Up and over the hump

We bugged out of suburbia and headed for home on Sunday. With a two and a half year old, there are just so many miles one can cover in a day. We opted to stop for another night in far Eastern Ohio. My wonderful GPS, also known as my wife Beth, scanned the road atlas and found us Barkcamp State Park and we headed there. Being the end of the Holiday weekend, we found the park wide open and with many open sites. 

Our site was at the end of the last loop and we had no neighbors around us. Many of the weekend campers were kind enough to leave big piles of fire wood for us to burn and we settled in nicely.

We went down to the lake to swim at the beach. The water was clear and refreshing. Ava jumped right in and Halle played until her lips turned blue.

Part of the park was an old farm. Instead of tearing the buildings down, they recycled them into park use. The camp store is a beautiful log cabin.

There is also a few old log structures scattered around. 

A very nostalgic barn to say the least.

There is nothing like a good old fashion two holler. I don't know why it was locked up. It looked plenty inviting to me.

We had a nice candle lit dinner as a family. Food taste so good when cooked in a camp site.

After breakfast we headed East again. Anna sailed across the Ohio river and into Pennsylvania, then West Virginia and back into Pennsylvania again. The states all get confusing here in this region. I always wondered why West Virginia sticks way up into the side of Pennsylvania like that. 

We rolled into Maryland and it was a wonderful feeling. The truck seemed to run stronger, the trailer tracked straighter, and we got a strong second wind. Before we could make it home, we would need to cross the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Allegheys, and the Appalachians. From West Virginia it is all down hill. We crossed Keyser's Ridge 2880 foot, Negro Mountain 2740 foot, Meadow Mountain 2780 foot, The Eastern Continental Divide at 2610 foot, Big Savage Mountain 2800 foot, Haystack Mountain 1240 foot, Martin Mountain 1636 foot, Polish Mountain 1246 foot, Green Ridge Mountain 1040 foot, Town Hill 940 foot, Sidling Hill 1264 foot, South Mountain 1200 foot, and our last big climb was Braddock Mountain 985 foot.

It was so nice to see the Piedmont before us. After two weeks, it was nice to be coming home. 2596 miles round trip. 412 SOB trailers passed, but I was passed 13 times by SOB trailers. Six states and 14 days on the road. Good thing I did not count the gallons of gas, but it must be close to 288. Glad to be home, but itching to go tow Anna again.