Memorial Day RV Weekend

Each year we look forward to the Memorial Day holiday as the true start of the RV season and warmer temperatures here in Northeast Ohio.  This year we selected Maumee Bay State Park after doing some Rand McNally TripMaker GPS to guide our way to the campground and I absolutely love so many of the features this GPS has to offer. The best of these is the huge number of campgrounds that are pre-loaded into it's own point of interest category.  But I have found that the routing has not been optimum and quite a bit different from directions from google.  One unique thing about the Tripmaker GPS is the ability to add your RV's details such as height and weight.  On this trip we found that on a certain road close to the campground a warning came up that we had exceeded the roads weight limit.  I think I now know why we have found ourselves on roads that do not make sense and lead us far out of our way.  The weight limit function must be obeying the published limits and routing us around these roads. This will be one function I adjust to get more accurate routing to our destinations.

We got into the campground around 5 o'clock on Friday with clearing skies and found the sites to be extra

Our campsite at Maumee Bay SP

large with a tree and shrub barrier between each site.  We thought we where in heaven!  The dogs where laying in the grass and it wasn't long before we headed out and walked some of the trails.  As we returned to the RV we realized we had a problem in the form of a tiny pest. (ticks!)  That night we removed a total of 5 from ourselves, the dogs and the RV.  One of the papers we received during check-in was a note about the Brown Dog Tick and how to remove them.  This place is loaded with them!  Over the 3 day weekend we removed over 20 with the dogs fairing the worst.  And that was being very careful, keeping the dogs away from any long grass, checking them every time they went outside, it was a nightmare.  If you don't have a dog you will far much better since these ticks generally do not bite humans, be sure to bring a tick repellent which contains DEET.

Beside the ticks this state park has a great nature center with 2 miles of board walks through a wildlife

Maumee Bay SP Board Walk

marsh.  You will mostly likely see just birds, but if you get there early enough there are quite a few deer.  The park also has a lot of asphalt paths for biking, walking or running, a huge lodge if you need to get away from the ticks, beach, pools and playgrounds.  There are also some amazing cabins if you would like to be off on your own or have a family group you would like to be with.  There is not a whole lot in the area to do, but with so many amenities on site you really don't need those things.

I am not sure if the tick issue is just a seasonal problem or year around, if it's not this place could be an amazing destination.  Having traveled hundreds of thousands of miles visiting so many different places we had not run into such an annoying problem as ticks. Unfortunately for now we will not be back.