We left Columbus at 3 p.m. Thursday. We only had the Mohican area as a destination; no campground reservations were made ahead of time. I looked over the AAA Camping book, and an Ohio Campground book, but they were not helpful. There were just too many campgrounds to choose from in the area. Our plan was just to drive through a few campgrounds until we found one we liked.

Driving along Rt. 97 (Ohio’s Most Scenic drive according to the signs) the first campground we came across was a private one; I don’t remember the name though. It was decent, some shade, pond, kind of hilly, some water and electric hookups I believe. However, there was no pool and only 1 building with flush toilets and showers. We passed through without stopping.

Next we found a Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park. I’ve always found these to be clean and with all the extra’s. We drove through, again, pond, some shade, hilly, but only 1 building with showers and flush toilets.

We then proceeded to the KOA, again, read the above descriptions and you know all about this campground, however this one did have a pool, but the pond was more of a mud bog or swamp. Before you get the wrong idea, any of these parks were pretty "Nice", just not what we were looking for, nothing special.

We decided to head towards Wally Road, there are a lot of campgrounds listed on this road. On the way, we passed "Blue Lagoon Campground". From the campground books I read this one was not even worth stopping for. As we drove by, we could see it from the road. It looked nicer than any of the others we had seen so far. We decide if we can’t find something else, we will come back to this one.

Next I come up on a sign for the Mohican State Campgrounds. We drove into the park, very nice, cross a covered bridge on the way to the campground. Now this is what I had in mind! Pull up to the campground, only $10 a night! Uh, Oh, NO Showers, No flush toilets. Time to leave! ;- (

We drive down the road and arrive at Loudonville. Through the outskirts of town are Go-Karts, Miniature Golf, Canoeing, and two campgrounds. However, we decide we do not want to camp in the middle of all of these tourist traps.

Just past all the tourist traps we find Wally Road. It’s twisty and runs along the Mohican River. Very nice area, some nice homes and some beat up mobile homes too. Variety is the spice of life!

We come to one that sounded really good to my wife; it was "Two Rivers Campground". We pulled in and found it to be the same as the KOA, except instead of the pond this one was on the river. This campground also was kind of busy already.

Driving further down the road we passed a few more campgrounds. One of them sounded really nice from the brochure, but we did not even stop. I called about it and they did not have showers. After passing it, we saw one we had never heard of "Wally World Resort". I could not stop in time to pull in, so we decide to check the other two that are farther down the road.

The final two were Mohican Reservation and Mohican something or another. Neither seemed right for us either. So we went back to the Wally World Resort.

We asked about hot showers and flush toilets. Check, Check!! Nice spots, lots of shaded sites, water and electric hookups, sites along the Mohican River, (for members only but we got one just off the river that was up on a hill and was "Really Nice") swimming pool, hot tub, recreation center with Big Screen TV, laundry room, miniature golf, and a sand volleyball court. The cost was a little high at $25 a night. However I believe that is per site, where some places charge extra for A/C, electric heat, guests, etc… So, it’s not too bad, the other places we looked at were between $17 and $22 a night.

It was getting to be about 6 or 6:30 now and we were hungry. The lady at the check-in was kind of annoying too, stating all the rules that we just heard her repeat to two other campers. We setup our site and headed back to Loudonville for dinner.

We stopped at a place on Wally Road along the Mohican River. It looked "charming" and inviting. They had a place out back on a wood deck overlooking the river and woods to eat and also rented canoes, what more could you ask for. Unfortunately, the menu was very limited. They had Pizza, hot dogs, etc. More of a bar as it turns out.

We got to the end of Wally Road and saw a place just to the left. We pulled in and checked the menu; they had a nice selection of items and were cheap to boot! I got a bowl of chili instead of the salad, and for the main course fried clams with seasoned fries. Amanda got the Salad, Bacon Cheeseburger, and regular fries. When she saw my seasoned fries she was disappointed in her fries. She was tired and did not hear me order the seasoned fries or see them on the menu. I let her have some of mine of course. The food was quite good and so was the service.

We needed a few small items and went into downtown Loudonville. We found a small local store that had what we needed, marshmallows, honey, peanut butter, and pop.

Back to the campground, we got the bicycles out and checked out the campground, showers, restrooms, etc. It was starting to get dark, as it was close to 9 p.m. now. So, back to the campsite for a fire and some toasted marshmallows. I brought some firewood but forgot some newspaper. So in the dark we scrounged around for as many twigs as we could find. After about three attempts, the fire finally stayed lit.

The sky was clear, you could see every star in the sky. The sound of the river running was very soothing as well. We were quite happy with our choice of sites and campgrounds.

Friday morning we got up at 8 a.m. had some honey buns, hot chocolate, and coffee (yuck!) for Amanda. We showered and headed out for Horseback riding.

We got to "Bit and Bridle Stables" they had a 1-½ hour ride leaving immediately, or so they told us when we got there. We paid $48 for the both of us including tax, took a final restroom break, and waited by the stables.

There were two other people ahead of us, a boy and his mother. They loaded us on our horses one at a time. We then took the horses over to the corral for some water before heading out. I had a dark brown male horse named "Midnight". Amanda got an older female Appaloosa.

As we were sitting on the horses waiting, two more people joined the group and before we could leave the party of 4 turned into ten. No big deal, I got time to know my steed. He seemed to be the "Boss" he would take bites at other horses and the other horses would just back down.

We headed out "very" slowly. Amanda said we aren’t going to even go a mile in an hour and a half at this pace. We went just a little bit up the road to the forest/hills and started down the horse trails. The leader told us to stay right, I thought, "Why the horses know what to do, I’m letting him walk where he is most comfortable." (Part of the trail was big rocks and the rest was dirt) Then a minute later I saw why, another group of horses was riding the opposite direction. Ok that makes sense now! Doh!

