Coolville, OH ... Cool!

Saturday was traumatic. By the time all the ODC coaches were out of the mud and at the barns, we were whipped. Our group of displaced coaches was isolated from the rest of Samboree attendees. Some of the group never did get the Samboree dinner; the towing operation lasted beyond dinner. None wanted to go into town to eat, so we ate in our coaches.

We were not highly motivated to attend the evening meeting and entertainment, but decided to go around 8:00 PM for door prize drawings after the entertainment. Peggy and Jim won a wheelbarrow full of groceries, and we won a Task Light. That was the best part of the evening. Our group trekked back to the barns after the concert and headed for bed. We were done in.

Sunday morning arrived with more rain showers and lower temperatures. Wayne and Barbara were early risers cranking their engine shortly after 5:00 AM. Dick and Sharon were next around 8:00 AM. The rest of us hung out together meeting in a barn to wait out the showers. Around 10:00 AM, Larry and Mem led our parade of coaches back toward the Samboree parking area where fifth-wheels were still being extricated from the mud. We had learned to keep moving once underway, and we did all the way to the main highway, SR14.

Sadly, we did not see our hosts on Sunday morning. We could not have been treated better by the WV Good Sam people. We are indebted to them for their friendliness and their helpfulness. We would like to believe they would be received the same way at a VA Samboree.

Our journey to I-77 was not without incident: the bridge on SR14 was closed. We detoured for about 10-miles before we reached the interstate. Who expected that on a Sunday morning? Once on the interstate the group began to go separate ways: Jim and Linda turned south toward I-64, Larry and Mem continued north toward Indianapolis, and we followed Chuck and Donna north and then west to Ohio. Peggy and Jim followed us all out from the barns, but then stopped to hook up their car.

We crossed into Ohio at the Ohio River at Parkersburg, WV on US 50. Fortunately, it was Sunday and the traffic was light. We stayed on US 50 all the way to Coolville, OH. Carthage Gap Campground is very nice. The owners are a couple from Louisiana who bought the campground in 2000. They seem to enjoy doing what they do, and it shows. We had agreed not to stay if we were put on a grass field. The owner said he valued his grass too much to put us on the grass. We had side-by-side sites with full hookups and free wi-fi; very nice. Most of the rigs here are long term fifth-wheels and trailers. We are the largest units here by a lot.

By early afternoon, Sunday’s weather improved markedly. We chose to use the good weather to visit the Blennerhassett Island Historical Park in the Ohio River. Harman Blennerhassett, a wealthy Irish aristocrat settled on the island in 1798 and built a magnificent mansion and estate. Blennerhassett fled the island in 1806 after being implicated with Aaron Burr in a military enterprise in the southwest territory. Both men were accused of treason by President Thomas Jefferson. The mansion burned to the ground in 1811. Its foundations were discovered in 1973 and the original mansion has been re-created.

Access to the island is by a 20-minute sternwheeler ride. We bought boat tickets at the Blennerhassett Museum in Parkersburg and enjoyed a pleasant ride on the Ohio River. The mansion tour was informative and the docents were excellent. Our tour was the last of the day so the docents were on the boat with us as we returned to Parkersburg; the tour continued. We had a great day.

Coolville, OH is home to the Cool Spot Restaurant and Truck Stop. We had dinner there Sunday night, breakfast on Monday morning and dinner Monday night. This may not be the only place to eat in Coolville, but it was good for us. It has more snack food that you can imagine. The hardest part of our visits was to turn down the many choices of homemade pies.

On Monday we traveled west to Athens, OH home of Ohio University and Rocky’s shoes, boots, outdoor gear, etc. This was a shopping trip, but we also enjoyed seeing the university and the town of Athens. We returned to Parkersburg later in the day to visit the Oil and Gas Museum. We were not aware of the significant oil history of Parkersburg and this region. The time we spent in the museum was too brief for an in depth understanding, yet it is intriguing to learn what this visit provided.

It rained again Monday night and Tuesday morning. We axed going out for breakfast at the Cool Spot; we ate in. By 10:00 AM the sun was breaking out. Fenton Glass Company in Williamstown, WV is a huge tourist attraction. We toured the gift shop before touring the manufacturing plant. Now we understand why these glass pieces cost so much: the labor that goes into making them is extensive.

After Fenton’s, we headed for Marrieta, OH, the oldest settlement in the Northwest Territory. We searched for an advertised trolley tour. We found a restaurant on the Ohio River where the trolley should be, but learned it did not run on Tuesday; the lunch was good. We also found a brewery in town where we enjoyed a sampler platter. Good stuff! The last stop on the way back to the campground was to see the ‘Smallest Church’. It is always open, it is adjacent to a roadside rest area, it has four two-person pews, it has a Bible on a lectern, and a cross on the top. We had no other information about it. Strange.

Tomorrow we leave for Elkhart, IN. We hope for dry weather and an early start. We’ll see.