A Train Ride Through Cuyahoga Valley National Park

The folks left us on Sunday to take a train ride through Cuyahoga Valley National Park. They allow bikes and kids on the train, but not dogs. It is just not right! The folks said they had never been on a real train. The train runs through the park and you can ride all day for $15 a person. If you take your bike, you can ride the train for $2. They also offer train rides into Akron. The folks chose to ride from the Pennisula Station to the Canal Station. There were a few stops in the middle where bike riders could get on and off. The trip was about 30 minutes. Canal has a visitor's center which had a lot of information about how life was living on the canal. A ranger gave a demonstration that showed how the boats got through the locks.

See, it's a real train.  

Inside the train

Train volunteer said this is an eagle's nest.  He watches it all year long.

 After the train ride, the folks decided to eat lunch.  They could have eaten on the train, but since the ride was just 30 minutes each way, they decided to eat in a restaurant. They ate at Fisher's Cafe & Pub which is across the street from the Winking Lizard which is where they ate last weekend.  The place was packed and there was about a 10-20 minute wait.  This restaurant didn't have the best reviews, but they decided to give it a try anyway.  Mama ordered a Roadhouse BBQ Burger which is a burger basted in hickory smoked BBQ sauce. It is covered with melted cheddar cheese, bacon, and topped with onion tanglers. She ordered a side of onion rings instead of fries. The burger was very good as well as the onion rings.

Roadhouse BBQ Burger

Dad ordered the Raider Burger- which is ½ lb. burger, topped with bacon, cheddar cheese, fries, hot wing sauce, jalapenos, onion tanglers and blackened with cajun spices. He had the fries. The fries were very good.

Raider Burger - not a very good photo

 They both thought the food was very good and the service was also.  They are not sure why the place is getting some bad reviews, but they would eat there again.



After lunch, they did more touring around the park. Even after three visits, they have not seen it all.  The park has farmers markets and one farm even has crafts and trades demonstrations such as glassblowing, pottery, blacksmithing, candle making, basket making, broom making, etc. Mama would have liked to have seen that, but there just wasn't enough time.  They drove to a few overlooks and Mama said there was a beautiful area that had a small waterfall.  Unfortunately, the pictures of that area do not show it's true beauty.  Mama said she knew the photos would not show the detail she wanted them to show. It is a very shady area and the beauty did not come through the camera lense.

  

Maybe Mama needs a better camera.

Cuyahoga Valley National Park is fun place to visit and it's FREE!

We have one more restaurant review to share with you, but we will save it for tomorrow. 

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Thinks He Should Be Allowed On The Train

Our Last Weekend In Ohio...We Think

We still do not have a definite that we are going to the next destination. If we are, then this is probably our last weekend in Ohio. However, since next weekend is Labor Day weekend, we may have problems finding a site in our new city and may end up staying here until Monday.  If we find out we are going home, then we will stay another weekend here since we have paid for it already and we are not that anxious to head home. Basically, we don't know where we will be next weekend for sure, but we are planning like this is our last weekend here.

Mama has been busy planning this weekends' activities and it does not look like we are going to participate in the activities.  We think that is totally WRONG!  Tonight, is grocery shopping night. Since our propane is low and Mama only has the ingredients for one meal and it needs to bake in the oven for 45 minutes, they are going out to eat.  They are going to try a BBQ place here.  Tomorrow, they are going to visit President Garfield's house and then see some covered bridges.  There are 18 covered bridges in one county here!  There are only four in the entire state of Missouri.  Mama needs to map out the ones that they will see, but it will not be all of them.  There is also a light house in that same county that they hope to see.  They plan on eating at one of Michael Symon's restaurants tomorrow, so it sounds like a full day for them.  Our day will be spent napping.  Sunday, they will probably ride the train through the national park they visited last weekend and they may eat at a restaurant that our neighbors recommended.  I think that makes for a pretty busy weekend.

Dad's day didn't start off too good.  He overslept.  It was Mama's fault because she accidentally turned the alarm off.  She needs the alarm clock that we have at home.  You only have to wave your arms to hit snooze.  She has to get up and hit the snooze here.  If she waited for Dad to do it, it would be blaring for a good five minutes.  She told Dad this morning that she hit the snooze for the last time and I guess she did because 45 minutes later, they woke up.  I was blamed because normally I whine to go out and I didn't. 

