Knock - Knock

Sitting at our picnic table this morning over western omlettes we heard a "knock, knock" behind us. As we turned around there were four people standing by our coach. One lady says "this is just what I want - can you tell us about your coach?" Sure, we spent about 20 minutes talking and giving a personal tour. This is not uncommon! We have finally gotten use to the stares and people walking slowly by the coach several times a day. Every where we go people have commented "nice rig"! It makes us feel proud.

We rode our bikes to the other side of the campground and took the Gorge Trail that ran beside the Mohican River. About 20 minutes into the hike we came to an access spot and looking into the river we saw 5 beautiful trout. We had checked all kinds of fishing access while we were here and they were right under our nose. The hike took about 2 hours and it was nice but we were tired.

Planned the next stop. We just learned that it is "bike week" in Sandusky, Ohio next week and that is where we are headed. Hope we don't have trouble finding a camp site, but it should be interesting.

Flying With Hawks

Left Paul & Suzie's after breakfast and took the backroads back to the campground . When we got back into the Mohican State Park area we found a little stone shrine on a hill overlooking the forest. Very quiet and peaceful. We stopped and found that it was a memorial to all of the lost veterans from WWII on from Ohio. There were 26,000 names listed in several 3 ring binders. The stone building had glass cases with different military momentos and the outside had a couple granite benches. It was a very moving.

We moved on and found an overlook to a gorge in the Mohican Forest. We walked down a path to a viewing platform. We were about 200 feet over the gorge. There were a large number of hawks circling and eventually they came closer and closer to the platform. They were at our eye level and it was a feeling that is hard to describe. They were flying so close we could see their eyes! We felt like we were flying with them. It was awesome.

We are finding that we really like the state parks more than the private campgrounds. The sites are bigger, and they aren't as commercial. There are hiking and bike trails that start right in the park, great boat launches and some even have canoe livery. Most of the restrooms and showers are pretty modern.

We had a fire tonight and naturally the camp firewood is still wet from last weeks rain. Oh well we had a smoky one anyway.

"Uncle Mike's" Beef Jerky

Finally moving! We entered the Amish Country today on Route 39 going through Walnut Creek, Berlin, and Millersburg. It's beautiful with rolling hills and farms right out of the picture books. This is a scenic byway. The entire route is shops, farms, and little restaurants. We stopped at the Walnut Creek Cheese Company. One reason is because we love cheese the other was we saw a sign for "Uncle Mike's Beef Jerky". (Uncle Mike is what our grandkids call our son.) It was a really neat place and you could smell the bakery from the parking lot! Homemade jams, kitchen gadgets, groceries, and homemade ice cream. We had lunch on the balcony that over looks the store floor. Across from our table on a platform is the truck you seen in the picture.

After leaving the store we moved on to the Mohican State Park in Loudonville . We didn't stop along the way because we wanted to be sure we could get a walkin spot at the campground. We will drive back and see some of the Amish areas later.

We called Paul Nystrom (a friend Ken used to work with) who lives in Powell Ohio. Paul invited us to stay overnight so we parked the RV and headed out. It was great to see Suzie, Alexis, and Paul again. They have a beautiful home and we had a great time. They even replayed the American Idol Finals for us as we had missed them while we were on the road. (Thanks!).