After we drove over the Ohio River we were in the panhandle of West Virginia – a strange ‘finger’ of land sticking up between Ohio and Pennsylvania. This is an odd mixture of pastoral and industrial landscapes. A pretty drive all in all, though a bit twisty and turny for my sensitive tummy.
We pointed the Pod in a slightly southerly direction in order to find a Corp. of Engineers campground called Tub Run on Youghiogheny River Lake. Okay, here we go again with these really weird sounding, native American names of things! Youghiogheny – “yaw-ki-gay-nee” – and I have absolutely no idea what it may mean! If any of you fellow trekkers out there have any information on this word, please pass it back.
Kae had learned long ago about Frank Lloyd Wright, famous American Architect, and knew that there were a few of his buildings in this area. We went searching for the most famous of them – “Fallingwater”. We found it in western PA in the middle of a beautiful forest in the western Appalachian Mountains- www.fallingwater.org. It was built during 1936-39, as a retreat from the hectic lifestyle led by the Edgar J. Kaufmann family of Pittsburg. A very successful department store owner, Kaufmann had purchased the old town site of Bear Run and created a summer camp for his employees. In 1933 the camp became the family’s private retreat and in 1935 they asked Frank Lloyd Wright to design a modern vacation home. His design was innovative and bold; integrating the home into the native rhododendron forest and anchoring it to the 620 million year old sandstone ledges above the waterfall of Bear Run Creek. Reinforced concrete cantilevers from a central anchoring core allowing three stories of extensive patios and terraces to embrace the sound, texture and sense of the outdoors at every turn and in every corner. The Kaufmanns used Fallingwater until 1963, when Edgar Jr. entrusted it to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. Now visited by more than 135,000 people per year, this remarkable home has been designated by the American Institute of Architects as the best example of American architecture in the country. It is also a National Historic Landmark. Although a bit pricey and a bit crowded the Gal Pals were able to see the most important features and marveled at this 70 year old demonstration of Mr. Wright’s belief that nature and living spaces should exist as one entity.
After our stroll through the magic valley of Fallingwater we turned northward toward Loyalhanna Lake and another Corp of Engineers campground. I really loved this spot too. Easy access shoreline for daily swims, fun forest to hike in and a really good looking German shorthair named Elsa next door. We stayed about a week and thoroughly enjoyed our camp hosts: Tom and Candy Stream (and, of course, the charming Elsa.) I also met a strange little critter on a leash one day; something called a ferret. She looked like a short eared raccoon that someone had run through an old time wringer washer; you know, sorta flat and really long. She smelled a little odd and I had a feeling she might like to nip a piece off the old snozezoola, so we didn’t play much.
Our next stop was another good C.O.E. project on the Tionesta River. It was so busy over the weekend in the regular campground that we had to settle for boondocking without electricity, for the first time in a long time. The weekend in Tionesta was filled with a parade and fireworks in the town for their annual Indian celebration. It was so hard to drive the Pod around on the narrow crowded streets that the Ladies opted not to go into town for the activities. I don’t think my Gals enjoyed this area very much due to the pack of people and all of the daytime fishermen, but I loved the grass, river and good smells. Off we went north again on scenic route 59 on our way to Niagara Falls. We had lunch one day at the unusual Kinzua Dam on the Allegheny River. This is the beginning of the huge Allegheny Reservoir.
We then camped several days at Willow Bay on the reservoir near the PA/NY border waiting for mail to come to the Bradford Post Office. This too was a great place for wading in the creek, rolling in the grass and generally enjoying the quiet. The changing leaves make me believe that even though it is only Mid-August, we are on our way to the spectacle of fall in New England.
We know we haven’t seen a lot of PA but we plan on returning to eastern PA in a few weeks as we follow the fall colors down from Maine and visit a friend in Philadelphia. We had scheduled a busy time during the next week with repairs and maintenance on my precious Pod, a visit to Niagara Falls and other things in our world. We will get you updated in our next blog on the trip through NY.
Gibsonburg – now that was a real sweet town and a real sweet county park campground. There were so many rabbits and robins that I almost turned myself inside out just trying to suck up all those smells. The local church had someone who loved to play songs on the carillon of bells every evening, plus there were at least two rousing games of baseball next door at the school diamond. Now if that isn’t the good old US of A in a nutshell, I don’t know what is! Our adventure kept us moving eastward toward the Cuyahoga Valley National Park between Cleveland and Akron. Since there are no campgrounds within the boundaries of this NP we found a lovely county park in the town of Stow. This turned out to be one of those interesting and well managed little sweet spots. I had a lake to swim in, a dog park to socialize in, grass to roll in and lots of open space. 
Cokie and Kae were well entertained too with things like the “Rocket Man”. Now this crazy dude strapped a huge, gas-powered fan to his back, then directed its flow to lift him by his parasail into the wild blue yonder. His name is James Yeager and Cokie asked him if he was related to Chuck Yeager. He said he was not related and was at the lower end of the sound barrier. He is one of only 6 other people in the area who do this type of aviation. He came nearly every evening to rise and fly above the town and river and to glide down to solid earth just at dusk. What an incredible sense of freedom this contraption must have given him, but you would have to drug me just to get me near that fan thing.
