With Lola’s makeover complete, it was time to continue on our travels, heading south into another new state! Our next stop was Wapakoneta, Ohio. Never heard of it? Yeah, neither had we when we booked it. It just was a good short drive and looked like a nice place to spend a few days. As it turns out, this is a rather famous place and we were stopping over at a really unique time. You see, Wapakoneta is the birthplace of Neil Armstrong, first man on the moon! And the 50th anniversary of that landing was happening right before we arrived in town! So, here’s a short run down of our visit to Wapakoneta:
Campground – we stayed at a KOA that was nice but wins the award for the most narrow site we have stayed in. Each site had a nice deck with picnic table but we were so close to our neighbor that their slides overlapped onto our deck (and our slide overlapped our neighbor). Luckily, the neighbors were quiet and nice.
This was really meant to be a shakedown stop, organize and sort out things with our new furniture, storage, etc. Having something to actually do one day was an extra bonus! We headed over to the Armstrong Air & Space Museum on our 2nd day. It was built back in 1972 and it had not been updated much since then so it was a quaint visit. It did a good job of showing how Armstrong’s life progressed to ultimately result in his historic step onto the moon’s surface. Lot’s of artifacts from his life. And perfect timing to visit almost exactly 50 years after the landing.
Armstrong’s Gemini Capsule 
Armstrong’s Gemini Suit 
Armstrong’s Apollo Suit 
After our brief stop in Wapakoneta, it was on to Cincinnati where we would stay for a week. Our campground for this leg was actually a small (about 15 full hook up sites) camping facility run by the Family Motor Coach Association (FMCA) behind their offices which is available only for members (which we are). It only cost us $60 to stay for a week. Of course, you don’t get much for that price other than a place to park, electricity, water and someplace to dump your “junk”. But it was a nice open space and we had access to a very peaceful paved walking path around a lake next door.
Wide open space 
Nice trail around the lake
We relaxed several days at this stop, walking the dogs around the lake as well as riding our bikes. It was very quiet at this stop so nice to just slow down a bit. We did have three major “tourist” stops during this visit.
First up was a visit to the Cincinnati Arboretum at Eden Park. This was a small botanical garden within a larger park along the Ohio River. It was mostly indoors with various sections for different climates. It was very relaxing and a nice option on a very warm day.
Another day we decided to visit the Cincinnati Museum Center. The building itself is a wonderful piece of art. Originally built as the city’s passenger train terminal, it has been reborn as a venue for several different museums all under one roof.
Entrance to Cincinnati Museum Center 
Interior Entrance 
Dan with the Reds Mascot
Once inside the museum, we visited two sections. The first was the Cincinnati History Museum. It was small but well done. It consisted of two main sections – one that was a miniaturized version of the city in the early 20th century, very detailed with moving trolleys and lots to look at. It is still being expanded but the section we saw was terrific. The lighting even changed to represent the entire day to night transition in just a few minutes.
Old Cincinnati by night… 
and by day
The second section was a recreation of what the riverfront of Cincinnati would have looked like at the time of the paddlewheel boats plied the Ohio River. It was very realistic, sort of in the vein of a Disney display (without the animatronics).
We then visited the Natural History section which had the obligatory dinosaurs as well as some interactive displays that the kids seemed to really enjoy. They also had a couple of recreated cave environments to simulate what it was like to hike thru some of the neighboring cave environments.
After a few hours of history, it was time for some lunch and we found a restaurant perched on one of the hills overlooking the city and enjoyed good food and views.
A few days later, we took a riverboat cruise up the Ohio River. This gave us a great perspective of the city from the water as well as getting a little more history about the city. It was a nice way to spend a few hours floating along the river enjoying the views.
As our adventure moved into August, we wrapped up our time in Ohio and pointed Lola back onto I-75 heading south, back to Kentucky. More on that in our next blog.