My Middle Earth March Through Mount Vernon
Anyone that knows me knows that I am a HUGE Lord of the Rings fan. So when my friend sent me a link to a Facebook event for “A Middle Earth March through Mount Vernon” to celebrate Hobbit Day I immediately told her we would be going together for sure!
A little background about Hobbit Day for those of you that are not big Lord of the Rings fans….
Hobbit Day is a fan-created holiday to honor Bilbo and Frodo Baggins who share a birthday on September 22. Bilbo is the main character of J.R.R. Tolkien’s book The Hobbit and Frodo is the main character in The Lord of the Rings. Many fans celebrate Hobbit Day by watching all the movies, reading the books, or doing “hobbit things” like having feasts or parties or just being outside taking in the simple joys of life. Although Hobbit Day is technically on September 22, the town of Mount Vernon, Ohio hosted their Hobbit Day festivities on Saturday, September 20, 2025 so more fans could participate.
The event was hosted by The Downtown Mount Vernon Merchants. Many of the local shops participated by decorating with movie props and dressing in costumes. Participants of the event received a map that showed different locations to stop around the town square to answer a Tolkien themed riddle or play a game. If you got the riddle right or won the game you received a stamp on your map. Nine stamps were required in order to enter your completed map for a prize drawing. The nine stamps represented the 9 members of the Fellowship of the Ring from the first book and movie.
I had so much fun going to this event with one of my best friends and fellow Lord of the Rings fan, Ashley Heminger. (She has her own adventure instagram if you want to check it out here: Adventuring Hemingers) Having a companion to help with the riddles and play the games with made the event all the more fun!
Many of the shops around the square participated in the event with games, riddles, and special sales on Hobbit Day Theme merchandise or food. Here are the places we stopped at on our Middle Earth March and what we did!
The Angry Acres Farm sells goat milk products and they had a Shire Petting Zoo outside their shop with the goats! They had a fun Shire backdrop behind the goats to make for a cute photo opportunity.
Living on the Edge makes one of a kind tables, boards, and more from the edge of trees! They had a “Lord of the Ring Toss” game that had a round table with bowling pins painted like the characters on it. You had three rings to toss while the game host spun the table with a crank!
Summit Axe Throwing is the only axe throwing venue in Knox County, Ohio! They had the “And My Axe!” Throwing game. There were three hero faces and three enemy faces mounted on a spinning wheel. You had three darts and had to hit all three enemies!
Old Mr. Baliliwick’s looks like an old apothecary where they sell bulk herbs, teas, and other natural remedies. They had “Sméagol’s Fishing Spot” where you had to fish out one gold ring and reel it in to a bucket.
ASE was one of my favorite stops on our Middle Earth March. The owner custom made the famous green hobbit door of Bilbo Baggins’ home for a photo booth! He did a beautiful job and paid attention to fine details from the books and movies such as adding the scratch the wizard Gandalf left on the door when he came to collect Bilbo for their first adventure.
Williams Flowers & Wine is proud to be the oldest flower shop in Mount Vernon! They were one of my other favorite stops. The employees worked hard to decorate the whole store with a Shire Theme. From the window displays to the inside of the store, it was absolutely beautiful. Here we had a riddle to solve. For the occasion they had hand made flower hair pins available for a donation. I purchased one as a fun memento of the day.
Happy Bean Coffee shop had a special drink menu for Hobbit Day and after all the walking we did an iced coffee was a welcoming treat. I ordered “Bilbo’s Birthday” which was a cupcake flavored cold brew and Ashley ordered “Second Breakfast” which was a blueberry pancake flavored latte.
Paragraphs Bookstore had a fantastic selection of Tolkien’s books to buy and other Hobbit Day exclusive merchandise. They also had a plinko game outside the entrance. Your chip had to land on a hero character to earn a stamp on your map. I was excited to purchase a copy of The Fall of Numenor which I have been wanting to read for sometime.
After we finished our quest of getting 9 stamps, we turned in our map to one of the shops to be submitted for the prize drawing. Neither of us won the drawing, but the experience was what made the day fun and memorable!
I had so much fun on my Middle Earth March and I hope Mount Vernon hosts it again! The stops mentioned in this post were just a few of the various merchants that you could stop at. Maybe next time I will stop at somewhere new!
Are you a Tolkien Fan? Is this something you would love to participate in? Please share in the comments! Thanks for reading!
What a fun experience!
ReplyDeleteIt was so fun! Thank you for reading!
DeleteHobbit Day sounds like a lot of fun!
ReplyDeleteIt was fun! Thanks for reading!
DeleteOh this is so fun! I had no idea Hobbit Day existed. Looks like a blast!
ReplyDeleteIt was a blast! Thanks for reading!
DeleteThis sounds like such a fun and creative event! I haven’t been to Mount Vernon, but a Hobbit Day celebration like this would be right up my alley. I love how each shop added its own Tolkien-inspired twist—especially the Shire Petting Zoo and “Lord of the Ring Toss.” What a wonderful way to bring the magic of Middle Earth to life in a small-town setting!
ReplyDeleteAgnes
It was a fun event and a fun way to give back to the community!
DeleteWhat a lot of fun event event! I am not a Lord of the Rings fan. But this look interesting. I love the idea of shire petting zoo, the toss with the bowling pins painted, summit axe throwing etc. Creative events indeed!
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading!
DeleteNever heard of Hobbit Day, although I'm a Tolkien fan. It sounds like so much fun and they really put in the work to make it a good day. WOuld love to participate.
ReplyDeleteYou would love Hobbit Day if you love Tolkien! Thanks for reading!
DeleteThis sounds like such a fun experience! I actually live in Ohio... I'm going to have to start looking out for fun events like this.
ReplyDeleteIt was a fun way to experience a small town and shop local!
DeleteWhat a fun way to experience Mount Vernon!
ReplyDeleteIt really was! Thanks for reading!
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