SargeW
Site Team
Prophetstown State Park
5545 Swisher Road
West Lafayette, IN
5545 Swisher Road
West Lafayette, IN
We pulled into Prophetstown and were amazed at what a nice park it is. We wound up staying in two different sites during our stay. The first 4 days we were in an electric only site that looked over a huge field. There was plenty of room between sites, and the plentiful grass was neatly mowed and trimmed. The site was a gravel back in but there was a nice size rock patio attached. The electric only sites are in the second loop, and are not as heavily treed as the full hook up sites. We paid $30 a night for the electric only site.
The last 3 days we moved to a full hook up site. They are much more private than the electric only sites, as they are surrounded on 3 sides with tall trees and shrubs. While is is good for privacy, the tall trees tend to block the much needed afternoon breezes that help out with the heat and humidity. The full hook up sites were about $10 more a night. Interesting though, when we moved sites it was nice having full hookups, but our internet service dropped to near zero. I was able to raise the mast on the WiFi antenna and recapture our lost cell signal. We are camping, but we still want to be connected!
There is a large field in back of the sites that has hiking and biking trails running through it. We walked and ran on the trails several times. At night it was fun to come out at night after the sun had finally set (after 9 PM) and gaze into the field at the thousands of fire flies hovering just about the marshy grass.
At this site we were at the end of the second loop, and the Verizon air card worked well. I took advantage of the park restrooms/showers. They were top notch, private with closing and locking doors on the showers, and all the free hot water you could want. All facilities are handicapped accessible.
This park is highly recommended.
Maumee Bay State Park
1400 State Park Road
Oregon, OH
We rolled in Ohio to see some of Diane's family in the area, and stayed at another state park. This one is in the north west corner of the state, just northeast of Toledo. This is also a very nice state park. All sites are electric only, but there is water and a dump station available. The sites are long, narrow and paved. Unfortunately there are no patio's though to set up your chairs on. There is great space between the sites though. 1400 State Park Road
Oregon, OH
This is a full featured state park as well. Besides the usual hiking and biking trails, there is fishing, golf, boat rentals, and even a full on water park that features water slides, pool and various kid themed soaker attractions. There is also a lodge with a full restaurant and bar. We ate there one night with family and it was pretty good.
All facilities are handicapped accessible as well. Our Verizon air card worked here, but again I needed to extend the antenna mast to get a strong reliable signal for the WiFi. The only real drawback was that the sites are only 30 amp electric. Normally that is sufficient, but when the heat kicks in it would be nice to run both AC units. We paid $29 a night.
Geneva State Park
4449 Padanarum Road
Geneva, OH
4449 Padanarum Road
Geneva, OH
After leaving northwest Ohio, we headed to northeast Ohio to see my family. Again we stayed at another state park. This place had some similarities with Maumee Bay, the sites were paved back in's and a lot grass surrounding the pads.
Lots of tall trees required breaking out the portable satellite dish to get Direct TV signal. However, I discovered an app for my Android phone a while back that makes finding the satellites in the sky pretty easy. It's called ?Satellite AR?. It's pretty easy to use. It has a menu that lists about 30 different satellites. You select the one you want to find, in this case Direct TV. It loads the intended satellite(s) by showing them on your phones screen. Tap the one you want, then point the rear camera towards the sky and follow the directional arrow until you see your satellites on the screen. Since you are using the phone's camera, you will see if anything is in the path of the satellite. If so, just move your position until you can see the satellites with no obstructions. Using the app I can usually have the portable set up in about 5 minutes.
This state park is set up in 2 loops. The first loop has just a restroom, but the second loop has restrooms and a shower house. If you stay in the first loop, it's a bit of a hike to the shower house. Here once again, the cell signal was pretty bad. Even raising the mast only allowed weak WiFi signal at best. It was better in the early morning and late evenings though. The restroom and shower facilities are handicapped accessible.
There is a beach area not far from the campground and a walking/biking path that goes there. Dogs are allowed on the west end of the beach area. It was pretty popular and busy all during our stay.
We paid $31 a night for the site. All are back in's. There are some sites that are set aside for ?walk in's only? and not reserve-able. We were here over Father's Day weekend. As expected Friday and Saturday were packed, but on Sunday the place emptied out and stayed that way up til we left on Wednesday.
From here we move on to Pennsylvania to meet up with a buddy of mine I used to work with. He was born and raised there and will show us around a bit.