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Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Woodland, Back to Ohio and Future Plans

20292698_10214461564359665_4218431998982727291_nWe started our trip back to Ohio on Sunday. I had planned a two night stay at Woodland Campground because I wanted to have one more experience with Schaun before we arrived back in Ohio. In looking around the area, the sightseeing options there were few, but I did find one that looked like a cool option – the Elk Country Visitor Center in Benezette PA.

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From the information I read, the best time to visit the center and have a good chance of seeing elk was either early in the morning or at dusk. Since we had Schaun with us, I thought the early option sounded more doable, so we got up around 6 in the morning to try for the early viewing. I had hoped to get going pretty quickly, but neither Harry nor I are very fast moving in the morning, and add the fact that we had an 8 year old to get moving also – it ended up being a little after 7 by the time we headed out.

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The visitor center was about 35 miles from the campground, and the last 15 or 20 miles were in “elk country”, with signs all over to watch out for elk and informing us not to stop on the roadway, but there were no elk to be seen.

We did have a little bit better luck at the visitor center. There were several short paths, each leading to a viewing area, and at one of them we did find a small group of elk grazing.

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They were only there a short time before they started moving into the woods, and we could hear the elk cows making a calling noise. It was pretty cool.


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We also spent a few minutes checking out the visitor center and reading the information about the elk. Sounds like September and October is the coolest time to be there, as you can sometimes hear bugle calls and see the bulls challenge each other.

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It was an enjoyable way to spend a couple hours on our last day of summer vacation travel with Schaun.





20258462_10214484720818562_5060778569138818164_nAnd then yesterday…it was back to Ohio! We left late morning and made the short trip back to Countryside Campground. After getting unpacked, we drove over to bring Schaun home. We had such a wonderful vacation and made lots of great memories. It was probably the last time with just Schaun, since next year we plan to bring both boys on our (hopefully annual) summer trip.



I just can’t believe it, but our time in the northeast is almost over for another year. We will be here in Ohio for a little over a week yet, and then we will start heading south. I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned this here yet, but we’ve had a change in our working plans for this year. We aren’t going to be doing Amazon for the first time since 2013. Also Harry’s son and daughter-in-law moved to Charlotte, NC a few months ago from CT, and we are so happy about that since that makes it a lot easier for us to visit them. So next week, we will be moving south to Charlotte where we will spend a week visiting Andrew and Amanda, and then after that we will be going down to Avon Park. For the first time in almost five years we will be putting the rv in storage, and moving into our new place. We will both be looking for work in the area, so hopefully we can get things in place and also start making some improvements in our home. I certainly should have a lot to blog about!

3 comments:

  1. Wow, your time has certainly gone by fast! Glad you enjoyed time with Schaun, and future time with other family. Saw Harry's post about the rip in the roof, we had that happen on the Montana, it looked ugly after fixing it with Dicor. Hopefully not happening on the Vilano!

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    1. Yes and it's crazy! I have the picture in this post from Woodland and there was no tear in the side there. We can NOT figure out where it happened between when we left yesterday am and then arrived here 3 hours later. Very strange, but we are just glad Harry had Eternabond stashed away.

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  2. As I told you, we have a cabin back in the mountains about 10 miles from the viewing area. We often have Elk in the yard. A great way to get their attention .... there is a shallow river (Mix run) that runs in front of the cabin. The elk walk across this river and up near the highway. (PA Route 555) My son-in-law plays guitar and sings. He and my daughter sit outside with a campfire. When he plays, the elk stop their walk and look around. He stops and they continue on until he plays again when they again stop for as long as he plays. So, if you want to get their attention .... get a guitar.

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