Part 16 - Ohio

States & Provinces visited on this segment: Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky

Dates: Thursday, August 9 to Monday, August 13

Miles Driven: 828 (9850 total to date)

Summary: When we left Unionville we decided to take a more scenic route to Ohio rather than going straight across PA on I70. On paper this route should have been only ~1 hour longer than the more direct route, but it turned out to be significantly longer based on the bad weather that we encountered. We first went south into Delaware, and then headed SW into Maryland towards Baltimore. We then headed west across the northern part of Maryland. Shortly after we turned onto I68 near Cumberland the rain and wind started. It rained harder than I have ever experienced before and there were extremely strong wind gusts. Visibility was close to zero. Part of me wanted to pull off the road and stop, but I figured that was more dangerous than keeping going since other drivers would not be able to see we were not moving and might think there was another lane of traffic and run into us. We ended up driving about 20 miles an hour with the hazard lights turned on praying that we wouldn’t come across someone stopped in the road. Fortunately everyone else was doing about the same thing as we were. A couple of people passed us, but pretty much everyone else was driving at the same speed. The torrential rains continued for at least 30 minutes, then changed to just hard rain, although the wind gusts continued and they made it sound like something was hitting the trailer or falling off the trailer. I half expected to find something large missing from the trailer when we stopped. We stopped for dinner in Morgantown West Virginia, and by that time it was just raining. However, as we headed north up into Pennsylvania the torrential rains started up again, this time accompanied by thunder and lightning. The second time was worse than the first as by this time it was early evening, and when the rain came it became dark and even harder to see. It was still raining hard when we pulled into our campground near Washington, PA. I was glad for the day to be over and thankful that we had made it without incident. Not sure what the weather would have been like if we had taken the more direct northern route, but I doubt it could have been any worse, and we didn’t get to enjoy the scenery given the bad weather. By Friday morning the rain had stopped and we continued eastward. We stopped for a while at Buckeye Lake in Ohio before continuing on to Cincinnati where we spent the next two nights.

On Saturday we met Karen’s friend Daniela and spent the day with her family. Daniela is a friend of Karen’s from college. She is from Argentina, but moved to the Cincinnati area a few years ago. Karen has corresponded with her but had not seen her in almost 17years. However, within a few minutes it was like they had never been separated. We met them at their house and then followed them into town. We started out with lunch in Newport, Kentucky, just across the Ohio River from downtown Cincinnati. After lunch we went back into Ohio and went to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. It is located on the banks of the Ohio River, which once marked the boundary between free and slave states. The exhibits in the museum go over the history of slavery in the Americas, and highlight the efforts of abolitionists to assist slaves in escaping to the northern states and securing their freedom. After leaving the museum they showed us some of the highlights of Cincinnati before returning to their home. Daniela and Andres have two kids, Augustina and Martin who are each about 1 year older than our children. The four kids spent the rest of the day playing in the neighborhood association pool while we visited. Andres went out and picked up pizza and which we ate next to the pool. It was after 10 when we finally pulled the shriveled up children out of the pool and headed back to the campground. The kids were having so much fun that it was hard to get them to stop! Hopefully it won’t be 17 years before we see Daniela and her family again.

On Sunday we headed up to Columbus to visit with some of Karen’s relatives. We spent the next two nights at Karen’s Aunt Julia and Uncle Bill’s house. We parked the trailer in their driveway and slept in their house. It was nice to sleep in a real bed for a change and be in a spacious house again! When we arrived Sunday afternoon we had an early dinner with Karen’s aunt and uncle and three of her cousins along with their spouses and children. The kids had a great time playing together and we visited with the cousins that we had not seen since we were in Ohio last in 1998. On Monday we drove into Columbus and met Karen’s Aunt Suzie for lunch. We then tried to do some sightseeing around Columbus but didn’t have much luck. The first three things that we wanted to see were all closed. Turns out that most all of the tourist attractions are closed Monday’s in Columbus. So, we spent part of the afternoon driving around from site to site only to find out that they were closed. We did see the outside of the replica of the Santa Maria (Columbus’s flag ship), but couldn’t go on board and take the tour. The only thing that we found open was an interesting display of giant bug sculptures in a botanical garden. Monday night another of Karen’s cousins who couldn’t come on Sunday came over for dinner and we visited with him. While we were at Julia and Bill’s the kids had a great time playing with their dog Rudy. We had a good time visiting with everyone while we were in Ohio. Thanks Julia and Bill for your great hospitality!

Photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/bryan.vacation/Part16Ohio

Next up: Michigan