2024 Summer Trip - Kenisee Lake Ohio, Cuyahoga Valley National Park - 2024/07/24

We've done a lot of traveling over the last 2 months, flying to Colorado, California, and Washington, but now that we're back in Michigan, it's time to grab the RV and finish up our long 2024 Summer Trip. 

We said goodbye to Grammy. 

And Grandpa and Rita. 

Off to the place where we stored our RV for the last 2 months. We checked all around the RV, put more air in the tires to get them to the proper inflation, and set off down the road!

Ready for some fun summer adventures! Today's drive is a short 3:30 hours just going down to Ohio as we make our way eastward. 

And speaking of... Welcome to Ohio! 

A little over an hour into our journey, we heard a noise and our Tire Monitoring System started beeping like crazy. I pulled off as soon as I could and got out to see what we were dealing with. Uh, wow. That tire is shredded. 

For better or worse, I've had a bit of experience replacing RV tires. 

This is the worst I've dealt with though. The tread completely separated from the rest of the tire. 

The full-size spare we carry around is the exact same tire with the same rating as the rest of the tires, so I'm still good to drive it the rest of the way without any worries. It makes me a little nervous to not have another backup spare, but we're not going too much further and it that situation comes up, we'll just deal with it. 

Not too much damage to the RV either. I've heard horror stories from others. This one broke a little bit of plastic and bent some paneling, but otherwise things are not terrible. 

With no further issues, we made it to our campground, Kenissee Lake, a place we've actually stayed before! 

You do have to go a little ways out of the way to get to the entrance. There's a low bridge that we definitely don't want to see when we're pulling the RV! 

Check-in was easy and we had a gaggle of geese walking up down the road to our campsite. 

We lucked out and got a premium site with an asphalt pad, versus parking in the grass and dirt. 

It's also right by the playground, so the kids could run around while we got things set up. 

The next day it was time to go exploring a little. There's a few things we've got planned while we're here in Ohio. Here's that bridge we avoided in the RV. 

We had called ahead to Discount Tire to make sure they had a replacement in stock. I expected to have to leave the tire and come back later that night to pick it up, but the workers there got me in super quick and 10 minutes later, we were on our way! They got a 5 star review from me on all the major sites. 

Here's where we're headed today. Cuyahoga Valley National Park. It's one we haven't visited yet! 

The Ranger Station is inside this small building along the railroad track. This place is known for beautiful fall colors and every fall, carries train-fulls of people through the hills to see the changing leaves. 

It's 1:30pm so we're a bit late for the normal ranger talk. There's a Junior Ranger program that goes until 2pm though, so hopefully we can catch that. 

The park itself stretches over 22 miles through Ohio. 

We spoke to a Ranger who gave the kids their Jr. Ranger booklets. One of the items is to participate in a Ranger talk, but unfortunately that Junior Ranger program is about 15 minutes down the road. We hopped in the truck and hustled to get to it before it closed. 

Here, the kids were given a scavenger hunt sheet for things to look for on a local hike in this area. 

Here's what we're looking for. The Ritchie Ledges. 

The trail takes you right up to them. 

It's like a giant just grabbed the earth at this point and ripped it apart. 

Pointing out things from their scavenger hunt that they need to find. 

Honeycombed rocks, yes. That's on the list. 

Interesting. There's some bats in the area. 

Their cave has been blocked by bars. They can still get out, but we can't go in. 

Through a narrow slit, we can make our way to the Ledges. 

Pretty cool natural features. 

And it appears that some civilization has carved faces into the rock. 

And a horse too. We wondered when it stops being graffiti and becomes art and history. 

Some impressive looking boulders. 

That call out to be climbed. 

Definitely an interesting stop. 

A manmade set of stairs. 

And the kids found a mini "arch" like the ones we saw at Arches National Park. 

That's something on your scavenger hunt sheet too, isn't it. 

Having completed our tasks, we drove back over to the Ranger Station. Ian and Alli are always on the lookout for coins and money on the ground. They keep whatever they find in their door on the truck. Ian saw this donation box on our first stop here and wanted to donate something for the park. 

