A Walk in the Woods

Saturday October 15, 2011
Dillon State Park Site 121
Nashport, Ohio

 

 
The rains had stopped by
the time the sun came up.
The winds were blowing in
excess of 20mph when David
went out for his run.
Gotta get up earlier to beat those winds.

In what is getting to be our regular routine,
I did an hour of yoga while he was
running.  Some folks commented that they’d
like to do yoga.  I found what I think is a
nice reasonably easy on-line video if you’d
like to give it a try.
She’s pretty easy to follow once you’ve
seen what she is doing.
Yoga Video

 

Once he got back and did his stretching,
it was time for lunch
and then we thought we’d go out
for a walk and give this ankle a try
on something longer than the
grocery store aisles.

 

I think we both agree that Dillon State Park
gets the award for THE worst hiking maps.
But it didn’t matter too much this time
since all I wanted to do was get on any
trail and see if I could walk a bit and
be outside in the woods.

 

So I put on my walking shoes for the
first time in about 6 weeks.  I’ve been
wearing sandals which don’t come up
around my ankles like regular shoes or boots do.

Off we went.
We wandered around a while
looking for the trail access.

If I can walk say a half mile, I wonder if
I could play Disc Golf?
There is yet another course here.
I had NO idea it was so popular.

 

 

Here’s the mode of camping I did before Winnona.

 

 

We finally found a trail.

 

With all the leaves, the trail was a bit hard to see. 
And even harder to see in this picture.
But it was beautiful in
the woods and I was so glad to be
there walking slowly.
We were the only folks around.

 

 

David took the lead and cleared the path
a bit when he thought necessary.
We actually like to scuff our feet through
the leaves so this gave him a perfect excuse.

 

The trails had interesting markers.
Would you think this was the yellow trail?
the purple trail?
or the red trail?

 

How about the “signs” on the pole?

 

Here was David’s favorite other sign.

 

 

 

Check out the size of this sycamore leaf!

I think I’ll come as leaf woman to the Halloween party
I’m sure you are having and will invite me to.
Although time is running out and I haven’t
gotten the invitation yet.

 

 

Along one side of the trail, we could
see the lake through the trees but
there was no trail to the shore.

 

 

The woods was a mixed deciduous forest
with mostly trees with which we are familiar.
Oaks, poplar, ironwood, sycamore, maple and beech.
Many large trees in this lovely fall woods.

 

 

We didn’t go all that far or all that fast,
but I really enjoyed being out and just walking along.

 

Candy Day!!!

Friday October 14, 2011
Dillon State Park Site 121
Nashport, Ohio

I depend a lot on the weather folks
to let me know what to expect
and often where to go to avoid it

But there are times when I love it if they are wrong.
That actually happens often enough
it should bring a lot of happiness into life.
And it did today.

Rain had been predicted for all day and
all night for at least the next 2 days.
But It did not rain in the morning
or the afternoon
or until we were parked and leveled and all hooked up.
Hoo Ray!!

That made our travels on I 70 through Ohio much nicer.
If I 70 could be said to be “nice”.


We left New Lisbon Indiana and in two
shakes of Winnona’s tail we were
in Ohio.

I was totally unprepared to find
the signs for the exit to my Grandparents’ home town
in Ohio came before the welcome to Ohio sign.

I knew they lived close to the Indiana line but
boy that is REALLY close when the Ohio State
Line comes after the exit to your house in Ohio.

My Grandparents’ home, where my mother grew up
and I visited often as a child,  was on the National Road,
Route 40, long before I 70 was even an idea.
No idea who lives in his home now butI saw the exits for both the road
and the town almost before I could get the camera out. 

Some day if I ever get the genealogy bug
I’ll stop by.

The next sign was the Ohio Line.

I wonder if Ohio has welcoming arches over
all of its interstate entrances??

We stopped at the Welcome Center to
pick up a state map.  I was impressed
that the Ohio State Transportation folks
are obviously thinking about energy savings
and made their Welcome Center an
Earth Sheltered building.
Great looking building and I’ll bet it saves
the taxpayers a bundle.

