Slump block

Sunday
Usually when we are away camping for the weekend, on the Sunday morning we ask if we can extend the check-out time, and usually they are fine with that, since so many people are checking out on Sundays anyway, and we have done that several times before at this campground. However, today they said no - we had to check out by noon. It probably was a good thing really, as it would have been very hot and sticky packing up in the middle of the afternoon. We know Hocking Hills pretty well, and so we knew what the parking lots at the different features were like, bearing in mind we would be parking the car and camper. Old Man's Cave area in particular has plenty of parking, so we headed there, and walked the gorge trail through to Cedar Falls (3 miles) then back by the flatter and somewhat shorter rim trail. The gorge has many of these slump blocks, the origin of which I talked about yesterday. The gorge trail has a lot of ups and downs, and a certain amount of clambering is involved. At one point, there was quite a large group of Hispanic children, some of them quite young, with a number of adults, going in the other direction. A couple of the kids said "Is this the cave?" - they weren't even half way there! I just hoped they were only doing the trail in one direction! Most of the kids had totally unsuitable footwear for that sort of trail - flimsy sandals with flat soles and no grip. Moreover, at the time we passed, most of the adults didnt seem to be paying enough attention to the kids. Once we finally got back to Old Mans Cave, I was quite relieved to see they had apparently all made it OK! I do think, however, that the adults in charge should have made sure the kids had suitable footwear - they were asking for trouble! It was mid-afternoon by the time we finally had our picnic lunch, then headed home, stopping off at a general store for an ice cream! Unfortunately, we had only been going about 20 mins, when a car going in the other direction flashed his lights at us. We thought perhaps there was a police car about, but Roger was doing the speed limit (for once!) so we weren't concerned. However we hadnt gone much further before we realized what he was trying to tell us - there were a number of flashing lights up ahead - there had obviously been an accident - and cars were obviously being told to turn around. Turning around on a country road, pulling a camper isn't easy. Fortunately we were just about to pass a house with an open driveway, so we pulled in there. It cost us a good 30-40 minutes before we got back on our original route!

One year ago: Longaberger Basket Company