PS. More Stuff to Do in Ashtabula County, OH

 

Sparky forgot to mention there are other things to do in Ashtabula County, Ohio, besides ride the bike Rails to Trails. How about a Barn Quilt Trail? The Barn Quilts are painted quilt designs. The property owners pay for the materials and then they are painted on the barns. There are more than 100 barn quilts on the trail in Ashtabula County. They are not only on barns, but sidewalls of businesses, at orchards, wineries, working farms, historic sites and residences. If you want to know more about the Barn Quilt Trail, visit barnquiltsashtabulacounty.com.

Another fun thing we did while we were at Lake Kenisee in Ohio, was to visit Brant's Apple Orchards. What a beautiful place! They have over 27 varieties of apples and some ones we had never seen nor heard. Not sure what kind this one was, but it was still on the tree.

Depending upon what week you go, there are varieties rotating in and out in the store. The orchard is open every day except Mondays. The cider was delicious! Be sure to try a cider slushy (and maybe some of their famous cider donuts). They also have Nitaka Asian pears and some varieties of grapes. Yum!

If apple orchards aren't your thing, then there is the Covered Bridge

Driving Tour. Oh, wow! Sparky LOVES covered bridges! There are TWO tours--1.the north & east tour with 13 covered bridges, and 2. the south & western tour with 6 covered bridges. Both tours each cover about 68 miles if you go looking for them all. You can download the map online or find the same information at the Lake Kenisee RV park check in office. This photo below is the Smolen-Gulf Bridge--the longest covered bridge in the U.S. It's 613 feet long.

There are signs to mark an upcoming covered bridge when you are out driving around in the county and the map is laid out in a driver friendly route from one bridge to the next. We had fun driving around looking for some of them. Eldo is not so big into covered bridges, but he is happy to offer his expert navigational skills driving around the county just so Sparky can go see some. What a guy! Sparky thinks the internal construction is very cool.

Anything else you want to add, Sparky? About other things to see and do in the area? Oh, yeah. But you'll just have to come for a visit. There are several state parks in the area, some great little towns along Lake Erie, a scenic drive along Lake Erie, two lighthouses, many many wineries, water sports, culture and more. It's a great area, and we like it so much we are coming back again soon! 

                                                The  End

Off to Ohio We Go.....

Blogger is being kind of a pain in the butt. The blog looks normal at this end, then when published, the fonts get wonky! Sparky doesn't always catch it. Sorry about that! 

At any rate, we left the Twin Mills, IN Halloween early celebrations and headed off to Ohio for six days. We are staying at one of the nicest Thousand Trails parks we have ever stayed in. It's called Lake Kenisee RV Resort and it's in Jefferson, Ohio, in the northeast corner of the state. Now, full time RVers know that just because the word "resort" is behind the name, does not mean there are fantastic amenities like usual resorts. Some parks do have amazing amenities, but this is just a beautiful park situated around a small lake, with several smaller ponds in the park, and much open space and fields. You can walk and walk around the park or ride a bike and get some nice exercise, OR you can ride the Rails to Trails bike trail nearby and get a TON of exercise! 

Thousand Trails can be hit or miss as far as site room, amenities and road conditions in and around and out of the park. Some parks are very very old, and taken over by seasonal rentals, some are just run down and the facilities are not the cleanest or greatest, but by and large, they are decent parks to stay in, especially since you are usually staying for little to nothing or FREE. This park is a gem! But, it also has a very high number of seasonals taking up a lot of spaces, especially the ones around the lake, so it may not be the easiest park to get in, but with our ability to book out farther than a lot of people with our Thousand Trails membership, that helps us get spaces. However, we didn't book this location very far out, and we had no trouble getting in and getting a pull thru site, but it's because it's nearing the end of the season for many parks. This park closes November 1st.

The best thing about the park, in Sparky's humble opinion, is a Rails to Trails bike trail trailhead close to the RV park. 

