Home from a great week of museums, air planes, Great Lakes, Rock & Roll, college campuses, a birthday , football, fried chicken and ATVs.

My backpack has survived another trip… year number 24! Although, it is a bit gross from yesterday.

Plus Mike has replenished his bag of hotel soaps for the farm

Thankful to only have 2 loads of laundry to do, safe travels home, and great memories with my boys!

**Flashback to Day 6 – we finally got our digital copies of photos made at the Pro Football Hall of Fame yesterday, and had to add them.

Onto today… What a way to finish this trip – ATVs through Wayne National Forest! But first…

We started today at our homey VRBO in Millersburg. It was so nice to wake up and have a cup of coffee in your PJs.

We packed and hit the road, headed to Athens, Ohio. Along the very curvy roads, Leo commented that this was a different kind of vastness (see the outwest blog for some serious vastness)

As we whipped through towns, we kept seeing these Big Foot Cutouts… we never did find out what they were for…

Did I mention the curvy roads? Add in constant staring at your iPad from our newly minted teenager with a splash of sinus drainage… and you’ve got the perfect Carsick Cocktail.

After a pitstop to clean up and change clothes, and we were back on the road…

Finally, we arrived! Adventure Pro Outdoors… as excited as we were for the day, we were even more excited to be off those roads!

We signed all of our waivers and releases, learned our train signals and headed to meet our guides. We were so ready to hit the trails in Wayne National Forest.

And off we went!

We rode and splashed and rode for 3 hours…We stopped for snacks and switched passengers then went right back at it…

We had the BEST time and had mud and dirt everywhere!

We made it back to the barn to drop off the ATV, and may have brought them back a bit muddier than when we took them.

Look at the mud! There is mud in my teeth!

Best guides ever!

Thankfully we were able to change clothes before heading to the hotel

Thanks Wayne National Forest! I don’t know if we will be back this way, but we’ll never forget today.

We checked into our last Holiday Inn Express in Athens, Ohio, and quickly learned that Athens is home to Ohio University… and after seeing all the parents and families in town, and a little internet sleuthing, we discovered that today was opening day for the OU Baseball team. After getting all the mud off of us, we grabbed dinner at a local spot – Shade on State. (It was like an sports bar and Applebees had a baby) Great atmosphere, good food and the best company.

We decided to go exploring into Athens to see the OU campus. It is a really pretty campus, founded in 1804. It is slightly smaller than some of the big NC schools with about 19,000 students.

The downtown of Athens around the campus is really pretty as well.

downtown pics

We finally made it back to the hotel, and climbed the stairs after coming in the back entrance… some were huffing and puffing by the 3rd level.

stairwell pic

Of course we got in some last minute wrestling.

Now we are all tucked in and snoring, ready to start heading back home. we have no plans other than driving tomorrow. I’m sure Mom’s Cafe will be open, and who knows what else we can find…It has been such a fun week together!

Happy 13 years to Leo! He is definitely living his best life today! Football, fried chicken and his own room for the night.

We started the morning at the Holiday Inn in Canton, Ohio. Of course, we had our free Holiday Inn breakfast and enjoyed talking with our waitress, Renee. She told us for the Hall of Fame induction ceremony week, the hotel is closed to the public and the only guests are the inductees, players and their families. She said most were really nice, and while she couldn’t give us any specifics because of confidentiality agreements, she did say they were a really fun bunch because they got to relax without reporters or fans around.

These two loved that they ate breakfast talking football with TV screens playing ESPN and NFL Network.

When we left Renee told Leo to go to the market for a treat on her for his birthday (he snagged some M&Ms) 🥳🎉

And then we were off to celebrate Leo’s 13th at the Pro Football Hall of Fame! The Hall of Fame started in 1960’s and has been added onto since then. Initially, it was about 9,000 square feet and is now over 100,000 square feet… but some of the signage seemed a little dated…

And of course, a plaque!

I don’t think we could have found a better place to celebrate this football loving boy’s day!

So the first question we had was “why Canton?” Apparently, we aren’t the first folks to ask this question. The easiest answer is that at the time of the creation of the NFL, Canton was central location to the biggest teams around and the owner of the Canton Bulldogs had a car dealership large enough to hold everyone while they met to create the American Professional Football Association, which later became the NFL. And the people of Canton made a very big play for the Hall of Fame as the start of what became the NFL.

The boys couldn’t believe the shape of the original footballs – they looked more like the balls they use is squash, like a slightly flattened basketball.

