Thursday, August 3, 2023 - Today, we drove for about five hours to get from Muncie, Indiana (the AMA Radio Control Flying Facility) to Berlin, Ohio. The roads in Indiana were not very good, but when we arrived at the border to Ohio, that changed and the roads were much better. We did have a rather lengthy detour on Highway 16 (that the RV Life GPS system was trying to make us go around) that took us through some back country roads, but, luckily, no trees or bridges to contend with. The RV Park in Berlin was easy to access. After arrival at Berlin, we set up the RV and relaxed at the park. We went for a walk and planned out out next couple of days, but did not do much else.
Friday, August 4, 2023 - Today, we decided to go out for breakfast. We went online and found a nice Amish style restaurant about 12 miles and 20 minutes away in the town of Baltic, Ohio. We ate at the East Main Street Kitchen and Coffee. The food was good and each meal was only $8. The coffee was $1 per cup, so we ended up having breakfast for just $18. With tax and tip, it came to $23 which is unusually low for a breakfast meal (normally in the low $30s).
After breakfast, we drove about ten miles from Baltic to Sugar Creek. Sugar Creek is the home of the giant Cuckoo Clock located in the middle of the downtown area, and it has a very nice Amish Bulk Food Store. We went to the bulk food store first to see the differing types of foods on the shelves. Often, the prices are very reasonable, but this store seemed to be a little high in price. Our best purchase was some very low-priced ginger-snap cookies.
We then headed over to the Cuckoo Clock. It is advertised as the largest Cuckoo Clock in the world. Construction began in 1963, and 12 years later it was done. It cost $50,000 to build. It did make the Guinness Book of World Records in 1978, but I'm not sure if it is still the largest; I kind of doubt it. It was left to deteriorate over the years and it was finally gifted to the city which renovated it and maintains it to this day. It still brings a lot of tourism to the town which is built around a Swiss motif. It is fully operational and activates every 30 minutes on the half-hour. The music begins to play and a group of five mechanical musicians rotate out in front of the cuckoo clock. Then two mechanical dancers on the side move about for about three minutes. It is cute. We walked the town and found a very unique store that was like a museum. It was fun to explore, even for me.
We then drove to Berlin to explore the tourist shops on the the main street through town. We stayed in this town about three years ago when we were passing through to New England, and it has not changed much. Wholly dependent on tourism, the prices in the shops are very high and there is not much there that a person really needs to have. We did get some walking accomplished, but we were ready to depart and head for the RV. We returned to the RV and had lunch and then I began to update the blog.
Saturday, August 5, 2023 - Today, we decided to get some exercise and drive to Millersburg (about 10 miles from our RV) to ride the Holmes County Trail. This trail is about 23 miles long and Millersburg is sort of in the middle of the trail. From Millersburg you can ride to the south for about seven miles to the town of Killbuck. At Killbuck, there is a break in the trail and you have to ride on public roads, so we stopped there and turned around. We then road the full length of the trail north to Fredericksburg where we stopped for some soft-serve ice cream. This is a unique trail in that it is specifically made to be much wider than a normal trail. This is to accommodate the Amish and their buggies that use the trail to get into town. There are lots of Amish on the trail on bicycles and many with horse and carriage too. You also have to occasionally dodge the horse droppings on the trail. It is not a big problem, but you need to watch for the occasional "land mine." Many of the Amish use the trail to ride into Millersburg to the WalMart and other stores in town. Miller is a very common Amish name, so hence the name Millersburg. We met several nice people on the trail and had great conversations with them. We met one group of three riders about four times during the ride and we became pretty good friends with them. We ended up with just over 32 miles on the ride today. We drove through Millersburg to check out the houses in the town. It is always fun to explore a new town. Then it was home to the RV to relax and do some cleaning.
Sunday, August 6, 2023 - Today, we decided to ride the Richland B & O Trail. It is 18.6 miles long and we rode it from one end to the other. We stopped in the town of Mansfield where we looked all over for a Porta-Potty, but to no avail. We ended up riding about six miles back down the trail in order to find a bathroom. We were also trying to avoid the forecasted rain that was supposed to catch us about halfway through the ride. The wind did come up a little and we had a few drops of rain, but it turned out to be an awesome riding day. After we returned to the truck at our starting point, we noticed a recycling center so we were able to get rid of a bag of aluminum cans that we had been hauling around. We then droved to the town of Bellville since they had a Subway sandwich shop there. We were the only ones there on this Sunday afternoon. The young lady behind the counter gave us extra cheese, but they were out of red onions, cups for sodas, no Swiss or Provolone cheese (only pepper jack, American, and Mozzarella), no napkins (she gave us paper towels), and no ice for the soda machine (we had to buy a bottled soda). After we got our sandwiches, the young lady closed and locked the door behind us. She was nice, but it seemed like the store was getting ready to go out of business and they wanted to clear out all of their produce. We then drove towards home where we stopped to check out a covered bridge and a 300 foot gorge that was covered with trees and could not be seen. We then drove back to the RV and put the bikes away getting ready to travel in the morning. We then decided to go wash the truck which we did just before it rained. Within a short time, the truck was dirtier than when we started. After that, it was time to head to WalMart for shopping. After shopping for food, it was back to the RV to relax; finally!