Matthew Caracciolo's Blog, page 3

Hocking Hills: Ohio’s Best Kept Secret

Ouch! It’s been a few months since my last post. I suppose that happens when you have a baby, then you buy a house, then you renovate said house…

Ohio is having a strange autumn this year. It was summer around these parts until mid-October, when we skipped the 70’s and 60’s and went straight down to temperatures in the 50’s.  The leaves made quick work of their colors to catch up, and with rainy, windy weather prevalent during the weekends, it was looking like we wouldn’t get much of a fall color season.

The first weekend of November finally brought good weather, so everyone and their dog headed to a park to catch what may be the only good weekend for fall colors. We decided to head down to Hocking Hills State Park to catch the colors at Ash Cave and Conkle’s Hollow.

Hocking Hills, for newbies, is probably Ohio’s favorite state park with its waterfalls and recess caves. Ash Cave, in particular, is the largest recess cave in the United States east of the Mississippi. Ohio nature doesn’t feature a lot of superlatives, but when it does…

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Stunning, right?! In Ohio! Those who think Ohio is nothing but cornfields would do well to visit Ash Cave. The sun backlit the forest remarkably, highlighting the yellow fall leaves in the canopy.

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It has been a long time for me since an autumn hike was so well timed. The forest floor was nicely carpeted with yellow and orange leaves. When the breeze hit a tree just right, leaves blew off the tree and magically fluttered to the ground. The waterfall was also on point, with heavy rains throughout the week before.

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The trail is super easy from the parking lot. In fact, much of it is paved to allow handicapped accessibility.

Equally accessible is the trail into Conkle’s Hollow, perhaps the deepest gorge in Ohio at 200 feet. The gorge closes in the further you go, until you find yourself in a magical, secluded Fern Gully.

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A less impressive waterfall finishes the trail before you must turn back the way you came. This is an easy hike for families, so there were lots of kids on the trail, as well as parents with a little one strapped to their front or back. My son fell asleep in his baby bjorn, eliciting coos from moms and snarky comments from dads heading in.

Ohio gets a bad reputation for being ugly. While I admit there are plenty of more beautiful states, I’m betting that Ohio is much prettier than you think. Remember that east of Columbus starts the Appalachian foothills. Driving from Columbus to Lancaster on Route 33, you can literally see where the glaciers from the last ice age stopped, where the flat farmlands surrender to forests and rugged hills. It’s in this hinterland, only an hour and a half from Columbus, that Ohio takes a completely different hue. It will be a good place to remind my son, and myself, that he is blessed to live where he does, that our home is indeed beautiful.

Casey, Illinois: Big things, small town

Headed to St. Louis? You should, if you read my previous blog post. If you’re coming from the east on I-70, you’ll pass a quaint little town in Illinois called Casey, which is making a name for itself as a small town with ‘big things.’

Big industry left little Casey in the 1990’s, according to the friendly cashier at the Candy Depot (home of the world’s largest wooden shoes), leaving in its wake a town anxious for jobs. In 2011, local business owner Jim Bolin did what any sensible person would do to invest in his community and attract attention to the town: build the world’s largest wind chimes.

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It’s gotten rather out of hand from there. As of 2018, Bolin and others have constructed eight of the world’s largest things and scattered them across town, including a rocking chair, mailbox, and golf tee. There are other ‘big’ things too that, while gargantuan, are not the world’s largest. They are impressive nonetheless. Motorists eager for an excuse to get out of the car in middle of nothing Illinois have found their way to Casey and brought with them money to spend at new cafes and shops. Though the world’s largest knitting needles may not replace manufacturing jobs, you wouldn’t have heard of Casey had you not read this blog, would you? And I wouldn’t have stopped at Casey and spent a few bucks had I not seen a sign for the world’s largest so and so. So, they must be doing some good. They don’t seem to be all that expensive to erect, either. The rocking chair is reportedly made of salvaged telephone poles and metal pipes. In all, the materials cost was less than $1000.

