Postcard from Ohio- 1

3-5 June 2012

Perrysburg

We had nothing but toll road getting here to Perrysburg, OH. Easy, easy drive. This KOA park has a lot of trees and a small number of sites with water & 50A electric... and no sewer connection. I screwed up the reservation and inadvertently picked this site instead of the usual "full hook-up". And they managed to place the tank dump somewhere I couldn't get with all 38' of our 5th wheel.

The Admiral was not happy. But after I said I'd go use the park's shower, leaving her to fill the grey water tank all by herself, she git over it. So we made it thru the nite and were off to Grafton, OH the next morning.

One of the things we got in Elkhart at Rise 'n Roll Bakery was a couple 1 lb. bags of sliced meat. It was time to start eating it or it was going to have an undignified burial in the garbage can.It was a great find and the meat was delicious.

Grafton

I'd made the next reservation at American Wilderness Campground. It turns out to be a huge park (perhaps 250 sites?) with a fishing lake, a swimming lake, lots of trees, lots of grass, lots of rules, and... no sewers. And if you have no sewers (anywhere!) it means you have no flush toilets (can you say outhouse). Nor do you have showers anywhere near where the camp sites are. Essentially we were dry camping for $44/nite.

Mrs. Bowman's little boy got a lot of abuse from the Admiral since this was a 2-nite stay. I was assured by the receptionist, Ms. Perky, that there was no charge for dumping the tanks. "Mmm... thanks. I guess." All you have to do is get ready to leave the park in order to use the dump station. If I have to do that much work, I'll just keep on going down the road.

In all fairness, it was pretty clear I was in the minority as most folks looked pretty happy being here. I believe most are seasonal renters down from Toledo. But I did worry about where all the gray water is going. For those rigs that haven't been moved since before the start of this century (there were a few!), they have a 'honey wagon' that can empty your black tank.

It wasn't all bad news. We went in search of a WalMart and lunch in either order. We first tried Lu's Pizza which had a sign that said "OPEN", but it must have been do-it-yourself pizza as there weren't any employees there. We went a little further and the Admiral said those magic words "Chili dog!" And that's how we became acquainted with The Grafton Scoop.

The Admiral had the foot-long dog and I had the chilli-cheese dog. The latter was smaller than I'd like- I could have easily eaten 2. Both these dogs were excellent. But small was OK as I now had plenty of room for a large hot caramel sundae. Which was a happy experience as The Grafton Scoop serves the best soft-serve I've ever had. They also have hard pack (Toft's Ice Cream) but they make their sundaes with soft serve. Double-wow! Very creamy, no graininess at all. And apparently the locals agree as it was voted the best ice cream in Lorrain County, OH. They get my vote too!

We found the WalMart and got some decent drumsticks (packaged ice cream cones) and went home to write this blog and eat our treasures!

Off to Erie, PA tomorrow.