We took our long walk around 8 a.m. this morning.  The campground is so quiet today, but wait until tonight and it will be nuts.   Scout started a new thing yesterday where she just lays down in front of the camp store.  She told me she just likes laying in the grass.

Scout resting on our walk.

I am on full alert for pigs, squirrels or whatever might pass by.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Has To Be On Full Alert Because No One Else Is

Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Ohio has a nice national park that is located just ten miles from our campground.  We visited it the first weekend we were here. We thought we would be included in the plans for the re-visit this weekend, but Dad said they needed to cover a lot of ground and we would slow them down.  I'm sure he meant that Scout would slow them down and not me.  I'm a power walker.

The folks had planned to take Grandma and Grandpa to the park, but they cancelled their trip late last week.
Mama learned that the national park service has a passport program.  Missouri had one for a few years and the folks loved it.  They visited state parks and historic sites and they stamped a book at each place.  They said it was a lot of fun.  Mama purchased the book a few weeks ago and set out to get it stamped on Sunday.

The passport book.  It tells you about the different national parks and then has a place for your stamps and stickers. Stickers are available for purchase.

The stamps show where you visited and the date you visited.  Mama has six stamps so far.  This park has stamps at each visitors center.  There are several.

The passport book comes with a map of the United States and lists all the national parks and sites where stamps are available.   It's a fun way to plan trips.  Mama purchased the book at one of the visitors centers, but they can also be purchased online.  Mama said that she likes the stamps they used in Missouri better because they were all different shapes.  However, these look like passport stamps and have the date you visited, which is nice.

Before the folks set out to explore the park, they decided to eat lunch.  The park includes lots of little towns which have shops and restaurants.  They ate at Winking Lizard Tavern.  The place was packed.  Many people rode their bikes to the restaurant since there are so many trails in the park.  Some people rode the train.  Yes, there is a train that goes through the park.  Mama said they might do that next weekend, so that means we will not be going AGAIN.  As I was saying, the restaurant was packed, so they had to wait for a table.  There is a popcorn machine, so Mama ate some of that while they waited.  She said it was really good.  They were finally seated and they placed their order.  The menu had so many things to choose from.  Mama ended up choosing the Wild Western Burger.  It had cheese, bacon, onion straws and their award winning BBQ sauces.  She said it was delicious!

Wild Western Burger

Another view of the Wild Western Burger

Steak N Cheees

Dad said the Steak N Cheese was okay, but the burger looked better.  Mama said she would like to eat here again, but there are a few other places she wants to try.

The Winking Lizard?

After eating lunch, they set out to explore.  There is so much to see in the park and they didn't cover it all on Sunday.  They did not even cover half of it.

The river.

Lock 29 - ships used to come through here.

Beaver Marsh - they didn't see any beavers

Still no beavers, just a bird.

Covered bridge that is being renovated.

Creek that covered bridge goes over.

Inside the covered bridge.

Waterfall - Mama's favorite part of the park.

Long way down from waterfall.

Ledge along walk to waterfall.

Lots of steps to get to waterfall.

Platform at waterfall.

As much as Mama wanted to take us to the park, she is not sure it is a good place for us.  There are so many people riding bikes that we could easily get in the way.  It doesn't seem fair.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Wants To Walk On A Trail.

It's Peaceful

It is nice to have the campground back from all the weekenders.  Most of the weekend people were gone by 11 a.m. yesterday.  It is amazing how fast they clear out and how quiet it becomes here.  We definitely are not fans of being here on the weekends because it gets pretty wild with the kids and the dogs.  There was a beach party on Saturday with a DJ, but it was so cool that most people didn't swim.  There were fire engine rides on Saturday night, but I got scared this time.  We were outside and the fire engine came by and people were yelling.  One guy asked if we came with saddles?  I don't get it.

Last night, we were walking and this lady who really likes us says "There are my DARLINGS!"  She calls us her darlings.  Then, we walked by her place again and she said that it looks like we were trained by Cesar Millan.  Mama laughed so hard that I thought she might wet herself.  Mama said that she caught us at a good time.  Mama had just been telling Dad that she thinks she will take me for some training when we get back home.  She says I am still hard to handle at times.  Me?

