Cavern and Mohican country

We actually made two stops in central Ohio, before arriving in Amish Country in eastern Ohio.  We stayed two nights in the country near Shelby & Mansfield, Ohio.  We found a nice K.O.A. RV park in the country in a nice quiet setting with good facilities.

We had a nice long pull-thru site to park Big Red & our car.

The RV park had a relatively new section that was almost empty.  We were there mid-week, so the park wasn't busy.  I think there were only 6 RVs occupying 50 sites.  The first night near dusk we had a rabbit check out Big Red.  Actually, the rabbit was munching on newly mowed grass.

We decided to take a stroll around the RV park before sun fall and took a picture of one of the two ponds with a gazebo on the property.

The next day, July 13, we drove to a privately owned cave called, Seneca Caverns.  We took a cave tour that lasted about an hour with a small group.

The cavern was discovered by two boys in 1872.  The boys were out rabbit hunting with their dog, when the rabbit the dog was chasing disappeared along with their dog.  Digging around the brush where the two animals disappeared, the boys found a hole and fell into the first layer of the cavern.  They found their dog and scrambled back out of the cave.

Linda scrambling through a cave passage.

The above picture shows "stenciled" names of two cave visitors.  Visitors for many years left their names on the cavern walls in various fashions.  Carving and painting were some of the methods.

"Petrified" bag of cement.

The cavern was improved in time making it easier to navigate for visitors.  Cement walkways were added.  A tremendous amount of burlap bags containing cement were hand carried into the cave.  This bag above was never used and left in the cave.  Since the cavern contains an underground river with rising water levels over the decades, the bag of cement absorbed moisture and now rests along a wall in the cave not to be moved ever again.
One of the girls on the tour with us decided she wanted fill her water bottle with cave water.  She climbed down to the river to fill her bottle.

Later on the day of July 13th, we moved to Mohican State Park Campground near Loudonville.  The campground contained a large number of camp sites.  Even though it was mid-week, the campground was almost full.  We were lucky to grab the only non-reservable site available.  Big Red barely fit.

Mohican State Park is located in the hills of central Ohio.  The park has some beautiful and interesting features.  Many hiking trails are also available to discover more features.  Mohican is known as the canoeing, tubing, & kayaking capital of Ohio.  We didn't have time to try, but did explore.

Fire tower view of Mohican State Park

Tim had to climb the fire tower.  This picture is from halfway.

A modern covered bridge in the park.

We visited nearby Malabar Farm the next day.  This farm was established from many farms in the area by Louis Bromfield, a WWI veteran, reporter, and Pulitzer Prize winner novelist.

The farm is now owned by the state of Ohio and "green" friendly.

An aviary of regional birds is on the farm.

Mural on the farm barn.

Greenhouse and barn on the farm.

We traveled on the 14th to spend three weeks visiting Linda's sister and exploring Amish country and eastern Ohio.....more on that in future posts.