Trip No. 5 - Hueston Woods State Park

I might need to edit this post later, but I'm posting it quickly so Beth isn't deprived of her reading material.

This Adventure on the Edge was another one-night stand. We left on Saturday morning around 9:30 AM, headed to Hueston Woods State Park, just north of Oxford, Ohio, home of Miami University. For those of you who get confused between our Miami and the "other one" down in Florida, just remember, Miami University (Ohio) was a college before Florida was a state. Yuk, Yuk

We estimated this would be about an hour and 15 minute trip, (48 miles one way) and even though I carelessly took the wrong exit, we made it on time. That will teach me not to pay total attention to the little lady in the GPS receiver. We ended up getting off the expressway at 127 instead of 27. That meant dragging our lovely little travel trailer through the cities of Fairfield and Hamilton. It really didn't add too much time to the trip, and I got some more valuable "practice" pulling a trailer through a busy urban area. We arrived at the campground one hour and 15 minutes after we left the house... ...nice estimate!

We had checked out the RV campgrounds at Hueston Woods before we purchased the Edge. One nice feature we discovered were "pull-through" sites. You don't need to back the camper into a slot you just pull right in and exit on the road conveniently located on the other site of the pad. However, when we searched these sites upon arrival we found them to be very crowded and full of kids! Not that we don't like kids, but the little rascals can be a bit noisy when they're camping. It's the swimming pool reflex, put kids in a pool they scream, put them in a campground they scream too.

So we ventured off to check out a couple of the other camping loops we hadn't checked out on our earlier visit. They were nice, but featured extremely short pads. It looked like they were designed for pop-up campers and tent campers. However, after circling a few time we found site G2 to be more than adequate, though a bit tricky to back into. Fortunately, I'm getting better navigating the trailer into tight areas and we were able to dock pretty smoothly. The site was sloped more than any site we have parked on so far, but we were still able, barely, to get the camper level. Here's a couple of pics from the site.

http://picasaweb.google.com/milfordmagic/HuestonWoods?authkey=Gv1sRgCLeYx6HItuj79AE&feat=directlink

We set up quickly then chowed down on some great chili before heading out on our first hike. We took the dogs down to the dam then circled around through the bird banding area then back to the archery station. We saw a couple coming out of the woods with their dogs. They commented on Sparky and Flash and I asked them about the path they had hiked. They indicated that they were geocaching, and had found geocache Kayak just down the trail a bit. They indicated that the trail followed along the shore of the lake and was pretty scenic. We decided to try it and it was a nice hike.

After the shore hike we headed back to the Lodge to check out the progress of the new disc golf course they are installing. The course will be 24 holes when complete, with two concrete tee pads for each hole. We saw a couple of the tee pads but decided to walk down to the docks on the lake below the Lodge. Sparky and Flash were lovin' life and got in a few great sprints on the hill that leads from the lake to the lodge. They had ran the same hill when we visited earlier in the year. Their energy after already hiking several miles was amazing. Remember, "several miles" for us translates to "many miles" for the dogs since they run out and back, out and back, out and back continuously. Here's a short video from our hikes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJ9rUN14QN8

We headed back to the camper for dinner and a rest. The dogs weren't ready to rest yet so Diane threw them the Frisbee for a while. The neighboring campers all watched in amazement. Dem dogs are gooood!

We finally settled into reading and the dogs crashed. I pulled out the Kindle and continued my adventure through Angels and Demons. Diane brought some magazines and her DS. That kept her busy too.

The Bearcats came on the radio (couldn't pick up the local FOX station) and we listened to them blow out to a 49-3 halftime lead. It was dark by then so we took another walk around the campground with the dogs. It's interesting to see some of the other trailers and the trucks they use for transport. The big rigs are all pulled by diesel duallys. A lot of the average size ones are pulled by V8's, quite a few of them Hemi-powered Dodge Rams... ...something we intend to look into when we decide to take the Edge Adventures a little further from home.

When we got back to the camper I settled back into my Kindle and Diane watched a DVD she brought along for the trip. It was my intention to watch it too, but the book was calling me. I'm guessing crash time was around 11:00 PM.

