Ohio sure is a place that exists
This past weekend I spent a collective twelve hours in the passenger’s seat of my brother’s car going to Columbus, Ohio and back to Chicago for my cousin’s wedding. I planned to use that time in the car to write something for the newsletter (and then some) but in typical road trip fashion I did nothing the whole time except look out the window.
When you enter Indiana, the sign says “The Crossroads of America.” When you enter Ohio, the sign says, “Find It Here.” I was trying to find what it is, but I don’t think I found much of anything. Maybe next time.
First up, my cousin’s wedding was quite lovely. The venue was on a farm and it had those exposed lightbulb fixtures. Looked very cool. The food was also very good, even though my aunt has been complaining about it for years since it was in buffet form, and thus not “traditional.”
We did spend the morning before the Big Day driving through Columbus trying to find something to do. As far as medium-sized cities go, it’s cute and has some charm. We ended up going to a brewery that had the Ohio State game on. I had to explain to my Polish mom about the appeal of college football, since neither my brother nor I went to a big football school. The beers were $6 a pop which is wild for me, who pays at least $10 for a drink at a brewery in Chicago. For a town that had so many roads for so many cars, it was almost impossible to find somewhere to park. That’s not unlike other cities, but it’s very obvious this is a very car-centric place.
Why does Ohio as a state have so many very prominent cities that have professional sports teams?
For a while I remember getting a lot of ads on my podcasts about moving to Ohio to start a business because they have low taxes or something. That’s enticing I guess but I’d rather pay a lot of money to live in a densely populated neighborhood. I love multi-family homes and public transit. What can I say—I’m just a big city girl.
On the way back we went on a backroad/highway type road instead of the interstate and we drove through some weird ass towns. There was one (forgot the name, which is bad journalism on my part) that was about three blocks long and had pictures of every military person from the town on signs on the lamp posts. I really doubt that town is much fun.
Do have to say that the views through Ohio and some of Indiana is more interesting than Illinois. All we have here is one big city and a whole lot of corn. At least over there there’s some rolling hills and nice trees. Lots of places to camp. After about four hours I dream of an idealized life where I have a nice little cottage in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by so many orange and red autumn trees. Then I remember it would be nice for exactly two days and then I would be longing for the busy city. I like being able to walk to places.
Saw some people riding a horse-drawn carriage. I wonder what the horsepower is on those things.
The Midwest sure is an interesting place. And by “interesting” I mean the way that Midwesterners mean as “interesting.”