The best part about this stop in Sandusky was meeting our neighbors who happened to be homeschooling on the road too.  They have been on the road full time for 10 months.  So not only did our kids have instant friends (which was awesome) we were able to learn so much in the little bit of time we spent with them.  Thank you Chrissie and Michael for sharing all your experiences and wisdom with us.  You can read the chronicles of their journey at http://www.unschoolingparadise.com.

The next best part was the jumping pillow at the KOA we stayed at.  And because it is post Labor Day and all schools are in session we basically had full reign of the jumping pillow.

    

 

 

We were only in Sandusky for one night and from the map it appeared to have a nice downtown area right along Lake Erie.  In an effort to eat dinner somewhere different we ventured into downtown.  And a downtown there was, but it was completely desolate.  Not a soul in site and not a restaurant or any other business open for the that matter.  I thought this must have once been a great place to shop, eat, and stroll along the lake at one time.  What happened?

After talking to a local she said that now that all the stores are out on the highway no one goes downtown.  She remembered as a kid going downtown to shop but said she couldn’t even remember the last time she went downtown.  She said everything changed when big businesses moved in.   It made me want to support mom and pop kind of places more than I already do.

Our plan is to make it out of Ohio tomorrow.

It rained most the morning and into the afternoon.  We weren’t sure we wanted to venture out to Cuyahoga Valley NP in the mud but what’s a little mud gonna do. And as is turns out the rain completely stopped by the time we got to the visitors center.  The Erie Canal runs through this park and you can drive the towpath and see many of the boat locks that were used years ago.  I didn’t know much about the Erie Canal other than that annoying song we sang about it in public school. 

There is also an area of the park that was once a dump. When it was taken over by the government and turned into a national park, beavers moved into the area and dammed an area of the canal creating marsh area and also many other habitats for other animals.

Beaver Marsh

Headed for the falls.

A stop for some rock climbing.

And we found the Branywine Falls

It was worth the stop and the ranger at the visitor’s center was informative, giving us a quick lesson of some of the history of the park.  And even though it is a national park there was no entrance fee… and we love free stuff (who doesn’t).  I think we would have spent more time at the park if we hadn’t got such a late start but not much more.

The kids were excited to get back to the sluice at the campground so they could seine for “gems”.

         

We said good bye to PA today but not before a last splash in the sprayground, some tie dye fun, a hay ride, and one lucky lady found the first silver coin hidden throughout the campground.

Sprayground.

Tie Dye

Hayride

And the lucky lady.

 

It was a long day of driving from PA to OH.  It’s much hotter here, in OH, than it was in PA when we were in the mountains. Three quarters of the way to our destination the air conditioner in the cab of the motorhome failed on us.  Not only did it fail us, it completely switched from AC to heat!  I think the stuffy RV is what put 3 of the four kids to sleep for a good hour.  When we arrived here in Streetsboro, OH, we were ready to get out and swim and play and explore.  The only problem was the battery in the van was dead (and we were parked in the middle of the road).  Thank you to the man who helped us jump the van (everybody is friendly at a campground)!

We are learning along the way, about downshifting and disengaging overdrive to avoid smoking brakes, making sure any thing that could drain a car battery is off or disconnected, and that the hot water heater that we thought was busted was really just a push of a button in the right direction.  Like I said we are learning, and it has been fun.

 

Until next time Pennsylvania…

I will say this place is a little touristy and it could get little pricey for a family of 6 if we did the combo deal of the wildlife tour and the cavern tour.  We decided to just do the cavern tour (which was pricey enough) and being that I am traveling the country I am technically a tourist every place I go so sometimes touristy is worth the time and money. 

The kids said this place was really cool, literally and figuratively.  It’s a chilly 52 degrees 100 feet below the ground.  We saw amazing stalactites and stalagmites and we learned about how this cavern was formed thousands of years ago.

 

Getting ready to board the boat.

Feeling a little uncertain.

And we’re off

Amazed!

 

 

Freya was thankful to see daylight again… but then we realized we needed to go back to where we started from.