Mama says that Jack would have loved Ohio.  You want to know why?  It's because Judge Judy is shown three times a day here.  LOL

Saturday night, the folks had planned on eating at a place that was on The Best Thing I Ever Ate.   However, when they found the place, they decided against it.  They knew it was a bar, but it looked a little wilder than they were comfortable with, so they went across the street to a place called The Pufferbelly.  It is located inside an old train station.

Inside The Pufferbelly

A carriage hangs from the ceiling.

Coleslaw and bread

Smoked St. Louis Ribs - half slab - $13.95

Jamaican Steak and Shrimp with Mashed Potatoes and Broccoli - $16.95

Mama was not impressed with the ribs. The sauce was pretty heavy.  She did remove some of it. There were some parts of the ribs that were just too fatty to eat.  She did not like the fries at all.  They did not have any flavor and were hard.

Dad did not like his meal either.  The steak was very thin and he is not sure how it was prepared but it was not grilled.   Notice the small amount of broccoli.  There must be a shortage.  LOL

It was an interesting building, but they will not eat here again.

Outside of The Pufferbelly

Train parked by restaurant

Saturday the folks had two bad dining experiences, but they did have fun sightseeing.  Yesterday, they explored Cuyahoga Valley National Park.  We will tell you about that tomorrow!

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Glad It's Monday

Another Cool And Rainy Day

Yesterday, we took several walks. We sometimes drop Scout off when she gets tired and she missed out meeting an older couple that gave me treats. They live here in the summer and then they go to Florida for the rest of the year. They are really nice. Everyone but that man that glares at us because his dogs have a barking problem have been nice to us. We met another man this morning that talked to us for a long time. We got bored with him since we were on a mission to walk before the rain returned.  Mama mentioned how much we like the cool weather and he said it was hot.  Dad said someone said to the same thing to him yesterday.  Hot?  Seriously, it is in the 70's and 80's.  I guess it depends on what you get used to.  It is 71 in the RV this morning.  We have the windows opened.  Mama had to close the front door though because someone below us has a fire going and the smoke gives her migraines.  Yes, we camp and Mama can't be around campfires.  LOL   It hasn't been an issue until we got here. 

Mama wanted to mention that if you ever go to Washington DC, she recommends going to Ford's Theater. That is where Lincoln was shot. She was there several years ago and the man who gave the tour was really good. His talk was very vivid and Mama felt like she was really there when it all happened. She then went across the street where Lincoln was taken after he was shot and saw the bed that he died in. She has also been to Springfield, IL and toured all the Lincoln things there. She also recommends seeing the Holocaust Museum. It is very sad to see, but should be so that we don't forget what happened.  Washington DC has so much to see and do.  We definitely didn't have enough time there.

Here's a view coming into our campground.

Another view of the road in the campground.

Some of the campers in the main camping area. They are not in the woods like us.

There is a national park near us, Cuyahoga Valley National Park. It is only 10 miles from us. We visited there on Sunday.  We only saw a small part of it.  We hope to go back and do some hiking.

Scout and I walking at Cuyahoga Valley Naitonal Park

Train Depot

Train that visitors can take in the park.  The folks are going to go back and ride it.

Creek in park

Saturday night, the folks ate at Rocknes.  It is an upbeat, fun type of restaurant.  Mama ordered a Mini Max Hamburger.  Basically, it looks like McDonald's Big Mac, but comes with a steak knife in it to hold it together.  It has a secret sauce on it.   It is bigger than a Big Mac.  Mama said it was good.  Guess what?  She was so excited about eating it that she forgot to take a photo.  She said she will have to go back and eat there again so she can take a photo.  Dad had a cheeseburger.  He liked it too.


 Mama make a Hawaiian Pizza last night, but once again forgot to take photos.  We are going to have to tape the camera to her, I think.   She said the pizza was good.  It had BBQ sauce, bacon bits, ham, pineapple and cheese.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Needs To Learn To Use A Camera Since Mama Keeps Forgetting