In our hurried escape from Cincinnati, we were surprised and grateful to find a spot near Columbus despite the eclipse crowds. Upon arriving at our highway exit we observed flooding that left both sides of the road looking like a drive in swimming pool. As we were still in shock from the quick rising floods from the Ohio River, we were somewhat concerned that we had fled from one nightmare to another.
Our trepidation turned out to be an accurate premonition, given that it poured every day except one during our week long furlough. The rain might have been manageable if the campground hadn’t turned into a giant mud pit that threatened to retain our shoes every time we walked outside. Ohio became a four letter word in our home as we continuously ran loads of muddy laundry, showered off dog feet, and fought a never-ending battle with dirty floors.
Luckily we had one (and only one) bright, sunny day in the land of perpetual cloud cover and that was the day of the eclipse. Considering how frequently Ohio was mentioned as a bad place for viewing because it’s always cloudy, we felt especially lucky. Our host for the day was one of Brian’s coworkers. Lots of guests and former coworkers stopping by meant lots of people who quickly found themselves on the receiving end of Beezer’s relentless ball-throwing demands. Seeing the full eclipse was much cooler than if we had viewed only 95% coverage from the RV park. Watching the world turn shades of grey was utterly surreal.
Where We Stayed: Buckeye Lake KOA – The site we booked had no power because it was still drying out from the flood but the park worked to find us a temporary space until we could move the next day.
Where We Ate:
Pizza Cottage
Puerto Vallarta
Forbidden Root – Cool microbrewery where we dined with more coworkers
Creno’s
Blue Heron