Geneva State Park - Lake Erie

Well, the mailman brought us the title to the truck Wednesday just before noon, and we made a quick (OK - not so quick, but as good as could be expected) trip to the Secretary of State Office. We paid our sales tax, transferred our plate from my minivan, and we on our way home to complete packing. Tom and the boys filled the truck with diesel ($2.59/gallon), while I finished packing the trailer. We finally hit the road at 3:45 pm.

Trip statistics:

240 miles each way
Paid $2.59, $2.63 and $2.69 for diesel, for a total of $202.30
Averaged 8 mpg -- only drove a few miles without the trailer, mostly used our bikes
Paid $13.75 in tolls on the Ohio Turnpike

Geneva State Park is on the shore of Lake Erie, in the resort town of Geneva-on-the-Lake, Ohio. There are approximately 70 paved sites with electric, 3 full hookup sites (for hosts), and about a dozen primitive sites in the campground. The state park also emcompasses some rental cabins, a large beach, a marina and boat launch, and a lodge. The roads are all paved, and each site has a 10' x 45' paved pad on which your rig and tow vehicle (or toad) both need to fit. They are very strict about no parking on the grass, which makes for very nice grassy sites. The loop we were in (sites 1- 37) was very open and sunny, and the other loop was more shady.

We arrived at 8pm, and the check-in station was already closed, so we followed the procedure for self check-in (we had reservations and were already paid in full). We we able to back in far enough to have our back wheels at the very end of the pad, so that the truck could fit in front of it. It was tight, but we got them both on the pad!

From 200907_Geneva_OH

Wednesday - Friday were cloudy and chilly, with a little bit of rain, but we managed to keep busy anyway. We checked out Geneva-on-the-Lake, the Ashtabula working harbor and some of the area wineries, and did some bike riding. The park had just completed a paved bike path from the campground into town -- not sure of the mileage, but it was about a 25 minute ride, one way. It was a really nice path -- wide, smooth, and very scenic!

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On Saturday, the weather improved greatly. The boys had been bugging us to take them to "Adventure Zone", which is your typical mini golf/go-cart/bumper boat/arcade money pit. We bought an Adventure Pass for $13 each which gave the boys each 1 go-cart ride, 1 bumper boat ride, and 1 round a miniature golf.

From 200907_Geneva_OH

From 200907_Geneva_OH

They had fun there, and then we went to Eddie's Grill for lunch. This is a 50s style outdoor burger/hot dog/ice cream shop -- fun atmosphere and good food!

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On Saturday night, there was a fireworks display at the Municipal Golf Course, which we went to, again on our bikes. We were told that would be a better option, since there is only one road through town and it would be bumper-to-bumper on Saturday -- they were right! After the fireworks, we went to Eddie's Grill again, this time for one of their overflowing Blizzards (Eddie's is also a DQ) -- YUM!! We were amazed at the number of people in town - it was packed!

On Sunday, we went to mass in the morning in nearby Geneva, OH, and then returned to the campground for a quick lunch before heading to the beach. We spent the afternoon swimming and soaking up the sun, and I finished my 2nd book of the weekend. Ahhhh . . . vacation!!

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We had a good campfire that night, and burned almost all of our remaining wood. Campfire tip that we got from our neighbor -- take cardboard egg cartons, packed them with dryer lint, and soak the lint with melted candle wax -- they make really good fire starters.

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On Monday, we packed up, cleaned up the RV, and were on the road by 11:45am, arriving home just before 4pm. It was an uneventful drive (always good!), and overall a very nice first trip in our new home!