Around the Lakes in 30 Days (or so): Day 14

Ashtabula County, right across the border into Ohio, is home to 16 covered bridges. One day in October, about 12 years ago, Jim and I went with some family members to a festival we thought sounded like fun - the Covered Bridge Festival (always the second weekend in October). After enjoying some festivities at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds, we got a map of all the covered bridges in the county. We went to several and took great fall pictures. We have been visiting the bridges ever since. We always go in the fall, but sometimes we like to see the bridges in different seasons. So today we took that opportunity.

We always go to the Caine Road bridge. It is the best place to take fall pictures because there is a pond there that reflects the colors of the leaves. We decided to skip that one today, so we started at the South Denmark bridge. We then moved on to Netcher Road bridge and finished at Giddings Road Bridge. I suppose we could have seen more, but our goal was not to hurry. At each bridge, we stopped to take pictures, geocache, and just explore. At the South Denmark Bridge, Jim and the kids went underneath the bridge to throw some rocks into the creek. At the Netcher Road Bridge, we found a dead frog and some really cool green, blue, and red rocks. If you are a geocacher, I believe there is a geocache at each bridge. Most are micro caches.

If you want to get photos from different angles, Jim suggests wearing jeans - the grass at Netcher was high and scratchy. And our flip flops weren't exactly the best shoes to be walking around in that stuff. Although...flip flops are a good idea if you want to actually walk in any of the creeks. What can I say, covered bridges are not just pretty to look at; for us, they are an event.

And to end our event, where else would we eat but at Covered Bridge Pizza in Andover, Ohio?! This restaurant is actually a real covered bridge, or at least half of it. In 1972, Ashtabula County sold the bridge for $5. It sat in storage for a few years but eventually half became a pizza place in North Kingsville and the other half the pizza place in Andover. And of course, I can't go there without thinking of eating the pizza with my family. When we vacationed in this area when I was a kid, I always looked forward to the one day of the week we ate pizza from the Covered Bridge. When I told my sister what we did tonight, she asked if the pizza still had the "sausage balls" on it. Clearly a little nostalgic for her, too. http://www.coveredbridgepizza.com/#!

If you are interested, here is a link to the covered bridges in OH - http://www.coveredbridgefestival.org/bridges.htm. From this webpage, you can request a map of the bridges. I suggest this. Sure, you can print one from the net, but it's not nearly as good. Today we went a little out of our way when going to the third bridge because of our inadequate map. And those of you with kids know what it's like when you have to spend too much time with them in a car.