FIELD NOTES #1

CLEVELAND,

OHIO

Our first stop on the search for home

Dates

Jun 21 – Jun 25, 2026

Miles Driven

379

Weather

68-70

Sunny w/ Storms

Symptom Score

25

(baseline: 23)

WOuld we return

No

Where We Stayed

Roundup Lake Campground – Mantua, OH

  • Clean, quiet and well maintained
  • Full hook-ups and easy to back in
  • Lots of activities: swimming pool + beach, fishing, jump pillow, arcade, playgrounds, etc
  • Very stringent: enforced time limits on swimming, limited hours for activities, etc.
  • 45 min drive to Cuyahoga Valley National Park
  • Weak Campground Wi-Fi, Starlink worked well
Overall Rating

How I Felt

During our stay my average score was 25, which is about the same as the average I experienced in Montague, but my symptoms were getting worse the longer we stayed.

What We Did

We really enjoyed our second trip ever to the Cleveland area. The Cuyahoga Valley National Park area is set up so nicely for biking with the tow path going along the river throughout the park. We had a great time hiking with the kids who loved all the rocks they could scramble over and spending time in the river.

Our campground had a lot to offer as well. It was a bit harder to take advantage of all the activities due to the tight time and rule restrictions they had in place, but we made it work.

We also had a chance to visit Ebony’s Ice Cream, which was well worth the short drive from our campsite!

Our Favorite Moment

A chill afternoon skipping stones and playing in a creek mid hike in the National Park.

The Journey Continues

We are visiting 45 campgrounds in 300 days to find a place where our family thrives and my symptoms improve. Follow along as we share what we learn along the way

Graham Simplified

Scorecard

  • Symptom Relief

3 / 10

  • Campground

5 / 10

  • Connectivity

10 / 10

  • Sightseeing

8 / 10

  • Food

8 / 10

  • Cost

8 / 10

  • Come Again?

Yes!

Overall

7

/ 10
  • Quick Insights
  • Starlink Internet Worked great
  • The external cell antenna with dedicated T-Mobile service worked great in the truck in-motion
  • Meg’s desk setup worked well
  • The truck did a great job pulling the camper, we are feeling more confident about it’s ability to get over the mountains
  • We learned a couple days at a location is enough to get a feel for my symptoms in a new place
  • Next Stop

Next we are headed to:

Niagara Falls, New York

We can’t wait to show the boys waterfalls bigger than a school

Related Reflections

  • Field Notes #9 – Rockport Maine

    Bygrahamcr.gvsu@gmail.com

    The boys and I started our week in the Rockport/Rockland/Camden area with a hike up Mount Battie in the Camden State Park. The climb was short, rock, steep and technical – just how the boys like it. At the top we were rewarded with a great view of the ocean and an opportunity to climb the WW1 monument tower which sits on top of the mountain.

  • Field Notes #8: Part 1 – Southwest Harbor, ME

    Bygrahamcr.gvsu@gmail.com

    This leg of the journey was supposed to be our “vacation time.” No homeschool for the kids, just a chance to enjoy everything Acadia National Park and Mount Desert Island have to offer.

    It started great. We spent lots of time exploring tide pools, found several new hikes, and after even more repairs (this time replacing the bike’s shifter cable), we were finally able to get some bike rides in as well.

  • Field Notes #7 – Unplanned Stop

    Bygrahamcr.gvsu@gmail.com

    For those of you who have been following along with our journey across the United States to find a location where my MCAS symptoms are better, you might notice that this post looks a bit different than the previous ones. This was on purpose, because we didn’t plan on making this stop. Our truck decided to.

    We were planning to spend the morning driving through New Hampshire’s White Mountains before continuing east into Maine—a drive of about five and a half hours to Sebasticook Lake Campground. We were going to stay there for a couple of days while Meg had important meetings and then continue on to Southwest Harbor, Maine. Once again…our truck had other plans.

  • Field Notes #6 – Goshen, NH

    Bygrahamcr.gvsu@gmail.com

    We didn’t do as much while camping in Goshen due a lot to the three days of storms and because we had already been here for almost three weeks. We spent a lot of time enjoying the beautiful campground beach and Rand’s Pond. We got the boys each a tube, which they had a blast using in the pond and to get out to the floating dive platform.

    We did sneak a few hikes in between the rain and homeschool time. We hiked the Sawyer Trail (which a name like Sawyer how could we not!!) which was an easy 1 mile hike through a mature forest. One morning we also to the short drive to the Ruth LeClair Memorial Trail, which is a 3 mile hike around a beautiful man-made lake.

  • Field Notes #5 – Newport, NH

    Bygrahamcr.gvsu@gmail.com

    We didn’t struggle to find things to do in the Sunapee Lake area. We managed to find everything from full day trips to the Quechee Gorge area to nice evenings out picking blueberries at a U-pick farm down the road.

    Probably our most eventual day was a trip to the Quechee Gorge hike, the amazing Vermont Institute of Natural Sciences (VIMS) Raptor Center and the King Arthur Bakery, Café, Store & School. It was incredible how well the Raptor Center at VIMS held the boys attention.

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