Early risers we are. Up at 7:30 AM. Bananas, bagels and orange juice for breakfast. Packed and on the road by 8:30 AM. That beats everyone to the disposal station. I hate waiting in lines... ...never have been the patient sort.

This time I took the correct route home, through Oxford down State Route 27 to I-275 and home. We were home and unpacked with clothes in the wash well before noon. Just in time to watch the Return of the Bungles, as they find new and ingenious ways to lose. Oh yeh, and just in time to text Lauren with a birthday wish. Our total trip this time 114 miles.

We settled the Edge back into its storage location before dark. Hopefully, we'll be back on the road in another couple of weeks. Time will tell.

Trip No. 4- Versailles State Park and Lawrenceburg Speedway

We left home on Saturday morning, August 22^th for a one night stay and adventure at Versailles State Park in Indiana. Alvalee had suggested we go with her to see the Hoffmans race their sprint car at Lawrenceburg Speedway and we decided we might as well make it an “Adventure on the Edge.” This was our first out of state trip with the camper, though it really wasn't any farther than Paint Creek State Park. It was also our first trip without the poochies... ...and they weren't too happy to be left at home.

We pulled out at 9:00 AM sharp for the 67-mile drive to the park. This was a simple route; take I-275 to the Lawrenceburg exit then follow Route 50 all the way to the park. There were a few hills that caused the Pathfinder to strain a little bit, but nothing too bad, though it did take a toll on gas mileage. We only averaged 10 mpg on our way there.

We got to the park around 10:30 AM, picked out a site, No. 183, filled up our water tank and set up camp. As soon as we were established we headed into Versailles to check out the town. We walked around Versailles and found some interesting sites, including a beautiful Methodist church, markers describing Morgan’s Raiders ride through the town, and the county courthouse. We also picked up desert for lunch, cherry pie and vanilla ice cream and some sour cream for the chicken tacos. One of the locals in the store enjoyed relating to us all the “specials” that weren’t really available.

http://picasaweb.google.com/milfordmagic/VersaillesStatePark?authkey=Gv1sRgCJvisMOm2sPJ8wE&feat=directlink

When we got back to the park we chowed down and then did a little exploring. We visited the lake, the nature center and the camp store. Diane wasn’t too impressed with the offerings at the store but the nature center was OK. The lake looked beautiful, as is the rest of the park, but this trip is really about the races, not so much about the camping.

After a short snooze, that ended with a driving rainstorm drumming on the Edge, we packed up the Pathfinder and headed for Lawrenceburg and the Speedway. The weather looked threatening and it was definitely cool for a mid-August day. The high was somewhere in the mid 60’s and it got down into the 50’s at night. We were lucky though, we didn't have another drop of rain.

The drive back to Lawrenceburg was 25 miles. We stopped and filled up the car so we wouldn’t need to deal with that pulling the camper on Sunday morning. Eleven gallons, 110 mile, pretty easy calculation, 10 miles per gallon. That’s a lot less than we got on our trips to East Fork and Paint Creek. Must have been the hills.

We got to the Speedway at 6:00 PM, discovered that it hadn’t rained a drop there, and that the hot laps (a form of practice) had been postponed until 6:30 PM since drivers were still arriving, having raced in Illinois earlier in the day.

When the hot laps finally started Hoffman Racing’s car was in the second group. The car was driven by Jerry Combs Jr., last year’s sprint car driving champion. He looked strong in the hot laps and the heat races and easily qualified for the feature race. The feature was called the Dick Gaines Memorial, dedicated to a former successful driver from the ‘70’s. The prize for winning was a nice $10,000.

Leading up to the feature were a whole series of races, the heat races for the sprints, but also winged sprints and modified cars. But the sprints were definitely the highlighted races. The sprint cars weigh 1200 lbs but have 400 cubic inch engines producing between 800 and 900 horsepower.

