Ohio September 2014 Weekend Getaway

Posts tagged ‘Ohio September 2014 Weekend Getaway’

Weekend in Ohio – Days 3 and 4

September 7th was our last full day in Ohio. Bob and I were showered, dressed and standing on “Top -o- World” by 6:50 am.

Top -o- World at
Whispering Hills Jellystone Park Camp-Resort
(photograph taken the day before)

We watched the sunrise together at 7:01 am.

The humidity and cool temperature (49 degrees!) added fog to the air.
The sunrise with fog was very pretty indeed!

Sunrise

Bob and I ate breakfast at the campground cafe. We ordered 2 egg cheese omelets with diced ham, home fries, toast and sausage. Orange juice and tea/coffee were complimentary. Breakfast was reasonably priced and very good. After breakfast Bob and I walked to the West Terrace to say goodbye to our VROC friends. Everyone, except Mike, had already departed. Mike said we missed everyone else by 10 minutes. We said goodbye to Mike. Then we hopped on our motorcycle and went for a ride.

What beautiful countryside to ride in!

We rode to Mohican State Park, near Loudonville OH. We saw a fire tower, a covered bridge, a gorge overlook and a memorial shrine to Ohio’s deceased veterans.

According to the Mohican State Park website,
this is one of the last remaining fire towers in Ohio.

The Mohican Covered Bridge crosses over the Clearfork River.

Clearfork River

Clear Fork Gorge
The view from this overlook would be spectacular in the Autumn!

Memorial Shrine to Ohio’s Deceased Veterans

This shrine houses records of all of the names of Ohioans who lost their lives in all wars and conflicts. Printed books are available to look through, and hand written books containing all of the names are displayed under glass.

Leaving Mohican State Park we rode west and ended up in Bellville OH. We ate lunch in Bellville at K.C.’s Steak & Ribs. Bob ordered a steak salad. I ordered grilled chicken. For dessert we shared a chocolate chip Cakie (a cookie and cake combination). If we are ever in the Bellville area, we would definitely eat at K.C.’s again. The food, service and ambiance were very good.

After lunch we began the ride back to the Whispering Hills Jellystone Park Camp-Resort . We made two stops on our way back to the campground.

Nice-looking barn!

This barn is located about half way between Bellville and Butler on Ohio State Route 97. We passed by the barn on our way to Bellville. When I realized that we would be passing by the barn again on our way back to the campground, I watched for it. I asked Bob to stop so that I could take a picture.

Before we departed Bellville, Bob had programmed our route into the GPS. He must have forgotten to instruct the GPS not to take us on dirt / gravel roads.

Riding Down Crooked Road, south of Butler OH

On Saturday, during the group ride with our VROC friends, I caught glimpse of a covered bridge. I made a mental note of the location,of that bridge. Bob and I found the “Bridge of Dreams” covered bridge during our ride.

Bridge of Dreams
located near Brinkhaven, OH

The Bridge of Dreams is 370 feet long and spans the Mohican River. It is the second longest covered bridge in Ohio after the Smolen-Gulf Bridge, and third longest covered bridge in the United States.

The Bridge of Dreams is closed to motorized traffic but is often used by Amish buggies. In fact, while we were at the river’s edge looking up at the bridge, we heard an Amish buggy crossing overhead. I would have loved to capture a photograph of an Amish buggy crossing this bridge!

We planned to eat dinner at the campground cafe, same as the night before. Our plans changed, though, when I discovered that the kitchen and camp office/store closed at 4:00 pm. We ate dinner at East of Chicago in Shreve, located about 3 miles from the campground. Bob ordered a buffalo chicken salad. I ordered a personal size pizza with pepperoni and a side salad. The food was good.

The moon was almost full our last night in Ohio.
We were able to see it from our cabin’s porch swing.

The next day we departed Whispering Hills Jellystone Park Camp-Resort, en route home, at 7:20 am. Our first stop was an hour later on U.S. Route 62 near Canton OH. We stopped for breakfast at Bob Evans Restaurant. We made it home around 1:30 pm. What a wonderful weekend we had!

Weekend in Ohio – Day 2

We departed Wooster OH en route the Whispering Hills Jellystone Park Camp-Resort at 10:30 am. It took less than ½ hour to reach the campground. We were able to check into our cabin early.

Our accommodation for 2 nights was Cabin 6B. Our deluxe cabin sleeps 6. There is a full bathroom, kitchenette, electric, running water, air conditioning (and heat), mini refrigerator, microwave, coffee pot, towels and bed linens, dinnerware and utensils, outside grill (propane), fire pit, picnic table, and sliding swing on a covered porch.

Here are a couple photographs that I took inside of the cabin.

Eat-in Kitchen

If you read my previous blog post, the purpose of our weekend in Ohio is to attend the Central Ohio Vulcan Riders and Owners Club (VROC) motorcycle rally. Soon after arriving at the campground we joined our VROC friends at the West Terrace. We left for a ride at noon. Those riding were Brad, in the lead and our rally host, Bruce , Chris and Linda, Joe and Shirley and Bob and I. We enjoyed a nice, scenic ride.

