Mammoth Cave, Creation Museum, Ark, Hocking Hills

Were off again! I took a few days off work to take advantage of Jacens spring break from school, and we all headed out with the camper. We have all been planning this trip for a few months, and while some details did change the last week or so, its remained largely the same.

We left home on 3/22 as soon as i got home from work, and headed south. Pit stop in Dundee so cheyanne and the kids could walk around cabelas and strech and i could crawl in the camper and nap for an hour. From there we drove to Lima Ohio for another strech, then down to our campground, Cessar Creek State park.

Cessar Creek was a beautiful park located right on the banks of, you guessed it, cessar creek. Great water views, lots of boats playing and fishing on the water, lots of trails in the woods, we had alot of fun. We parked at about 4pm, played for a bit, ate dinner, had a campfire, then passed out. By 8am we were on the road again.

We left cessar creek and headed south towards Loisville, shortly after we passed Louisville we stopped for a quick lunch, the kept heading south till we stopped at Abraham Lincolns birthplace (this was unplanned but fun) then we hit the road for about another half hour till we got to Cave City Kentucky where we stayed at a Yogi Bear Jellystone campground... The campground was nice, the bathrooms (very important to us) were AMAZING for campground bathrooms, and the staff was pleasant. Jacen and Eli had a blast on the jumping pillows and playground equipment, we almost had the whole park to ourselves, maybe 15 other families there in that HUGE park (had to have been 100+ rental cabins and 250+ campsites). While we stayed at Jellystone we visited Mammoth cave, it was a melancholy experience for me. I was at mammoth cave about 10 years ago with dad, and it was great; however, this time due to covid the only tour offered at the cave is the self guided tour, which obviously is less informative and ALOT shorter than the tour i had previousely... It was still cool, but also somewhat disappointing. If all goes well, we will come back to mammoth cave in a few years when covid is gone and Eli will be old enough to remember the trip, then we can get a proper tour. If you've never been to mammoth cave, i highly recommend it.

Early in the morning on the 25th we hit the road again, headed toward Oak Creek Campground, which was our central base for visiting The Creation Museum and Nohas Ark. Visiting the creation museum was very cool, i was there years (feels like eons) ago, but cheyanne and the kids' had never been there. The ark was amazing, none of us had ever been there at all. walking up to the ark it looks big, then you get inside and it just never ends, its huge. We were actually able to visit both of these palces in one day as it turned out, which allowed us to shift our plans a little bit.

None of us LOVEd oak creak campground, it was "ok" at best, so since we saw the ark and museum in the same day, we packed up and left a day early, headed towards hocking hills. Hocking hills state park was booked full (go figure) so we were able to stay at Tar Hollow State Park, which was about 15 minutes from hocking hills. Tar hollow turned out to be either my favorite or second favorite park we visited. Its a large group of campsites, generous in size, nestled in the basin of some big hills (i dont think Ohio really has "mountains" so im just going with big hills). Tar hollow was fun, kids ran off some energy. That same day we drove up to hocking hills and did some exploring, we saw some of the major attractions like Old Mans Cave and Rock house (rock house was my favorite feature in hocking hills), then went back to the camper and crashed for the night.

The next morning we packed up, but were not able to check into Hocking hills state park until 3pm, so we drive into town and picked up some essentials, and stoped at the laundry mat and did some much needed laundering. We got to Hocking Hills State Park right around 3pm... For the life of me, i have no idea why this park is Ohios most popular... Sites are very very small, the place is incredibly overcrowded, and its really not that amazing.... we stayed here a few more nights wile we did more exploring, but ultimately ended up leaving a night early, simply cause the park wasnt great, and the kids were ready to get home, and truthfully so was I.

We had a great time, saw some amazing things, and had a slight reprieve from the chaos in Michigan right now. Our next big trip is comming up all too fast, and were busy making final plans now. cant wait!