We were amazed to see that during World War II when so many players were drafted to fight, the team were forced to consolidate to continue playing… imagine going to see a combo team made up of the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Philadelphia Eagles… the Steagles. Yep, it happened in 1943.

We loved the models you step into…

And the real NFL equipment you could try on… old and current.

Michael was happy to see his favorite team!

Leo was thrilled to find his favorite QB!

And we were all excited to see the jersey of the inventor of the “gritty” dance? (Apparently, it’s a thing?)

The Lombardi trophy – 7 lbs of sterling silver created by Tiffany’s – is just cool to see up close.

But wait! We found a whole area dedicated to Madden Football – we almost made 7 days without an Xbox fix.

He’s just living his best birthday life!

We all thought of Daddy as we read through the “Officiating in Pro Football” display. When I lived in Ada back in late 90’s, Daddy drove over to Canton for the day and toured the Hall of Fame. I can just see him standing here knowing every call and every signal.♥️🏈

We were on a search to find Brian Dawkins’ bust for the boys’ math teacher, Mrs. Kolb. She is a huge Eagles fan and loved Brian Dawkins…. so we’re hoping we can pick up some “math grace” for the last quarter.

Who else can say they threw a pass in the Pro Football Hall of Fan for their birthday?

Fun pictures from the day:

This is some great football trivia for your next Super Bowl party…

We all took a turn at Instant replay calls. It was fun but with the 60 second time window, it got stressful to make the call!

Michael is standing in Gilbert Davis’ “leg” and Leo is in Leonard Davis’ “leg” Jerome Bettis is at the end. The top of the cast is at or right below where the players’ waist would be. These guys are just gigantic!

Jim Thorpe Statue – he was a great player and first Commissioner of the American Professional Football Association.

After some time in the gift shop (what better time to visit than on your birthday), we headed outside to the “mini-field” to do some 40 yard dash drills/races, and of course, play a little football.

Last one…

We left Canton and headed to Millersburg, Ohio. We drove through Amish Country and loved seeing the buggies.

We stopped at the Ashery Country Store for ham and turkey to restock Mom’s Cafe, and picked up some Amish goodies – homemade butter, candy and soup starters – and Canning lids (which you cannot find anywhere in NC)

The farms were just lovely. They were set up almost like small homestead villages with several different houses for individual families and shared barns and animals. We are seriously thinking of which families we want to move out here with and forget the rest of the world. 🤪

We got to our VRBO and had to make sure to re-hang our birthday sign (it was on the TV in the hotel when Leo woke up this morning)

And LOOK! A washer and dryer – I’ve gotten everything washed up to today’s clothes! Halleluiah!

We got the bags in and everyone immediately separated… I’m thinking they were all ready for some alone time!

We headed back out for dinner at a place called Mrs. Yoders. According to our VRBO host, they have the BEST fried chicken – one of Leo’s favorite’s – so off we went to Mt. Hope, Ohio. One the way, we passed a couple of churches having their Maudy Thursday Services. It was too cool seeing the buggies and their horses, tractors and cars all lined up in the parking lots.

Mrs Yoder’s did not disappoint – oh my goodness! Leo had a big ol’ hot fudge Sunday but he begged up not to sing for his birthday so we didn’t sing out loud – but I leaned over to sing for just him.♥️🎶

I think he had a pretty great birthday and based on the laughing I hear upstairs, the teenage years are just getting started. Tomorrow is our last full day and it should be a muddy mess of a good time!

While the boys weren’t all that jazzed up about today, Mike and I were really excited to check out the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. But it turns out, the museum did a great job of incorporating hands-on things for kids and folks who really aren’t music people.

The Hall of Fame is a giant glass pyramid, and on my word, I’m so glad we wore shorts because once you got out of the basement, it was warm!

7 floors of our favorite music/musicians, and of course, I started with the best

Although Leo was not a fan of the King’s fashion sense…

The boys did not appreciate our singing throughout the Tom Petty area

But they played along and managed to earn a warning about playing on the escalators. Don’t they know Rock & Roll doesn’t follow the rules!

We LOVED the Garage Band section. You got to pretend to be your own garage band with guitars, drums and keyboards. There were video instructions on how to play, and then you played a set. It was really cool!

They got to create a band and stickers – of course, they picked inappropriate band names 🤪🤦🏻‍♀️

They had a concert-setting style movie that showed highlights of the Induction ceremonies from years past – highlights of Run DMC, Cher, Fats Domino, Fleetwood Mac, Prince, Tom Petty, the Beatles. It was awesome with lights and sounds as if you were in a concert!

Practicing my Joan Jett moves in preparation for our concert in June.