The feature race was the longest, 30 laps in length. There were only two yellow flags during the whole race, even though 24 cars were on the track at the same time. Both of the yellow flags were very early. Hoffman’s car started in the third row but climbed to third place very quickly. When the second yellow flag was shown Combs had just passed the lead car. That meant he started first and when the green flag was shown he ran away with the lead. When he encountered the slower cars again he did a great job passing them without incident, holding the lead until the checker flag and the victory. Diane caught the entire race on the FLIP but it’s just a bit too long to host on You Tube. We do have a few pictures from the race.

http://picasaweb.google.com/milfordmagic/LawrenceburgSpeedway?authkey=Gv1sRgCJ3l1dKezI6e9gE&feat=directlink

The race was over around 11:30 PM (we had no idea we’d be there that late) and we headed back to the campground. We got in around midnight. Alvalee crashed, but unfortunately developed a headache from the car fumes that would bother her all night. Diane and I stayed up and watched the “RV” DVD until 1:30 AM.

We all got up around 8:00 AM, ate, and were on the road by 9:00 AM, the exact same time we pulled out of Wardwood the day before!

The drive back was an easy one, though Alvalee and I talked most of the way…. Excedrin highs. We were home at little after 10:30 AM and the Edge was emptied, cleaned and ready for storage well before noon.

Trip No. 3 - Paint Creek State Park and Vicinity

http://picasaweb.google.com/milfordmagic/PaintCreekStatePark?feat=directlink

We left home on Friday, August 7th, at 4:00 PM and headed east towards Bainbridge, Ohio and Paint Creek State Park. The distance to the park was about 65 miles and we made it in a little over 90 minutes. The camper pulled great and the roads (primarily US Route 50) were, by and large, straight and flat. There were a couple of uphill sections but they weren’t too long, or too steep, and didn’t pose much of a problem for the Pathfinder.

We checked in at the park and then went to look for a place to fill the Edge’s tanks with water for our stay. The Edge holds 30 gallons but we travel empty to reduce the towing weight. Finding potable water proved much more difficult than it was at East Fork. The bathhouses were the only places with outside running water. When we found one that wasn’t crowded with cars it was about 100’ the wrong way down a one-way road. I drove down it anyway (rebel) but then was faced with turning the camper and car around in a very tiny space to get pointed in the right direction. We were very near camper-car contact on the turn but made it, filled up with water, and headed to our site.

We had reserved site No. 63. That was good news and bad. The site sits pretty much by itself, surrounded by the woods, but right by the entrance to all three of the camping loops. So we didn’t have anyone right next to us but we did have a lot of vehicle traffic going by us until later in the evening. It really didn’t bother either of us and we would pick this site again if we came back to Paint Creek.

We ate homemade cheese conies for dinner then took the dogs for a little walk around one of the campground loops. This park has some sites near the lake that have decks that adjoin the camper pad and we checked them out to see if we would be interested in reserving one for a future visit. Not really. The majority of these dock sites seemed to be pretty steep and useless. We also drove over to the reservoir dam and checked out the sunset across the lake.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67_Yv_wIenQ

When we got back to the Edge we decided to go for a drive. Imagine that. We’re still not much for just sitting and chilling, at least not yet. We ended up in Greenfield, Ohio, a Blanchester-size town about ten miles north of the park.

On the way there we passed through the smallest underpass we have ever seen. The posted height was something just a few inches over seven feet and there was less than three feet clearance on either side of the Pathfinder. Restricted passageways like this one are one reason why we didn’t want a big RV. We want to park the camper and then be able to explore without dragging our “remote home” around with us. Well, that and the fact that the big motor coaches can easily cost $500,000.

Somewhere along the way to Greenfield we noticed in our trusty old Ohio Gazetteer that we had been to a covered bridge just south of there on April, 9, 1999. So, ten years later, we went looking, in the dark, for that bridge. We found it just outside of a little burg called South Salem, which is also the name of the covered bridge. It was a solid, if short, little red bridge that is still used for day-to-day traffic. We shot a very short Flip video with the bridge lit only by the car headlights. Here's the YouTube rendition of that video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqnZHS4c1yo

After visiting the bridge we headed back to our campsite for the evening. My plan was to read a book, the autobiography of Guns and Roses’ star, Slash. I had just downloaded it onto my new e-Book reader, Amazon’s Kindle DX. Unfortunately, like a dumbbell I had forgotten to bring the power cord and had only charged it for a short time when I received it two days earlier. A fully-charged Kindle is supposed to hold a charge for four days. I now know a partially charged one is good for a couple of days. Oh well. Turned on the TV and scanned for local stations… …found one and it was a network station. We watched a little TV then snoozed off. Strangely enough, we weren’t able to pick up the station again the rest of our stay.

