Hello Ohio, My Old Friend

Halfway There!

I attended college in Ohio and always said that if I ever decided to move away from Indiana, Ohio would be my state. All but a college roommate and most of college friends are from Ohio. It really isn’t so different than Indiana. Maybe that’s part of why I’ve always loved it. Nevertheless, Rugrat and I spent a fantastic weekend in the Buckeye state and plan to return sooner rather than later.

We got started later than planned on Saturday, but isn’t that the way with any road trip? We finally arrived at our cousin’s house near Springfield around 2:30. We settled in, started some laundry since my dryer at home is kaput, and then headed to my aunt and uncle’s to drop off my car to get my A/C Freon recharged.

After dropping off my car the clan whisked us off to Young’s Jersey Dairy in Yellow Springs. Young’s raises jersey cows (hard to figure that out, huh?) and has a ton of family-friendly activities. First stop there, of course, was for some homemade ice cream. Let me tell you, it was delicious! They also specialize in fried cheese curds in a variety of flavors. Culver’s has nothing on Young’s; trust me on that one.

Having promised the kiddo a souvenir from our trip, we visited the gift shop. He immediately eye-balled some candy, but I told him we needed something specific to Ohio and preferably Young’s. He looked across the store and saw a shelf with some local items on it and pointed, saying, “Look, Mommy! Ohio Bucks stuff!” Imagine my shock and dismay! I responded, “Absolutely NOT!” When he asked me why, I simply reminded him that we are Hoosiers, and Ohio State is the enemy. That shut him up! Next he pointed to a Young’s shot glass, which for obvious reasons, I also vetoed. Right next to those, however, I saw some large mugs with the Young’s logo. As they were only $8.50, which I thought relatively reasonable for a gift shop, I suggested that be his ice cream mug that he always eats ice cream from, and he agreed.

As I went to pay for the mug, I saw this:

Sock Dating Pool Pick-Up Line

If you have ever read my friend Skipah’s blog, you will know why I immediately asked the clerk how much it was and ended up purchasing it for him as an early birthday present/souvenir. Skipah often updates his readers about his “Sock Dating Pool” so I had no choice. The kiddo and I actually had dinner with Skipah and his little sailor-girl this evening because she turns eight tomorrow, and not only did we have a birthday present to present to her, but we had our new souvenir for the Skipah. The look on his face was absolutely priceless. Sailor-girl looked at the sweater and pants and seemed disappointed until I pointed out the label. “JUUSSSSTICE!!!!” (I have never stepped foot in a Justice store, but someone I know was selling some of her daughter’s clothes, so I figured this outfit would be a hit, and it only set me back 20 bucks.)

Back to our Saturday at Young’s, after devouring their amazing ice cream, we ventured over to the barn to visit the goats and cows. The cousins all feed the goats handfuls of feed, but Rugrat didn’t want anything to do with it, nor would he go into the barn at first. He said it was too stinky. Well, duh! Animals live, eat, sleep, pee and poop in there? What else would it smell like? Daisies? He decided to follow me inside after all and did find it pretty cool to see the apparatus that milks the cows and sends the fresh, raw mild through the pipes into the holding tank.

Our timing could not have been more perfect because Saturday was the first day they opened their fall corn maze. We rode the wagon over to that, paying $5.50 each to roam around through tall stalks of corn with bugs swarming in the 90 degree heat and humidity and get lost. At one point we decided to separate and search for an exit in the old boys vs girls method. The boys won. I still think that either a little US Army style trail hacking happening to make their own exit, or they lied when we first separated and hear them call out, “Dead end!”

In any event, we did each get rewarded with a coupon of our choice. So the kids ended up with two free trips apiece down the mega slide. Other activities were putt-putt, a batting cage, a bounce house and a few other things. We chose to skip those. We were only there two hours, but a family could easily make a full day out of a visit to Young’s Jersey Dairy.

After a quick stop at Kroger and picking up my car, we made it back to home base for a relaxing evening of dinner, laundry and a grown-up movie while the kids played down the hall. If you haven’t seen The Interview, it’s very entertaining. It is so ridiculously funny and stupid, it is amazing to me that threats from North Korea shut this movie down and kept it out of theaters.

Well, I’m going to have to share about Sunday in Ohio tomorrow. It’s starting to get dark, and I need to get the Rugrat settled down for the night before the sleep police show up!

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