After we finished at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, we walked next door to the Cleveland Browns stadium.

Outside the stadium they had 2 statues – one to the service and sacrifice of the firemen of Cleveland, and the other to Jim Brown, one of the greatest running backs of all time, who played for the Browns.

Overall, it was a really impressive stadium.

We headed back to the car, and Mom’s Cafe opened up its new Cleveland location. And then we made our way into W 11th Street in Cleveland… right beside Bumpas’ house…

“Fra-gee-lay… must be Italian”

Yea, it’s the Christmas Story House!

The house is real but all the things inside are replicas, so you are encouraged to be as hands on as you want, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves pretending to be Ralphie and family from different parts of the movie.

The Museum across the street had the actual items from the films. Well, at least the ones that they had. The movie didn’t do well initially and some of the props were just trashed or lost. Only years later did it become a holiday classic. In fact, the current owner of the house bought it off Ebay, remodeled to return it to style from the movie, and opened as a museum and tour.

We honestly came into Cleveland a little skeptical about the city, but it has been a great visit and everyone we met has been so nice. We will definitely be back for a longer visit once the 50-State Quest is complete.

We left Cleveland and headed to Canton for our stop for the birthday boy tomorrow! On the way, Mike wanted to divert to Kent State. We told the boys the history of Kent State and specifically what happened on May 4, 1970.

The campus is beautiful with a simple plaque and walking tour of the events of May 4th.

When you stand and see how far away the students were from the National Guardsman, it becomes extremely hard to understand why they felt the need to fire into the crowd of students.

On a much light note, we became fascinated with the black squirrels of Kent State. They are crazy looking!

And then just to make us giggle 2 big fat groundhogs came wandering… but one jumped in their hole before we could get a picture.

We made it to Canton, Ohio and checked into the hotel. The boys went for a swim before dinner and then we decided to grab dinner at an Asian Grill that we could see from our room, BiBiBop. It was absolutely fantastic! Think of a Moe’s/Salsaritas style with Asian rice bowls.

We talked with the owner and she told us they just opened a new location in Cary, NC so if you’re nearby, absolutely give it a try. We’re trying to figure out how to buy a franchise or at least buy some stock in one. It’s that good!

Tonight, we are enjoying our last night with this 12-year old, because when we wake up tomorrow we’ve got another teenager! Heaven help us… nah, he’s pretty great!

YES! Today we had to set alarms and head to a specific destination – We are back in my vacation comfort zone – LOL! We spent today at The Henry Ford Museum and Ford Rogue Factory (where they produce the F150s).

The Museum itself is beautiful. Henry Ford was extremely patriotic and wanted the offices to look like Independence Hall… Mission accomplished!

The cars in the museum were pretty famous too… although I’m afraid Ford may have a fascination with attempted presidential assassinations since they have the Presidential Limo that took Reagan from outside the Washington Hilton to the hospital, and the Kennedy Limo from Texas.

They had HUGE Locomotive engines…

And the Camper from On The Road with Charles Kuralt.

Tons of retro pictures from the days of family road trips..

Insert gallery of McDonalds/neon

We also got to tour of the F150 Rogue Plant – sorry no pictures for proprietary reasons – but trust me the factory was so amazing! There was only a skeleton crew there due to shipping issues. We saw tons and tons of Ford F150s on the lots – none of which can be delivered since they cannot get their microchips in from overseas. The factory was running at 1/3 capacity – 1st shift works one week, 2nd shift works the next, and 3rd shift works the next week. Usually, a Ford F150 rolls off the line every 53 seconds, and after what we saw today – I can see why. It is about as efficient as you get.

They have even started having “living roofs” plants which help reduce pollution, increase oxygen, and use rainwater to prevent runoff.

They even have their own beekeeper on sight!

Back in the museum, we decided to have lunch at Mom’s Cafe, and save our money for a nice dinner tonight… The boys tried their hands at simulator racing… lets just say, I’m glad we’ve still got some time to work on their driving skills. Yikes!

Then we tried our hand at building our own racers…

Michael got a little info on the history of drivers education… maybe we should have read this before letting him try the racing simulator.

Leo tried his hand at the Green Screen celebrating the launch of MTV

And Michael was amazed at the sheer number of exhibits in this museum. (It was a lot of info)

YES! We found some MATH!

And Mike Brown for the tractors!

We also learned that there is a Henry Form Academy. It is grades 9-12 of students selected by application and then a lottery.

And back to Ohio we go!

