O-Hi-O, off to Cuyahoga we go!
NP Roadtrip – Days 92 – 97 – Nashville – Kentucky - Ohio
After six short days in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, we ventured up to Nashville to meet up with some friends. On the way there, I had another “sorta kinda” on our way spot that I’ve wanted to check out for the longest time. Lynchburg. I’m glad we went, but it was sweltering hot, there was no parking for our trailer, and the lunch spot I really wanted to go to, was booked. We ended up parking in a church parking lot and putting a sign in our window saying that we’d move immediately if it was a problem. I had called Miss Mary Bobo’s on the way into town, but they didn’t have any availability. My sister had been over 15 years ago and bought me a cookbook. It was really cute too, but I had to take solace in the fact that we had a similar meal at Mrs. Wilkes in Savannah and move on. We headed over to Barrel House BBQ where the line to pay after eating was longer than the line to be seated. Or to order. Or to eat. Maybe this is a service change the Barrel House needs to take a look at! Good food, though, so we were happy, despite the long line to pay. We walked over to the Jack Daniels Distillery, which was nice, but couldn’t do a tour because we had to meet our friends at a certain time in Nashville.
We met our friends at Fat Bottom Brewery in west Nashville. Very cool place, great beers, and we had an amazing server. Our friends have two little twin boys who are absolutely stinkin’ adorable, and they just have the most perfect little family. We can’t wait to see them as their family grows! After sharing some beers and some snacks, we headed to Hendersonville to boondock in the front yard of G’s high school friend’s house. We were treated to an awesome dinner, had some laughs, and called it a night. It was so awesome to get to spend the entire day with them the following day as well. We were able to do laundry, cook great food, and hang out with their two boys and the two doggies, Ellie and Nelly. You heard that right. Ellie and Nelly. They adopted the older Ellie after she had already learned her name, so the names stuck. G’s friends also have a home music studio and photography studio, so that was great to check out, swap stories, and listen to some tunes!
These friends don’t eat a whole lot of meat or dairy, so we made Vegetarian and partially vegan “no-noodle” lasagna for dinner. This is a great meal to make, and mostly easy and quick as long as you have a mandolin. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring my own from my home kitchen to live in the trailer and regret it wholeheartedly. I use it all the time at home and just didn’t think one would be necessary on the road. We ended up buying one, just for Nashville, and left it behind since it was too big to store in the trailer. It would have fit, but it would have been a pain. (FYI - We ended up finding a smaller size, perfect for the trailer, later in our adventure). You can access the Vegetarian Lasagna recipe herehttp://www.campbuymelove.com/recipes/2017/5/2/vegetarian-lasagna
After packing up in Nashville, we ventured to Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. This is going to sound really jaded, but Mammoth Cave just couldn’t compare to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Above the ground, Mammoth Cave is beautiful and way more impressive than Carlsbad in most every way. Below the ground, Mammoth Cave is smaller, less impressive, and less enjoyable (to me). We did the Domes and Dripstones Tour, and I will say our guide was great and had a lot of good information. I will remind you, though, that I battle some minor claustrophobia and had some anxiety getting through the tight spaces. Caves are certainly not “my thing”, but I’m sure if you like caves, you’ll like Mammoth Cave. Maybe.
After our tour, we took a walk to see the Historic Entrance, which was pretty cool. However, the bats in Mammoth Cave have White Nose Syndrome and you have to be very careful to wash your shoes in the soapy mats they provide. Rather than doing that a second time, we opted to look at the natural entrance from the viewing platform at the top. We wrapped up at the visitor center and ate sandwiches in the car on our way out of the park and headed to Bardstown, Kentucky.
We had an overnight spot booked at My Old Kentucky Home State Park. This state park is known for it’s centerpiece mansion, a previous home to a US Senator in the 1700s. However, the campground is nowhere near the home (that I could see), and we never even saw the namesake home in person. The campground isn’t much to look at, but it was relatively quiet, sharing a border with a golf course so early morning tee times could wake you up. The only other noteworthy observation, is that the hookups are at least 20 feet from the pad. Our hookups don’t reach that far, so we paid for the water/electric hookup site, without being able to use it.
