Smith's Pleasant Valley Family Campground - Loudonville, Ohio

We knew the general direction we were heading when we left Pennsylvania--south. We didn't know our route nor did we know our destination for the evening. We were simply turning south and driving until we had the urge to stop. That urge to stop came sooner rather than later.

Becky's sister mentioned that there was a large Amish community in Ohio. That planted the seed and we decided to stop at a family-owned campground on the edge of Ohio's Amish community that was highly rated by the users of the AllStays app.

A road sign we don't normally see in our travels

Both our GPS and Google Maps agreed on the best route to the campground. What neither knew was that part of the preferred route was blocked due to a road being out. That meant we were having to second guess our navigational aids to find the park.

We both remarked about how narrow the road was becoming when we saw an RV campground. While it wasn't the one we wanted, that sighting let us know that other campers had safely traveled down that road before us. We saw our campground a few moments later.

Not the normal type road we travel to campgrounds!

Our campsite backed up to the Mohican River. This is a popular river for people to float on using tubes, rafts, kayaks or anything else that had a good chance of not sinking. Calling this "popular" is an understatement as we watched hundreds of people float down the river going past Rosie's, our 25 foot Airstream trailer, rear window.

Rosie in the campground

Raft on the river

Looking through Rosie's rear window at the rafts on the river

While that was certainly entertaining, we wanted to explore Ohio's Amish communities. The campground staff gave us directions and we were off.

The road quickly went from being paved to gravel. Next it was dirt. What bothered us was that we were on the roads we originally would have been on if we had followed both our GPS and Google Maps. We were glad we were forced to travel the longer, but paved, way with Rosie when we saw the "Road Closed" sign.

We started running into Amish communities a few miles down the road. Wednesday evening meetings were taking place and we noticed several buggies parked around a house and the families were sitting on the porches. We also saw a young Amish girl with a 22-rifle standing next to some buggies. We doubt she was on a buggy security detail, but was probably looking for rabbits for an upcoming meal.

Buggy in front of a barn

We drove into town the next morning. The local Walmart was the first one we ever saw with parking stalls for horses and buggies. We soon noticed that several stores had parking areas for horses and buggies.

The WalMart parking lot

Buggies at Walmart

We stopped by an Amish grocery store before heading back to the campground. Nearly everyone shopping and working in that store was Amish and the store's parking lot was full of horses and buggies.

Grocery store parking lot

Driving through town

Another thing we discovered was that you need to be careful where you step while in Amish country. We found horse dung in parking lots and in the road.

Here are some specifics about this park:

• Nearly all of the sites are on grass.
• Our site had 50, 30 and 20 amp electrical service.
• Our site had both water and sewer connections.
• AT&T placed one bar of marginal service over the park. The data connections failed more often than they worked.
• The park did not offer any Wi-Fi service.
• We were unable to receive any over-the-air TV signals while in this park.
• This park featured many recreational activities for families. It had a swimming pool, basketball court, volleyball court and a big playground for children.
• Restrooms were pit toilets.
• There was a shower facility. We didn't check it out.
• The park has one dump station located next to a pit toilet.
• The park sold pizza, chicken wings and ice cream. Delivery service was available to campers in the park.
• Many of the sites in this park backup to the Mohican River.

We enjoyed visiting Ohio's Amish community and watching the rafters floating down the river while at this park.

Suzy wants her toy!

More rafts behind Rosie

The river

Selfie at Smith's Pleasant Valley Family Campground