OHIO ?'s about visiting (updated)

As most of you know I'll be at the Findlay meeting next week. And after that I will travel a little south, to Coldwater Ohio for about a weekish to stay with my best friend whom I have not seen in 9 years!!! I am so excited.
EDITED: I may go from excited to sad in a few hours. My best friend just told me she *may* be moving by the time I get there so I now I need to have back up plans in case she is not there when I go down.

IF she is not there we wil need a motel room for a few more days so our pocketbooks will be a little tighter.
We will need a dog friendly town, somewhere within an hour or 2 or so of Findlay. We *may* just stay in Findlay, not sure.

If anyone has any reccomendations for decent towns with cheap places to visit, stay, eat, hike, at, anything, I would greatly appreciate it.

Sorry about your plans. I don't know that much of Ohio at all.

I've recently discovered Celina, OH and the Grand Lake St Mary's State Park, which is about 70 some miles from Findlay. I've never been there, but I've been told it's beautiful and a fun place to be. Check the Ohio State Parks website for more info on this park, or any other that may strike your fancy. I've always found State Parks are great places for exploring the outdoors. And usually the nearby towns are nice small quaint places.....quaint meaning not necessarily all built up and commercialized....which translates into "easy on the pocket book"......usually, not always.

Since I don't have a doggy, I'm not familiar with any dog friendly places, but again, small towns are usually pretty accomodating to friendly people. :)

Slighly more then two hours from Findlay is Cincinnati. There are lots of nice parks there (and many dog parks too). Also a bit further then 2 hours is Hocking Hills State Park. A gorgeous area, and from my understanding, dog friendly hiking.

As others have said - you can't go wrong with visits to Ohio State Parks!

Almost all OHIO State Parks for Fee Free - basic entrance, parking, and
most activities are FREE to one and all.
Dogs are usually welcome in 90% of Ohio State Parks - BUT must ALWAYS be on a leash!
Dogs are usually NOT allowed within spittin distance of a swimming beach;
and sometimes not welcome in picnic areas.
Leash requirements are usually enforced - often with an expensive TICKET given
with no warning! http://petoftheday.com/i/our_smilies/eek.gif Park Rangers are "plentiful" and are armed Police Officers -
who sometimes enjoy "enforcing" where a warning would do. http://petoftheday.com/i/our_smilies/frown.gif But MOST of em
are NICE Guys & Gals!

Are you bringing "Camping Gear" (tent, sleepie bags, etc)??
AFTER the Big MD Weekend - there should be campsites available in most of
Ohio's Parks.

Final suggestion:
When you first enter Ohio - if it's via a major InterState Route - there should be
a "manned" Visitors' Welcome Center - they usually have tons of literature, maps,
flyers, and some discount cupon books & magazines. Worth the time to stop!
And most of the NEWER Ohio Turnpike Service Plazas have information counters -
Wherever you stop - be sure to pick up a copy of the Ohio Turnpike map -
you'll need it sooner or later ... and ALL of the OTP Entrance booths are
robots spitting tickets -
the attendant that might answer the call button NEVER has a map!

Enjoy your visit - there's a LOT to See & Do in Ohio!!

Debby, a few of my friends reccomended Celina, they also say it is beautiful. I love state parks, I'll be sure to visit at least one while I'm there.

Cincy's mom, I replied in the Schappacher Park thread, if my plans change I'm going to try to make it up there.

Phred, thanks for all the wonderful information! We are not bringing our camping gear, we just don't have the time to get it all ready & together, and we want the van to have as much as possible, this will be both Indy & Kaige's longest trip yet so we want them to be as comfy as possible. I'd love to but it would also be Kaige's first time camping, I wanted to be a little more prepared.

Thanks a bunch! Keep the ideas/reccomendations comming!