This!  This is the bridge from East Liverpool, Ohio to Newell, West Virginia.  It’s very long, very high and very scary.  And we paid to cross it!

Have you ever looked at the shape of West Virginia?  It has a skinny finger that stretches northward separating Ohio from Pennsylvania.  When you’re at Cuyahoga Valley National Park  – even though you’re very close to Cleveland and Lake Erie – you’re only about 1.5 hours from Newell, West Virginia.  To get to Newell, you have to take an international journey through southern Ohio, passing the towns of Palestine, Calcutta and Lisbon and ending up in East Liverpool where you cross the scary bridge.  Why make the trip?  Because Newell is where Fiesta is made!  Sarah and I both have Fiesta dinnerware so naturally we had to make the pilgrimage to the factory where the outlet has bins of seconds, some obviously flawed and others with indeterminable blemishes.  Thank goodness we read the tips and brought rags to wipe off the dishes as we searched for treasures.    Between Fiesta and Blenko, it’s a good thing I don’t live closer to West Virginia.

I used to be a campground snob and looked down on staying in KOAs.  Last year, Sarah and I stayed in several either in their camping cabins or pitching our tent.  For the most part, we found them clean, safe alternatives for a couple of women travelers.  Our first night on the road this year we stayed in probably the nicest one we’ve visited. It was outside of Dayton and was shady and spotless with a shower house rivaling a high quality hotel bathroom.  Looked like there were lots of activities for folks who were staying more than overnight.  Our luck changed dramatically the next night.  Be warned – don’t book the Streetsboro KOA outside of Cuyahoga Valley National Park.  It is little more than a trailer park with full-time residents who are none too tidy.  We had planned to tent-camp but ended up bailing on that one in favor of a hotel room.  Very creepy!  Hoping our reservations in Bar Harbor/Acadia are more like the Dayton KOA and less like Streetsboro.