A quick 150 mile pop over from Louisville to Oregonia, OH, and upon arrival something magical happened. We found no evidence of the oil spewing monster that has been plaguing us since Florida. Woohoo! I don’t know where he went, but I’m glad he’s not hanging out with us anymore.
Before leaving Louisville Jake pinned a State Park campground on our map, and we hit ‘navigate’. A few miles from that destination, however, we passed a sign for a campground called ‘Olive Branch‘, got curious, and turned Dyna’s big butt around. It was a good choice; a nice, well kept, quiet park, and 20 minutes round trip closer to our reason for stopping in the NorthEastern Cincinnati area: Kim.
Kim is a pretty neat part of Jake’s life: she has been an employer, mentor, and friend to Jake since he was 14 years old.
Kim and Jake met on a website called ‘rent-a-coder’, which I imagine is like a dating site for people who like to build websites, and the people who need websites built.
Jake and Kim have been colleagues since then, but had only met in real life one other time. So, when we realized we were in a 200miles radius of her place, we decided to pay her a visit.
Kim has been around since the beginning of Jake’s career (and passion), and has fostered and supported his growth – whether she knew it or not.
Kim is cool. She cooked us dinner, let us meet her kids (she’s brave) and shared stories of her and Jake’s history together. We had a really nice evening.
We only spent 2 days in the area, but in that time I found the Little Miami River Trail, which is my favorite kind of running trail – flat and obstacle free. (I won’t pretend to be tough – I like my runs to be easy enough where I can let my thoughts wander and not fall on my face.) A little research into the trail points to it running for 78 miles… that is a convenient distance for future adventures…
I also found a delightful chocolate shop in the nearby town of Lebanon, OH. Any town with a chocolate shop is okay by me.
Our brief time in Ohio was solid: no oil mess, Kim, good running, and chocolate.