Although my mother grew up in Lewisburg,
she moved to Dayton when she married
my father.  So I grew up in the western side of Ohio.
I waved to my hometown of Dayton
as we drove past the exit for it.
I left at age 18 and except for infrequent visits never went back.
I lived in much more interesting places so
my parents usually came to visit me.
J

The only thing I ever missed from there was ESTHER PRICE CANDY.
(just click the links)
I know I’ve talked about this greatest candy in the world on
this blog before.  And I realized as we came into Ohio
that I could buy some here and have it NOW rather than
waiting for someone who loves me to send me some
for my birthday.
I have no problems with delayed gratification
of course.

So I got on the laptop and started searching away.
Where were the retail outlets? 
Too far into Dayton.
Where else was it sold?

Turns out it is sold in other retail stores
including Kroger Grocery in a few cities in Indiana,
lots of cities in Kentucky, in Crossville,
Tennessee and in TONS of cities in Ohio.

So I set out to find a Kroger Grocery right off
of I 70 on the way.
Success!!!
Huber Heights Kroger is visible from the
interstate so I stopped on by.

And they knew I was coming and put it
ON SALE!
How GREAT is that!!

Do your sweet tooth a BIG favor.
If you are ever in Ohio or any other
place that sells it pick up a box and see for yourself.
store locator
Or order it on line, they will ship it to you anywhere.
Order away!

First piece is so heavenly I have to close
my eyes in anticipation.

Eventually,
after 181 miles and a bit of confusion
about the directions to get to the park,
we finally made it and are set up in Site 121.

Moby Duck’s view

The rains started about 2 minutes
after we came in from all the set up and closed the door.
Good sleeping weather.
No trains, no interstate.

Esther Price,
quiet sleeping,
Life is Grand!!

Eating the day away

Thursday October 13, 2011
New Lisbon Campground
Straughn, Indiana

 

Do you have any idea why
the noise from the interstate seems
to get louder after dark? 

With the use of ear plugs we managed
to sleep through but are having a hard time
with this Eastern Daylight where the sun doesn’t come up
until 8AM and goes down just after 7PM.

Those of you who follow this blog
have already heard my rant about
time changing so I won’t repeat
but I’ll be glad to get back to NORMAL time
and just wish we could STAY there.  

I was wondering if I should move to the Central Time Zone.
So far I’ve liked it the best but they
don’t have any convenient oceans
and I’m an Oceanoholic!  
It’s been hard being away from my ocean for 6 months
and I’ve really missed it.

 

Today was a dark and dreary day. 
It was clearly just waiting for the rain to begin. 

David put off running so long that I was sure
he was going to get drenched.  
But he is SO LUCKY!
He got back before the rain, went over under the
roofed patio of the “clubhouse”
(using the term very loosely)
to do his stretching and other exercises
and the sky opened up about 5 minutes after
he got there.

 

I had no idea where he’d gone but thought he’d
be VERY wet when he got back.

  I had just finished yoga and was putting my
things away when I saw him
Running up in front of the coach.

QUICK grab the camera!
Check out that hat!

 

Here’s a better view.

 

 

The “rain gear” was so funny I couldn’t
stop taking pictures.

 

Turns out it was the most entertaining thing that happened all day.
But ”Sometimes” you have to wonder.
J

 

That was about it for Thursday.
It rained.

 

 

And it rained some more

 

 

And was foggy

 

 

We had breakfast for lunch,
ate up some of that Raspberry Jam,

answered emails, wrote blogs, and researched
where to possibly stay in Florida in the winter time.
David wrote  a letter to his brother Roger for his 70th Birthday.

 

And then it was time for dinner so we’d have
an excuse to make chocolate chip brownies
for dessert.

 

 

We pretty much ate the day away.
Looks like rain forever and ever into the future.
Hope it will give us a driving window tomorrow.