And with some travel on the interstate, we are in Cleveland for the night. We wanted a good steakhouse – but didn’t to pay a kidney for it. The hotel recommended the Blue Point Grill. WOW! The food and the service were fantastic. Just as we were about to order dessert, our waitress, Evelyn, brought us this flourless chocolate torte as a gift. She said it was so nice to see a family have dinner, talk and stay off phone/electronics.

So far, Cleveland has been pretty great!

We topped off the night with some swimming, and now fighting sleep to finish typing this!

I’ve been accused of overpacking our vacations, so despite it being completely against my core value of a Clark-Griswold-vacation-schedule, today was yet another day without a specific plan. We just had to end the day in Dearborn, Michigan.

So after sleeping in (again), and grabbing breakfast at our Holiday Inn, we headed into Toledo for some exploring.

We ended up at the National Museum of the Great Lakes.

The Museum wasn’t terribly large, but it was jammed pack with exhibits, all of which were hands-on. For instance, did you know that 21% of the entire earth’s fresh water supply?

The boys decided that they were not prepared to be early explorers who carried 90lbs of supplies for 12 miles journeys… although they did enjoy seeing who could squat this amount of weight!

Mike and I however may be cut out to be part of Crew Capers Cast.

And we all decided that we wanted to live in a lighthouse one day, at least for a little while.

We left Ohio and crossed into Michigan!

You can’t visit Michigan without a trip to see Big Blue

Despite their best efforts, the stadium was locked up tight, and Mike wasn’t willing to jump to turn styles.

Ann Arbor, Michigan is beautiful town – very typical college town.

Surprise, Mom’s cafe has opened up a Michigan location too.

We again took back roads, just meandering though Michigan, and eventually make our way to Dearborn, Michigan. We decided to go for the full Ford experience and stayed at “The Henry.” The Bellhop suggested we try a local pizza joint, Buddy’s Pizza. They are famous for their square pizza, and WOW! It was fantastic!

And of course, we had to end the day with Ice Cream

(Think we’ve found a sign that sums up our marriage ♥️)

Tomorrow we are exploring the HenryFord Museum and the Ford Truck factory- finally an over booked vacation day! 🤪

We did a bit of everything today… underground, back in time and Hungarian hot dogs. All my boys slept until 10am this morning, so we skipped breakfast at the hotel. We grabbed Breakfast on the road and started our journey north.

The western side of Ohio is farm heaven with some of the blackest dirt you’ll see. For as far as you can see, it’s just flat farmland.

And the wind turbines that dot the landslide are really impressive… although I’m still not convinced that wind is the solution to our energy crisis… but if having one in my yard would mean $0 energy bills for life? Hmmm, maybe.

We continued on and reached our first stop… The Ohio Caverns! In the words of Mike Brown, I “will find a damn hole to climb around in on vacation,” and i sure found one in Ohio too.

These caverns were started when a 17 year old boys started messing around in some sinkholes on a friend’s farm. 100 years later, and here come the Browns!

The cave is always 54 degrees which compared to the frigid wind outside, the caves felt great. We saw some really cool stalagmite (on the ground), stalactites (on the ceiling) and columns (where the stalagmites and stalactites meet).

The colors and caves 103 feet below the surfaces were really beautiful.

When the caves drip water on you, its called a “cave kiss” and allegedly you get 1 year of good luck per Kiss… guess which two then found a constant drip and stood underneath… they should be covered with luck for the next 20 years

The only place the moss grows is near the lights, since there is no sunlight down here.

Check another cave off our list!

Whew, we almost missed a plaque!

We headed north, and since we don’t know that we will ever be back, we decided to step bak in time to little ol’ Ada, Ohio – Home of Ohio Northern University.

There were lots of changes on the campus itself, including new Art building and a football stadium, which of course, we took advantage of the open gate.

While the campus may have changed, the law school had not. I think the boys enjoyed seeing a little bit of mom’s background (or at least they pretended to be interested).

We dropped by to show boys the Wilson Football Plant. Every Wilson Football, 4,000 every day) is made and shipped from right here in Ada, Ohio.

As we made our way to Toledo, we were in no hurry, so we stayed off the Interestates, and let GPS take us on smaller roads… we traveled State Highways, County and Township Road… it absolutely took longer, but we saw some beautiful country.

We arrived in Toledo and decided to take the advice of Cpl Max Klinger:

The Hungarian hotdogs were good, but the homemade pickles and peppers were totally worth the heartburn than I know is coming. Thanks Klinger!

Tomorrow we are exploring Toledo a bit and then off to Michigan!

In choosing our Ohio travel spots, we heard of the National Museum of the United States Air Force outside of Dayton. Since both our dads are proud Air Force Vets, we definitely had to plan a stop AND its free to visit!

