to the parakeet house to feed them. You take a large popsicle stick covered with honey and bird seed into the room where hundreds of parakeets are flying free. Immediately, they are on you like stink on sh... On your hands, on your head, on your shoulders, on your feet, literally everywhere in a battle to get the seeds from your stick. What a total hoot particularly since the staff doesn't bother to prepare you for what's coming. Sadists!

                                   

Finished off the day with some swimming, a water fight, and a cookout of "stinky chicken".  Shannon had brought it and the odor had done a number on our refrigerator for the last two days, but, boy, was it good!  Day Four was a good one.

June 29th: Kicking back already

Friday, Day Three, turned into a fairly lazy day.  We had ended up our second day at Punderson State Park in Ohio and found a shady and nice campsite backing up onto the lake.  Our friend Cris had warned us that the campground electric was almost exclusively 20 amps at the sites instead of the more normal 30 amps.  Potentially that could be a problem if we were putting a heavy demand on the power but it turned out fine.  We were able to run our air conditioning (very much welcomed), the refrigerator aand the TV and antenna amplifier all at the same time without problems.  The fact that the campground was approaching 90 percent empty may have been a help in that regard. We opted for dinner at the Punderson Lodge on site and had two very nice salads: Bacon Spinach for Sandy and Cobb for me, that made up for the somewhat ordinary cups of lobster bisque.  Suffice it to say that Mainers would not be travelling to this state park in Ohio for their fix of lobster bisque.

So with a leisurely start to Day Three we headed in the general direction of Pymatuning State Park in Pennsylvania, our destination for the weekend to meet up with our daughter Shannon, husband Ian and grandson Nolan.  A little shopping was in order and we plugged WalMart into the GPS.  Straight ahead in Middlefield it says.  The sign on the edge of town says "Middlefield, the fourth largest community of Amish in the world".  I guess that's why the WalMart has a hitching post in the parking lot.  Never saw that before!  We got to Pymatuning by early afternoon, set up camp and went swimming while waiting for the clan to arrive.  Had a very nice, if relaxed, day.

June 28th: Shawshanking it, tres cool.

Before we left Sandy got her iPhone configured as a wireless hotspot so that we could get on the net with our laptop.  Good thing we went to Verizon to find out how because it took the "expert" about five phone calls to tech support and 45 minutes to get it activated.  But it works great now.  So I was browsing last night and stumbled across the fact the the old Ohio State Reformatory was used as the setting for the Shawshank Redemption, one of my favorite movies.  Cool.  A little googling and I discovered it wasn't all that far from Mohican State Park and there were self guided tours available.  Double cool, I know what we are doing on Thursday!  The orignal prison hasn't been used since 1990 and is pretty much derelict.  A historical society owns it and has reopened it for tours where they pretty much turn you loose in the place.  They used much of the old original adminstration building for varous scenes in the movie but interestingly enough the movie producers constructed the complete cell block in a downtown Mansfield warehouse just so they could have the prisoners facing each other across the galley.  But the existing cellblocks are really neat.  Cells were 7-feet by 9-feet and there were 600 in each of the two six-story cell blocks.  You are free to wander through them.  This place was a hoot (well at least for a visitor, maybe not so much for the permanent residents...)

                                                               RV glamour shot:

Outside the East cell block:

Sandy on the staircase headed to the warden's office:

Brooks was here; So was Red:

Enjoying my stretch, twenty to life:

Six stories of steel: the East Cell Block:

Father Time, Mother Rust:

Can I offer you a seat?:

June 27th: Day One and no incidents to cry over

We're on the road!  Sandy worked last night (worked? I thought she was retired!) teaching an BLS class that didin't finish until 8 o'clock.  And then she went out with Barbara to celebrate Sandy's birthday at some Mexican restaurant in town.  She finally managed to make it home about 11 and brought a neat plug-in flashlight from Barbara for a birthday present.  It fits great in the outlet by the entry door to the RV and will prove really handy.  Thanks Barbie!  Anyway, in order for them to leave when they did I guess the restaurant must have run out of Margarita mix.  I took advantage of Sandy's absence to mow the lawn and then Kelsie and I walked the dogs over to go visit my mother and as a consequence we got nothing done in prepping for the trip.  So up early this morning (the internal clock needs to be reset on this vacation) and the morning was spent searching for the stuff we needed to take along, running a pile of last minute errands (bank, veterinarian, grocery store, etc.), ordering textbooks online for Kelsie for the fall term at UCincinnati and other minor stuff like getting my paperwork submitted for health insurance coverage once I retire at the end of August.