The pace picked up, and even though they told us not the trot or run the horses, there were a few times that we got the chance to anyway. We went up and down the hills, crossed two creeks and saw some really nice country. I kept thinking about the old days when Indians would chase people on horseback and wondering what life was like so many years ago.

We stopped a few times; Amanda’s horse kept eating things along the way. There was a girl about 12 years old that was a real brat. She kept stopping her horse and then kicking it too hard, then it would take off in a trot/gallop. Of course all the other horses would play follow the leader as soon as they heard that. She basically ran into other horses a few times. I kept hoping that horse would get sick of her and buck her off, no luck though!

We traded places in the line of horses a few times. Amanda got stuck behind another young girl that was riding a young male horse. The girl’s horse did not like Amanda’s horse of just did not like other horses getting close to its rear end. Once the little horse turned around and tried to bite Amanda’s horse. Amanda then let me in front of her. The little horse did not try anything with "Midnight" behind him though! ;- )

We then were told to stay right again, I understood this time! ;-) However some knucklehead woman in front of me did not, or just couldn’t figure out how to get her horse to the side of the trail. I never have understood why some people can’t ride a horse! Really, what’s so hard about this? Well when the horse trots, I wish I had a cup on, but otherwise! ;- ) As we were passing the other group, some old woman asked if that was "Midnight". I said yes, she then said "Oh Midnight, you’re the one I wanted". Amanda and I thought, get a life lady. How often do you ride this same trail to remember a horse’s name and remember exactly what it looks like!

We got back to the coral and they unloaded us one at a time. I felt fine in the saddle, but when I got off it was kind of funny walking after having my legs spread so far apart for the last 2 ½ hours. Yes, since all the extra people arrived we were sitting on the saddle in the coral for 45 minutes before we left, then the ride took 1 ¾ hours. I’m not complaining though!

I got ahead of Amanda so I could run to the car and get the camera to take a picture of her. I got back to the coral just as she was getting off. I snapped a quick picture, then I found that Amanda had taken the last roll of film out, but not put a new one in yet! Doh!

Now back at the campground we prepared pork chops over the fire, green beans, and baked beans. We had worked up quite the appetite by now, it was about 3 p.m. by the time we ate lunch.

We then went to the pool, hot tub, and river for awhile. We pulled a "Lucy" (from The Long, Long Trailer) and picked up some rocks from the river for our flowerbeds at home. We started another fire, played some cards and rode the bicycles around some more before dinner.

We cooked steaks over the fire for dinner and they were wonderful! A little later then I used the sandwich maker thing for toasting them over the campfire. I used honey and peanut butter, Amanda choose peanut butter and marshmallows. Mine was better! ;- ) But next time we will try the trio, peanut butter, honey, and marshmallows!

By now quite a few more campers had arrived, but there were still spots open. Including one next to us, which was nice. We also ran into a guy that looked familiar. We asked if he was from Columbus, he said Gahanna. (So are we) Amanda asked if he had kids that went to the private school where she works, he said no. Then we found out he goes to the same church we do. Of course there are normally over 1,200 people there every Sunday, so it isn’t hard to believe why we didn’t know that right away. It was kind of funny we both just choose this campground. He had actually made reservations at the "Mohican Reservation" but didn’t like it when he arrived.

Wally World is also a "Christian" campground. The have Sunday morning services, pass out a letter about "The End Times" when you sign in, and do not allow people to walk around with alcohol. You are allowed to have alcohol on your site, but no where else in the park.

Saturday we were going to take a raft or canoe down the river. We had breakfast, took our showers, then decided to pack up instead. It was overcast and still kind of cool. I tried to get in the hot tub before leaving, but it was still closed.

Amanda wanted to see some of the Amish and Mennonite country. We headed over to Millersburg and then down to Berlin. We stopped for lunch at an Amish County Diner. It turned out not to be real Amish people working there as she had hoped for though.

We both decided on the turkey Manhattan. It was really good and the serving size was generous. They had paintings for sale at reasonable prices. We saw one for $79 with a frame and 3 mats that we liked; we just did not know where we would put it.

After lunch we walked around the town of Berlin. We bought a clay pot planter that was nicely painted and some small items for Amanda’s miniature collection. We found an antique mall with lots of interesting things. They had a stained glass plant hanger. It looked like it may have been a light at one time. I was really interested in it, but the colors were wrong for our house.

We did buy some pieces of slate to paint as signs in our house. I found an Evil Knievel Van and trailer like I had as a kid, no motorcycle though. If you remember them the motorcycles would wind up and do wheelies, etc. The van pulled the trailer with the motorcycle. They wanted $48 for it and I didn’t want it that much.

There was also a store with rare/exotic plants. We bought three little houseplants. We really wanted a few other items that were for outdoors, but we hope to move to a larger house next spring and didn’t want to waste the money. We will come back for them after we move next year.

A few of the black horse drawn buggies were running around town. There were a lot of Amish and Mennonites in town, but they were by far outnumbered by tourists. Amanda and I went into a bulk food store, there was a Mennonite woman and her daughter in there, as soon as we walked in, and they left. Sorry, we didn’t mean to run off your customers!

We took Rt. 62 back to Columbus and went at a leisurely pace to enjoy the scenery. I got tired and asked Amanda to drive. I fell asleep right away, for all of 5 or 10 minutes, but I felt much better afterwards.

We arrived home and setup the pop-up again to let the smoke smell clear out. We really enjoyed the entire trip, nice scenery, good food, and a great and memorable trip!