The Earth is Flat

More than one person, when I mentioned that I planned to take I-70 from Indianapolis into Ohio, told me that it was a boring drive.  When I said that I was used to boring, since I was familiar with I-80 in Iowa, to a person my friends said, "yeah, but I-70 doesn't even have the hills they have in Iowa."  It was eerie, really, that so many people seemed to have memorized the same speech.  Kinda like how the cops in movies always figure out that co-conspirators are lying when they all say exactly the same thing.  But I digress.

Anywho, they were right, to a point.

I received my first dose of "it's not satire if it's real" this morning as I drove by Mount Comfort, Indiana which is near Indianapolis.  I scanned the landscape thoroughly, but saw no mountain.  I didn't even see a slight rise in the earth.  I mean, Fort Wayne seems like Kentucky compared to Mount Comfort.  I wanted to tell the folks in Mount Comfort that if the first part of your name is a lie, then it causes everyone to doubt the second part as well.  It's a credibility thing.  But I didn't see anyone who looked interested in hearing that helpful bit of advice, so I drove on.

And it stayed flat a long time.  Pancake flat.  Fort Stockton flat.  The only thing that made it seem less flat than Texas is that there are trees to frame the horizon.

Fortunately for me, and for the reputation of this part of the midwest, I consulted the Roadfood book and saw that I could get a fried bologna sandwich in Waldo, Ohio.  This caused me to plan to get off I-70 about 50 miles west of Columbus.  I actually got off sooner because I misread a sign to some Wright Brothers attractions (they were from Dayton, just south of I-70) and went the wrong direction.  There's some irony in that, somehow.

Regardless, I quickly got over my disappointment when I realized that I was just about at Highway 40, the National Road.  The National Road was created by Congress in 1806 and was the first federally funded highway construction project.  That is really about the coolest thing I've heard in days.  Honestly.  Hey, this is my blog and we've already established that I am a highway nerd.

Plus on the way to Highway 40, I drove up Snyder Road which was a pretty impressive hill.  Take that, haters.

I drove through Springfield and then Urbana.  Urbana is in Champaign County which is slightly weird because there's a Champaign/Urbana in Illinois, too.  Somebody please investigate this and report back by posting a comment.  Urbana is a cute little town with a movie theater and some nice homes and an attractive bunch of old shops.

There's another little town called Milford Center which is near some pretty rivers, and has a park with an odd little building that turns out to be a replica of the original county courthouse.

The sign never really says whether this is a lifesize replica.  It looks quite a bit like a giant dollhouse, but there's no accounting for history.  After all, people were smaller back then.

I continued on to Marysville where I expected to see a Honda factory but saw a Nestle plant instead.  (I didn't stop to see whether they were giving out samples, a real blunder on my part).  There was also a sign along a road that said "Litter Awareness Area."  Awareness is the first step toward solving a problem, and given the amount of litter that was in the ditch along the road, I'm glad they've at least taken that first step.  The next step might be to send out some Boy Scouts or non-violent offenders or just a couple of people with big trash bags to start picking stuff up.  Only a suggestion, Marysville.  On the positive side, they do have a nice courthouse.

And a chicken.  Not a Hatch-sized chicken, but not too shabby for us understated midwesterners and it's next to a big rock.

It took a while - although it was a pretty drive, with occasional hills and all - but I finally found Where's Waldo.  Yeah, sorry, I just couldn't resist.

Waldo, Ohio, is home to 338 people and the world famous bologna sandwich at G&R Tavern.

This is not the kind of fried bologna sandwich you make at home with help from Oscar Mayer.  G&R slices their bologna uber thick (I've been wanting to say "uber" for a couple of days).  It's delicious, and their fried pickles are also yummy.

What I probably should have had for lunch was a salad with vinegar (no oil) dressing and an apple for dessert.  Instead I had this:

Ah well, when will I be in Waldo again?

Near Waldo is the Delaware Wilderness Area, which was the second lake I got to drive over today.  The first was Geist Reservoir outside of Noblesville.  You know, near Mount Comfort.  If you're going to have flat, you might as well have a lake.  And a fried bologna sandwich.