But it finally came to an end and we hit the road at noon in time to hear the Star Spangled Banner play on the radio.  Got on I-475 and made it almost a mile before we realized neither of us brought Eddie's leash.  Oops, first exit and back track home, and then back on the road again (cue Willie Nelson).  Stopped at one of the Stony Ridge truck stops to make sure the DEF (Diesel Emission Fluid) tank was full and spilled as much as I got in the tank I think.   Headed east on Route 20 (this is only our second RV trip and both have started down Route 20 to Norwalk, hmm is that a sign?)  Stopped in Woodville at the Speedtrap Diner for lunch (I had the grilled cheese and tomato soup for 3 bucks: highly recommended) and then south from Norwalk on 250 towards Malabar Farm State Park.  We got there too late in the day for the tours but went to check out the campsites.  The website claimed to have 15 primitive campsites and they weren't lieing.  We had our pick but there were no amenities, so having seen signs for Mohican State Park 10 miles away we decided to give it a try.  It claimed a swimming pool.  It's a Wednesday, so how full could it be?  Well, it could be.  When we arrived around 4:30 it was pretty much full but the lady found a couple sites that were available for Wednesday night but booked for Thursday.  OK, no problem, we're moving on Thursday anyway.  Found a site that works, got situated and headed for the pool.  Nice!  Afterwards took Eddie for a walk, chatted with some other RV people, and then figured out how to cook dinner on the stove and in the microwave and took Eddie on another walk.  So, all in all, a successful first day.  Not too much accomplished but no dramas either.  Tomorrow I've got to take some pictures and see if I can figure out how to post them.  Yeah, as if that will work. Update: Kelsie posted a pic on Facebook of the RV and I was able to download it and post it here.  Yeah, there's hope!

Plans? We don't need no stinking plans...

Well, things may (and I emphasize may) be firming up for our initial destinations for our trip.  But then again you never know.  We're planning to go to Pymatuning State Park in Pennsylvania on Pymatuning Lake on the Ohio/PA border for the weekend of June 28-29 to camp out with our daughter, son-in-law and grandson.  At this point I'm thinking we'll leave home on Wednesday and head to Malabar Farms State Park in Ohio and then on Punderson State Park on Thursday to see a couple of Ohio parks we've never been to.  And then after the weekend we expect to be heading west with an ultimate destination of the Dakotas: the Badlands, the Black Hills, Mount Rushmore, Devils Tower, Teddy Roosevelt National Park, all those sorts of things.  On the way there who knows: Clear Lake Iowa to see the Buddy Holly/Big Bopper/Ritchie Vallens crash site in Clear Lake Iowa, the Winnebago factory in Forest City, IA, the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota and Wall Drug in, where was it again?, oh yeah, Wall, SD.  And maybe if we're lucky we can find a big ball of yarn, half buried Cadillacs, or Babe the Blue Ox or something to divert our attention on the way.  We'll keep you posted as things develop and change as I'm sure they will.

Hello? Is this thing on?

D minus 16 days and counting until we set off. The plan is to spend from June 27th to August 5th on the road and testing out the lifestyle. We're going to free-form it, probably getting to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Wisconsin including Door County, Minnesota, Ontario's North Shore of Lake Superior, and who knows what else. In the middle of the trip, Kent will be sailing the Chicago-Mackinac sailing race on Lake Michigan from Chicago to Mackinac Island (duh!) aboard Quick Silver, a 41-footer from St.Joseph, Michigan while Sandy and Eddie will bring the RV from the southwest Michigan dune country on the shores Lake Michigan up to Mackinac to meet Kent. From there the trip continues to parts unknown. We have to be back to Toledo by August 5th so Kent can return to the work-a-day world for his last month prior to retiring at the end of August. By then Kelsie, daughter number three, will be safely ensconced as an incoming freshman at the University of Cincinnati (Go Bearcats!) and we will be free to roam without restrictions (well sorta, kinda, in a way). Oh, and the aforementioned Eddie is our rescue dog from the local dog shelter. He's an Australian Terrier (give or take) and suffers from a severe case of "happy tail" (it's in constant motion). Eddie has never met a lawn sprinkler he didn't love to attack or a bush that needs to be investigated. Oh, and bunnies, life is not complete without chasing bunnies.

It promises to be an interesting learning experience (at least for us) and hopefully will be fun for the readers too, so if you are interested please feel free to follow along on our misadventures.