Right Here In Ohio

Linda Burton posting from Columbus, Ohio – The minute I crossed the state line into Ohio, two things happened. The road improved, and the rain stopped. I had loaded the car in a sprinkle; there was just enough rain to trickle down my neck. The deluge waited until I-96 towards Detroit; from there the wiper was set on triple speed and even that wasn’t enough. The trip from Lansing to Columbus was just 267 miles, but after two hours in the driving rain I stopped at an Arby’s to give my knuckles a break from their painful grip on the steering wheel. “I hear it’s supposed to rain all day,” said the young woman who handed me my Jr Ham and Swiss. “And the real storm is coming through this afternoon.” Rats! I missed something in the weather forecast; I remembered seeing round balls of yellow on the screen as I packed last night; how did I miss a predicted front, wildly coming at us from the west? “You just have to deal with it,” I told myself. “Drive on.” The GPS directed me onto US23 south towards Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti; I crossed a few rivers flowing towards Lake Erie, just to the east. The landscape was heavily treed, though I spotted a few patches of corn here and there. And then, I was in Ohio, and the sky was blue. US23 became I-475, and then, I-75. I spotted signs for BGSU (Bowling Green State University); at Findlay a sign proclaimed Flag City USA. Then Exit 156. Suddenly I was on a two-lane road surrounded by farms, and silos, and sun-drenched fields. I passed through Arlington, and Williamstown, small towns where every corner had an American flag and every house had a front porch. At Dunkirk I stopped for gas. » read more