It's called the Western Reserve Greenway Biking and Hiking Trail. Sparky rode twenty miles on it today just to check it out, and it was wonderful! Very similar to the Pumpkinvine Trail back in Indiana. (See previous post if interested)

It's very level and an easy ride...the trail is about 26 miles thru Ashtabula County. Sparky went 20 miles north the first time, and 20 miles south on the trail the second time. One of the trailheads that she set off from is 5 minutes by car from the RV park. The trail is very shady for the most part, so it would be a great trail in the summertime, and it's absolutely gorgeous in the fall! Life IS a beautiful ride!

Back to the park. (Sparky's a little ADHD, in case you didn't know, explains Eldo.) The sites are very spacious, no crowding next to one another. The pull ins are very long and easy to get through. There's a huge field behind us, ready for development of more sites when the time is right, we guess. They have a laundry at the park, and AT&T is decent at the campground, a nice change from rural Indiana! At least we can use our hotspots. We like this park so much (and Sparky loves the bike trail so much) we plan to return in a couple of weeks to close out the season with them. 

We are here for two more days, then off to Pennsylvania to see our former Bradenton neighbors briefly. We are also going to explore the Thousand Trails parks in PA to see what they are like. One thing we noticed is, it's fall and the leaves are changing and it seems as though everybody and their brother are camping out on the weekends in Pennsylvania. It was next to impossible to get our stays planned through the weekends in the Thousand Trails park system. We had to do some improvising and revisions to our camping budget to find some private campgrounds for weekend stays. Everybody is going leaf peeping!  Until next time.....

Back To Indiana....

We left the Badlands after 10 marvelous days....On our way back to Indiana to get our mail which was being held for us, we stopped at the On-Ur-Way RV Park in Onawa, Iowa, a very nice overnight park which we use each time we travel I-80 to South Dakota and back. Our second overnight stop this time was the Joliet, IL Hollywood Casino for one night because it has a beautiful RV park. Not cheap, about 53.00 a night for the casino RV park stay, (IL has 14% sales tax??-Yikes!) but it was beautiful, and the most spacious, spread out sites we have ever seen. 

The park was empty just about, and Sparky enjoyed taking an early morning walk. A deer came bounding through right while she was walking!

We got to Indiana and stayed one week at the Elkhart Campground. That is like home to us, we've stayed there many times over the years. There have been many improvements to the park, and this year, some of the inside roads have been blacktopped. The kids' playground is really new since we last stayed at the park. We love the owners, and the staff is friendly and helpful. The sites are gravel but level. They have added a TON of new sites as well. Sparky loves the little woods path in the back of the park for walks in the early morning. It's not very long of a walk, but the path circles in and around a small woods, so you can keep walking in different circles and get a nice walk in for exercise. Sparky LOVES woods (unless she gets poison ivy, adds Eldo, which she got the last time she was in the woods.)

No awnings have come in yet, (we lost them to a huge limb back in Alabama in a freak fall) but we stopped over in Indiana anyway to see some of Eldy's family. We plan to head to Pennsylvania at the end of the week if all goes well, to stay at some Thousand Trails parks (that's part of our camping membership plan) and check them out.

But first, apple picking time! If you are in the area, visit Kercher Sunrise Apple Orchards...We had a great time picking a variety of apples ourselves. They don't use ladders anymore, too dangerous and liability issues, so now you use a picker basket tool.

Sparky had fun trying to get the hang of it...

Eldo had no problems, he's two for one!

The cider is fabulous! And the apples were amazing! You forget how fresh they are, the leaves are still attached as they come off the trees.

We didn't get a huge amount...Sparky does not bake, so we got just enough to get our eating apple fix, and we will go back again for another visit before we go. It was so much fun! Sparky wishes she could take her grandson apple picking, but he lives too far away.