Really, the only reason we chose this campground is that it’s close to a few distilleries on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. We stopped in at Willet Distillery and did a tasting and then headed over to Heaven Hill Bourbon Heritage Center where they have some great exhibits on the history and process of distilling. During those stops, G had learned of a spot in Bardstown where you can do a tasting from multiple distillers, so we drove over there so he could do a more varied tasting than at Willet. While at The Old Talbott Tavern, we were seated next to a group of folks who appeared to be conducting an interview. I’m always interested in interview venues/behavior/etc. because I spent almost 15 years working in Human Resources, where the last 6 were focused solely on managing recruitment for a large financial institution. The fact that this interview was taking place in a tavern sparked my interest right away. Both the interviewer (a female) and the interviewee (a male) were drinking bourbon and the very first question out of the interviewers mouth was whether or not the young man had kids. This is a huge no-no to ask about family. Wow! Very interesting eavesdropping experience to say the least. I think he got the job! After G finished his tasting, we walked through the town circle over to Bullitt’s Winery & Bistro that had only been open for a few weeks. We shared half a pizza and took the rest home. They were huge pies! Nice, friendly service, and it definitely filled in while we were there so I’m glad we got there early. We are early to bed, early to rise type folks, so we definitely benefit at restaurants by being early birds.
The next day we left Kentucky and drove North to Cleveland. This drive is long, but you get to go through so many larger cities, Louisville, Cincinnati, and Columbus. And larger cities mean more foodie options! Normally, we eat cold cut sandwiches on the road. Pretty much the same every day. Thin Dave’s Killer Bread, slice of ham, slice of cheese, tomato, mayo/mustard, pickle, chips. Maybe some carrots or celery on the side if we’re really feeling fancy. But today, even though I had sandwiches already made and in the cooler ready to eat, we stopped in Cincinnati to try the chili. We HAD to! I think I’ve said this before, but we don’t really eat beef. It upsets G’s tummy and, because of that, I never buy it. But…we all have to make sacrifices so we can try something so iconic that it has it’s own Wikipedia page. A quick yelp search uncovered Blue Ash Chili as the spot we needed to go to. I didn’t realize it at the time, but it’s also a Diners Drive-Ins and Dives spot. Double whammy! This meal was a glutton’s happy place. There is no other way around it. It was so bad, but so good. Blue Ash is no frills, set up like a diner, decorated with records and old music posters on the wall. The menu is extensive and is a little overwhelming to pick out just one thing for lunch. We ended up going with the Chili Lasagna & the 3-Way. For those not in the know (like us), the 3-Way is chili over spaghetti topped with an absolutely ridiculous amount of cheese. Like…a POUND of cheese, no joke. However, you can get up to a 6-Way, which includes chili, spaghetti, cheese, onions, beans, and jalapeno “bottle caps” (fried jalapeno caps). No matter what you get, all can be described as “gut bombs”. And we paid, handsomely. But worth it? Yes.
We pulled out of Cincinnati and made our way for the Cleveland area. On the way, we received a call from Woodside Lake Park, where we were staying for the next 2 nights. They mentioned they had an issue with the water, but that the bathrooms were functioning. We said it wouldn’t be a problem, and that we were fine without a water hookup, as long as there were bathrooms. When we arrived, about 3 hours later, they said that actually the bathrooms were NOT available. No showers, no hookups, no bathrooms. Hmmm. Needless to say, we cancelled that reservation and called the KOA in the area. Luckily they had a spot so we drove 20 minutes over there. They had opened for the season the day before and had extensive flooding that week (which is probably why Woodside was having so many issues). We pulled into our site and it was a muddy mess. So much of a muddy mess that G sweet talked them into letting us move over to one of their permanent resident sites. It had a wooden platform deck that you pull in next to so you don’t have to step into mud each time you step in or out of the trailer. We wouldn’t have lasted had they not allowed us to move. The dogs (and the two of us) would have absolutely destroyed our trailer, and I would have been miserable trying to keep everything clean. However, just because you have a nice wood deck for your dogs to step out onto, doesn’t mean they are going to stay there. We had a wide open field behind us, so we let the dogs off leash and they went absolutely nuts. Correction. Scarlett ran around for a bit, decided it was too cold and muddy and ran back to the trailer asking to come inside. Murphy ran around for about 45 minutes in the mud, getting absolutely filthy, got a quick towel bath and dry off and passed out. Both were very happy doggies to say the least.
Normally, we are parked next to folks who are, more or less, doing the same things as us. Recreational tourists, wanting to explore something or other in the area. To be parked in the “permanent site” area is a whole other side of an RV park that we don’t normally get to see. Just to give you some perspective, our Streetsboro neighbors had parked their trailer in that same spot for 7 years. The guy on the other side had a contract job in the area and he had been there for over 3 months. Their trailers were huge, with slide outs, fireplaces, sectional couches, etc. We were definitely the odd man out, but that’s ok, that’s how we like it.
