Mohican State Park
Driving from Ohio to Michigan to Illinois | Mohican State Park, OH | October 2023
Our third day of driving from Pennsylvania to Illinois happened to be my birthday. I was happy to spend it with Curtis and Charlotte, just enjoying a day in this adventurous life God has blessed us with. What made today even more special was that it was the release day of 1989 (Taylor’s Version), so we had that to listen to on repeat for the entirety of our 6 hour road trip! I feel extraordinarily blessed that my favorite artist released one of the greatest albums not once, but twice on my birthday. 🙂
Before beginning our drive, we spent a few hours in the morning enjoying where we had camped in Mohican State Park. We had camped in the dispersed camping area (as opposed to the RV/electric site area, which we don’t like to associate ourselves with), so we just walked from there along the river to the covered bridge, and then started walking on the Lyons Falls trail, also following the river. The trail started out rocky and rooty, but got a bit easier for Charlotte as we continued on. When we came to the trail junction and saw the trail going to the waterfall, we decided it looked like a bit too much for Char, and there didn’t seem to be enough water flowing to make a waterfall. Instead we went down to a river access point, sat on fallen logs, enjoyed the colors, and watched the leaves slowly fall off the trees.
When more people started showing up, we took it as our cue to leave and make our way back to the van. There were a lot more people, including families, on the trail as we made our way back, which was surprising since it was a weekday morning — maybe they were on fall break? We were glad to have gotten an early start, especially when we saw how packed the parking area was.
After our hike, we packed up the van to prepare for the next leg of our journey. We made one more stop in the park to see the firetower, and Curtis climbed up for a better view. Then we got on the road for today’s drive, opting for the slightly longer route to grab a few new Ohio counties.
Our drive took us until late afternoon, and we stopped only once for lunch and a walk around a park before reaching the Michigan border. We arrived at Curtis’ parent’s house that evening, and spent the next two nights staying with them. The weather had started to take a turn, so we were thankful to have a warm house to be in until Curtis’ next assignment started. We also enjoyed meeting their new puppy, Ripley, who is being trained as a service dog.
After a couple days spent with Curtis’ parents, we started on the last leg of our drive to Illinois. On the way, we stopped to visit my Aunt and Uncle in St. Joseph and had a great time catching up and talking about travels and trip planning. Finally, we made the drive around Chicago and to our home for the next two weeks: a Towneplace Inn & Suites right off I-80 in Joliet.
