El Campesino offers authentic Mexican sit-down dining at fast-food speed.

Real Mexican environment with real Mexican food.

Since I started writing The Hero of Canton blog in September, I’ve been wanting to go back to restaurants I’ve previously visited so I could review them here. Considering I’ve only been living here since June that’s a pretty short list. But somebody’s got to do it!

I’m developing a real love for Mexican food and found a Mexican restaurant that I particularly enjoy: El Campesino. I’ve been to two separate El Campesino restaurants in Canton and both have been equally as good.

My first visit was on a business trip long before I moved here. There were three of us and we were told that this was the place to go for Mexican. It’s always packed and always good. The always packed part wasn’t true, but the other certainly was.

My next two visits were equally as solid. I think each time I ordered the exact same thing, The Cancun Cheese Steak. I couldn’t really tell you what it is, but it was the best Mexican food I’ve ever had in my mouth.

Months later, Jen and I decided to make another trip to El Campesino so I could do my review and get some pictures. So we put the bark collar on the dog and headed out.

Nickajack Farms makes an average Saturday afternoon an educational adventure for the kids.

Certainly no shortage of pumpkins here.

Halloween has never been one of my favorite holidays. Except for the candy. I love the candy. And the costumes, those are cool too. Oh, and haunted houses, I loooooove haunted houses! Put those aside and I could take or leave Halloween.

Maybe it’s because I don’t care much for pumpkins. Well, except for pumpkin seeds. And carving jack-o-lanterns. Put those aside and I could take or leave pumpkins.

Now that I think about it, I kinda do like Halloween. Well, aside from the fact that it’s Satan’s birthday. (j/k)

This time of year provides all kinds of out-of-the-ordinary activities for kids, and Nickajack Farms is just one of those places. Jen tries to plan weekly Monday outings with her kids and since the weather was nice she decided to take them (and me!) to Nickajack Farms. We went to an early dinner at Rooser’s and I tormented the waitress with 80′s music trivia. After dinner, with the bark collar having already been put on the dog, we headed out.

The Fear Forest hay-less hay ride.

It was a dark and foggy night. The air was damp and dreary with a full moon in the midnight sky. The howls of werewolves could be heard in the distance coming from the speaker on the back of the tractor in front of us!

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s go back to the beginning.

In the beginning God created monsters and zombies. They were lonely creatures with no one to scare… so He created man.

The second half of Jen’s and my two-fer night was the Fear Forest Haunted Hay ride and Insanetarium. We left the drive in disappointed having seen the zombie coming of age flick: Zombieland. Not scary, not gory, not funny.

We really needed a good dose of scary monsters right about now, so we headed over to Fear Forest hoping for the best. At 9:15pm the parking lot was barely full and we found a spot right at the front.

Elm Road Triple Drive-In offers old fashioned movie viewing at old fashioned movie prices.

Aaah... the old-fashioned movie experience!

Friday afternoon and work was done. Jen and I headed out to Youngstown. Saturday is her cousin’s wedding so we planned on staying the weekend at her parents, attending the reception on Saturday afternoon and then coming back home to Canton sometime after church on Sunday.

The drive to Youngstown was uneventful. The kids and the dog fell asleep in the car which gave us a break from 20 questions (and no, we weren’t playing the game). After dinner the options were to watch live TV with the folks (What? No DVR?) or go check out some haunted houses. Jen and I opted for the latter.

As a bonus, we decided to check out a movie we’ve been wanting to see which was playing at the the Elm Road Triple Drive-In. This was my second time at this drive-in and I had a mixed experience. If this night had been my first time I would have left with a poor review. However, a month earlier I had a fantastic time at Elm Road Drive-In with no complaints.

So there's supposed to be a light at the end of this tunnel? All I see is butt.

2. Where was your Facebook profile picture taken?
Hocking Hills Scenic Railway… on the Ghost Train.

3. Can you play Guitar Hero?
Yes. And I can kick your butt at it too, if you’re not very good.

4. Name someone who made you laugh today?
Me. (does that count?)

5. How late did you stay up last night and why?
12:15ish. I was falling asleep to The Negotiator. I’m getting in about 10 minutes per night.

6. If you could move somewhere else, would you?
Sure, I’d move lots of places. But I hate moving so I’ll stay put for a while.

Clean, safe and indoors, Pump It Up provides kids a high-energy hour of bounce-off-the-walls fun.

Pump It Up: Hours of fun for the kids... and the kid in you!

It’s Emmit’s birthday. He already had a birthday party with his dad and will have a family party with his mom later this week. But Monday was the actual big day so Jen wanted to do something fun for him. So we put the bark collar on the dog and headed out to Pump It Up Inflatable Party Zone.

I’ve visited two other inflatable party places in Reno, including another Pump it Up. It was a bit difficult being here without my own kids who are back in Reno with their mother. These things make me miss them a great deal. But today is Emmitt’s day and he made the most of it!

Arcadia Grille hits the spot if you’re hungry and too lazy to walk a block to another restaurant.

When I was a kid Denny’s was the only restaurant that was open 24 hours. The saying was, “nobody plans to go to Denny’s, they just end up there.” In other words, we were happy to eat at Denny’s when everything else was closed. Arcadia Grille reminds me of that. Its a popular establishment mostly due to its location in downtown Canton. It’s too much effort to go anywhere else, so people just end up there for lunch.

Inside Arcadia Grille

This was my third time eating at Arcadia Grille. The first time I ordered a hamburger and recall that it didn’t make a very strong impression on me. On my second visit I ordered a steak salad only to receive a bland salad topped with even four very small pieces of steak. Not exactly meeting my expectations, but also not setting the bar very high for a return visit.

Mama Guzzardi’s Italian Restaurant is authentic home cooked Italian full of yummy goodness.

One big hunk of meaty, cheesy goodness.

Four hours in the car and another down in a really dark pit works up quite an appetite. Jen, Rachel and I got together for a Saturday evening meal before hanging out at my place for a few episodes of Firefly on glorious Blu-ray. While trying to figure out where to go we rummaged through our Restaurant.com coupons and decided on Italian. Jen finished curling her hair, I put the bark collar on the dog and we headed out.

Seneca Caverns is a thrilling descent into… well, a very large hole in the ground!

Jen’s and my date to Seneca Caverns had been planned for several weeks so we were looking forward to getting out and doing something new. Nothing says “romantic date” like crawling around in tiny caves 130 feet underground.

Hell.... 40 feet this way!

What we didn’t plan on was starting a 10-day fast that would bring us through two weekends of no food. I never knew this before, but going out and doing things when you can’t eat really sucks.

Luckily we broke our 10-day fast early so the cloud of dread that hung over us last week had been lifted. We were now free and clear to enjoy cave crawling without enduring an empty stomach.

Date-day started out as a typical lazy Saturday morning. Jen came over, made breakfast (mmmm food!) and we watched a couple episodes of Battlestar Galactica on Blu-ray (oooh, pretty!) About 15 minutes before Noon O’clock we put the bark collar on her dog and headed out.