Out of Our Rut: Back to Cincy

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Our drive in to Cincinnati was not without incident. On a sweeping curve of a cloverleaf while traveling about 40-45 MPH, we went over a bad expansion joint and the Jeep started to fishtail wildly. This time I managed to notice it quickly and slow down enough to stop it. This will need to be figured out soon before we end up having serious problems.

We arrived at the campgrounds at FMCA in Newtown and found there were several spots open. This place should work out nicely for us. It is closer to family than staying at East Fork, has full hookups with 50 amp electric and reasonable wi-if.

The FMCA Campground

For other travelers that happen to stay here, check out Main Street Cafe. It's only a couple blocks away so we walked there for lunch one day. We had good burgers and even got some pie for dessert. The Newtown Farmers Market is about 2 miles or so up Round Bottom Road. It has more than a good selection of fruits and vegetables, but also has pies, ice cream and more.

The stay here started with a niece's wedding. It was an outdoor ceremony with rain predicted later in the evening. Unfortunately as luck would have it, a storm was rolling in as everybody was showing up at Alms Park. With occasional lightning strikes in the distance, the bride was walked to the beautiful overlook and the service started. In the first minute, the wind kicked up and blew her veil off. All the guests were sure it was going to start pouring but we were all spared and only had a sprinkle or two during the ceremony. And we all managed to walk up to the building and tent the reception was being held in before it did briefly pour for a few minutes.

The Overlook at Alms Park as Storm Approached

As we tried to sort out what the problem is with the Jeep, we realized that we are experiencing a known problem with this model. In fact, FMCA was responsible for pressuring Jeep into recognizing the problem and coming up with a fix. We had already scheduled the Jeep for a oil change and tire rotation, so we had the dealer check it out. They had never heard of the problem so I was glad we could come in prepared with all the info needed including the part number they needed to order. The timing would require us to stay a bit longer in the area, but since we had made no reservations for what's next and FMCA was okay with us staying longer than a week, it was fine for us to stay.

We did find this place was very close to the Little Miami Scenic Trail - apparently the 3rd longest paved trail in the US! What is extra nice about it is there are a bunch of geocaches along much of the trail at least in the portion here in the Cincinnati area. During our stay, we have had multiple occasions to either just bike it from the FMCA camp, or to drive to other trailheads to experience different sections. One morning I had Chris drive me up about 10 miles north to Miamiville with the idea of riding back to camp and caching along the way. The first mile was fine but just past Camp Dennison, the trail was closed because of unstable soil conditions. I was worried I would need to go well out of my way in unfamiliar territory but I lucked out and realized route 126 more or less followed the trail into Milford so I only needed to use the road for a mile or so.

One morning we headed up to Goshen to Kathryn Stagge-Marr Community Park. This appeared to be the closest disc golf course. There was only one geocache in the park but we managed to work it in as we played the course. It didn't start out all that well. On the first hole, Chris threw her disc farther than I can remember her ever throwing one. The problem was it wasn't towards the pin, but 90 degrees off the fairway into tall trees and a pond on the other side of the trees. We looked for 10 minutes but suspect it was hung up in a tree and being a perfectly calm day, there was little chance of it falling while we were there.

Gazebo, Big Sycamore and Pond at Disc Golf Park

Since we had extra time here, we headed to the University of Cincinnati campus one day. I had graduated from here about 31 years ago. This isn't my first time back, but each time I'm here it looks so different. We even went into the engineering building to see if I could find my class photo. Even though we saw photos hanging in other departments, apparently the electrical engineering department only has the two most recent class photos hanging up. The Bearcats were practicing so we went to check out the stadium. Within a couple minutes, some guy came over to tell us we could not film the practice session.

Baldwin Engineering Building

McMicken Hall

UC Bearcats Practice

We also headed to Eden Park and did a little exploring. Usually when I would visit this place, the Krohn Conservatory was the real destination, but this time we just walked around the park and checked out the beautiful water tower that is there. It was built in the late 1800's but has not been used in 100 years.