At the West Terrace Getting Ready to Ride

It was so good to see Brad riding again. Earlier this year Brad and his wife, April, were in a motorcycle accident. April died in that motorcycle accident. The Central Ohio VROC rally was planned by both Brad and April. The rally was held in April’s honor.

Joe and Shirley

While at the stop shown in the photograph displayed above, Bruce was concerned that his bike chain might be too tight. We were very close to Brad’s house at this stop, so we went there (where he had tools).

It started to rain, as we approached Brad’s house.
He opened the garage, and we rode in.
Bruce loosened a chain on his bike.

When we left Brad’s house, en route the campground, the rain had stopped. The rain started to fall, though, soon after we left. None of us had put on rain gear. It was a wet ride back to the campground. We relaxed at the cabin, drying out, until dinner time. Our friends did the same inside their tents.

We ate dinner at the campground cafe. Most of our VROC friends did the same. Bob had a Philly steak sandwich with potato salad. I had a cheeseburger with potato salad. We shared dessert, an apple dumpling with ice cream. We spent rest of the evening sitting around a campfire talking, reminiscing, and laughing.

Oh, I almost forgot. Have you heard of the ALS ice bucket challenge? The ice bucket challenge is an activity involving dumping a bucket of ice water on someone’s head to promote awareness of the disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and encourage donations to research. The challenge encourages nominated participants to be filmed having a bucket of ice water poured on their heads and then nominating others to do the same. A common stipulation is that nominated participants have 24 hours to comply or forfeit by way of a charitable financial donation. I filmed such an ice bucket challenge at our Central Ohio VROC rally.

Weekend in Ohio – Day 1 and the Morning of Day 2

We spent the weekend of September 6 in Ohio’s Amish Country. The purpose of our weekend getaway was to attend a Central Ohio Vulcan Riders and Owners Club (VROC) motorcycle rally.

We departed our hometown of Warren PA on September 5th a little after 8:30 am en route Wooster OH. We followed U.S. route 62 most of the way, with the exception of Route 27 from Pittsfield to Oil City and Route 30 into Wooster. Our original plan was to spend 3 nights at a hotel in Wooster and ride to Whispering Hills Campground, rally headquarters, located about 20 miles south of Wooster. Every one attending the motorcycle rally was staying at Whispering Hills Campground, either in a tent or a cabin, except for Bob and me. We do not have a trailer or room on our motorcycle for camping essentials such as sleeping bags, so a hotel stay was our only option … or so we thought. Since Thursday a thought had been bubbling inside my head. I wondered if the cabins at Whispering Hills campground included linens. I had never checked out that possibility, had never given it a thought, when we made our hotel reservation for the weekend. I didn’t act on my thoughts, until Friday, while en route Wooster.

I asked Bob to stop in Oil City. I telephoned Whispering Hills campground to ask if bed linens were provided for cabin rentals. I expected to be told that we would have to bring our own bed linens, so I was pleased to learn that bed linens were provided when renting a deluxe cabin. An additional pleasant surprise was to learn that Whispering Hills campground was running a special – 2 nights for the price of one. I attempted to cancel all 3 days of our hotel stay at Best Western; however, it was past the time for a no cost cancellation. I changed our hotel reservation to one night and made a reservation at Whispering Hills for 2 nights.

We made two more stops after Oil City. We stopped for gas and a bathroom break at Sheetz in Mercer PA, and we stopped for lunch at Denny’s Restaurant in Hubbard OH. We arrived at Best Western Wooster at 3:00 pm. I was so happy to stop riding. Temperatures were in the upper 80s / lower 90s. It had been a long, hot ride!

We relaxed in the hotel for about 1 ½ hours. Relaxation time included a shower. The shower was very refreshing, after being so hot and sticky from the ride to the hotel! Around 4:30 pm we left the hotel and rode to the Whispering Hills campground, located 3 miles south of Shreve OH, where we met up with our VROC friends. We sat around in a circle and chatted for a bit. A picnic table was pulled to the circle so that Bob and I would have a place to sit. As I mentioned earlier, our motorcycle is limited in space. We had no room to carry camp chairs. We are talking about installing a rack on top of the truck to add more space.

We left, as a group, and rode to the Iron Pony Saloon for dinner. Dinner (bacon cheddar hamburger with fries for me; prime rib and fries for Bob) was very good, and the conversation lively. If I remember correctly, there were 17 of us at dinner. After dinner, Bob and I rode back to our hotel in Wooster.

It was a stormy night. The wind awakened me around 12:30 am. Then the rain hit hard against the window for a while. At 8:30 am on September 6th, it was cloudy but dry. We ate breakfast (complimentary) at the hotel cafe. Breakfast was excellent and included selections such as waffles, eggs, sausage, yogurt, hot and cold cereal, fruit, pastries, and a variety of beverages.

We checked out of the hotel at 9:30 am. We spent an hour in downtown Wooster photographing the courthouse, a monument and the farmers market. I used my iPhone to capture the sights.