Ohio's Flat Lands

We are way behind in getting travel posts published this summer because we're having too much fun traveling! So we won't be confused about when each "wandering" happened, we'll start each blog with its actual date.

September 30, 2022

When we asked our Boondocker Welcome host for best advice on buying Amish bakery goods, he drew us a map that would take us a few miles from our camping spot. We knew we were getting close when we started seeing the locals on the road.

While most in-home bakeries are only open on the weekends, our host knew that Alice had fresh goods available only on Friday. So this Friday morning we headed to Alice's house. We were disappointed to find that Alice was gone today, but she left a note on the screen door that read:

"To: Customers 

Baked goods is inside, on table. I went to a funeral this morn so help yourself. Thank you! Alice"

Alice's dog didn't seem thrilled to see us, but we went on inside to do our shopping. Alice had left a selection of fresh pies and cookies on her dining table. She also left a plastic container with small bills to make change. We bought a tray of cookies, glad to be a part of this trusting community. We love driving these roads in Amish country, full of horse-powered vehicles and tall lines filled with the day's laundry. They use a pulley system that allows the women of the household to fill these tall laundry lines from ground level.

Our Boondocker hosts do their own butchering and have 40 laying hens, so we bought some hamburger and eggs from them before we left this morning. Knowing that we have a sweet tooth, they also told us about a local bakery that is open every day and has quite a reputation for great baked goods. On our way to the highway, we parked the motor home and stopped in at 8 Sisters Bakery.  A large sign inside explained that the eight sisters were raised in a local Amish family and were taught the traditional recipes from their mother. With eight sons and eight daughters, their mother was a very busy cook. After the mother was killed in a tragic car/buggy accident, much of the family left the Amish community. But the girls used their baking knowledge to open this very popular and successful bakery down the road in Mount Gilead, New York.

The drive this day was 115 miles through flat farm land. It seemed that we had soy beans on one side of the road, and corn on the other for much of the trip. We had blue skies and big red barns to finish the landscape views across the flat lands of Ohio. We also had another apple blind taste test today. We can report that Pennsylvania's Cortland apple won over Ohio's Honey Crisp.

Our destination is the Mercer County Fairgrounds in Celina, Ohio. This Passport America park has half price rates for two days, and makes a good stop. Even though they are very busy during the county fair, on this last day of September we had our choice of around 100 different camping sites. The only activity happening this time of the year is exercising the harness horses. We watched as several different jockeys hooked up their horses and rode around the track.

We enjoyed watching these warm-ups on a brisk morning when the riders needed heavy coats to keep warm.

Because the weather was so nice when we arrived, we quickly went in search of some exercise. We found a biking brochure that outlined the trails in this area. We started with the five-mile West Shore Trail that runs along Grand Lake St. Mary's. At 3 miles by 9 miles, this is the world's largest hand-dug lake. It was started in 1837, when 1,700 German and Irish immigrants were hired to work sunrise to sunset for 30 cents (and a jigger of whiskey to fight malaria) per day. They dug out the lake bed with shovels, and carried out the displaced dirt in wheelbarrows in this very flat section of Ohio.

Several locals were checking out the white pelicans floating on the lake. These birds are not usually seen in Ohio. They were just resting here on their migration south.

The bike trail gave us lake views, with a few spur trails into the trees.

Of course Denisa wanted a picture of the St. Mary's lighthouse on the edge of the lake. She has a weakness for a white lighthouse against a beautiful blue sky.

We also rode through Celina's nice lake-side park, where even big kids can go zip-lining.

Our bike trail brochure also mentioned the Celina to Coldsprings Rail Trail that connects those two Ohio towns. Paved and perfectly flat, we rode 4.6 miles to Coldsprings before turning around and coming home. Most of the trail was a tunnel of trees that gave us protection from the wind and sun. This was our second good flat bike trail today.

We returned to the fairgrounds in Celina to spend the night. A sign in town boasts that this is one of the top 100 towns in the United States. We plan to enjoy more of this part of Ohio's flat land tomorrow.