Gallipolis, Ohio and Princeton, West Virginia… running from bad weather

Our next stop on the road of retirement was in Gallipolis, Ohio where we stayed at the Gallia County Junior Fair Campground. We were on a bit of a sprint mode because of the weather being so unsettled all along our route.

We drove 195 miles to Gallipolis Ohio, arriving later in the day. We didn't do much other than take a drive in the car to enjoy the scenery before ending the day with dinner. We checked on the weather and realized we would have to drive all the way through West Virginia the next day because of increased chances of severe weather.

As morning arose we drove about 150 miles across the mountains of West Virginia to our next landing spot in Princeton West Virginia called Fresh Creek Falls RV resort.

Every time we drive through West Virginia, we always think it would be nice to spend more time there, but the fact remains that there are few RV parks reachable with our 37-ft motor home, especially those with level sites.

The drive through West Virginia was really scenic. The trees were beginning to change colors as fall is just around the corner. Again. We only spent one night before moving on to our targeted destination in the state of North Carolina.

The next morning was the last day of our mad dash when we drove an additional 245 miles, very long stretch for us, to the NC State Fairgrounds in Raleigh, North Carolina. Here we will be visiting our daughter and her family for a while.

Logansport and Warsaw Indiana

From Peoria Illinois we made one of our longer drives this trip east towards Logansport Indiana. Our destination was France park which was once a stone quarry but later became a private park. This is a heavily used park on the weekends because of the old quarry lake and the beach they added to it.

We arrived on a Sunday so remnants of the weekend crowd were still present but by late afternoon most had left the park. We only planned a one night stay because of the rainy weather. It really was a beautiful park even though it shows the results of heavy weekend use.

We hoped to hike one of the many trails in the park but with all the rain they were too muddy. However, the morning before we left we went over to see if the disc golf course in the park was too wet. Fortunately for us it was dry enough and we were able to play 20 holes before we headed out that afternoon. Sharon was elated to make a birdie (2) on the last hole. It was a really nice course and very challenging.

On the way back from playing the course we found a very short trail to a scenic waterfall. This was a treat to see before leaving.

From France Park we drove to Warsaw, Indiana where we stayed at the Kosciusko County Fairgrounds. We parked our RV in a nice spacious grassy site with a partial view of Winona Lake and a boating canal nearby. It was especially nice since we often saw Ospreys and Bald Eagles diving for fish right out our windows.

While at the fairgrounds we took a nice hike at the Beyer Farm walking trail in the Pike Lake wetlands and also we enjoyed taking in the sights of Warsaw, Indiana.

One interesting sighting was a public art piece called Radiance. I included a photo of Sharon standing by it at the lake. We also played another nice round of disc golf at Lucerne Park and found a pretty good local brewery called Mad Anthony Craft Brewery.

Our next stop will be at the shop to finally have new levelers installed on the RV in Southern Michigan.

Fort Wayne, Indiana and Lima Ohio

With our new levelers installed it was time to start making our way to North Carolina to see our daughter and her family. Our first stop was not very far away as we only traveled about 80 MI to Johnny Appleseed Park in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Little did we know until we arrived this is where the man known as Johnny Appleseed, John Chapman, was buried. If you don't know the story, read about it on one of the attached photos as it's kind of interesting.

Since the weather was nice, we spent two days at Johnny Appleseed Park and on the second day we did a nice hike in a very beautiful tall grass prairie along with a round of disc golf on a fun but challenging course. We ended the day at Gnometown brewing where we had a couple of tasty IPAs.

Our next destination was to Ottawa Metro Park in Lima Ohio. it was only another 70 mph or so down the road. Lima's claim to fame is it is where Kewpee Hamburgers started and many say this is where Wendy's got the idea for the square burger. Not a bad burger we have to admit.

After checking out the town of Lima Ohio, we went back to the park because it also had a disc golf course on the park's premises. It was a nice little course even though it was very short.

Checking the weather that evening it looked like severe weather was headed our way so we only stayed one day and the next morning we continued on our Trek to North Carolina.