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| Pleasant Hill Lake |
“Another Time” has arrived.
Time to depart! We thought the
truck and trailer was all packed but after we pulled out, H thought of
something important we forgot so – around the block we went! The sun was shining and traffic was fairly
light on the expressway around town so we finally got started on this “Fall
Color Trip” to and thru sections of southern Ohio -starting in Loudonville and
the Mohican State Park. In Ohio and
Michigan there are pumpkin, apple and Halloween festivities ALL month
long. He thought that we’d have no
trouble getting a site since we were arriving on a
Pleasant Hill is not a state park but belongs to the
Muskingum Watershed, a flood control group that oversees the local rivers, the
dam, the resulting reservoir and the land surrounding them. The campground does not have organized
activities and no campwide Halloween decorations so it was a much quieter stay! Our trailer is decorated tho! On the front jack, sits a large gourd with
purple bat wings and goofy head. A
stick on purple and black witch clings to the side of the kitchen slide,
greeting us as we climb the steps to the trailer! A flat styrofoam pumpkin
looks out from the kitchen window. A
jack-o-lantern lampshade has replaced the plain one on the dining area table
lamp. A plastic blow up pumpkin grins
out the big back window!
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| Halloween at Mohican State Park |
Back at the state
park there were a plethora of families, with their sites loaded with fake
tombstones and blowup ghosts and goblins – each hoping to win a prize. The
campground hosts even got in on the festivities and decorated one entire corner
with cobwebs, talking ghouls, witches and skeletons. Some were seated in various camping scenes. Two were fishing in an empty ditch and three
were even floating down that empty ditch in their innertubes! In town, the quaint streets were festooned
with pumpkins, cornstalks and bright fall flower plantings. We shopped our
favorite shops and even toured the local history museum. H was quite taken with the big display on
the company “Flexible” which made the first motorcycle sidecar that had an axle
that actually flexed when going around a corner. The company went on to manufacture intercity buses and ambulances
and had several factories in town.
“HAD” is the operative word!
From that area we continued our fall back roads color tour
down and over to Rocky Fork Ranch Resort with a stop at Roscoe Village and
Coshocton on the way. The restored
historic canal town had plenty of folks wandering in and out of the small era
type shops and the weather cooperated perfectly! The colors on the hillsides were really starting to pop!
Rocky Fork “Ranch” occupies a small green valley where the
guest area and the horse barns are located and several “mountain” ridges where
the actual campgrounds and the recreation center are. We pulled in on Saturday and were just in time for the 3RD of
their 4 Halloween Weekends! All the
little ones and teens were kept busy with trick or treating in the afternoon
and in the evening was the costume judging.
The adults held their golf cart parade and late evening dance! Sunday was the grand exodus as they all
pulled out and left the place almost empty!
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| Winding narrow roads |
Our days were filled with exploring the narrow, winding back
roads that connected all the small towns.
Once we drove right thru a muddy farm complex with free roaming chickens
in the middle of the road.
On another day’s journey we ended up over the Ohio River to
downtown Wheeling W Va. – a tired old river town that is trying to make a
comeback. Down that side of the Ohio
River we passed coalmines with their long reaching conveyors that spew their
black contents onto waiting barges or train cars that would haul it to other
destinations. On the river, huge tug
type “push” boats steered their collections of barges filled with coal or
gypsum up or down the river! We crossed
back over the river in Hannibal Ohio and spotted the lock and dam. We parked just in time to watch a tug with 4
barges, slowly ease her way into the narrow lock.
The fall colors are growing in intensity! Golds, oranges and reds are spreading across the hills and valleys. The wind has picked up and now the leaves are even starting to fall – it must be time for us to move on, too.
