First, the answer to the last post’s question (How cool is Coolville?) is “very.” So cool that we were inspired to buy a new comforter the next day to pick up the slack for the much thin fleece blanket we brought along. What were we thinking? Now we’re now properly armed for the even cooler Canadian nights in our future.

When I was a child living in Detroit, I felt that I lived in the middle of a dull ocean of land that needed to be traversed to get anyplace interesting. It didn’t matter which direction we were headed; there was this long period of watching flat, boring land pass by before we got to the good stuff. It took years of traveling the route from Detroit to Virginia to begin to appreciate the beauty of the land in southern Michigan and the bulk of Ohio. The major change took place when I had taken up some serious vegetable gardening in my own backyard and learned firsthand how much tending a little plot can require. I then viewed with awe the scope of the farmland that produces so much corn, soybeans and other crops. When I now travel the Ohio Turnpike, or come across diagonally as we did this time through thousands and thousands of cultivated acres, I see the hard labors of thousands of farmers and their ingenuity at making their land maximally productive. It’s pretty awesome what an enterprising farmer and the rich soil of a state like Ohio can achieve.

But photos of thousand of acres of farmland is less than exciting, so I will spare you. We did see a few spectacular sights during our last two days of steady driving to the Midwest. Seneca Rocks in West Virginia is a favorite site for rock climbers, in particular from the DC area.

Seneca Rocks in West Virginia

We also drove by the State House in Columbus, Ohio, but found the parking impossible for the kind of rig we had. So we waved and promised ourselves we stop by another time when we weren’t encumbered with so many vehicles.

Ohio State House in Columbus, Ohio

And on our way out of town, we drove through Ohio State University, a HUGE campus that spreads throughout the city. Like most research institutions, it is filled with many large research laboratories that have an industrial feeling about them, but the warm brown brick exteriors are in sync with the charm of the rest of Columbus.