We arrived in Ohio, August 26th, the day before our big family party! My uncle planned the party this past spring, before we even listed our house. We made our plans for the eclipse long before the party, so, we knew we had to “rush” to get to Ohio by the weekend. We called Cardinal Ridge and changed our dates, so we left the 22nd. We hate one night stops, so we made plans to stop for 2 nights each place in Tennessee and Kentucky. It worked fine, although, we realized that we like to stay places a bit longer.
We arrived on Saturday at my “Aunt” Carol and Uncle Gary’s house. They live on a giant piece of land and were gracious enough to let us park there! This was going to be our boondocking experience since we were going to be there for 11 days. Got the generator out and it was running great. The weather was beautiful and we didn’t even need our A/C, thank goodness! We finished set up and went to the small get together at my Aunt Karen’s house. She was a wonderful host to have all of the Aunts and Uncles there to visit with before the big party on Sunday.
Sunday, we got up and got ready, made it to the party on time :-) we had a wonderful lunch and then went back to the RV to check on the puppy and change our clothes. We reluctantly decided to take Diesel with us to the park, which everyone was going to after the party for cake and ice cream and to play. He was very overwhelmed with everyone and is definitely a scared puppy, which makes people think we have the best guard dog! He ended up doing wonderful and gave Sean something to do while we were there.
Monday was a new day for us! The weather warmed up a bit, so the RV was pretty warm, we went grocery shopping and got a few things to work on the generator. Aunt Karen, Aunt Mary and Emily took the kids to Magic Castle. It is a really fun place for the kids and they loved it. That gave Kevin and me a chance to go out. We went to a place called the Wandering Griffin. It is a brewery and a restaurant. The food was awesome and our waiter was just as awesome. If you ever go to the Wandering Griffin, ask for Austin! We actually asked what days he worked because we wanted to go back before we left. He was only working Thursday, so we had to figure out something :-) we went back to Aunt Karen’s and picked up the kids. Got back to the RV late, but it was so worth it.
Tuesday we ran some more errands while Kevin worked. It rained a little that day and I was back and forth from Uncle Gary’s house and the RV trying to do laundry. Kyle finally got enough nerve to go play with the dogs by himself. They have 3 dogs there, 2 of them are outside during the day. Kyle and Sean went up every chance they could to play with them. Meanwhile, Diesel loved being off leash in the huge back yard. He was having a blast. After the rain stopped for a little bit Sean, Kyle and I went out to play some kickball. That didn’t go as planned, as we ended up at Dayton Children’s Hospital. Sean slipped and fell and landed on his hand that he broke. I called Aunt Connie and she said to go to Dayton Children’s for x-rays. We went and the truck would hardly fit in the parking lot! Definitely not made for oversize vehicles. Good news is that his hand was just sprained, not broken! And even better news, his old break healed perfectly!
Wednesday was my day to clean out the RV. We needed to get rid of some extra weight. We brought stuff up to Ohio for Aunt Karen to find homes for, but we needed more weight out! I took out books, and had to buy them on Kindle so we still had a copy. Thank goodness, when you buy hard copy books from Amazon, they give you a discount to purchase the Kindle version. That night we cooked dinner over our outdoor fire pit, my new best friend, since our generator refused to run our air. I talked to Uncle Gary and he had one in his garage that we could use! That was going to be our Thursday job!
Thursday Kevin and Sean went up to Gary’s garage and got the generator. It worked great! Thank you for help from family. We didn’t do much that day since it was rainy and we just made a day of it inside. We decided to take Sean to the Wandering Griffin tonight and Kyle was staying there with the girls. We fed them dinner and got them ready for bed. They were watching a movie when we left and Kyle called once to give me an update. They were on their second movie when we got home, sitting in the same spots as when we left. Sean loved the restaurant and it will be on our list when we return!
Friday was still rainy, and we just did stuff around town while Kevin worked. Aunt Karen, Aunt Mary and Emily were watching the kids again. We dropped them off and Kevin and I got to go out one more time. We decided that we would go to Yellow Springs Brewery based on the recommendation of our server, Austin, from the Wandering Griffin. We liked Yellow Springs, but they didn’t have any dark beers, or food! And we went so early that the food trucks weren’t there yet. After that we went to get food. Based on my sister’s recommendation we went to La Columbiana. It is a very small restaurant that has excellent food. We will definitely be back there too! From there we wanted coffee. We went back to check on the dog and then went to get our coffee. Decided on Winans Chocolate and Coffee. They have coffee drink that is called a buckeye. Coffee blended with chocolate and peanut butter. Who wouldn’t love it! Grabbed the kids from Aunt Karen’s and headed home.
Saturday, Aunt Karen was having a smaller get together for the kids that are more Hope and Faith’s age. The girls had a blast and Aunt Karen and Uncle Dick were wonderful hosts!
Sunday we attended church with Aunt Karen, Uncle Dick and Aunt Mary. It was a really nice church service and after that we went to lunch. George’s Family Restaurant, had wonderful food. I actually ordered Eggs Benedict, which I never do, and it was the best that I have ever had out! We went back to the RV, played with the dog, caught up on some work and then headed to my sister’s house. Debbie and Jon moved not too long ago and they were a lot closer now than before. We got there and visited and had a very nice dinner. Debbie made potato salad that Sean absolutely loved and ate a ton of it. Thankfully, I got the recipe before we left.
Monday was Labor Day and was our cookout day with Gary and Carol. Kevin started work that morning and ran into a snag, so the kids and I went up to visit while Kevin finished up some work. The kids played with the dogs and we took the kite for the girls that Aunt Mary bought them. They had never flown a kite before, hey, no judging, we had big oak tree and power lines at our last house! Everyone had a great time. Aunt Mary joined us and then Aunt Karen and Dick arrived. Gary fixed the best steaks and Carol made the most awesome Mac and Cheese that we have had. I cheated that day on my meal plan! I had to try it! It was a wonderful ending to our stay there and we went back to the RV to start packing up for leaving the next day.
We hate to leave family, but knowing that we can go back anytime is comforting. Visiting with them for as long as Gary and Carol will let us park there :-)