In hindsight, we wouldn’t have driven to Ohio in this section of the trip. At the time we didn’t know we were going to be near there, because we hadn’t figured out where we were going to visit in Michigan besides Isle Royale. It’s a bummer we weren’t there later and at a more logical spot on the route, but we ended up having decent weather, so it worked out just fine. Our major activity in Cuyahoga Valley National Park was biking, and the fact that we were able to do that in sunny weather the first week of May was a small miracle. We were pumped when we pulled into the park in the morning. They have a train that operates from one end of the park to the other, and for $3 you can ride your bike one way and take the train back to your car. That way you get to see more of the park, without doubling your bike ride and backtracking. We’ve had a few bummer moments on the trip, but when we found out the train only operates on the weekends in May this was one of the worst. It was Wednesday. So sad. Instead, we went on a 7 mile round trip from the Peninsula area to the Boston Visitor Center, making stops at The Stanford House, a few canal locks (which were awesome), and checking out the turtles sunning themselves on the Cuyahoga River. The bike path is easy, relaxing, and has mostly seamless changes from boardwalk to packed gravel, to paved areas. I had my first wreck of the trip on this path. A minor one, but one with lasting repercussions for a few weeks. I’m pretty much healed by now, about 25 days later.
After the bike ride, we picked up the dogs and drove over to Brandywine Falls, which is the 2nd highest waterfall in Ohio. It really was very pretty and in a lovely setting. The drive there in May was filled with blooming dogwoods, bright green grass, and quaint little houses and cottages. We made a quick stop at the Canal Exploration Center, but found that it was mostly geared toward kids so left within about 10 minutes. We decided it was time for some food, so we headed to downtown Cleveland to find something fun. We tossed around a few ideas, but Mabel’s BBQ won the toss. Mabel’s is owned by Michael Symon from the Food Network. Honestly, celebrity chef restaurants aren’t really my gig, but it was open, it got great reviews, and it was on an awesome little street lined with bistros, bars, and restaurants. AND there are globe string lights zig-zagging the whole way down. It was right up my alley. We ordered a well-rounded list of hits from the menu as well as a cocktail mason jar to share. The food was high quality and good, but the portions were small for the price.
We had to leave Mabel’s just before 4 pm, because the Cavaliers were playing that night and parking was cut-off at 4 pm. Cleveland has a well known market called West Side Market that I wanted to check out. In fact, some of the sausage purveyors that Mabel’s uses, sell at West Side Market. I was so excited to go to this awesome market, get some Polish pierogies, maybe some fresh fruit, some local cheeses. But my big balloon of pure joy, while skipping into the market, was instantly popped with a reality needle. Market closes at 4 pm. You’ve got to be KIDDING me?!?! We walked around the corner to Market Garden Brewery and plotted our next move.
Now is where I have to tell you about where a Camp Buy Me Love running joke was born. From Market Garden Brewery we went to Mad Cap Brewery in Kent, Ohio. We thought it was “sorta kinda” close, but it ended up being about a 50 minute drive from downtown Cleveland and a 20 minute drive from Madcap back home to the Streetsboro KOA. This is where the “sorta kinda” close stuff benefits G (because he likes the beer J), even though he doesn’t want to drive the distance. We had a wonderful time at Madcap, enjoying their table games, friendly service, and talkative clientele. As we were leaving, G was taking pictures around the brewery, something that, I can imagine, is not real common in this tiny brewery in Kent. That sparked some questions from onlookers, and those onlookers, in turn, asked about our adventure. They found out we were from Portland, Oregon and exclaimed “Kent, Ohio is the ‘Portland’ of Ohio”. To my recollection, this is the first time we heard this phrase on our trip, but definitely not the last. Sadly, we didn’t stay to find out why people say Kent is the “Portland of Ohio”, but we’ll take it as a compliment.
That night we weren’t super hungry, because of the late lunch, but we were in the mood for a fire. Plus, I had a recipe I wanted to mix up with the bourbon we bought in Kentucky. My awesome friend in San Diego got G a Carolina Fire Starter Bourbon Mix for Christmas and, we’d been saving it until we acquired some Kentucky Bourbon! Now was as good a time as any to make the recipe. The recipe calls for you to infuse it for at least 3 days, but 5 days is best. We forgot about it and steeped it for over 2 weeks, but as you’ll hear in a later blog post, it was still awesome. A little too awesome! While I was holed up in the kitchen, G was mingling with the neighbors, something that ALL of my neighbors (past and present) will tout as a @thehoppycamper original trait! I know this is going to make all our neighbors chuckle, because it’s SO TRUE!!!!!!! I’m a very reserved, shy, and quiet person, until I get to know you. I didn’t meet my neighbors in Las Vegas for 3 whole years until G came into my life. We are yin and yang, peas and carrots, chips and dip. That’s why “US” works. And I am forever grateful for the similarities and differences that make us a couple.
