Our first extended stay now that we're on the road was in the Cincinnati area. I always enjoy coming back here when we have the chance. Years ago I went to college at the University of Cincinnati so I am fairly familiar with the town. And better yet, I have two sisters and several other family members living in the general area.
On the Saturday before the 4th, we had a family get together and wedding shower at home of one of my sisters. Getting to spend time with family is always a fun time. Catching up with everyone and hearing their stories and explaining our downsizing trials and tribulations was a great way to spend the afternoon.
The evening brought its own excitement. A home, no more than half a mile away, started shooting fireworks. Initially we were thinking they were just going to be the typical homeowner setting off what they had bought at a store. But a few minutes into it, we realized this was a professionally done spectacular! As my one brother in law stated, this guy must have "stupid money" to be able to put on such a show. It lasted at least 40 minutes and was better than most fireworks displays I have seen in my life.
We stayed at East Fork State Park for the 10 nights. It is a very nice park with lots of sites, although very few with full hook-ups and we were not lucky enough to reserve one of them in advance. Surprising to us, we did not have too much trouble conserving water and holding tank capacity for the whole time we were there. Maybe we will do okay when we head out west and do some serious boon docking?
The other great feature about this park is the geocaching. This past April, there was a large geocaching event here at the park, and a whole slew of new caches were placed. In between family visits, we managed to get in some reasonably good hikes with some high number of caches found. We didn't come close to clearing out the park, so there will still be plenty of caches for us on our return trips to the area.
We also got lucky and happened to catch up with a couple we had only met last year at a Newmar rally in West Virginia. We knew they were planning on going full time in their motor home, but hadn't stayed in touch to realize they had already done so about 3 months earlier than us. They happened to be back in the area as well so we spent a few hours catching up and trading downsizing stories.
As it turns out, this couple was staying at the FMCA campground area in Newtown. We had been considering becoming members before, but the convenience of the camp here to my family was the clincher for us. I suspect when we are back in town, that's the place we will be staying.
We also managed to at least sketch out what our travel plans will be for the next 9 weeks until we will be back in Cincy. A couple travel days to get to West Bend WI. From what we know of that area, it is a geocache rich region since they have a large event here each year. Our schedule will not put us there during the event, but it still should be good. This will also be a good spot to do some day trips to a few towns where my wife spent time as a kid. She has all sorts of places she wants to try to find. I suspect it will be a real test of her memory.
After West Bend, we will head up just a bit further north to Door County Wisconsin - a peninsula just northeast of Green Bay. Then it's onto the UP of Michigan for awhile before stopping in the Mackinac Island area. We haven't scoped out the rest of the trip south in case we run out of time before needing to get back to Cincy.
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