After a week at Elkhart Campground, we switched over to a free week's stay (thanks to our membership) at Twin Mills Campground. Sites are a little more treed, and you have to be careful about where they put you. When you are a Thousand Trails member, you don't get to pick where they put you, but you can request a change once you get to your site. We are on site C-59 and it's a pull thru, which Eldy loves. Back ins are more challenging for us right now, because we are still new at pulling the fifth wheel. We've been on the road now for about eight weeks. We are lovin' it!

Twin Mills is getting into the Halloween spirit EARLY! It's not even October yet! The regulars here start decorating the last weekend of September, and then for another weekend,  the first weekend in October. They close October 31st, so we think they keep the celebrating earlier.

The regulars bring in trailers by the boatload, FULL of Halloween inflatables and decorations.

It was AMAZING the degree and extent of the decorating. The entire campground was decorated! This was a real antique truck brought in.

Some have been here every year decorating for kids for over 13 years. WOW! What a treat for the kids! The truck with the lighted skeletons was one of Sparky's faves in the campground. This particular display had about five sites in a row totally decorated like a neighborhood with clever street names and all kinds of skeletons and scenes. It's easy to just bring in a bunch of inflatables, but these people were so creative! Here is another one of Sparky's favorites:

And last but not least...a nod to Florida....

Sparky was thinking about saving this post till very close to Halloween, but wanted to keep the blog close to our real schedule, so here it is early. In Florida, in our area, people did not decorate for Halloween. Sparky LOVES Halloween, and fall, so it's great to see everybody get in the spirit of the season up here. Eldo loves it, too! Sparky's grandson, after seeing all the Halloween photos said,"Grandma, you better start decorating!" But we are only here a week, so Grandma is going to fall decorate a little later. She's got some fall sewing projects in mind, hopefully, she will get them done soon!And some promised felt ornaments for her brother....and baby blanket....and...you get the picture!   Until next time....

The Badlands are Really Bad! Part 2

If you don't know much about the Badlands, here is a little information. The park has three units totaling more than 240,000 acres. The north unit is the best known and most easily explored area. It has the Badlands Loop Road with scenic overlooks and hiking trails. The Stronghold and Palmer Creek units are run by the Oglala Lakota and the National Park service. They are not always open, especially during these Covid times.

With just about every national park, there is a wildlife or scenic loop drive. We always drive it several times because there is always something new in the area, the animals move around, that's for sure! First, there's the scenery....

We passed through an area called the "Yellow Mounds"....When the Black Hills were formed in South Dakota, the ancient sea drained away, and the black ocean mud weathered into yellow soil.

Here we are, enjoying the scenery...

Sparky clambered around a bit on some little stuff, getting ready for the bigger stuff later...The hills and "mountains" are looser material than what you would think. The park cautions people to be careful when hiking. Also, there are definitely rattlesnakes there. Signs everywhere warning about rattlesnakes but we didn't see any. Whew! (Sparky really wanted to see one, but was ok if she didn't.)

Here's Eldy being a little silly...Sparky told him to pretend he was going to fly off the ledge but he's facing the wrong way, lol. Probably better that he was, as it was quite the drop off!

And now...the animals....Quite a few bighorn sheep....Up close and personal...

A little baby bighorn sheep!

And even smaller...(Sparky loves tiny things on flowers, her world is both big and small)

After checking out the wildlife, Sparky decided to try a hike on the second day of our visit. We were only going to be there two days, so it was now or never. There are lots of hikes you can do, of course. Most are out in the open, and it's hot and dry this time of year. (September). Here are some of them: (designations are the park service)

1. Door Trail- .75 miles, 20 min. Easy, 1/4 mile boardwalk

2.Window Trail- .25 miles 20 min. Easy

3. Notch Trail-1.5 miles, 1-2 hours Mod.-strenuous (Sparky likes this one) climb a ladder, follow a ledge. watch for drop offs.