“Ki-ih-ogh-ha,” American Indians called it, meaning “crooked” and so it is for more than 90 miles. Deep forests, rolling hills, plunging gorges and open farmlands dot this valley. In some ways this park reminds us a little of Hot Springs, AK; not because of any springs but because of the hilly terrain and the extreme intertwining of town and park. Here there are many little towns - Blossom, Boston, Peninsula, right in the park, as well as associated industrial and commercial areas, residential developments and many metro parks. These local parks sort of pick up where the NP leaves off as far as preserving local places and history, plus they provide human scale recreation venues for hiking, biking and canoeing. This area was developed as small farms and fur trading posts back at the beginning of the 1800’s. Then a canal, the Ohio and Erie, was opened in 1827 connecting Lake Erie with the Ohio River. By opening up commerce all the way to New Orleans and New York, the canal helped move produce and people across America in every direction, becoming the transportation hub of the time. The advent of the railroad pretty much closed down the need for the canal and it wasn’t until the year 2000 that the NP was set aside to preserve this canal, the locks and the mule towpath beside it. The Cuyahoga River was one of the most polluted rivers in America until it became a rallying point for local activists to clean up the environment and their neighborhoods. This activism sparked the drive to create the NP and, just as a note, the first Earth Day celebration. The park is now about 33,000 acres with the adjoining local parks probably doubling that acreage. We poked and sniffed around for several days to be certain we captured the whole flavor and taste of the region.
Cuyahoga Valley National Park - www.nps.gov/cuva
Canal Visitor Center – This renovated building, built in the 1830’s, has served as a hotel, tavern, canal keeper’s house and private residence. Lock 38 nearby, one of only a few functional locks remaining on the waterway, was undergoing repairs so we didn’t get to see it operating but the exhibits and the canal/towpath/hiking/biking trail were interesting. 
Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad runs between Cleveland and Canton through the national park offering a variety of year round excursions plus easy access and exit passes for bikers and hikers.
Bridal Veil Falls is a small trickle (at least at this time of the year) compared to some falls we have seen but situated in Tinker’s Creek Gorge, one of those lovely little gorges this area is so proud of.
Brandywine Falls is a more substantial falls in a nice ravine of sandstone with a good hiking trail.
The Ledges – This was magical! The ledges are just that – water worn 320 million year old sandstone cliffs of such subtle beauty we simply did not want our hike to end. 
Everett Road Covered Bridge – This was the only covered bridge we had found in this area and we were happy it had been restored to its former glory.
F.A. Seiberling Naturealm – This lovely 100 acre special use area within Sand Run Metro Park is just outside of the National Park. It was developed as a nature study area on land donated by the founder of Goodyear Tire Company. Its arboretum features over 300 species of shrubs and trees, a flower garden with a ‘weeping’ species area and an underground Visitors Center designed to blend in with the environment.
Hale Farm & Village is owned and operated by The Western Reserve Historical Society. It is the 1826 homestead of Jonathan Hale, one of the earliest settlers in the area.
We knew we had barely scratched the surface of the interesting things to see and do in this area and agreed this would be one of those places we would put on our return to list. Our next goal was down several little scenic byways, highways like 146, 62 and 60, down toward the southeast end of the state. I was constantly surprised by how hilly this state is. I guess I had kind of envisioned it as flat and full of crops like Kansas and Indiana, but it is quite a varied terrain full of glorious hardwoods, sweet little streams, but very green and humid!
Our focus was Monroe County, its scenic byways, covered bridges and - I hope you’re ready for this - barn quilts! Yup, we had heard there were a couple of counties in the state where the whole barn quilt thing had been done also. So off we headed for Monroe County in the southeastern corner of the state. Here we found another covered bridge and thought for a moment we may have to put the chubby Pod on a quick diet, but Kae’s cautious driving got us through and on our way. Whew!
These barn quilts are a bit different because they have all been painted directly on the barns and all by one artist – Scott Hagan, www.barnartist.com. We spent two days driving around the county seeking out the barns and hoping for the right light and weather conditions to get our photos. Here are some of the “Patchwork Jewels of Monroe County, Ohio”. We hope you enjoy them as much as we did. www.monroecountyohio.com.
Colorado-
Courthouse Square-
Crazy Patch-
Goose Tracks-
Grandmother's Fan-
Nine Patch Star-
The Bowtie-
Bicentennial Barn-
Country Farm-This one was an adventure! We made several trips up and down the road trying to find it. I finally sniffed out the information that a tornado had removed it in 2006. The next door neighbor said the tornado lifted the barn right up and set it down in the middle of the road. All the farm animals in the barn were unharmed, thank goodness. Clever Cokie found this photo on the Ohio Barn Quilt web site.
In my nosing around I discovered another barn mural, the Mail Pouch Tobacco barns. Mail Pouch Tobacco was popular during the 1930's and 40's and these Ohio folks have decided to preserve the old advertising on their buildings. We saw tons of these in various stages of preservation but chose these as the best. They were way fun.
We had chosen to camp at another one of those quaint little county parks called Piatt County Park. This one was a ways out of the town of Woodsville, in a rural area with ravines, gorges and ledges similar to the area in the Cuyahoga Valley NP. We had a swell hike down into the ravine one day to try to find a cave. It actually turned out to be a shelter rather than a cave and it didn’t have a path down into it because it was too steep. That was all okay with me because I was just too ‘wore out’ to care. This aging thing sorta gets in the way of fun sometimes; ya know?
After all of that we felt we had seen a fair amount of the state and it was time to move on, so eastward again, across the awesome Ohio River, headed into the panhandle of West Virginia and then on into Pennsylvania.
Hope you enjoyed Ohio with us and we'll catch you up with our intrepid trekking in our next blog. Stay tuned!
