West Virginia, Ohio & Indiana pt 1

When we left Virginia we headed west.  Our next stop was Tygart Lake State Park in West Virginia.  The drive was... Interesting.  We passed over the Appalachians on a road full of switchbacks and 9% grades.  And if that wasn't bad enough, the moment we hit the town limits of Mount Storm, the town lived up to its name and dumped buckets of rain and tons of lightning.  I was playing the part of Rally Driver assistant, calling out which way the road was going to bend because we couldn't see very far in front of us.  It is not a drive I want to repeat 😬

After all that, the campground spots weren't level and we couldn't get the levelers to set up correctly (our fault for not having enough wood blocks) so we decided to cut our losses, stay one night in an unlevel RV (Sarah rolled out of bed because of the angle we were on 😂) and then head out in the morning.  We hit the nearest flat, wide interstate and made our way to Ohio.  

Our campground in Ohio wasn't anything special, but we were a few blocks from Buckeye Lake, which gave us a nice place to walk around after dinner.  One day, when Pat had lots of calls for work, I loaded the kids in the car and went searching for a cool playground.  And boy did we find one!  We went to the Natural Playground in Blendon Woods Park outside of Columbus, OH.  It was one of the coolest parks I've ever been to.  Everything was made out of logs and rope and there were lots of places for unstructured play.  The different play areas were along a trail, so even though there were other families there, we were always by ourselves in each section (until we got to the Zipline which was a huge hit, but the family using it let us have a turn while passing through).

After Ohio, we continued west on Rt 70 to Indianapolis.  Our KOA had a really fun little pool with splash pad and there were horses next to the playground.  Definitely a KOA I'd stay in again.

While we were in town, we visited Jess, Matt, Grace & Baby James ❤️. They took us to the Indianapolis Zoo and then spent the afternoon splashing in their backyard.  And in true Indy fashion, Matt took us to the track he races on and Pat was able to take a few laps in the go kart.  

Staying in Indiana, but heading north now.  We'll be staying outside of Gary, Indiana (hehehe, yes, I've already started singing it) and visiting Indiana Dunes National Park this week.