On Saturday morning, I took a drive around northwest Ohio via eight county seats. This part of Ohio is rural and heavy in agriculture. From the looks of the fields, there are going to be bumper crops of corn and soybeans. Plus, the farmer's markets were coming alive with the allure of sweet corn, melons, tomatoes and strawberries.
Findlay, OH - Back in the day, when northwest Ohio was flush with oil and natural gas, Marathon Oil had its world headquarters in Findlay. Although the HQ is now in Houston, they still maintain an office here.
Hancock County Courthouse
Marathon OilOttawa, OH - Nice little town of about 4500 people. I liked it.
Putnam County Courthouse 
Sweet house on the main drag 
Ottawa Water Works Paulding, OH - A little smaller than Ottawa and it didn't seem to have a whole lot going on. Maybe its proximity to the Indiana border has caused some overflow of boredom.
Paulding County Courthouse
A storefront across from the courthouse Defiance, OH - In a previous post on the Maumee River Valley, I wrote about Defiance, so I won't waste your time with more. I stopped here for lunch at Bud's Restaurant.
Defiance County Courthouse
Bud's Restaurant 
An old Coca-Cola building Bryan, OH - a thriving little town with a lot of manufacturing, including The Ohio Art Company and Spangler Candy Company.
Williams County Courthouse
Makers of Dum-Dum suckers 
Makers of the Etch A Sketch Napoleon, OH - Home to a Campbell's Soup plant
Henry County Courthouse
Former National Guard Armory 
Abandoned grain elevators Wauseon, OH - Not a whole lot going on from what I could see.
Fulton County Courthouse
A lighting store in an old building 
Wauseon Depot Bowling Green, OH - Home of Bowling Green State University. By the time I got to Bowling Green, I was wiped out, so I took a picture of the courthouse and went home.
Wood County Courthouse 
13 comments:
Great post DD. Felt like I was there, especially all the court houses.
Would it kill the people at the Ohio Art Co to have an etcha sketch in place of the sign in front of their building? They can't bust out a custom model for them selves? I hate missed opportunities.
Nice job Davastator. I particularly like the comment about boredom overflowin' from Indiana. Priceless. And true, s'fars I can see.
Williams County Courthouse was the best of the bunch. Like the guy going into Bud's as well.
You're a regular Charles Kuralt you are!
Ernie,
You're right about missed opportunities. The building was very Spartan, so I'm surprised they even had the sign I photographed.
Pruett,
I was hoping someone would catch my slam of Indiana. Keepin' you guys on your toes.
Beamis,
Yeah, that's a nice one. They all look a little different in person. Wood County's is right up there with Williams County.
"Wood County's is right up there with Williams County."
I hope this is another test for the readers, because that's crazy. Williams' County Courthouse is the courthouse that all others are measured by. You're nothing Wood County!!!
Ernie,
That was an articulate outburst.
BTW, Ernie, you must be close to completing Hooked on Phonics.
Very close DD. I am doing better than 2 1/2% of all the students in the course.
Marathon Oil looks like a place you could really get ahead by wearing a nice white short sleeve short & tie combo along with a side part in your hair.
See any nice ladies in your travels? Please post pictures, I haven't got much besides this computer!!!
You're my eyes to the world!!!
Movie idea! The Blogger
A socially awkward internet blogger who's mildly retarded travels to obscure places like county courthouses, summer camps and the like corresponds with a total retard via his blog who gets way to excited about the blog topics. They may or may not be queer.
Think Matt Damon and Ben Affleck if they were retarded and gay (possibly). After years of correspondence a chance meeting takes place at the county fair where the blogger has taken a trip and the heavily retarded man is working as a rodeo clown.
Witnessing the large crowd laughing at the poor retard (Dressed as Zoro) trying to run away from the charging bulls the blogger decides to let him accompany him around the fair while he accumulated ideas for his blog. Realizing he couldn't pay him, the blogger buys him cotton candy and pretzels which the retarded man loves.
Initially the heavily retarded man proves to be a nuisance to the blogger, distracting him from the ponies, large windmills and apple eating contests taking place by always asking him to take pictures of girls. (He likes fat chicks and there were lots of them at the fair.)
Things take a turn for the better on the mini-roller coaster when the blogger is too scared to take any pictures. Laughing, the retarded man tries to take a picture of himself but can't work the camera properly and takes one of the hysterical blogger instead.
Cut to scenes of a depressed blogger, with the turning leaves shown darkly in the background, angry that he won't be able to fully tell the story of the fair before seeing the picture.
This about face leads to a trip to the haunted house complete with the retarded man joking about the blogger keeping his composure. Sure enough, when a witch pops out around one corner the blogger leaps into his retarded companions arms (who's really strong because he's a retard) and a change has taken place.
Cut to a normally conservative county courthouse where the 2 are trying to marry. Initially shunned by “The Man”, the blogger uses his influence from his many posts on the courthouse to have a sympathetic Scatman Cruthers type janitor convince a judge to marry them.
The final scene is a picture being snapped at the wedding as the janitor, serving as both the best man and bridesmaid but holding a mop and in his janitors outfit, the blogger and retarded man holding a balloon from the fair. We close with the blogger putting his blog on the wedding together, Doogie Howser style, and ends with the wedding picture being shown.
LOL. Stop it, I couldn't get through it all. I'll have to read the rest later.
Bravo, Ernie! Outstanding!!! That's a screenplay for the ages.
Since you're taller, I would have to be the Matt Damon-ish character(straight) and you would have to be the Ben Affleck-ish character.(gay)It must suck to be freakishly tall in addition to being slow.
A couple e-mail comments:
From Fancy N -
Loved it Dave! We just drove to Findlay too see my Dad--------I miss all the fields of corn, soybeans etc, and even the RR tracks!
From MK -
Thanks for the blog. It was fun to see home again. The longer you are away it seems as if gets harder to remember.
I think they're both queers, at least to ward off the loneliness.
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