RV Road Trip. Ohio To CA. Travel Day 1.

Official day one of the road trip was full of cool stuff, and needed a little flexibility late in the day, but it worked out.

Haidyn (Ohio), Ellie (CA). Both Team USA Luge

Steve got us donuts from White House Donuts in Youngstown, which is a local favorite, and I will say they were very good. Donuts were more cake-like, but had excellent frosting. We loaded up the RV with our stuff and got on the road at 9:20, which was pretty close to when we wanted to get started. We made the 50 minute drive to West Farmington to see Ellie’s luge teammate Haidyn. They live on a 5 acker farm and it was exactly like I would picture Ohio farm land, very sprawling, very green, very nice. In fact, back to our drive from Pittsburgh yesterday, for having the reputation of a factory and steel town the drive from Pittsburgh to Ohio, and all through Ohio was very green. Imagine driving I-5 to Disneyland, but instead of brown, it’s all green. Because that’s another thing, there is no shortage of land out in this part of the country.

We left Haidyn’s, made a stop at Target to load up on drinks, ice and food, then continued on to Notre Dame. There were no tours going on, so we just drove around the campus, went to the football stadium, the baseball and softball field, up to the main building with the Golden Dome, then to the bookstore for some souvenirs. The campus as you can imagine was incredible! A little out in the middle of nowhere, but once on the campus it was amazing! We then ate at Brothers Bar and Grill across the street from campus, which I can only imagine is a mad house on football game days. We all tried cheese curds, which were REALLY good.

Lukas in front of Notre Dame Baseball Stadium

Entrance to Notre Dame

Ellie at the Irish Softball complex

The Golden Dome as you drive in

Here is where we branched off from the original plan. The itinerary called for us to stay at a KOA in Elkhart, IN, but that was about 30 minutes East, which is where we just came from. Since I wasn’t tired, and there was still plenty of daylight we decided to head West to make the next day’s drive a little easier since we’re trying to get to Field of Dreams and a dairy farm. We found a campground about an hour west, but we still felt good, so we kept going. This is where it got tricky. It was about 8:00 and most campgrounds were either full already or the mom and pop places weren’t taking late arrivals. We looked for, and called a bunch. And where we were staying was going to determine which route we took, and the folk in the road was coming up quick. 

We eventually found a place in Rockford, IL, which was a perfect distance. We crossed through the rest of Indiana and into Illinois. Through Chicago, and although we didn’t get lost like my previous trips to Chicago, it wasn’t a perfect drive. The drivers there, and the signage, could really use some improvement. But we made it through. We’re set up at Blackhawk Campground for the night, and it should make tomorrow a lot more manageable.