Ashtabula area, July 14-16

Wednesday was an "at home" day fussing with my camera and catching up on chores.  Thursday morning I had had enough of being cooped up and we needed to go to the store so we headed over to Jefferson to the local grocery just a few miles from the campground .  They didn't have what we needed so we decided to head to "Wally World" aka Walmart in Ashtabula just a few miles north.  We also decided it would be a good time to check out the harbor which had been just a little to far when we were  on our bike ride a few days before.  The harbor is located on the shores of Lake Erie.

Ashtabula county is noted for its covered bridges (the longest and shortest) and wineries as well as the Western Greenway bike trail.

This is the Smolen-Gulf covered bridge.  It is the longest covered bridge in the US and was built in 2008.  It spans 613 ft and 93 ft above the Ashtabula River.

 There is a nice pedestrian walkway on both sides.

We went into the harbor of Ashtabula, which is mainly a shipping harbor for coal and iron, and not much to photograph.

I had heard the Elks Lodge was suppose to be pretty nice so we meandered there and the views from the lodge of Lake Erie were pretty nice.  To me, the lake looks like the Pacific Ocean near my home town of Pacific Grove, California,

 so I got my "ocean fix"

 and short walk on a beach with lots of drift wood and rocks.

This is looking towards Ashtabula,

and there were some "ghost trees"  one of my favorite subjects to photograph.

The little town of Geneva-By-The-Lake is just a few miles from the Elks Lodge on the scenic by way.  It is a summer beach community with arcades, and water slides.  These teenagers were having a ball. The little town  is a happening place on the weekends with craft shows and a live music in the park...so I'm told.

 Our map showed another covered bridge on our route back to camp and I had read it was the shortest covered bridge, but didn't know if it was the shortest covered bridge in the county or the US.  We had a hard time finding it mainly because it is still under construction.  The covered bridge was shipped in components and volunteers are putting it together.  It's span is only 18 feet.

While visiting the shortest covered bridge, one of the locals suggested we might want to visit the Harpersfield Bridge one our way back to camp.  The Harpersfield Bridge was the longest covered bridge in Ohio.  It spans over the Grand River near the area we had wanted to Kayak a few days earlier.  I'm sure glad we didn't try kayaking here...it was really shallow in places.  The bridge was built in 1868 but a flood 1913 washed soil away and changed the river channel so a steel extension was attached.

The Grand River looking towards the gorge section.

On Friday, I wanted to cycle part of the southern portion of the Western Greenway trail, so Joel and I headed out pretty early to avoid the heat.  The southern part of the trail wasn't all that different from the northern part we cycled previously.

Our time at the Kenisee Lakes Thousand Trails is almost up.  It's  an older campground and has a nice cozy feel to it.  The sites are large enough for big rigs and folks are very friendly.

There is no swimming allowed in the pond, but there is a nice swimming pool

 Fishing is allowed and blue gill are plentiful...not my choice for eating though.  You can fish here without a license.

 There is a flock of geese

 and canoes for rent.

 This guy was our next door neighbor.

But this was my favorite.  

We will be leaving in the morning and start heading towards Niagara Falls with a short overnight stop in Buffalo, NY.