Well Dear Readers, we have officially made it to the start of another summer season, and the end of Year 1 of living on the road! It is kind of mind boggling as we think back onto all that we have done so far, and how much more there is to do. One of the funnest aspects of our time along the eastern part of our country is how accomplished we feel when you see how many states we have visited. Just a few more weeks and we’ll be back in the land of three day drives across a single state rather than a single day drive across three states!
Rumor has it that summer like weather will begin to stay in this Midwest Region by next week. We are dubious. Still dressing each morning in long pants, and long sleeve shirts, we don’t know if we should be envious or sorry for our Southwest Region friends already seeing temps around 100 degrees. (Yes, we still keep track!)
Our first stop in Ohio was at Cedar Point, on the shores of Lake Erie near Sandusky. We arrived on a cool blustery day, and fortunately had no plans to enter the park that day. It is open everyday, no matter the weather, but that doesn’t mean the rides you want are running! We were very impressed with the campground, however. The longer we are on the road, the more we appreciate really flat sites, with concrete patios and supplied outdoor furniture. Plus these sites were bordered on either side with shrubbery providing a nice screen from your neighbors. We arrived on a Saturday, so a busy pre-summer day, and the campground was FULL. I had purchased a three day entry pass for myself, and a single pass for my oldest and dearest friend Tracy Casey to join me on day three. So I had two solo days to explore the park. Dale decided on a hard pass, he didn’t even want to “hold my purse” even though you can buy beer at Cedar Point!
I took full advantage of the early entry option you get by staying at the park. Although, even with the weather turning from dreary to sunny, there were no rides running that early. Mostly I spent that morning trying to determine how many years it had been since my last visit (somewhere near 25! egads!!!), and trying to figure out where and when all the new coasters were built. I decided to follow the few folks who were in line to ride one I’d never seen before but was on the “most popular list”. Well, to make a long story short, it was everything I’ve come to expect from, and love about, Cedar Point. Nobody builds roller coasters better. I was one of those kids that grew up in Ohio, and our trip to CP every summer was a highlight. I had left Ohio long before I had the ability to drive myself there and have a seasons pass, so getting to stay three days straight was like a dream come true. Even when it became abundantly clear that at 62, the body can not take shakes and jerks like it used to. And at 62, fitting into the seats of the few coasters that are still there from my childhood is a painful, and humbling, experience. By the time Tracy joined me, I had been on 12 of the 17 coasters in the park (skipping three designed for pre-teens and two others from my childhood I didn’t want to squeeze into the 1970s seats and get beat up again), three of which I had ridden multiple times. My absolute favorite is Millennium Force, which was new when I visited in 2000. I was working at Boeing at the time, and someone had gifted me a poster of that ride, which hung on my wall until I left the company. My second favorite was called TT2, an upgrade from the Dragster I rode in 2003 when it was new. And holy cow, what an upgrade! It had JUST reopened so the lines were always long, but completely worth it! I missed the opening of the newest coaster in the park by one month, but somehow I wasn’t disappointed. This may have been my swan song at Cedar Point (not sure I can physically take it again – might give myself a concussion, if not throw my back out permanently!) and I do believe I did it right.Thank you Tracy for being my oldest and craziest friend. It was so much fun laughing about being the wildest old ladies in the park!
Although scheduled to stay in the park one more day, I wasn’t up for purchasing another pass, and it was Midge season, so the bugs were, well, an unpleasant experience. So the park was nice enough to refund us our last days stay, and off we went to visit Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Located 30 minutes from where I grew up, I can remember visiting the area as a kid, canoeing, playing in the woods, skiing at Boston Mills, an Ohio hill that made me shudder at my first look at Snoqualmie Ski area in Washington. (and as ski areas go, IYKYK) Anyway, its nice that the region was given a national park designation to preserve its history, but we didn’t need to spend much time there on a rainy afternoon, aside from getting my passport stamp.
The Memorial Day weekend was spent parked on the street in front of my Dad’s house in Delaware, OH. Originally, we were going to be in Delaware State Park, but when Dale checked the reservation he discovered that he had successfully reserved the days beginning just after the weekend. And a quick phone call validated that the park was FULL. He felt horrible, but in the end it worked out just fine. We were able to open half our slides, so we could sleep comfortable, and had power to keep the refrigerator going, and managed enjoy our visit enough to exhaust both Dad and stepmom Pam. Thanks to my Dad who helped Dale transform our cab-over area in the RV from an unusable bed to a secure organized storage area. And thanks to Pam who introduced me to the joys of treasure hunting in a store called Where Ya Bin. (Look it up) On top of that, between Dale’s cooking, and visits to their favorite eating places, we all ended the visit sure we wouldn’t need food again for a week. It was a pleasant time, and Dale and I managed to squeeze in our Ohio golfing at Delaware Golf Course just five minutes away.
We left Ohio to visit SW Michigan for a few days. Thanks to our friends Molly and David Roth, who used to own a home in nearby Three Oaks, we were given lots of recommendations for places to visit in and around St. Joseph. I don’t think either one of us realized that St. Joseph was such a summertime destination. We shopped the shops, visited the famed lighthouse pier, ate at Silver Beach Pizza, walked a bit at Grand Mere State Park, golfed twice at Paw Paw Lake Golf Course, visited the Saturday Artisan market (where it was so cold along those shores of Lake Michigan we were pretty convinced summer is never going to arrive) and generally enjoyed the laid back lifestyle. We heard a lot from the local vendors about the new pay to park situation in downtown, and how it has hammered their businesses so far. I’m sure it will be appreciated in the summer when there are more cars than spots, but right now the locals are boycotting. People can be so fickle.
We enjoyed a longer field trip yesterday to Elkhart, IN and the RV Hall of Fame. Somehow it had escaped my attention that we had entered the “heart” of RV manufacturing until I noticed the Thor factory signs. The museum was actually pretty interesting. They had trailers and RVs dating back to 1913, the Earl Travel Trailer hauled by the Model T (also on display). It was fun to see the progression of size, interiors, and amenities as the years went on. It sure made us appreciate ours all the more! There was a comic con going on in the attached event center where the only person I recognized on the presenter list was Dean Cain from Superman fame. Would have been fun to pop in and see the old man, I’m sure he still looks pretty damn good, but the rest of it would have been lost on me. Now if they had had ANY Walking Dead highlights, Dale wouldn’t have been able to keep me out! We left there and found a lovely little golf course to check Indiana off our list, although the way we both played had us wondering why we play this stupid game…. And finally, we drove through the campus of Notre Dame, and darn don’t those Fighting Irish have a beautiful campus! There was an alumni event going on, so lots of older (likely wealthy) folks wandering around in green. It was a long fun, albeit still briskly cool, day and a great finish to our stay.
Today, dear readers, we look forward to a quiet down day, doing errands and enjoying the scenes of other people having to pack up and leave. After this, we start meandering south where more adventures are already lined up!
Until next time, I’ll be thinking of you. Lady Wanderingwise
Weise's Wanderings 
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