Ohio’s interstates cross farm country between big cities, which makes it a state of stops rather than views. The deck follows that: nearly every question points to a place you can pull off and see, from the Wright brothers’ Dayton to the Rock Hall in Cleveland to a seven-story picnic basket outside Newark.
A route idea: Lake Erie to the Ohio River
A north-to-south run from the lake to the river covers much of the deck in a day or two:
- Sandusky (a short hop west of Cleveland): Cedar Point, if it’s summer.
- Cleveland: the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on the lakefront.
- Between Cleveland and Akron: Cuyahoga Valley National Park, with trails and a scenic railroad.
- Canton: the Pro Football Hall of Fame, right off I-77.
- Columbus: the state capital, at the middle of the state.
- Cincinnati: chili on spaghetti, with the Ohio River and Kentucky across the water.
Ask each city’s question as its exit signs appear.
Where Ohio went up
Few states have as many questions about flight. Orville and Wilbur Wright ran a bicycle shop in Dayton and built their airplanes there, though the first flight happened in North Carolina. Neil Armstrong grew up in Wapakoneta, on I-75, where there’s a museum about him. Ask the Armstrong question on I-75 and see who knows he’s from Ohio before you pass the exit.
A slower Ohio
Take a detour into Holmes County and the roads get narrower and the pace drops. This is Amish Country, and the buggy question in the deck is a real warning: slow-moving horse-drawn buggies share these roads, usually marked with an orange triangle on the back. Give them plenty of room when you pass.
Three Ohio facts that aren’t in the deck
- Ohio’s state fossil is the trilobite, an ancient sea creature. Ohio was once covered by a shallow sea.
- John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, grew up in New Concord, Ohio.
- Toledo is nicknamed the Glass City for its long history of glassmaking.