Columbus – CountUp

The Buckeye State

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. This post is all about the great state of Ohio. My brother lived there on two separate occasions during the early-to-mid-2000s (Columbus area) and from 2013 to 2019 (Cincinnati area). My sister-in-law was born and raised there (Upper Sandusky area). My favorite canine nephew was born there in 2017 (Amish Country).

Just as with Indiana (which I wrote about last week) – my first visit to Ohio was a drive-through way back at the end of October of 1985 as an 18-year-old. I had just graduated from Tech School at Chanute Air Force Base adjacent to Rantoul Illinois, and I was driving back to my teenage home in Fairfax County Virginia to visit my parents, brother, and cat. I drove I-70 225 miles from west to east across Ohio. (I may have taken I-270 around Columbus.)

I visited my brother often both times he lived in Ohio – flying in and out of Port Columbus International Airport (#CMH) and Cincinnati / Northern Kentucky International Airport (#CVG).

Sometime in 2003 or 2004 me and my brother went on a road-trip northeastward from Columbus. We visited the Pro Football Hall-Of-Fame in Canton; although, I don’t remember ever visiting it. My brother insists that we did, so he may be right. I do remember us driving to downtown Cleveland after that, and we saw a movie. We probably ate somewhere nice before or after the movie, but I don’t remember which movie it was or where we ate. (That was long before the arrival of the smart phone, so no pictures apparently exist of that road-trip.)

A year or two later we went to the Great American Ball Park in downtown Cincinnati to watch the Reds get routed by the Astros 9-0. Ohio native Roger Clemens was the winning pitcher – a month shy of his 43RD birthday.

We visited Ohio Caverns up in the hills of western Ohio (about 12 miles from the highest point in the state). We went there a couple of times more than 10 years apart. That was a lot of fun. The first time I flew in to Cincinnati / Northern Kentucky in May 2014 – our very first stop was at the American Sign Museum. The next day we visited the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden. 18 months later we visited nearby Dayton and the National Museum Of The United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

We visited downtown Cincinnati often and attended a few sports events (wrestling and hockey) and a music concert at the U.S. Bank Arena (now known as the Heritage Bank Center).

I loved visiting Ohio – more so in the warm summertime rather than the frigid wintertime. I was actually disappointed when my brother announced in 2019 that he and his family would move away (again) to the Dallas Texas area (again).

My last day in Ohio was the day after Thanksgiving of 2018 when my brother took me to the airport for my flight back home to Miami.

Soon I’ll be visiting Ohio again as part of my Ohio River cruise. On the third day of the cruise we’ll be docking in Cincinnati. I signed-up for a morning tour and an afternoon tour. Both are 3 hours each. The morning tour is at the Cincinnati Reds Hall-Of-Fame & Museum. The afternoon tour is mostly inside a luxury coach bus with various stops along the way. A couple of days later we’ll be docking upstream in Marietta Ohio. I’ll be visiting a historic house museum as part of a guided tour.

Next #TravelThursday – I’ll look back at past visits to “The Mountain State” – West Virginia. Let’s keep traveling together.

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Last week I wrote about my trek eastward along U.S. 82 and my overnight stay in El Dorado (pronounced “el-duh-RAY-doh”) Arkansas. I also wrote about my wonderful morning visit to the historic (built in 1859) Lakeport Plantation on the Arkansas Delta.

Back on Day 3 of my April retirement road-trip I drove westward across southern Mississippi – mostly along U.S. 98 and U.S. 84. I spent the night in Natchez. This is Day 15 of my trek, and I drove eastward across north-central Mississippi – mostly along U.S. 82.

I crossed the Greenville Bridge – about 140 miles upstream (north) from my crossing westward on the Natchez-Vidalia Bridge. I actually drove non-stop eastward across Mississippi. There were no stops for food or gas. (I had filled-up with both in Arkansas.)

As I drove eastward away from the Mighty Mississippi and its Delta – the land got more hilly and even mini-mountainous. Elevations in the north-central part of the state exceed 200 meters (over 650 feet) above sea level. It’s a noticeable change compared to the Mississippi Delta region. It’s very scenic. Mississippi is such a beautiful state along the old U.S. highways. I especially loved seeing the several giant white crosses along my trek.

Just west of Starkville – Google Maps recommended that I leave U.S. 82 – and take Mississippi Highway 182 (former U.S. 82) right through the heart of downtown (which seemed very weird to me). But it seems like when I deviate from Google Maps – weird things happen, so I decided to allow Google to be weird on my behalf.

From Highway 182 – Google routed me onto Alternate U.S. 45 southward. Now she wanted me to completely avoid Columbus Mississippi. I went along with it. I then followed Google onto Mississippi Highway 388 eastward for 16 miles – which became State Route 86 at the Alabama State Line. That came up on me suddenly. I wasn’t expecting it, but there she was – Sweet Home Alabama.

Fun Fact: I was born in Sweet Home Alabama exactly 57 years ago as of a few hours ago of this published blog post (late on June 05TH). Happy Birthday to me !

But not so fast on Alabama, for this blog post is about my afternoon crossing Mississippi. Back to Starkville. It’s a young college town with about half of its residents under the age of 25. It’s the home of Mississippi State University (founded in 1878). Go Bulldogs ! I drove right by one of the main entrances. About 25,000 residents live within the city limits of Starkville, and over 50,000 residents live in the metro area (including the city and all of Oktibbeha County).

Mississippi is known as “The Magnolia State” – as well as “The Hospitality State”. There is so much to this state that I haven’t seen – and I want to see. As long as my family lives in North Texas – I’ll be driving through Mississippi to and from there every year. I’d like to spend more time exploring Hattiesburg and Natchez to the south – and museums along the U.S. 82 corridor to the north. And perhaps next time – I won’t bypass Columbus Mississippi. It may even be an overnight stop. I see some intriguing places there that I wish to visit.

Next #TravelThursday – Sweet Home Alabama – where the skies are so blue. Sweet Home Alabama – Lord I’m comin’ home to you ! Let’s keep traveling together.