Traveling Home...

Once we left Shipshewana it felt to me as though we were REALLY on our way home. Our first stop was a slight detour into Michigan where we spent a couple of days in Grass Lake at the Hideaway RV Park. It's a quiet, peaceful place run by very nice people. Just the place for recharging our batteries. Grass, trees, a small lake with paddle boats (free to guests) and a washer/dryer in the office, $1 each, available on the Honor System. We have our own washer/dryer but I like the idea of the honor system...it seems so friendly.

Batteries recharged, we moved on to Ohio. We've visited Amish country in both Lancaster, PA and Shipshewana, IN and I was told by several people that if I like Amish country I should go to Holmes County, Ohio...so it's been on my list for a while.

We stayed at Berlin RV Park. It's a nice, well-kept park just a couple of miles outside Berlin. My only complaint is that there's no shade and all sites face West and the hot afternoon sun, on the plus side they're mostly all pull-thru and all have a view. Berlin has cute shops and some nice restaurants but current major highway construction made getting around difficult. Unlike in Shipshewana, we didn't encounter Amish people in town very much, but we did in the outlying areas.

We tried the Boyd and Wurthmann Restaurant which had been recommended to us by a couple we met in Shipshewana. The food was good but be aware it is cash only. The largest place in town is Berlin Farmstead...the have a nice reasonably priced Amish buffet. I'm becoming a connoisseur of Broasted Chicken! Down near the town of Charm is a Swiss/Austrian restaurant, Chalet in the Valley. The spaghetti with Swiss cheese was surprisingly good and the Alpine Macaroni (made with garlic, onions, butter, and cream) was awesome! It's also the only restaurant open on Sunday.
 

There are areas we didn't see because the construction kept us from venturing as far out as we might have, but we did enjoy what we saw. This will go on the places to return to list but I have a suspicion that Shipshewana will remain my favorite.

After five nights in Berlin (the rate gets cheaper the more nights you stay!) we had a short driving day to Marietta, Ohio for a quick overnight at Ashland RV Park. Not far off the highway, it offers long grassy sites with full hook ups right by the Ohio river for only $25 a night. A good deal in my book.

Our next stop should have been Bluefield, WV. Normally we stop there and see my son Michael on our way home but we were coming up on Fourth of July weekend and he spends the July 4th week in Myrtle Beach with his dad every year so it was not to be. Went through the East River Mountain Tunnel and into Virginia. We will make a separate trip back to WV in a month or two to visit Michael and meet his girlfriend Crystal.

Available campsites are few and far between around the 4th and Fort Chiswell RV Park in Virginia had a site available for the weekend so I snapped it up. The park is right off the highway and we had a nice long pull-thru with cable TV...our first TV since south Dakota! It's a quiet area and gave us was another chance to relax, grill some burgers and recharge these old batteries again. A good thing as we had a busy couple of weeks ahead of us.