Saturday morning we awoke at 8:00 AM. It doesn’t appear the dogs are going to be too interested in sleeping in much later than 7:00 or 8:00 AM in the morning when we go on these trips. They’ve already figured out there is adventure on the horizon and one or the other of them always needs “relief.” We ate some pastries for breakfast, locked up the Edge and hit the road by 9:00 AM.

We decided today would be “Mound Day;” there are three prehistoric Indian mounds in the vicinity of Paint Creek State Park, Seip Mound, Fort Hill and Serpent Mound. We had been to Serpent Mound years earlier when the kids were young, but never to the other two.

Seip Mound was just beyond Bainbridge, Ohio and probably was the dogs’ favorite stop. The mound was a big one surrounded by a circular mound-ring. We let the dogs run free since there was no one else in the little roadside park. They loved it! We got some pictures and videos of them hamming it up.

Further south below US Route 50 and just off State Route 41 we found Fort Hill. Fort Hill has a nice little museum, where we discovered that the State of Ohio was no longer supporting that park, or Serpent Mound. They are now being maintained by a private organization. Budget cuts are hitting everywhere.

We took the Fort Hill trail, about 2 miles in length and a bit on the steep side at the beginning. The trail climbs 400 ft. in elevation to reach the remains of the ancient prehistoric earthwork. In this case the mound was a constructed hill (mistakenly assumed to be a fort) that surrounds 48 acres atop a hill almost 1200 ft above sea level. The mound is completely grown over with trees and eroded down somewhat so it’s not entirely recognizable if you don’t look for it. There are several small natural bridges in the area but they were along another four mile trail, the Gorge Trail, which we did not take… …though we were told it is a beautiful trail. Maybe next time.

Once again the doogies had a great time, though they were frightened by what we believe was a male deer on the hike back to the car. The noise he made was a bit frightening but it appears he was just posturing as the noise kept getting quieter the closer we got.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9PJel0KHIU

Leaving Fort Hill we headed farther south to Serpent Mound. Serpent Mound is the most clearly defined of the three we visited and includes a nice lookout tower to view the “serpent” in its entirety from 50 ft. or so in the air. The warm air began to turn hot while we were visiting Serpent Mound. Eventually it reached 90 degrees, about as hot as it has been the entire summer.

On our way back we stumbled upon a small store, “Country Crust” selling fresh baked Amish pastry products of all sort, at great prices. We bought a small rhubarb pie, my absolute favorite pie!

We saw Amish and their buggies quite a bit on the trip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLrHG_xQ-kE

We got back to the Edge about six hours after we had left a bit hungry and tired. After a nice lunch/dinner of perfect one-day-old stuffed pepper soup and rhubarb pie ala mode. We decided to crash for a bit. I think I snoozed for almost an hour and a half while Diane read magazines… …they don’t need to be charged.

Around 6:30 we headed out to Chillicothe, Ohio, about a 28 mile ride from our campground. Just northeast of Chillicothe is Great Seal State Park. Jim, Keith and I are contemplating a disc golf adventure this fall that will include the courses at Rocky Fork and Pike Lake State Park as well as the one at Great Seal. I thought we would check out the campground to see if it would be a good place to park the camper during the trip… …not! There are only 15 sites at Great Seal and most of them are for horse campers. None of the sites have electricity and there was no evidence of a dump site. My conclusion was that we should make Paint Creek our home base and drive to the other courses from there. Rocky Fork would also be an OK base.

