On to a different challenge

 I decided to look into camping and the state parks a bit more after the trip to Hocking Hills last week and discovered that the state is not selling a State Park passport. In this 45 page book, there are individual pages for all 75 State Parks. 

I guess the greatest question is, of course, we have 88 counties and 75 State Parks. I wonder which counties got the shaft, and... How many pages was that?

45 pages... but 75 individual pages?

Now, I am genuinely confused as to how many pages this is, but hey. There has to be a simple answer, so I went with the easiest answer, I ordered one. 

$13.75 with tax and shipping.

I know it is a Government website, and while the process was not difficult, I had to use the campsite reservation system to order it. I did take an opportunity to look at some of the local park's campsites, and they are a lot more expensive than when I used to go camping in high school. I also found it funny that the email confirmation used the day/month/year format. This is Ohio, it shouldn't do that. 

I got the book in the mail on Thursday, having ordered it Sunday night. I feel like I should have gotten it sooner, but something is off with the USPS at the moment. 

The book had its own journey.

I won't get political over this. The USPS has had some weird things going on for years. Six years ago they closed the Dayton facility and started routing the mail through Columbus. It still tends to be fast. I just don't get why it went from Columbus to Pittsburgh. I've never been to Pittsburgh, and being a different state and the wrong direction on I-70, I don't think the book should have either. It got back to Cincinnati, which is almost as far away as Columbus, and then to Troy. That's the kicker. I have never had a package with the US Mail routed through Troy before Piqua. It's always Cincy then Piqua. (And letters all are stamped with Columbus.) I just don't get that part...

The package was stamped with $2.80 for shipping, which isn't bad. I paid $3 for shipping and handling, and the bubble envelope has to have been worth more than twenty cents. The book is almost as large as my computer and is really a nice book. It has 88 pages, which ironically is the number of counties in Ohio, a decent map of all the park locations, their office addresses, as well as a color-coded page and sticker for each park. (Though I would rather have the stamps. They are nice stickers though.)

It's a Surface Go though, so not really that big.

Also, a few blank stickers to fill out that last page. 

Alphabetical! Definitely easy to find the park's pages.

The page for Hocking Hills. 

I am not sure how long it will take to hit all of the 75 parks, being that I am nearly at the western edge of Ohio. I will say that I have camped in or visited at least 4 of the State Parks so far. I camped at Lake Loramie State Park a few times in High School as well as with my son's Scout groups. I camped once at Grand Lake St Marys and raced a half-marathon around part of it as well. Harrison Lake is where we camped at for the Mainly Marathons race a few years ago.  (We found out after leaving that they found a dead body there a few days before we arrived.) Finally, I was at Hocking Hills last week for the meteor shower.