Once their booklet was checked, Ranger Ali swore them in. 

And they received another badge to add to their ever growing collection. 

A nice wooden one too. 

There's one more place that the Rangers send everyone to when they come to visit Cuyahoga, and that's Brandywine Falls. 

There's a nice wooden boardwalk that leads you to it. 

And a few steps. It's a popular site to see. 

And here we are. 

This 60' waterfall, per the NPS website, is one of the most popular attractions in Cuyahoga NP. 

After our hike, I think we deserve a little treat. We have some free dessert cards from Chick-fil-A from CFA Bingo earlier this year. I think that will do nicely! And they happened to be giving out these awesome cow headbands too! 

With the rest of the afternoon free, we were clear to do whatever we wanted! This Summer Fun Pass is good at all Chuck E Cheese locations, so why not try someplace new! 

Inside, we weren't too thrilled with what we saw. They had some games, but they'd either crippled the big ticket payouts (think 20 tickets for something that is usually 100), or made it impossible to win (like only giving 4 balls for Down the Clown and setting the minimum high score to something unreachable, even with a perfect game). 

The one redeeming game (I thought) was basketball. I'm pretty decent when it comes to making baskets quickly. And the sign says if you beat the high score, you win 100 tickets! It wasn't easy, especially in the time they gave, but... 

I did it! 121 points, beating the high score by 1! 

I watched as the game counted out... 10 tickets. Uh, that's not right. 

I took my photos up to the front where at every other CEC I've been to, they will fix it for you and add the tickets to your card. 

At this one however, the worker called for a manager to come to the front. The manager listed to what happened, walked over to the game, and said "Oh, that game will never give 100 tickets. That's probably and old sticker. I can't do anything for you."

Really? It' looks pretty permanent to me. And they haven't tried to cover it up or anything. 

I was not happy. Just like Discount Tire got a glowing review from me earlier today, this Chuck E Cheese and the manager got a poor one. I later wrote CEC corporate and they made it right by sending a voucher for 500 tickets, but wouldn't tell me if the game was actually re-labeled so others wouldn't be misled. 

We took our play cards which still had lots of credits left, and drove 15 minutes down the street to a different Chuck E Cheese. 

Still with an animatronic Chuck E! 

Alli with her flying pig game. 

Theresa showing she can win at skeeball. 

And Ian setting high scores on Crossy Road. Yeah, this one is much better than the one down the street. 

The next day, we were out an about running errands. Getting our pantry restocked for the road. 

The self checkout lanes (always a good spot for finding coins) proved fruitful and Ian found a dime! He asked a worker for change and got lots of pennies for the 1 cent Sandy ridges. 

You go girl. 

And, like most Meijer stores we've seen, adults leave their extra pennies near Sandy for kids who want to ride but don't have a penny. After taking their turns, Ian left the rest for all the future kids who might come. 

A third Chuck E Cheese in the area? Yep! 

Here, the kids really liked the Mario Kart racing. 

And Ian is becoming a crossbow master. 

While I did okay on the Milk Jog Toss. 

Every couple hours Chuck E Cheese himself will come out to dance with everyone. 

Why not join in! 

Later, the worker up front told me she saw us and was smiling big. 

Good to see you Chuck E! 

Back at the campsite, this is our last night here. 

Seeing the fire ring, the kids (especially Ian) wanted to know if we could have a fire. The rules here say that any deadwood on the ground is fair game, so I set them off to go scrounging and bring back what they found. 

Soon enough, we had a large pile of wood and a blazing fire going. 

Perfect for a toasted marshmallow.

Or a relatively new favorite, tortilla wraps with all sorts of treats. 

It gets wrapped up in foil and tossed onto the hot coals. 

Warm and delicious! 

The "best" toasted marshmallows always go to Theresa. 

I shoved a piece of chocolate in mine. Who even needs a graham cracker? 

Ohio, it's been interesting! Definitely some memories made and adventures had. Tomorrow it's time to head over to the next stop! New York!