The good part of Ohio...down in the hills. If I can deal with less than ideal weather....will I also encounter less tourists at the 'touristy' places? Because that's attractive to me. I'm not a big 'event' type of fellow. I'm a fan of sights sounds and smells of things more so than people. I need to put forth some more effort in fiding direct targets so I can plan a route. Having a route will allow consideration for secondary 'targets'. What's your opinion for lodging in the area? Stick with the chain hotels or lean into the mom n pop type stuff? I'm easy as my only real requirements are hot showers and no bed bugs.
For lodging my wife and I would typically be staying at B and Bs but it sounds like you're looking for something more basic and affordable so this standard motel/hotels are probably your best bet. If you come during any time outside May through mid October you'll be dealing with less crowds and tourists. March and April in northern New England can be downright unpleasant. Still cold, sometimes still getting snow, can be very, very windy, days are still short. I find being outside and doing things during this time of year is far less enjoyable than most other times of the year. However that's my opinion as someone living here who has to endure our long, brutal winters and is looking for some end in sight by April and you may feel very differently about it as a visitor. New England isn't Texas so it doesn't take a whole day to get from one spot to another in the same state but if you're going to do a multistate tour it will take some time. I'm not going to say there's never traffic or travel delays in NH, VT or ME but generally you will experience much heavier traffic in RI, CT and especially MA so that's something to consider when doing your route planning. Maine is the biggest state by far in New England. If you were to travel up 95 from the NH border to Acadia/downeast you're looking at 4-5 hours on a good traffic day. If seeing the coast were your main thing you could easily spend over a week exploring the Maine coast alone. We have speed pass lanes at most tolls so if you have ezpass that will save some time. I have a question for you. Have you ever been to the football hall of fame? What's it like? I've only driven through a sliver of eastern OH in the past and am not familiar with the state but my 14 year old son is a huge football nut and I was thinking about taking him on a father son road trip to Canton when he's a little bit older. Thought it would be a lot of fun.
Seeing Maine and hopefully the edge of the North Woods is an underwritten goal. I'm captivated that the area remains mostly wilderness, I think. I hear everything you are saying about weather.
If you come to Vermont; summer smugglers notch is far more impressive than Quechee gorge; if you like gorges and Huntington gorge is way off the beaten path.. do NOT do cliff diving there unless you talk to locals
Don't forget to mention that late May into June is when the black flies come out, followed by the mosquitoes, ticks, and tourists. All equally annoying IMO.
If you want a taste of the true Maine wilderness, drive the Golden Road (Google it). It's a logging road, but pretty remote. We have logging roads that are open to the public in the Connecticut Lakes Region of NH, up by the Canadian border. Beautiful, but not on the scale of Northern Maine.
I deer hunted around the Golden Road as far East as far as Millinocket and West towards Rockwood and South towards Beaver Cove and Greenville. We stayed in Kokadjo at the Kokadjo Camps and Trading Post, most of the time. The folks that own the place; Fred and Marie are salt of the earth! The country is beautiful and you never know what you'll see including logging trucks coming at you on narrow gravel roads doing 50mph so you have to pay attention. Mt Katahdin is also near by which is the terminus for the northern end of the Appalachian Trail.
I'm only half hour from there, but only been to it once, and they have expanded since then, but if your son is a diehard fan, he will thoroughly enjoy spending a day there!
I have lived in NH all my life and have only ever heard of scrapple down south in PA when visiting wife’s family.
Same here. Never heard of it until I was stationed in MD for a while. A couple of us did some bear hunting several years ago off the Golden Road. We stayed at the Pittston Farm up past Rockwood. Definitely remote and beautiful. I think I saw moose almost every night driving back to the lodge after hunting.
Scrapple - I had the opportunity to try it at a GTG several years ago. I didn't go back for more. The GTG was at Well Seasoned's, and I believe it was brought/cooked by bear 1998
I've eaten it, but it wasn't at the top of my list. You would have thought I would like scrapple as I ate a lot of gorton (creton) growing up (lots of French-Canadian dishes back then) and they're somewhat similar in content. I haven't seen gorton in years, but man I could go for some (simple sandwich of gorton on bread with yellow mustard - yum).
I’d try scrapple. I’d guess it all depended on who makes it and what they use. I love corned beef hash but that stuff that they sell in a can is downright nasty.
I still eat the canned stuff once in a while. Cook it until it's got a bit of a crust (after adding in some yellow mustard), put it on toast, cover with an inverted over-easy egg and some hot sauce.
