Day 7 was the last day of my journey. I started the beginning of the end of this epic journey quite early. It was going to be a long drive but there is one place that I am not going to miss along the way. This stop that I planned would extend my drive by an hour but it is a place in the middle of nowhere in Southern Ohio which I didn’t want to miss. Also, I was not sure when I would get another chance to make the trip again.
It took me about an hour and a half to reach Indiana – Ohio border. Instead of driving through Columbus I took a detour toward Cincinatti in order to get to Serpent Mound! I first heard about Serpent Mound in one of Joe Rogan Experience podcast with Graham Hancock. I did further research on this site and I got fascinated by it. Ever since I wanted to visit this place. We got off the interstate near Cincinnati and then took the county and local roads. For the first time I saw someone riding a horse and buggy in the local road!
After about an hour in the local roads, we arrived at the Serpent Mound. When I arrived at the ticket booth, I tried to see if I could enter with my NPS annual pass. Alas, Serpent Mound is not part of the NPS system, but it was part of a system called Ohio history connection. So I paid $8 for the parking and parked the car in an almost empty parking lot. That day the museum was closed. I saw a few visitors walking around in the path. Look out tower, from where you can see the shape of the mound, was also closed during winter.
Serpent Mound is a popular spot on summer solstice since you can see the sun align along the mouth of the serpent which gives the illusion as if the serpent is swallowing the sun. As I walked through the path reading informational signs, I felt chills to be in a place that is of sacred importance to the native people there; This structure was built thousands of years ago! I walked through the path admiring the mounds and valleys and visualizing the shape of the serpent. It took me around 20 minutes to walk from the tail to the head of the serpent. It was mesmerizing to see such a a structure that is simply built with earth yet so elegant. We also saw a few burial mounds near the entrance of the park. After spending around an hour we continued out journey to Rockville, MD.
We drove through southern Ohio to West Virginia. Before entering Maryland I wanted to get gas in West Virginia. We stopped at a truck stop, filled the gas tank and continued the journey. We drove through many beautiful rolling hills in West Virginia. It took more than two and a half hours to drive from the western border of Maryland to get to Rockville. Although Maryland is a small state in area, it is a quite long. Last stretch of the journey is though rather familiar I-270 S. Around 6 pm I arrived home in Rockville, MD. With that an epic journey of a life time came to a conclusion!
Divyup 