While we were there we walked 10 of the holes of the disc golf course. The course has dirt tee pads which aren’t the best thing in the world if it’s wet but otherwise they are fine. The first hole was generally in the open then the course headed into the woods. The next eight holes were in an open woods. Except for the fact that the first three were up hill, the holes all looked really interesting. Hole 10 was back out in the open. We didn’t walk the rest of the course but found one upon leaving that paralleled the road for over 300’, with a very narrow fairway between the road and the woods, and then doglegged hard to the right for the last 100 feet. Looked like a really tough hole to play, especially if you honor the road as out of bounds. Fortunately, we don’t. Here's a link to a short YouTube video of holes 9, 10 and 14.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZdq3O1ASPY

We took State Route 28 back towards Greenfield and then headed south to the camper. Once again we got back after dark, around 9:30 PM. The campground was very quiet. We finished off the rhubarb pie and sat outside the camper until a little after 11:00 PM. It’s was a nice night and there was an occasional gentle breeze to help cool the air. Crash time was around midnight.

Saturday morning wake up call was issued by Sparky about 7:00 AM. We had some fresh peaches for breakfast and some more pastries. We were on the road by 8:30 AM. A couple of miles out I noticed the light wasn’t displaying on the trailer’s electric brake module on the dashboard. A quick stop revealed that the plug from the Edge to the Pathfinder wasn’t completely seated. Problem solved.

The drive back was uneventful… …well, Flash got our attention that she needed a pit stop just east of Hillsboro… …but other than that, no problems. We were home just a little after 10:00 AM. Our total travel distance just topped 313 miles, with only 130 of those miles being the distance to and from the park.

The Edge will be going to the storage lot as next weekend as been proclaimed, “work around the house weekend.” No plans are finalized for Trip No. 4 but we’re comfortable expanding the possibilities now that we are comfortable with pulling, parking and using our new toy.

Camping Trip No. 2

We decided to take the Edge out for an overnight trip again. East Fork Lake is so close and the sites are nice so we headed there on Saturday afternoon, August 1, 2009, for a short trip.

The weather cooperated and we had a nice 18 hour stay. We watched our fist DVD in the Edge, "Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind."

One of the campers kids, "Junior," came over and played fetched with the dogs for a while. Nice boy, he definitely was in love with Sparky.

This time we stayed in Loop E, lot No. 147. We were surprised to see it vacant. It had a nice tree and lots of open space around it. The campground was really quiet this time and we had a relaxing time.

We got up at 7:30 AM and were back home before 10:00 AM. After we got home we gave the camper its first "bath," cleaning off some of the stains that have been visible since we picked it up last month.

It's out there basking in the sun right now.

Storage Time

This afternoon we took the Edge to its storage location along St. Route 131 between Buckwheat and Wolfpen. It's not the greatest place, way too close to the road for my liking but it will have to do, there are not a lot of open space near our house. I had a bit more of a challenge getting the RV backed into its little slot, but I eventually slotted it in. Next time should be smoother. I really hate leaving it there... ...it almost feels like "family" and I have abandoned it! We'll probably bring it home again next weekend, maybe try another local park.

We also found our lost FLIP Mino HD camera. I had packed it aboard the Edge then forgot. In the future we might have a couple of short YouTube video links.

Trip No. 1 is over!

Our first day of trailer camping went just fine. We got to our site at East Fork Lake, Site No. 56, and discovered that, at least for one day, I could park a trailer like a pro. We also discovered that we needed a few more accessories. We went back out and purchased four lawn chairs and a really nice 8’ x 15’ outside rug. It fits perfectly under our awning and the color scheme and design go perfectly with the Edge. We found out later that it hoses off clean as new. Best news… …it only weighs 12 lbs!

We took a little walk with the dogs, checking out potential future sites to consider when we come back again to East Fork Lake to camp.

Flash and Sparky were great. We leashed them to the picnic table at first but they soon discovered their range and we could give them a little off-leash time.

Alvalee, Dalton and Austin came to visit. Alvalee brought some fried chicken for dinner and assorted other goodies. Along with the food the big addition was a carload of well seasoned wood. We had a great bonfire, roasted some brats and marshmallows. Then we took a nice evening walk under the stars. Austin found Orion and Dalton a “pair of sunglasses” in the constellations. Our visitors headed for home around 11:00 PM. They all seemed to have a good time. I think Austin would have liked to stay. He said he’d camp with us again any time in the future.

