Its summer time, The weather is good, kids are out out school, and families are taking trips to see and do things. We spent a weekend at Lake Hope in Vinton County. We rented a cabin at the state park. The cabin was nice. There was a charcoal grill out in the front of it and a fire ring behind it. It had 2 bedrooms, bathroom with a shower, a kitchen/livingroom area and a screened in back porch. It even had central air conditioning. We arrived on a late Friday afternoon, unloaded all our things from the van and got settled in. We headed down to the beach to check out the boat rentals and see how the beach looked. The boys ended up swimming and Jean and I enjoyed our evening sitting on a bench enjoying the lake.
Saturday we headed into Athens.We walked around and did some shopping for Ohio University gear. We went for a bike ride along the river heading to the chinese restaurant for lunch. We made it about 1/2 way there and my bike had a malfunction. The same malfunctuion the last time I rode it. The pedal fell off it. I need to head to the hardware store and invest in a lock washer. So Jean and Jackson rode back to the van and headed to the disabled bike. We got teh bikes loaded up and made our way to the chinese restaurant. Everytime we visit Athens we always stop at the Chinese Restaurant, China Fortune is located at 20 W. Stimson Ave in Athens, Ohio. They used to be located on the second floor of a building closer to OU when Jean was a student there. It is still ran by the same family. After we ate, we went to Aldi's to get some supplies for the cabin.
After returning to the cabin Jean decided it would be neat to try to find the Moonville Tunnel. We found directions via google maps and headed on another adventure. We drove down a road that turned to dirt. It was curvey and passed the old train track bed several times before crossing over Racoon Creek. It was by this bridge that there was a place to pull off the road and a foot trail through the woods that went along side of the creek. We followed it up to the old rail road bed and headed away from the creek. It wasn't very far at all until we made it to the Moonville Tunnel. Moonville is now a ghost town. The only thing that remains is the tunnel and a cemetary that is just off the road on top of a hill. More information about moonville can be found here http://www.moonvilletunnel.net and wikipedia had an entry about it here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonville,_Ohio . An internet search will result in sevral webssites about the Moonville Tunnel. If you head up to the tunnel, read up about the ghost stories and BRING BUG SPRAY. The mosquitoes were out heavy. Also wear long pants. The path through the woods had quite a bit of poison ivy along it. On the walk back to the van I took several pictures of Racoon Creek. After we got to the van we headed up the road a little ways and drove to the old Moonville Cemetary. It was nice to see that it has been cared for. The grass was cut, a couple of the headstones were newer, and some of the graves had items left on them by other people.
On our way back to the cabin we stopped at the beach and went swimming, The water was nice and refreshing. Then we made our way back to the cabin to grill up some burgers. Sunday checkout was at 11am. Sunday morning we loaded the van up with our stuff, turned the key in for the cabin and headed to the boat house to rent a couple of canoes.
Jackson and Jean went in one canoe, Nathan and I went in the other one. We paddled up the lake. It didn't take us long at all to get there. Jean and jackson decided to paddle around the bend in the lake. Nathan wasn't enjoying the canoe ride so I started to head back to the boathouse. What I found out really fast was the wind was blowing up the lake and the boat house was at the bottom of the lake. Everytime I would paddle down the lake, a gust of wind would come up and blow us back up the lake where we turned around! Nathan got a crash course in canoe paddling. He didn't paddle at all on the way up the lake but we wouldn't have made it back down the lake if he didn't paddle! We made our way to the other side of the lake where the wind seemed to be blocked by some of the trees just as Jackson and Jean made their way back from the bend in the lake. Jackson and Jean couldn't make it accross the lake where the wind was calmer. They had a heck of a time fighting the wind to paddle back down to the boat house. After we made it back we got in the van and headed for home.
As we were driving we saw a car that was broke down. We stopped and talked with the people to see find out of they needed anything. They told us their friend was walking towards the lake to try to get cell service. We turned around, found their friend (the car's owner) and gave him a ride up the hill where he could get cell service. After he made a few calls and got tow truck heading to his car we gave him a ride back to his car. I hope that he made out ok at the dealer with his new to him certified pre-owned car that ran out of oil.
The next stop we made was in Union Furnace to visit family and then out to logan to hit the drive through at the golden arches for supper. Traffic was pretty good until we got close to Dublin. We saw a blimp in the sky and remembered the Memorial Golf Tournament ( http://www.thememorialtournament.com/ ) was going on at Muirfield. Traffic was heavy getting onto 33 from 270 and after Avery road and Post road was back to normal. You can see some pictures of our adventure in my Summer 2014 picture gallery