PA - OH - KY

After our time in Niagara Falls, we headed out of New York and on to Pennsylvania. We didn’t have much planned for Pennsylvania, but made some last minute reservations at Allegany State Park. We’d been living the city life for a couple weeks, so we were excited to get back to a campfire. We headed out for a long hike on Saturday with gorgeous views of the Allegany river. It was a restful weekend.

We spent the week heading towards Ohio. Our first stop once we entered Ohio was Youngstown. We found a cute little garden that reminded us of the Raleigh Rose Garden. It had some walking paths and the most beautiful flowers! We had the best time exploring. After a little sunshine and reaching our goal of 10,000 steps, we decided to head to the bowling alley.

We have been to a lot of bowling alleys across the country, but Westside Bowling Alley in Youngstown was definitely the coolest one we’ve seen! When pulling in the parking lot, we were greeted with a beautiful mural on the entire cement wall. That was the first sign that we had found a real winner. We also saw a band unloading their gear through the front door-another sign of a cool spot. Inside, there were two floors. The top floor had the bowling lanes in half the room, and a stage with a band in the other half. The downstairs was a music venue. It smelled and looked like a bowling alley straight from the 90s. Another favorite part, it did not have electronic scoring! I took two semesters of bowling in college. I still can’t really bowl, but I can keep score! I love pencil + paper scoring. Westside was the perfect Tuesday night spot!

On Thursday night, we were in Akron, Ohio. We spent the evening at R. Shea Brewing for trivia night. R. Shea was the coolest place! We had a great time at trivia. They even had a question about Duke Univ! We felt like we were back at Woodys-City Market in Raleigh.

We spent Friday night getting ready for the weekend. We started the evening at a park doing yoga, hiking around in the woods, and eating a bag salad by the water. On the way to our evening resting spot, we stopped by Honey Hut Ice Cream. I got an oreo/cookie dough twister that was phenomenal! SO good! Before falling asleep, we put new inserts in our boots for our early morning hike. It was a perfect TC/SK evening.

We had some very important visitors for Labor Day Weekend- my parents and FinnyGene! YAY! While my parents were finishing the rest of the drive to Ohio, we went for a morning hike at Cuyohoga National Park. Before we headed into the woods, We cooked some sausage and eggs in the parking lot. We had a beautiful five mile hike to start the day.

We made it to a sports bar just in time to see NC State kickoff for their first football game of the season! My parents and FinnyGene showed up to eat some wings and watch the game. It was the best reunion!!!

After lunch, we headed to our HipCamp to setup our camp before my parents arrived. Our HipCamp was at a winery about 30 minutes from the National Park. It was a cool spot- very private. We did have trouble checking in as no one really knew where we were supposed to be, but we were pleased with the location. My parents and I hung out around the fire while T cooked us a delicious meal of steak, potatoes, and carrots. YUM! We put out our special tablecloth to complete the beautiful evening. <3

Before FinnyGene arrived, T and I went to get him some treats for him to eat by the fire. He’s such a sweet boy, and we miss him so much when we are on the road!! FinnyGene went to live with my parents years ago when I was unable to care for him by myself. I’m sad he can’t live with us, but he loves living with his G-Pop and G-Moo. (Especially his G-Pop!! lol) He lives a good life in NC. We are thankful for every chance we can get him around a campfire with us!

It was a rainy Labor Day Weekend in Ohio, so we had to be creative on activities. We headed up to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. Afterword, T and I spent the afternoon playing cards in HiHo Brewing Company while my parents rested at their hotel with FinnyGene. We met back up for a delicious dinner before parting ways for the evening.

When T and I arrived back to our camp, we noticed some of our items had gone missing. We’d left our chairs and table and a few other things at the camp while we were gone for the day. We texted the host and he said the cleaning crew came through and cleaned up because they didn’t know we were coming back. It was a little suspicious because half of the items were still left at the camp-a table covered in paint, one of our chair bases that seemed broken, etc. The items that had worth were gone, the “worthless” items were still there. Suspicious. Thankfully, the owner had all of the items perfectly bundled in the back of his truck. We were able to stop by his house the next day and get them. We decided to cancel our last night at the location because we did not feel comfortable staying. The host refunded our money, and we took it as a sign to get a jumpstart on our drive to the next place.

Before we left town, we spent Monday riding the Cuyahoga Valley Train. The train goes through Cuyahoga National Park. Since it was raining all day, this was a great way to see the park. We also stopped in to get the National Park stamp for our National Park book. Another one checked-off the list! We had the absolute best weekend with my parents and FG! It was fun getting to show them how we live-complete with a campfire dinner, a National Park visit, and pivoting plans!

After Ohio, we were Kentucky bound! Our first stop in Kentucky was Louisville. We were surprised by how much we loved Louisville. We only got one night in the city, but we look forward to visiting again another time because we loved the vibes! We went to dinner at Swizzle Dinner & Drinks. Swizzle is located on the 25th floor. The dining room rotates while you dine and has the most beautiful views of the river below AND a view of Indiana! The food was phenomenal. We even had some chocolate cake that was amazing! Such a wonderful experience!!

We spent some time walking around the city after dinner. While at dinner, T informed me that Indiana was just across the river. I had no idea we were so close! Geography isn’t my strong point. I have gotten much better since I rely on a map so much now, but I didn’t take the chance to even look at where Louisville was. We thought Kentucky would be our 26th and last state of 2022, but since we were so close to Indiana, we decided to cross the bridge and sleep in Indiana for the night! That means we slept in 27 states in the van in 2022. Wow! What a year!

T and I had big plans for the weekend-Mammoth Cave National Park!! We booked a campsite for the weekend right outside the cave entrance. It was a great little spot in the woods! T made us a campfire dinner of Spam Fried Rice. One of our delicious go-tos. We were hoping to catch some shooting stars like we did at Acadia National Park. Unfortunately, there was too much light pollution. We still found a bench to lay on and look at the stars we could see. We giggled and giggled. A beautiful night with the two best friends!

Before heading to bed, we played a quick few rounds of cards. T and I have recently gotten into playing cards at night. It’s so fun! We are both very competitive, but we have the best time playing together. Our usual game is Egyptian Rat Screw. There’s typically a lot of aggressive slapping of cards and yelling.

We had an early morning check-in at the National Park office for our tour of the caves. Mammoth Cave is the coolest experience! The caves are more than 400 miles long. They have only mapped the 400 miles so far and are discovering more caves every day. So cool!

We spent the evening around the campfire with our feet propped up. I finished my book and T listened to some music. We knew we had a long drive the next day, so we were thankful for the rest.

The next morning, we started driving towards North Carolina. We had a wedding that we were planning for October. I always get to the wedding city a few weeks in advance, so I can do a final walkthrough with my couple. We didn’t plan to drive all the way to NC in one day, but decided at the last minute to finish the drive to get to the cabin. Excited for fall in NC.