Hocking Hill State Park and a Hauhted Tunnel

Monday, July 30, 2019

We started off our explorations by going into the Hocking Hills State Park.  There are quite a lot of hikes here.  We started out going to the Rock House.  This is a natural cave in the park that has a 25-foot ceiling, naturally carved windows and has been a  shelter to local native Americans, travelers, robbers, horse thieves, and murderers.

We then tried to go Old Man's Cave, but it was so crowded we couldn't even find a place to park.  Next, we went in search of the Moonville Tunnel.  Mooneville was a very small town in a rather rugged area of Ohio.  There is no sign that a town was ever there.  The railroad went through this area and because of some deaths along the tracks, legend has kept the area known.   The first incident was in November 1880.  Two freight trains were on a course of a head-on collision.  The engineer, Frank Lawhead, and the firemen, Charles Krick were killed.  The accident was caused by the failure of the dispatcher to warn of trains traveling in each direction.  Word has it a ghost all in white shows up with a lantern.  Some have reported the apparition is wearing an engineer's hat.  There are also tales of a young brakeman, a women crossing the tracks and a murdered man.  This is now becoming a rail to trail.

Notice the old utility pole.

We didn't see any ghosts, but we did have a great hike.  There were millions of mosquitoes.  We got a chance to where our new outdoor hats and face nets.  They worked really well.

Prep and Moving Day.

Saturday, July 28 - Sunday, July 29, 2019

We spent Saturday doing laundry, cleaning up and getting ready for travel tomorrow.  Sunday was a short travel day.  We traveled east to Logan, Ohio.  Stayed at the Hocking Hills River RV Park.  This is a small park right along the river.  Very nice place.

Drove around to get the lay of the land and had dinner at a local Mexican restaurant then called it a night.

Arlington National Cemetery finally called.

Wednesday, July 23 - Friday, July 27, 2018

We finally got a date for Mom's internment at Arlington.  Thursday, July 26.  On Wednesday we spent the day doing errands and emptying out the truck in preparation for the quick return to Maryland.  Since we were taking the cats with us we had to be sure we were prepared for that.

Tried to go to bed early because we were up by 3:00 am.  Grabbed the kitties and off we went,  Eight hours later we were back in Silver Spring.  Chris, Candice, and Brandon met us at the house and we headed for Arlington National Cemetery.

Dad with Debra Ogunfolu, one of his fab caregivers.

We all met back at Aspenwood and had a very nice, simple lunch of Ledo's pizza, salad, and cake.

Back at home, we repeated the night before.  Early to bed, up at 3:00, grabbed the kitties and we made it back to Ohio by noon.

When we bought the new tires, we knew we had to get them aligned.  Back in South Charleston, we found a tire repair shop to do the alignment and he asked us why we didn't have matching tires.  They should have been an All Terrain but they are HL.  Since we don't plan to do any more off-road driving we didn't feel it was worth the trip back to Springfield.

We got lost.

Tuesday, July 24, 2019

Thought we would go for an easy hike today.  Drove through a town called Cliffton Mills on our way to an Indian Mound.

We then continued on to Peterson Park near Ceaderville, OH where the Williamson Adena Mound is located.

On our return to the car, the path looked inviting so we decided to continue on to Cedarcliff Falls.  It was a nice hike along the creek although there was a sketchy area where there was a bridge at one time.  I was rather uncomfortable because I was not planning to do a real hike and was wearing sandals.  We made it through the slippery area and the rest of the hike was quite level although it was a bit further than we originally thought.  It turned out to be worth the walk because of the lovely falls.  In looking back at a map we apparently crossed the entire park.

Sketchy part.

Time to return the way we came.  I was remembering the slippery area we had to cross and remembered a sign pointing to an upper trail that connected to the trail we needed to use to return to our truck.  So we stayed on the upper trail passed the sketchy place looking for that connecting trail.  We walked and walked and no trail offshoot.  (We later found out that a tree had fallen down the hill and block the top of the path.)  We came out of the woods to an open field at what looked like the area where the mound was.  It was a mound but not an Indian mound.  After walking to what we thought was the front of the mound we found ourselves in the biggest solar farm.

Solar panels as far as we could see.  No people, no cars.  There were several roads including a dirt road that looked like the way we needed to go.  We tried that but looking at Google Maps on my phone decided that was the wrong direction.  Tried another route around the field and we came upon a "Danger, Shooting Range."  That obviously wasn't the right way.  Next, we headed toward the hardtop road but really couldn't figure out where we were.  Of course, by now my phone battery is dead and Bruces's had already died, so no help from Google.  After wandering around a bit we decided to head back into the woods and retrace our steps.  We had to walk back about 2/3 of the way to the falls and take the path around the sketchy area.  Boy, that orange truck sure looked good.

We actually drove around until we found that solar farm.  We made the right choice going back through the woods because we were so far from the truck by the road that we never would have found it.

Tires, Clark County, OH Fair

Monday, July 23, 2019

Well, today the first thing we had to do was see how much damage our off-roading did to the truck tires.  Of course, it was bad.  Hod to buy two new tires.  We drove into Springfield to a Costco where we thought we were purchasing two matching tires.  They advised us to get an alignment soon.

After spending all day and booku bucks on the tires we notice a local county fair nearby and decided to stop by.  It was a typical, but smaller fair.  We spent a couple of hours there and then called it a night.

New Area to Explore

Sunday, July 22, 2018

We got settled in at Stars of Tomorrow Campground in South Charleston, Ohio.

As we usually like to do, we went for a drive to check out the area.  We found a very interesting place called the Hartman Rock Garden in Springfield, Ohio.  This was in a residential area in what was the Hartman's yard.

From their website:

The Hartman Rock Garden is one of the nation's most intriguing and revered works of in situ folk art.
Harry George "Ben" Hartman was born in 1883 in Edenville PA.  At the age of 16, he left home to learn mold-making, a craft at which he quickly became highly-skilled.  Ben married (second wife) Mary in 1928.  They resided in a small house on the corner of Russell and McCain.  In 1932 during the depression, Ben was laid off from his job.  He was not content being sedentary so began by building a fishing pond in his backyard.  He was hooked and began constructing a variety of structures and figures.  Ben died in 1944 and Mary took on the monumental task of maintaining the garden.