Great Lakes - Day 3

I've been nursing a sore throat since Thursday and this morning it woke me up at 5:15 AM.  I made myself stay in bed until 6:15 because when four people and a dog are living in a less than 200 square foot RV, they all complain if you wake them up too early.  After a shower, I came back to the camper and we had a leisurely breakfast of bacon, eggs and scones before driving to Columbus to visit the state capitol.  This is our 28th state and we also had the opportunity to talk a little about family history.  Scott's 5th great and the kids 6th great grandfather was the 5th Governor of Ohio in 1814 when the 4th retired.  We never found his portrait but as always, we enjoyed touring the mostly empty halls of the building.  It's actually strikes me as funny; in all 28 states over the last 9 years, we have never been in a single state house where the senators and representatives were actually working on laws.  

Pressing on to Canton, Ohio and the First Ladies National Monument.  We arrived and parked and approached the building which is a collaboration between the parks service and a private museum.  I had apparently overlooked the hours when planning and we missed the fact that they were not open on Mondays.  The nice lady at the museum, handed us a junior ranger book for Lorelei to do on the road and we got our park stamps and left.  It's a shame because I was looking forward to seeing the dresses and learning a thing or two about the less talked about first ladies.  Another time perhaps.

We haven't been able to stick to the tight schedule I set so it helped that we spent so little time in Canton.  We arrived in Cuyahoga Valley National Park with three hours to explore.  We stopped in to the visitor center for a junior ranger book and suggestions on where we should go.  Had we brought bikes on this trip, they would have been a fabulous addition to this park experience.  While it was only about 85 degrees, the humidity was extremely high and being on the river hiking paths was a sweat fest.  We saw a family of muskrats playing in the ponds that are the remains of the canal locks which was a first for us.  We got about a 3 mile hike in and had ice cream at the museum before heading over to see the falls.  Apparently, this area of Ohio has not seen much rain and the rangers told us that the falls were not as impressive as they can be.  It was still a nice spot and we were most amazed at the geology and that this river bed has been carved over millions of years - evidenced by the layers of rock.

Our hike left us feeling spent and my early rise sent us to the campground for dinner and relaxation in the air conditioned FunV.  Big adventures await tomorrow as we head into Cleveland.