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My favorite is likely the mailbox, which has a box inside that is a functioning USPS mailbox. Reportedly, the red flag stands up if you insert outgoing mail. I wish I knew this while I was there.

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We spent an hour at most in Casey, but the employees were hospitable, the candy sweet, and the big things big. You’re going to stop at some point anyway, so do it in Casey!

For more info, go to www.bigthingssmalltown.com.

St. Louis: BBQ, a Giant Playground, and an Arch Thing

St. Louis is fast becoming a favorite destination of mine. It has the good sense to be in the middle of the country where it’s easy to meet people halfway rather than driving all the way to, say, Oklahoma. While you’re there, there’s good food, a lot of free things to do, and some one-of-a-kind attractions. It’s a good underrated, ‘bang for your buck’ kind of place. We had the privilege of staying in St. Louis for a couple nights to meet my sister-in-law and her family. We did one day of sightseeing, and I must say I think we covered the highlights rather well.

If you’ve heard of one thing in St. Louis, it’s the Gateway Arch. Until this year, it was actually a part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, a lengthy name that did little to describe the Arch’s purpose. Bipartisan legislation took aim at the boring name and in February, President Trump signed a bill renaming the park the Gateway Arch National Park. In conjunction with the name change was a renovation of the park grounds and museum beneath the memorial. The museum and entrance’s official grand opening was July 3. We were there the morning of July 6.

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The new museum is an engaging and informative look at the westward expansion of the United States, the history of St. Louis, and the building of the Arch. The content is very 21st century, incorporating the points of view of colonists, pioneers, Native Americans, and slaves. Maps depict which entity–Native Americans, the Spanish, the French, the British, the Americans–owned what land when, and why. It is a remarkably balanced narrative for such a small museum, and after only an hour I felt I learned a lot. Although it costs to go up the Arch (which is a one and done kind of thing, and we’d done it before), the museum is free. I recommend it to everyone.

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I knew that I wanted to try some St. Louis barbecue while we were in town, so I did a little sleuthing as to where we should go. Every list I looked up mentioned Pappy’s Smokehouse. Also, the lady at the museum’s information desk mentioned it, so we returned to the car and put the address in the GPS.

We had no idea what a destination Pappy’s Smokehouse is. The line was nearly out the front door. The staff knows how popular the food is, so they’ve devised a system to keep the line moving and the restaurant organized, staggering the line and asking for party sizes before you order so they can find you a table. While waiting in line, we passed a wall of signed menus from celebrities who give their approval. The biggest name I saw was Hugh Jackman.

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Everything you see in this picture tasted immaculate. I think the ribs are in my top 3 of all time. The price wasn’t all that bad either. Split a full slab with a friend (trust me, you’ll want it) and add a quarter pound of another meat for maximum value.

To finish the day, we headed to City Museum. Occupying a former shoe factory, City Museum is a celebration of anarchic whimsy. It’s a playground first and foremost, a place that can be climbed on, slid down, crawled in, bounced in, and so on. Even better, it’s for all ages. These are not the brightly-colored, uniform modules like in a McDonald’s playground. These are caves, whales, trees, old buses, cages, and anything else the designers cared to build or incorporate into their design. It’s the kind of place you’d expect to find the Lost Boys of Neverland screaming “BANGARANG!!!”

However, it can be dark and tight in some of the spaces. We asked an employee how often people get stuck. She replied with 10-15…an hour. You’ve been warned. For maximum enjoyment, wear closed-toed shoes. We didn’t get the memo until we were already in St. Louis, and I feel I couldn’t do everything I wanted in my sandals.

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We managed to do all this in a day without feeling overly-strained. In fact, we had time in the afternoon to chill in the hotel. With a few more days, you could visit the free zoo and art museum, check out a baseball game, and visit the Cahokia mounds. And that ‘cue. I’ll be back for them ribs as soon as humanly possible.