Sopping Hocking Hills

1) Our chalet 2) fireplace 3) mom & dogs 4) mom & dogs I woke a number of times but postponed getting out of bed. But come 8:00am I knew that I had to get up and get moving if there was any hope of us hitting the road by 10am. Meanwhile, Mindy remained in bed a little while longer while I exercised and walked Ykraps. The weather was as miserable as predicted. The pond was swollen from the overnight rains and it was expected to continue all weekend long only to a lesser extent. The temps were expected to cool to the mid 40’s, too. Once back at home after our walk, I poured a cup of coffee and relaxed at the PC for a short stint. Mindy found her way downstairs a few minutes later. We briefly discussed our morning strategy then I went and readied for a run. Before leaving, I rounded up the coolers Mindy needed to pack our cold food & beverages. I let for a run at 9:00am. I was back somewhere close to 9:35am. Before going inside, I carried 15 logs from our home wood pile to the back of the Trooper. As I was stacking the wood, Ashley and Olivia arrived to house sit. By the time I made it inside, Mindy was holding Olivia. I poured myself another cup of coffee and then greeted Ashley. By then it was apparent that we weren’t going to make the 10am departure. But Mindy and I both agreed that there was not need to hold ourselves to a strict schedule anyhow. Our Chalet was reserved & check-in wasn’t until 3pm at the earliest. We did, however, tell my mom that we’d be by her place around 1pm. I reckoned we'd simply call her once we left the house. Judging by the time, leaving at 11am now seemed more practical, so that’s what we aimed for. Mindy showered while I packed my personal belongings and then loaded the Trooper. I finished packing the Trooper save for a few last minute items by 10:30am. I made a point to make myself a quick sandwich since I had yet to eat anything. I made a War-Su-Gai sandwich on rye with Ding Ho leftovers. Yummy! After eating, I jumped in the shower and was ready to go 10 minutes later. We left Ashley some cash, grabbed a few last minute items, and left for the hills – Hocking Hills that is! Once we were on I-70E we gave my dad a call just to let him know that we’d be out of town and that Ashley was house sitting. Next, we called my mom to let her know that we were in route. She seemed surprised that we were still making the trip given the extreme wet weather. Lastly, we called Joey (Kaileigh’s daddy) to find out how the wedding and honeymoon went in Ft. Meyers, Fla. We also talked with Kaileigh. She told us all about her Florida trip. She's so sweet! It was a fairly lengthy drive to my mom’s, but the Lancaster by-pass on route 33 made it shorter, quicker, and certainly much more palatable. Aside from the constant rain, it was a leisurely drive. We arrived at mom's 90 minutes and 84 miles after we departed home. I was last at my mom’s in June of 2005 for a short 2-hour visit. In fact, I have been down here only about five or six times total, and maybe only four times in the last ten years. It was stragely the same yet different. Same old dogs (about 12) and about three or four cats. All totaled, the dogs & cats can't weigh in at more than 30 lbs. :) There are about ten Yorkies, a couple frail looking Chihuahuas, and about four cats. A couple of the dogs are deaf and blind, but even still, Mom refuses to put them down. One could use that excuse alone for not visiting. The place was clean but still smelt a bit like, well, dogs! It didn’t smell nearly as bad as Kelly’s place, however. Although, that’s not holding oneself to a very high standard by any stretch of the imagination. Mom seemed in relatively good spirits. She had veggie pizza waiting for us to enjoy. Mindy was really hungry, so we were more than happy to dig in. It was very tasty. We visited for about 2.5 hours all the while watching the OSU basketball game. We talked about her upcoming heart procedure, the kids, and us. Come 3pm we finally left for Hocking Hills. However, just before departing, we asked if she had a road atlas so that we could look for the back way into Old Man’s Cave. That could save us several miles of back tracking. We found it. We could hit it from route 56, which lies only about 15 miles north off route 93. We took a very scenic drive down route 56W – definitely a beautiful drive in any season. From there, we found our way to route 664 and eventually to Old Man’s Cave Chalets. That was about 30 miles from mom’s place. We had to laugh when we checked in and learned that we had to drive ten miles back the same way we came in to get to our secluded chalet, The Elk. With little trouble, we found our secluded getaway. It sat high on a hillside off of a gravely, windy, and hilly back road overlooking acres of woodlands to the east. The chalet was rustic, just as one might expect. It was done up entirely in wood. It had one bedroom, one bath, a living room with a stone fireplace, and a full kitchen. In addition, there was a loft that overlooked the living room, deck, and forest. The entire eastern side was essentially glass. We unloaded our gear rather quickly and eventually served up our favorite alcoholic beverages as we unwound. We had to be nowhere for the next 48 hours. Ahhhh! Come 4:30, I tuned the TV/DVD combo to the Colts/Ravens game. Mindy seemed a little disappointed that I wanted to watch football. I picked up on her queues, however, and made sure to give her plenty of attention. That first evening we played euchre (I won), watched football, and watched a DVD movie (Bull Durham). We had a wonderful first evening. We went to bed near 10:30-11:00pm. We climbed the rickety wood ladder up and into the loft.