Morrow County

Bob has been wanting to do a 'Morrow County' trip for quite some time. But because he's gone so often and playing catch up when he is home its been hard to figure out how and when to get away. Finally this past weekend we decided we better get a quick trip in there before pea harvest starts!!
He got home from Canada about 6:30 friday morning, slept for a couple of hours and then we started loading up. The trick was going to be to figure out how to pull the camper, and get the quads up there without having to take two vehicles! So he borrowed a sled deck from a friend and we loaded up. Anybody who knows us knows that when we load up that means we pack absolutely everything we can possibly cram in. I'm always trying to leave stuff behind and talk him out of taking stuff cause for everything we take along, all I see is one more thing I'll have to unpack and wash up when we get home! Of course in doing this, we always forget one or two things that would be really nice to have and it is invariably MY fault that they were left behind!
Finally we had everything all ready to go....Bob was a little worried about his turning radius with the sled deck on the back, sure enough....went to turn out of the driveway and ugh.....stopped just in time, one tiny little knick in the trailer paint. Finally he maneuvered his way out of the driveway, pulled over to the side and sat there running through the route in his head. Were there any turns on the way that we weren't going to be able to make? He figured our driveway would be the worst one so we headed off. Picked the kids up from school and were on our way. 2 1/2 hours later, after driving through some absolutely beautiful farmland we arrived! With no sharp corners:)
As we pulled into the entrance the first thing I noticed was an ambulance, "oh no, somebody must have wiped out good" but Bob assured me that it was ok. The ambulance was ALWAYS there...it belonged to the park! great. just great.  Then Ashley had to point out, "yeah mom look, they're so set up here. The ambulance is parked by the helicopter landing pad"
I guess it was nice to know that we could get a med-evac out at a moments notice.
The weather was gorgeous! The campsite we had was huge and right next door to the beautiful bathrooms and showers. For anybody who enjoys motorbiking or quadding I would highly recommend this park!
Bob has spend two weekends there now and has not even begun to cover all the trails. Some trails have a lot of shale and rock for motorbikes but there are several that would be perfect for them.
They also have trails of all different skill levels. I considered myself a fairly competent rider, and was very impressed with myself that I had even made it down 'that one hard part' until Ashley pointed out that we were still on easy/intermediate trails. sigh....guess I'm not nearly as impressive as I thought I was.
We went out for a 4 hour ride one morning....sticking to the simple trails as we were all doubling the little kids as well. Later that afternoon Bob and Ashley headed out to do some more challenging stuff. They might have taken it a little too far though....apparently one of the front tires popped off, but never fear. Bob goes no where without some extra zip ties! They work well to hold broken rods together on an ATV too!

The lack of rain made things a little dusty!!

A lot of time spent pouring over the maps...trying to figure out exactly where we were and where we should go!

A couple hours in Tyler decided it was time for a nap

Even her teeth were full of dust!

Been a long hard day on the trail

There was also a large rock jeep crawl pit....Tyler preferred to climb around....

This pond was beautiful! Cold, crystal clear, some nice deep spots for swimming & stocked with fish! Note to self: bring the fishing poles along next time.

Time to clean up, pack up and head home

The Redneck Traveling Circus!!

A definite repeat trip is in order. All the kids thought this would make the perfect 'Groeneveld family camping trip' if only it were a couple hours north of us instead of south!