The Clinton County Corn Festival, and then on to Berlin Ohio

Saturday, I decided not to make a special trip over to Chillicothe, Ohio, and we decided to take a rest day.  I did notice that the local Clinton County Corn Festival was on, so we couldn't miss that!  It was at the fairgrounds, about 7 miles away, and we got there just as the tractor parade was starting.... had every tractor from about a hundred miles around, it seemed. 

We spent about three hours walking through the antiques, swap meets, and so forth, and had a good time.  Had a nice hot dog lunch. 

They had 3 buildings this size full of stuff. Bette bought a couple of things.

Nice old truck.... Model T? 

Bette rushed to shoot this, thought they were so cute....

Today, we made 189 miles on over to our home for the next 5 days, Berlin, Ohio.  It is located in the epicenter of the Amish Culture in Ohio.  We've been here several times before, and this particular time of the year coincides with several festivals around.  We'll also visit Aunt Skip while were here, I'll run up to Mentor and Cleveland Ohio for National Parks, and then we'll spend about three days with Kippy and Dan, who are on the road and on the way up. 

National Park # 158:  Hopewell Culture - Chillicothe, Ohio

This park features the story of the Hopewell Culture of native Americans, who were probably here 2000+ years ago.  For some reason, they built mounds and berms- not for housing, but for ceremonial reasons... It seems there were mounds all over the Eastern Part of the US, but not so many remain.  These are reproductions from maps...

Essentially, this is what you see... you can walk amongst them we didn't, but we did watch a nice movie about the story of the place.  Very interesting. 
Got 2 stamps, a postcard, and a pin here. 

Ranger Tom was very very into his job-  He clearly was an expert about the nature of the park, and as such, gave us a private session of his knowledge.  It's nice to see someone who really learns about the area he works in.  Here, he is explaining to Bette about the mounds and berms. 

On the way over to Berlin, we passed the national headquarters of the Longaberger Basket folks, and as you can see, they have a pretty unique building.  I had seen this once before, guess we went this way to Berlin once! 
Fortunately for me, Bette doesn't collect these, they are a mite expensive...

We made it to Berlin about 330, and got to a nice spot at Scenic Hills.  The spots next to us are empty, so we are hoping the Kingstons will be put near or next to us.   We got here just as it started to sprinkle, and now, there is a pretty nasty thunder and lightning storm around.  No rainfall as of yet, though, but it's coming.  

We always freak out, or Bette does, on the way to Berlin-  It's not easy to get to, and you have to travel a series of farm/back roads to get here...  Then, to add to the adventure, you have to deal with Amish Buggies, and pedestrians, since they walk everywhere, as well as narrow roads, lots of hills too.   Wheel gripping kind of trip for about 50 miles or so....

Fixing to have a terrific storm-  hope there's no hail....We're right in the red area below Mansfield... and now it's really coming down. 

Bette forgot to turn the valve again and flooded the water tank again.  Wonderful.