Diane tried our shower out for the first time. The water gets hot very quickly, it’s easily adjusted, and not a problem getting a decent shower.

The weather was great. We had a major shower just miss us around noon and the cold front that brought it in set record lows for July. It’s mid-July, four days from the hottest day of the year, and we saw a high of 72 degrees and a low around 50. We didn’t need to use the air conditioner either night, and we didn’t need to turn on the heat. It was great sleeping weather.

We discovered that our little home bathroom TV could pick up a few stations with our antennae booster. The picture size was definitely too small to see from the bed. We watched the news before we snoozed.

Day one was a very relaxing, stress-free day.

Day two found us completing the complement of stuff we needed for the Edge. We got up early, Diane fixed breakfast, and I had my first shower in the trailer. It’s a little cramped but not too bad… …beats the heck out of the public shower rooms.

We went back to our house and picked up some more clothes (we hadn’t packed for two days.) We also stopped at a couple of stores and picked up some metal dinnerware, a 5 gallon container to refill the Edge’s water tank, and a new Samsung 19” TV! That purchase was pretty cool, but I only had it operational for a few minutes before I got a call from Paul and Kelly that they had just bought a 52” TV for their house. Now that is cool.

We drove all the way around the lake to the Bethel side and let the dogs run up the dam. They were amazing. Two beautiful border collies running like the wind on an open green hill.

After that we decided to drive down to the Ohio River to check out the Steamboat Bend Campground just below Woodland Mounds Park. There are some awesome site there, half of them right above the Ohio River. We only saw a couple of sites that appeared to be open on the river side. There were several internal sites. These sites have to be reserved for a minimum of a week and can be reserved for a full month or the whole camping season. Given the view, it’s probable that the river view sites aren’t open too often.

After that little side trip we came back to the trailer. Rain threatened all around us but we were spared. That was a good thing because it assured us we would have more company, and sure enough, Alvalee showed up… …this time with strawberry shortcake and a bottle of wine.

We took another walk under the stars, checked out the movie they were showing in campground D, and headed back to the camper. It was a little cold and our fire had burned down to the embers so we decided to enjoy the strawberry delight inside.

We hadn’t been inside too long when the dogs ran to the door, tails wagging like crazy. Look who showed up at our doorstep… ….IZZY!!! Paul and Kelly were right behind. They had been to a wedding and reception and then came to visit us. Unfortunately, they went to the east side of the lake and that got them to our trailer a little later than they expected, but it was great to have more visitors, especially ones with smores to roast. The fire was really burned down so Kelly made them in the microwave. Not a problem, still smorishly good.

Everyone pulled out around 11:00 PM. Kelly was going to worked at the Red’s game on Sunday and Alvalee had to keep working to earn her CEUs.

Sunday morning Diane hopped out of bed before 8:00 AM and I follow soon thereafter. We had everything ready to go and pulled out of East Fork by 9:30 AM. But first we got our first experience emptying the “refuse tanks” on the trailer. Maybe it was our lucky day, but everything went smoothly. Not as bad as I expected.

The short drive home was smooth and my second experience backing into our driveway went really good. We had the whole trailer emptied and cleaned in about an hour. Not too bad at all.

Mission accomplished. We feel like we have a really good handle on the basic operations of the trailer and can try a trip a little farther from home the next time. In the mean time, subdivision regulations prohibit us from leaving our Edge in the driveway for more than 10 days so tomorrow we will be towing it to our storage location on St. Route 131 in Day Heights. I’m not real happy with the site. It’s too close to the road and I worry that someone might throw something at the RV, but it will do until we can find a better place.

That’s all for Trip No. 1.

Pulling Out

OK, It's about 9:45 AM, on Friday, July 18th, 2009 and just a year short of my 60th birthday I'm pulling a TT (travel trailer) out of my driveway for the first time. The dogs are excited and I'm nervous. Hope to be posting when I return how easy it was. Wish us luck.