We started this year’s journey west on October 3rd, 2017.  We had hoped to leave on October 2nd but due to our new puppy’s  “dietary indiscretions” we were delayed a day.  Sierra, our new puppy is very fond of green beans and overindulged on October 1.

Sierra helping pick green beans from the garden

We decided that a day of travel with a puppy having diarrhea would not be fun so we decided to leave on the 3rd.  She seemed better the morning of the 3rd as we headed west.  We were not even out of Maine when she had her first episode of diarrhea for the day.  Let’s just say, the next 2 days would involve numerous stops at rest areas between Maine and Cleveland.  We decided to call our campground near Cleveland to see if we could extend our stay through the holiday weekend and give Sierra a chance to get over this.  We called a local vet and made an appointment for the next day.  We were all exhausted by the time we arrived at Kenisee Lakes RV resort in Jefferson, Ohio on the 4th.  The first night there did not provide us with a good nights sleep as we had huge rain storms that kept Gizmo up all night, and the diarrhea continued for poor Sierra.  On the 5th we visited Jefferson Veterinary Clinic and received excellent care from Dr. Hanneman.  We got a prescription for Flagyl that quickly had Sierra feeling better. We rested up for the next 3 nights and had some time to explore our campground and the area.

We lucked out and got site 5 overlooking the lake at Kenisee Lake RV Resort

We were very impressed by all of the Metro Parks in the greater Cleveland area.

We found this great statue honoring dogs of war- Go Pet Friendly has a great blog about dog friendly sites.

We found lots of places to hike and bike.

Tons of paved rail trails to bike

This area has a large collection of covered bridges, it even has the longest covered bridge in the U.S.

Smolen Gulf Bridge– longest covered bridge in US

We took a two hour drive to Cuyahoga Valley National Park.  We did a few short hikes before wind swept rain moved in.  On the 10th we decided it was time to move west and called Indiana Dunes State Park to see if they had availability.  We had visited this park a couple of years ago when we had work done on the RV at Fleetwood.  We were excited to return to camp here.  This is an excellent campground with paved roads and cement slabs for sites.  There is 30/50 amp power at each site.  There is a fresh water fill station and a dump station but no water and sewer at sites.  This is a really fun place to stay as you can hike the dunes right from the campground and then hike down to the beach.  Make sure you do the 3 Dune challenge if you visit here.  The dunes are under 200 feet high, but you get a workout climbing up the sand.  It was great to stay put for 2 days and just hike and enjoy campfires.

This year has brought early snow and cold temperatures to the Rockies so we have been watching things closely.  Our original plan was to travel the 90 across S. Dakota but with the delay in leaving home and the delay near Cleveland we opted against this  We had hoped to make our way across the 80 but there were storms coming across on the 10th when we were leaving Indiana Dunes.  We made a last minute change of plans to head south to Thousand Trails Horseshoe Lake RV Park in South Western Indiana.  This is a great Thousand Trails park with lots of hiking paths right in the campground.  You can literally hike for miles right from your RV.  This week we are hoping to make a return trip to one of our favorite Indiana state parks, Turkey Run.

We are watching the weather closely for the upcoming week as we would eventually like to get back up to the 80 and across to Wyoming.  We have our first reservation of the trip in 9 days at the KOA in St. George, Utah.  This last week really sums up why we like the RV lifestyle so much.  It is easy to change your plans as unexpected events occur (sick dog) and easy to change your route if the weather does not cooperate.  Right now we really don’t know what our route will be to get us to St. George, but that is OK.  We are continuing to explore and have fun wherever we end up next.