Sunday-Thursday, August 6-10, 2017 - Waynesville, OH, Frontier Campground
On Sunday morning we packed up and moved north to Waynesville, OH. Dean and I left fairly early, while Matt and Megan took their time leaving, knowing we would take longer to drive to the new campground than they would. About 20 miles before we arrived I received a call from the owner of the campground wanting to know when we would arrive. I explained how close we were and he said he was working on the cabin for our son and his family and it might be a while before it was ready. We told him this was not a problem they could hang out with us until it was done. When we arrived the owner met us and led us to our site. Once we were parked, he advised the cabin directly across from us was now available and he could move Matt and family in there rather than the one he had been working on. This was great as it made it much easier for all of us to have them so close. However, after the really nice large cabin they had at Camp Carlson, this deluxe cabin was nothing in comparison - however it had everything they said it did. Lesson learned ask for details - like what is the square footage, etc. The cabin was big enough for a queen size bed, a set of bunk beds, a small bathroom with only a shower and toilet, a sink and compact refrigerator in the kitchen area with a heating plate and one overhead cabinet. There was no table and chairs, in fact no chairs whatsoever and no floor space for children to play except the narrow pathway from the door to the bathroom. If we had not been there they would have probably left. We've stayed in a lot of cabins over the years but never anything as small as this. The ad said small, large and deluxe. They rented the deluxe but it was the smallest, sparsest deluxe cabin we've ever seen. As it was it worked out okay even though the cost was pretty high - $80/ nite compared to $60/nite at Camp Carlson. The one at Camp Carlson had a full kitchen, nice size living room area with a large bedroom and full bathroom, besides having a huge porch area the complete length of the cabin that included a railing all around it so the kids could play outside with plenty of room for all the adults to sit and visit as well. Quite a difference.
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| Matt & Megan's DELUXE Cabin. The pool in the background that we could not use. Poor Josh just didn't understand why it was right there and he couldn't swim. |
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| Our site - located across the street from their cabin |
One of the reasons we were excited about this campground is it has a swimming pool, however when we arrived it didn't look too good - a little greenish in color. Unfortunately they must have had a leak. They had a pool company out and it appeared things were going well, they emptied and started refilling it and it was looking great then overnight it seemed to turn green again and the water level fell. We were never able to use it which was a huge disappointment to Josh.
We had a great time visiting places in the area - including the Newport Aquarium in Newport, KY on Monday. Josh enjoyed all of the exhibits, especially the sharks and the alligators. The Aquarium is located at the Levee in Newport, along the banks of the Ohio River.
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The Aquarium
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The Ohio River from the Newport Levee.
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| Another shot of the Ohio River from the Newport Levee |
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Josh wanted to ride the train so "The Family" went for a short ride around the Levee area.
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There are lots of restaurants and shops right outside. We all enjoyed our visit here very much and it was well worth the money. We finished our visit at the aquarium close to 5. We didn't want to fight the traffic so we had dinner at a wonderful restaurant in the Newport area called "Brothers".
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| Their menu was great! |
I saw a couple leave the restaurant and asked them if it was a good place to eat and they said it was excellent. I was so glad for this tip - and it truly was VERY GOOD! Everyone loved their meal. I had fried cod tacos that were AMAZING! I can't remember everyone else's meals but we were all quite happy and agreed we would not hesitate to return here if the opportunity arose. Afterwards we stopped at Coldstone Creamery for a little ice cream before we hit the road for our hour or so drive to the campground.
Tuesday we drove about an hour and a half south to visit "The Ark Encounter". AMAZING is all I can say. A life size Noah's ark as he was directed to build by God.
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| Noah's Ark aka "The Ark Encounter" |
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| Josh, Matt, Megan and Sarah Peine on the bus from the parking lot to "The Ark Encounter". |
It was a very popular place. Some exhibits you could look at easily but where there were placards to read to explain various information about the ark and how things worked, there were lots of people and the lines were long. There was much we were unable to see due to very long lines. With two little ones it was just too much to try and stay in lines in order to see everything on display, especially when much of it was reading. I would love to go back and have the time to check every single thing out. We did get in many, many steps going up and down the ramps from floor to floor. I took many pictures and I will include several that I hope will give you an idea of how immense the ark was.
