Round on the Ends and High in the Middle

Saturday, August 20, 2011

As Dana mentioned this morning: What's round on the ends and high in the middle?

The answer is, of course, Ohio! We woke up in West Virginia after my alarm failing to go off, causing us to miss the complimentary breakfast. Either way, we got ready and were on our way by about 11:30.

Our Hotel Room

Big things happening in Weirton!

Our first destination was quite a ways down the road, and the first of many giant things along our route - a giant golf ball. After stopping at the nearby Best Buy and purchasing a car charger and (non-working) cassette adapter for the car, we headed to the aforementioned golf ball on the side of the road. Some lady looked at me funny when I was posing next to it, but doesn't she understand that novelty is to be enjoyed?!

Don't I look excited?

Next, we headed into Columbus, home of Ohio State University. Our destination for lunch was the North Market of Columbus, a nifty little market not unlike the Reading Terminal back home. Dana had planned for us to eat at a place called Kitchen Little. I had a bison burger with rice on the side and Dana got chicken with a side of collard greens and duck-fat-fried potatoes, and both were absolutely delicious. For dessert, we got ice cream at what turned out to be one of the top five ice cream parlors in the country according to Yelp, Jeni's. Obviously, it was also great.

Bison Burger, though you can't see much burger

North Market

Kitchen Little

The ice cream place was so good, even Finn and Princess Bubblegum wanted some!

Dana's flavors were an interesting mix of salted caramel and a flavor called Queen's City Cayenne, which features cayenne peppers, kind of an odd addition to ice cream. She said it was amazing, however, so maybe next time we come through I'll have to get some of my own. I got lavender wildberry, which was also pretty amazing.

Anyway, we soldiered onward to our next landmark, and it was a strange one. I didn't really realize how extensive it was until we saw it - a field of giant concrete corn cobs sticking out of the ground. I thought there might be a dozen or so, but it turned out there were around a hundred of the things, along with some plaques that told of the important history of corn and its cultivation in Ohio.

Corns

Dana got a little hungry

I LOVE CORN

Next up was Springfield, Ohio, which contained our last two sights for the day. First, there was the Hartman Rock Garden, which was basically a back yard of a house that contained a ton of rock sculptures. There was a family there, and the older woman explained to us that it was her father, Ben Hartman, who built all the sculptures in the 1930s. He died in 1944, but the house has been passed to the Kohler Foundation, who has made sure that the garden is kept in good condition. The garden consists of dozens of sculptures of buildings and scenes, most right out of real life - some depict men going to war, others a serene street with houses and a shop. Most impressive is probably the castle in the back.

Dana and the Castle

The Rock Garden contains more than a quarter of a million stones and has been standing for over seventy years. The garden is open from dawn until dusk every day and is free to enter, but gladly takes donations. Oh, and we have no idea if Dana's related to the creator - but as Ben's son-in-law said when we were talking about that issue, "I don't remember there being any red-headed Hartmans!" The mystery remains.

Our final stop for the day was a little more tricky to find. We went to the address reported on roadsideamerica.com, but our target, the first Madonna of the Trail of the trip, was nowhere to be found. After a little more searching and a small hike, we were able to find her: standing watch on the side of US 40 at the edge of a park.

Ohio's Madonna of the Trail

As can be gleaned from the above plaque, the Madonnas were erected as a tribute to the pioneer mothers of the westward expansion. They were all built along the National Old Trails Road, the first national highway. We'll be seeing quite a few of them along our trek, with two showing up in tomorrow's travels for Indiana and Illinois!

Anyway, after our driving was done for the day, we pulled in to greet Jason at his apartment. We grabbed some Chinese and Japanese food for dinner and sat around watching TV for awhile. Pretty soon we'll grab some sleep and do it all over again!

States visited: West Virginia and Ohio

Major cities traversed: Columbus, OH and Dayton, OH

Tomorrow we'll see a giant shoe, a fire breathing dragon, and some pretty ladies! See you in Saint Louis!