15-24 Aug: A keystone in scheduling our trip itinerary was a weekend reunion of Amy’s cousins and their families at the summer camp that was formerly Amy’s grandparents’ farm in rural Holmes County northeast of Columbus, Ohio. For nine days before the reunion, we traveled around Ohio seeing other cousins and friends, riding our bikes on scenic bike trails, and visiting archaeological and other attractions.
First we stayed two nights and a day with Amy’s cousin Ann and her husband Floyd. Their son Richard, who works with his dad, gave us a very informative tour of their 24-acre nursery and its facilities. They propagate a wide variety of shrubs and trees, specializing on the family Ericaceae, which includes rhododendrons and azaleas. Both Floyd and Rich did their graduate work at Ohio State, and they have recently done some very interesting studies on a little-known species of fungus, which has a symbiotic relationship with rhododendrons (valuable knowledge for successfully growing healthy plants).
We next camped for four nights at Caesar Creek State Park, between Columbus and Cincinnati. While there, we saw fossils on a hike along the creek, biked on the Little Miami Scenic Trail, and visited the Fort Ancient State Memorial. The LMST is a paved rail trail forming part of the Ohio to Erie Trail, which extends from Cincinnati to Cleveland. The two sections on which we biked were very pleasant and well-shaded. “Fort Ancient” was probably not a fort. It appears to have been more of a social, trading, and ceremonial gathering place. It is a ridge-top enclosure built by people of the Hopewell culture, who lived in the area during about 200 BC to 400 AD. Located on a bluff above the Little Miami River, it is surrounded by an earthen wall about 3.5 miles long with dozens of gaps that provided access to the interior and would have precluded military defense. It was built in three major stages over about 400 years. Small mounds inside coincide with astronomical alignments. The museum on site has excellent displays explaining Ohio history and prehistorical cultures. The next day we were treated to a fine dinner by Paul’s distant cousin Mike and his wife Michelle in the Golden Lamb restaurant in Lebanon, founded in 1803. The Golden Lamb has hosted 12 U.S. Presidents, from as early as John Quincy Adams to as recent as George W. Bush.
On the way from Caesar Creek to the Harris family reunion, we visited friends Lisa & Lisle in Delaware, Ohio, and another distant cousin of Paul’s, Ellen, and her husband George. Mike, Ellen, and Paul all are descended from John and Jane Stitt, who raised 10 children in County Down, northern Ireland, and immigrated to America in the mid-1800s. While visiting Ellen and George in Columbus, we stopped for ice cream a Jeni’s ice cream shop, established by the author of our favorite ice cream recipe book. While camping in Ohio, we noticed several trees unfamiliar to us New Englanders, particularly nut trees like walnuts, buckeyes, and hickory species we don’t see in N.H. In the morning before the Harris cousins met at the reunion, we rode our bikes on the Holmes County Trail, a newly finished section of the Ohio to Erie bike trail.
The family reunion was well attended, with all but two of the 14 cousins of Amy’s generation present, along with many of their families. The weather was perfect for strolling about the former farm and reminiscing about the times they would visit their grandparents there.
