Well, it’s kind of farmland near Wilmington, but there are lots of day trip possibilities, some including trees. Beside Yellow Springs, home of Antioch college, and they nearby ice cream place, there is also very nice Antique shopping at Waynesville. Our local for Ren fairs and such is also on the edge of Waynesville, although I don’t think that there is anything there for a while. Cincinnati starts about 35-40 miles south of you, although the downtown area is more about 50. Columbus downtown is about 50 or so miles north. If you could drive straight across then Dayton might be even closer, but it’s not as the crow flies and I can’t really think of what one would do in Dayton, anyway. Although Wright-Patterson AFB, including the Museum, is not so far away. I don’t know Columbus (let’s drop thinksnow and laserkitty in here in case they’re vanity surfing) but it seems like it has a lot to offer.
I’m about 35-40 miles south of you, off of I-71. Rue is probably about 40 or so miles away, off of I-75, on maps he’s about halfway between Middletown and the I-275 beltway around Cincinnati. If you’re around often enough I’m sure that we can occasionally entertain you. Heck, I bet we could even have an impromptu CincyDope in your honor.
Hey! There are tons of things to do in Dayton! I should know, I live there!
There’s not only the Air Force Museum, there’s the Art Institute. There are tons of nice parks and a brand spanking new HUGE FOUNTAIN that cost millions of dollars and is right downtown. It is very hard to miss. There is also fine dining and Dorothy Lane Market, which I love with my whole heart. The chocolate mousse is dreamy…sigh.
The downtown area boasts a cute little shopping district and a slightly less cute shopping district called Oregon District, where you can find tons of things for your significant other, including red leather underwear. There’s also the Dublin Pub, which my husband swears has the best poured Guiness in Ohio.
There is canoeing and boating and fishing, because we have four rivers running through town. We have the Lesser Miami, the Greater Miami, the Mad River and the Stillwater. We have the Dayton Opera, a good baseball team and hockey team. We have two universities here.
If you can’t find anything to do in Dayton, then you’re dead.
Take 71 NE from Wilmington and you will hit a huge outlet mall. It’s hard to miss, because it’s in the middle of a huge flat and now empty cornfield. I forget what the place is called. I went just two weeks ago, and it’s at the junction of 35 and 71. It’s a little ways, but I bet you can get all your Christmas shopping done in one go.
Isn’t Wilmington kinda-sorta near Serpent Mound? Seems like we went through Wilmington on the way to Serpent Mound once… but then, my husband was driving and I feel asleep, so the details are a bit hazy.
Wilmington is kinda-sorta near Ft. Ancient. That’s another Native American Earthwork Helena. Sepent Mound is kinda-sorta near… nuthin’. Maybe about 15 miles south of Hillsboro on 73.
If you go straight up 68 from Wilmington you hit Yellow Springs Sexy. It’s not that big a town, so Corry St. isn’t hard to find. Worst case you blow right through town and then turn around in Young’s Dairy parking lot and come back pretending you went all the way to Columbus. Easy-peasy.
I have hot chocolate with little marshmallows and hot chocolate without little marshmallows. You have been warned.
Also, if you get all the way to Yellow Springs and realize you forgot you mug, you can go over a couple of blocks (if you’re in Yellow Springs, you are within a couple of blocks of everything in town- it’s just not that big) and buy a hand-thrown mug. There’s a cool little pottery place. And a harware store that you could buy a soulless mass-produced mug therefrom. Or the gas station, you could get something there too.
I was just at weather.com and boy are my arm tired!
It’s calling for sun and in the 50’s! (51º, but still, that’s in the 50’s) So, yeah, we are so good on this little outing.
So who’s in? Wouldn’t want to wander off into the Great Woods and leave anyone behind. Unless I don’t like you. Then I’ll hide behind a tree and ditch ya!
Oh, if you’re a big geek and have those 2 mile ranged walky-talkies, I’ll be starting out on channel 13. If you’re an even bigger geek and have your own GPS…
HOW LOST DO YOU THINK WE’RE GOING TO GET?
Sheesh, just because I’m going on this trip and it was all my idea (unless it tanks, then it was suggested by someone else) doesn’t mean I have to lead. Actually I’d prefer NOT to lead. Girls go in front, then me. So I can make sure you don’t fall into a ditch or something, not to ogle your behinds. Really. I’m just concerned about your safety.
think should go in front. There might be spiderwebs.
Two mugs unless you want to share. That’s the rule, BYOM.
Maybe think doesn’t have to go first now. Soupo and The Boy could go first to “break trail”. As long as they don’t get farther than 2 miles ahead, we should be Jake.
You walk along and look for Nature.
If you see Nature first, you call out what you see.
Then you get one point per Nature spotted.
But don’t get all smug. Your points can be poached.
If you call out the wrong Nature and someone corrects you, they get your point.
If you call out your spotted Nature and someone is more specific, they get your point.
Ex: You see a squirrel, so you shout “Squirrel!” and you get a point. Only someone then yells out “Grey squirrel!” then your point is poached if it is, in truth, a grey squirrel. If it’s really a woodchuck, then neither of you gets anything, but the person who says “No, no, no! It’s a woodchuck. Stupids.” Gets a point. If someone tries to poach that point by saying “It’s a groundhog!” the point stays unpoached, but “groundhog” boy gets a point too.
Any Nature counts, so you can really clean up if you know your plants.
Does Soupo know plants? The Boy doesn’t know his flora, although fauna he can probably do okay. Of course with a couple of young boys clearing the brush in front of us it’s unlikely that any sane fauna would still be on the path. I know some flora, but Ohio flora is not my specialty (my Boy Scouting days were in Georgia, where there’s flora of a different colour).
If you cast your eyes back to the first page (or the “OP” if you prefer) you’ll see… a big long post. The importans bits are:
The Fall Hike.
About 10ish (in the morning), Saturday November 15th.
The Glen Helen Nature Preserve in Yellow Springs Ohio.
So, the plan is:
You and your Boy show up at the opulant Casa DeDay about 9ish. We all (you, me, your Boy, Soupo) load up into the Car of Tomorrow and scoot over to Glen Helen. (Sorry to tease the rest of you, but the Car of Tomorrow only seats four. There’s a huge plague This Afternoon, so by Tomorrow, there aren’t that many people.) If all goes well, we’ll show up about 10ish. Then I figured I’d fire up the Stove of Righteousness and we can all partake in a Draught of Chocolate Goodness (over by the Big Rock across from the parking lot- you can’t miss it) while we wait for everyone else to show up. (If they bring their own mug, they get cocoa too. With or without little marshmallows.)
thinksnow and his lovely bride laserkitty expressed an interest. FisherQueen said she put it on her calendar. Sexy might have just been teasing us- I can’t say. It doesn’t sound like Elysian is coming since it’s not in Dayton proper. slortar, the big girl, isn’t coming at all for no good reason. That’s as far as I know.
After we quaff a Draught or two we’ll decide if the wather is Too Big or not, and then either walk around a bit or go over to the Air Force Museum in convoy. (The Air Force Museum is in Dayton, we’d drive there in a convoy. We’d drive there in cars, but the cars would be in a convoy.) Although it might take longer to come to a descision if anyone brings doughnuts. The jelly kind. With sprinkles.
“Wather”, of course, is the environmental conditions in the immediate vicinity of me. It’s much like mundane “weather” only it’s me-centric, rather than judged from a particular place.
Weather- It’s kinda cold in Dayton. And it looks like it might rain.