4.Castle Trail-10miles, 5 hours, moderate-relatively level

5. Cliff Shelf-.5 miles, moderate-boardwalks and climbing stairs

6. Saddle Pass-.25 miles, 1/2-1 hr. strenuous (next time, Sparky!)

7. Medicine Root-4 miles, 2 hrs., moderate, rolling spur trail

8. Fossil Exhibit Trail-.25miles, 20 min. Easy..fossil replaces and exhibits

OK, Sparky heard "ladder" and she's in! Off we go! A beautiful start, walking thru a canyon...

It gets a little steeper, piece of cake so far....

 We are climbing now....still easy hike so far....

Sparky was following a couple in front of her. She asked if they would mind if she kept right behind them and Chris and Chris (cute, hunh?) said, of course not! They were so nice, and kept checking to see how Sparky was doing, especially after hearing a little slip and slide now and then. "Are you ok?" Nice of them to check, as Sparky got a little nervous once the steeper parts of the hike came into view. "DANGEROUS CLIFF--KEEP RIGHT".

OK, here comes the fun part...climbing up the ladder. The rungs were round logs, and the sides were metal twisted rope. Here, the hikers are coming down. Notice the two ways to do it, backing down one step at a time, or butt first. Sparky did the backing down method on the way back.

Finally, the summit appears!

If you do the Notch hike, the view at the top is of a dramatic view of the White River Valley below.

Despite this being a moderate to strenuous hike, and warnings about "watch for drop offs" and "not recommended for anyone with a fear of heights" and "treacherous during or after heavy rains"....it was a busy trail with lots of hikers today, some with surprisingly younger children. Sparky recommends going early in the day for best temps and less people. It was thrill to do it, and oh, boy, great exercise for old legs. Sparky was so sore the next day, even with biking and hiking regularly back in Florida before we left!

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the Badlands. It's remote, poor to non-existent cell phone service (extremely poor AT&T service the whole stay) but, wow, it's a different kind of view and experience!

Our next stay is back to Indiana for a week...getting our forwarded mail, checking in with family, and planning for our next stay...Until next time....

                                            The End

The Badlands are Really Bad! Part 1 KOA

When we say bad, we mean good! As in cool, as in interesting, as in formidable, as in amazing! But it IS a barren landscape, and Sparky can't even imagine what it must have been like trying to exist as a landowner and settler way back when. It's harsh, it's dry, it's barren soil, and lots of dust and rock debris blowing around on a windy day. But here we are....in nature's natural beauty once again....We chose the KOA Badlands Campground because it's shady, in a river valley, (the river was all dried up) and it was going to be HOT! Like 100 degrees one day, and it was. Nice corner site, HUGE area to relax next to the rig, we loved it. Nice KOA, but very picky about how you park your truck or car, and 5 mph. on the paths around the campground.

The campground has a yurt (dome shaped, air conditioned deluxe tent type), nice cabins, an electric vehicle charging station, and there were all kinds of RVs at this campground that were cute and interesting. If you haven't seen the latest RVs out there, here are some.There was a new model airstream, kind of weird looking, but the owner was very happy with it. 

There was a travel trailer or fifth wheel, (fifth wheel has the truck towing the RV with the front of the RV overhanging the truck bed) with a SIDE PORCH! There are so many styles to RV in, you really have to do your homework to find out what kind you would be happy living in. And there are always tradeoffs, you can't get it all in one RV, at least we don't think that's possible. Let us know if you got what you wanted with no complaints! We'd love to hear!

There was an I LOVE LUCY travel trailer, it looked so cute! Sparky had to take photos of all the sides of it, they were all so adorable!

Here's another one. This one would be challenging for full timing, lol. But we've seen people living full time in one this size...

One last shot of our corner site at the KOA in the Badlands. We were happy for the shade. We had extremes from 28 degrees low o night to 100 degrees for a high. Tomorrow, we visit and look for wildlife, our favorite thing to do, and Sparky goes for an exhilarating hike!  Bye for now....