A Mini Family Reunion

Since my daughter and her husband were not going to be able to make it all the way east this year for the "big" family reunion (they just bought a new house and their priorities need to be elsewhere), we met up with them at Maumee State Park near Toledo, Ohio. It was so great to see them, since I don't get to see her very often.

It was a long drive from Iowa, and she was driving from DeKalb, so amazingly, we arrived at the rest stop at mile marker 55 in Ohio within 10 minutes of one another. We had driven through the storm yet again, and felt that we really deserved and needed a root beer float. They were getting gas. They are bringing a 67 Ford station wagon (my son in law collects old cars), and they actually stay in the car trailer that they have rigged with an air-conditioner. In Ohio, in late July, it is impossible to breath without air conditioning. Thankfully, our trailer has a well-functioning air conditioner.

I was uncertain what to expect from Maumee State Park. The map of the sites made it look huge, and I was nervous that it wouldn't be at all private. As it turns out, it IS huge, but each of the sites is well separated from the others by hedges and trees, and we felt as though we were in our own little oasis, albeit only two sites away from the daughter.

With all the humidity and the occasional rain shower, the bugs were pretty miserable, though. We were glad to have our screened tent! The Park itself includes a golf course, a lodge, rentable cabins, well over 100 paved campsites, a beach on Lake Erie, and a beach on a pond, miles and miles of hiking, nature, and biking trails...the list goes on and on. Everything is incredibly well maintained. This is a gem of a park!

We did a little biking, and we went out to lunch at the New York Deli, which was really great. Dinners consisted of a Caribbean spiced grilled pork with an apple salsa, and a Wasabi Miso Flank Steak, continuing our efforts to avoid standard camp food but still to use the grill to make some sort of picnic. The sunset on our second night was gorgeous from our campsite!

So let's see -- what did we need to fix on this leg of the trip? We finally needed to add fresh water, on the fifth night of the trip. Not too bad. And we had a problem with the canopy after all the bouncing around on the terrible highway roads -- the husband and son-in-law got that fixed. Also, a little work was needed on the dinette seat to get it back in place and support it.

The dogs had a great time, not least of all because of getting to spend time with their...what...sister, aunt...? Anyway, they seemed as thankful as we were for the air conditioning. Day after day of 90 degree whether and 100% humidity takes its toll on us Colorado folks used to dry (and cooler) weather!

Tomorrow we head out, and it will be hard to say goodbye. But we had a lovely time at this mini-reunion with Becks and Rob.