Rocky Fork Dude Ranch, Kimbolton, Ohio

Last Friday, we arrived at Rocky Fork Dude Ranch near Kimbolton, Ohio for a one-week stay.

The campground and our site are pretty hilly...

"Good drainage", Carl says!

We had gotten a pork shoulder at Costco before we left the Lancaster, Pennsylvania area, so Carl decided to smoke it Saturday night into Sunday.

There were two pieces of meat in the package, with a total weight just under 14.5 pounds.

Carl knew it would take about 12 hours to do the smoke, and if it was started in the morning, while the meat would come off the smoker by evening, it then needs to "rest" 2-3 hours before pulling it, and that might make it rather late. By starting it about 7pm, he was figuring that it would smoke through the night, and should be done in the morning -- and that he could get up and check it at times through the night. We put the smoker outside on the picnic table facing the rig so we could see the temperature without having to go outside.

He had the temperature probe in the smaller of the two pieces, and it ended up getting done by about 1pm, much earlier than anticipated! He spent the rest of the night getting up every 30-45 minutes to check on the progress of the second piece, getting very little rest during the night. The second piece finished at about 8am Sunday morning. We got it all pulled and Carl got a nap!

After joining our Irving, Texas church for worship, we went for a bike ride in the afternoon. As mentioned above, the campground is VERY hilly, so we were thankful to have e-Bikes. We rode down the long downhill the the main activities area. RVs have to climb this long uphill to get to most of the campsites -- and to add insult to injury, there is a code-locked gate nearly at the top, so they have to come to a stop, put in the code, and then get going again to get to the campsites! When we arrived on Friday, we had unhooked the Jeep and had driven separately up the hill. I went through the gate in the Jeep and then pulled out of the way, ran back to put the code in again for Carl and Gracie to be able to get through.

After riding our bikes around the hilly area at the top where the campsites are, we rode down the long hill -- it is not only steep, but also rough. One of my feet flew off the pedal on one of the bumps, and the pedal came around and slammed into my shin. I was intent on making it down the hill without crashing, and I get bumps and bruises a lot, so I didn't even look at it until we got down to the activities area. At that point, my leg was bleeding down into my sock! It wasn't majorly damaged, but wow, what a goose-egg on my shin in addition to two small puncture wounds from the pegs on the pedal that are supposed to help keep your feet on the pedals! I went into the activities building, cleaned off the blood, determined the bleeding had pretty much stopped, so we kept on going.

We had planned to ride down to a pond that we had seen on the map...

... so we went there -- there were a few people fishing, and it was pretty... but Carl suggested it might be wiser to head back to the rig and put ice on the goose-egg on my shin... so we headed back...

Some horses in the pasture

Here at the campground, there are trail rides as well as riding lessons, an archery range, gun range, paintball course, two swimming pools, and other activities too.

We went back up the long hill -- again, thankful to have e-Bikes -- and I got ice on my leg and the bruise is barely noticeable!

On Monday, our friends Jane and John came to visit. They live not too far away, and it turns out that John grew up in this area near Kimbolton. They had never stayed at this campground but knew about it. It was so good to get together with them and catch up on everything that has gone on since we saw them last fall.