Ohio

The ranger's directions involved a certain exit from 11, so we stayed on highways into that town and then turned left. It looked like a really nice little town, with diners and such, and a classic town center, fire station, churches, clock tower, etc.

The Lock 24 restaurant was a nice enough restaurant. It took the staff ages to notice that we were standing at the entrance, which was kind of funny, but the food was good. The salad was terrific! I had a cranberry Juice that seemed to have a spritz of something sweet added to it - Bill was guessing sprit, but I'm not sure - it was really nice, and served in this neat large-bellied glass on a twisted stem. We split two entrees - Salmon grilled with barbeque sauce and Prime Rib. The prime rib had horseradish on it, which was a good idea, but it was not very good horseradish so I mostly just scraped it off. It was a decent meal out in the middle of nowhere.

On the way out we learned of another historic aspect of the location - right outside the restaurant is the shortest covered bridge in the country: 19 feet, 3 inches long. It no longer spans anything, but it is still there.

We had detailed directions to the campground and got there with no trouble, it being only a few miles past the restaurant.

Sunday, June 28, we woke up in Beaver Creek State Park - I woke up a couple hours before Bill, and went for a walk from one end of the campground to the other. At the far right end of the campground is a site whose picnic area looks out over the gorge. It was pretty, but it looked like you couldn't really see it without substantial hiking. Later we drove into the main part of the park and toured the historic village. It was cool to see the mechanism of a lock up close. Generally, the place was pretty dead, very few people. But it was nice to stand beside the river for a bit and get that refreshed rested feel that running water can cause in the limbic portion of the brain.