WOW – A friend told us about the size of this museum, but is it something you really had to see to believe!

But let’s stop for a moment and talk about the weather – Brrrr! I forgot how cold Ohio is, even in April!

Back to the Museum… it is 4 airplane hangers in size and packed with every plane and engine created from the Wright Brothers to the Stealth Bomber to Rockets. We started off reading every plaque but as we made our way through, we realized it was just too much information.

Ultimately, we just started reading ones we were truly interested in reading. It was still so much to see! They really had everything from the Wright Brothers to World War II bombers.

Even the famous Memphis Belle is here! Okay, I didn’t honestly know what the Memphis Belle was famous for (other than the movie), but now I know that it was one of the first B17 Bombers to complete 25 combat missions and return to the United States.

The yellow bombs denote a mission completed. The yellow stars are for bombs at/near targets, and the red stars are for a direct hit. The swastika is for shooting down a German plane.

The museum also houses the Bockscar, the plane that carried the atomic bombs that was dropped on Nagasaki.

Leo and I loved the story of Smokey – a dog rescued by soldiers in New Guinea. Smokey learned to pull telephone wire under planes and even learned to alert the soldiers of enemies hiding nearby.

We finished the first hanger (Wright Brothers through WWII) and decided to have lunch at Mom’s Cafe!

Good thing, we packed warm clothes because Ohio gifted us with a snowstorm while we ate!

After lunch, we explored the space area, even finding our own astronaut.

Then we decided to check out some of the flight simulators. Well, 2 of us decided to check out the simulators

We explored the Korean War exhibit and despite my best efforts, I couldn’t find any reference to the real end of the Korean War… the enlistment of Jimmy “Dink” Maske???

We checked out in the inside of a C124 Cargo Plane

And were all surprised by the size of modern-day drones – for some reason, we just thought they were smaller

Leo got to see what parachuting down felt like (apparently, it is not comfortable), but he sure is cute as a soldier.

The B52 was ginormous! I think you could fit our whole house inside.

And everyone took a turn in the cockpit of a fighter jet. Although someone was upset that they ripped their jeans in the cockpit.

The Stealth Bomber was too cool… especially when you think that there are only 105 years between the Wright Brothers flight at Kitty Hawk and this beast of a machine that is undetectable by radar!

The Museum is also home to Air Force One – the actual Air Force One where Lyndon Johnson was sworn in after Kennedy was assassinated.

I think we walked about 8 miles today but with the weather we were thankful to be inside.

After some rest at the hotel, we headed out for dinner and found a fantastic place near the hotel – A Taste of Jerusalem. It was authentic Mediterranean food and it was so good.

Then to top off a great day, we picked up a dozen cupcakes at Gigi’s Cupcakes.

A cup of decaf and some swimming for any remaining energy, and that a wrap on Day 1.

After 7+ hours, we made it to Ohio!

I had forgotten how flat parts of Ohio are, and how you can watch the weather roll in. The boys thought the clouds were pretty cool. I thought it looked a little like the movie Twister, but I kept that the myself.

We also spent a part of our drive using a new app, Hear Here. It is a map that lets you hear snippets of stories about the area you are traveling through. (Thanks for sharing Cyndi Palmer!)

We checked into our hotel and decided to go ahead and grab dinner before we got too comfortable. Actually, Mike and I were afraid if we sat down for any length of time, we wouldn’t get back up. So off we went to a local brewery, The Wandering Griffin.

The food was pretty good and the craft beers were great. We did learn a few things: the Brown boys do not like beer cheese on anything, and Ohio seasoned fries are not the same as NC seasoned fries. Overall, great meal with even better company.

We pulled up the list of planes at the Air Force Museum, and I wish I had a picture of Mike’s face when he realized the Memphis Belle is here. He’s like a kid on Christmas Eve about tomorrow’s adventures.

Back at the hotel and trying to wear these boys out… apparently despite the fact that they are man-child size now, wrestling never gets old!

If they ever get tired, we are off to bed… Lawd pray they get tired soon.

Spring Break is here and we are off again on another quest to see all 50 states!

This Spring Break we are headed to Ohio and Michigan to check numbers 26 and 27 off our list.

We have already discovered that since last year, the boys have grown and if we plan future road trips, we may need to consider a larger car… its all legs in the back seat!

We’ve made it to the traffic and tolls of West Virginia…

Seriously, its $4.25 per toll!

Mike asked if they were putting a gallon of gas in when we paid – LOL. But we paid and rolled on up the road…

Dayton, Ohio here we come!