Deck 1 - The Flood Begins
This shows a variety of animal exhibits while learning which types of creatures, and how many of each were brought on board.
Deck 2 - Technology on the Ark
This deck explains how Noah's family could have maintained the Ark and care for thousands of animals during the flood.
Deck 3 - After the Flood
This deck includes the Living Quarters and then shows the impact the Flood had on our world.
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| Cages where small animals were kept. |
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| Look at the size of the tree trunks used to build and support this ark. |
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| Noah's family in prayer at the start of the Flood. |
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| Various vessels used to hold water for the animals. |
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| Feed for the animals. |
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| Looking through and up at center posts and beams from a lower floor. |
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| Watering container for animals. |
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| I was trying to include these tree trunks as they are strung the length of each deck. It's hard to imagine building the ark with today's technology let alone how it must have been for Noah's family to do this on their own. |
When we finished we had lunch at their buffet which was quite good and very affordable. Senior rates for Dean and I were less than $10 each. They had a great buffet that included several meats, veggies, potatoes, etc., as well as an expansive salad bar, a great selection of desserts, an ice cream machine that included numerous toppings, and numerous beverage selections (tea, pop, lemonade, and coffee.).
Our next stop was at the Creation Museum - about 45 minutes north of the Ark. Another wonderful visit that we really enjoyed. This state-of-the-art Museum allows you to walk through biblical history, wonderful exhibits and much more. We really enjoyed this as well but it's a lot of information to cover in one day. I'd love to visit again and visit only one of these two great locations per day. I'll include some pictures from here as well.
These first five pictures explains "The Bible is God's Word".
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| Our son Matt, wife Megan, son Josh and daughter Sarah. |
These are various settings throughout the museum of different scenes within the Bible.
When we left, Goggle maps routed us north and we ended up in some pretty heavy traffic again. I guess if there is one thing we do not like about traveling it is traffic in larger cities especially if it occurs at a busy time - such as between 4-6pm. We managed though and made it back to the campground. Dean was thankful Matt was driving. What a very full day we had.
Today, Wednesday is Matt's 35th birthday. Matt loves to golf and since it would be hard for all of us to go golfing together the next best thing is "TOP GOLF". We were all quite happy to find there was one near us in West Chester. When Matt and Megan were stationed at Fort Hood, Texas we discovered the Top Golf facility in Austin and we really love going. Fortunately they gave us a great area with a low table and two large couches. We were able to keep the kids in this area and they played very well and seemed to enjoy themselves as much as the adults. Megan and I shared our golf time with Josh so he could hit a few golf balls as well. The food here is excellent, and the really nice part was the drive to and from was very easy in comparison to driving south towards Cincinnati.
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| Megan taking a swing! |
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| Matt, taking his turn. |
The table in the above picture was a large square table with a low sitting couch to the left and where I was sitting while taking this picture. We were able to keep an adult at each end to keep Sarah at the table area. Between watching all of the activity going on around her, playing with her toys and eating the food (she really has a great appetite) she did really well keeping herself busy.
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| Josh, waiting his turn |
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| A large statue of Jesus at a church we passed on our way back to the campground. |
Thursday, Dean and Matt got up early and played 9 holes of golf. When they returned Matt and Megan loaded up for their drive home. Since we moved from Camp Carlson to a campground north of Cincinnati, OH it cut 3-3.5 hours off of their original drive to Fort Knox. With two little ones it will be a big help to them.
After their family left Dean and I drove back to West Chester to visit the Duluth Trading store. We have both received their catalogs in the past but had never been to one of their stores. We enjoyed looking around but left without buying anything. Before returning to the campground we decided to take a tour through Waynesville. Before now, we had just passed through the edge as we turned on to a different highway. Always sitting in the far back seat of Matt and Megan's van I was unable to see much and I did not realize that Waynesville is "The Antiques Capital of the Midwest". This little town was chock full of antique and specialty shops as well as restaurants, bed and breakfasts and art galleries. I can't believe I had missed this. It was too late in the day to stop, but we decided we would come in to town before we left in the morning to have breakfast.
Check back to see where we stop next.
