Hardin County, Ohio

Welcome to Hardin County

I lit out to the southwest along backroads until I hit Rt. 68 at Arlington, OH. From there, I headed south into Hardin County. Nothing but corn and soy bean fields and the occasional stand of trees. The air was crisp, the sun was bright and the tunes flowed from my iPod.

Dunkirk, OH - Home of Hardin-Northern High School...and not much else.

Wait, they have a Dairy Dream. Keep the Dream alive!

With a little paint and a few throw pillows...

United Methodist Church

Disrepair

Kenton, OH - The county seat along the upper reaches of the Scioto River. Supposedly, there is a rather large Amish community in the area, but I didn't see any. Probably out harvesting. The one thing I noticed about downtown Kenton - you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a church steeple.

The Hi-Road Drive-In Theater just north of town

A fortress-like downtown building. Prepare the vat of boiling oil!

United Methodist Church

St. John's United Church of Christ

Church of the Immaculate Conception

First Reformed Church

Presbyterian Church

Kenton Depot

Let's go to The Bar. By the way, it was open

Gene Autry Park

Ada, OH - Home of Ohio Northern University and Wilson Sporting Goods, the only manufacturing plant that makes footballs for the NFL.

Ohio Northern University

ONU Campus

Golden symmetry

Downtown movie theater

Are you kidding? The Regal Beagle? I bet Jack and Chrissy and Janet are inside. Maybe Larry, too

All footballs used by the NFL are made here

The Maumee River Valley - NW Ohio

Built by General "Mad" Anthony Wayne

Last Sunday, I took advantage of a beautiful, mild, autumn day and took a roadtrip along the Maumee River. The Maumee flows northeast from the Ft. Wayne, IN area and dumps into Lake Erie at Toledo. My trip started in Defiance, OH where I traveled along the north side of the river through the towns of Independence, Florida, Napoleon and the ghost town of Providence. (A separate post on Providence is below.) At Providence, I crossed the river to the south side to the town of Grand Rapids.


Defiance, OH - Built up around the former Ft. Defiance, which was built during the Indian Wars of 1790-1795. At the confluence of the Maumee and Auglaize Rivers.

Marker on a bluff above the confluence

Site of Ft. Defiance

Independence, OH - small river town just east of Defiance on Rte. 424

Independence Dam State Park

Picnic shelter built by the Mexican Yes-Men

Florida, OH - East of Independence on Rte 424

Florida Public Library

Napoleon, OH - Home of the largest Campbell Soup plant in the world.

Hobbits in Napoleon?

Ritter Park

The shimmering Maumee

Henry County Courthouse

Grand Rapids, OH - Historic canal town that is now a tourist town with galleries, arts and crafts stores, etc.

Grand Rapids Town Hall

Downtown Grand Rapids

LaRoe's Bar and Restaurant

My meal of baked chicken, salad, honeydew melon and a 7&7 to wash it down

Every village needs an apothecary

The Isaac Ludwig Mill, looking across the river from Grand Rapids.

Isaac Ludwig Mill - Providence, OH

Isaac Ludwig Mill

Across the river from Grand Rapids is the ghost town of Providence. At one time, it was a stop on the Miami and Erie Canal that ran from Cincinnati to Toledo. The town was wiped out by a cholera epidemic in 1854 and never recovered. The mill and nearby canal lock are now part of the Toledo Metropark system and are operated by living historians in period costumes. The mill is both a sawmill and grist mill and the canal has an operational canal boat ride pulled by mules along a towpath.

Roller mills

Grain being fed into the grist mill

Mill stone

Roller mill up close

Flour packer

A smut separator. Yes, a smut separator

Flour bags of days gone by.

A GE hydroelectric power generator

Sawmill

Lathe

The office

Country strong

View from top floor of mill

RR bridge across the Maumee River

Miami and Erie Canal

Lock #44

Mule power

Canal boat coming trough the lock

Brattleboro, VT

Downtown Brattleboro

After leaving camp and spending a few days in Boston, I struck out towards Brattleboro, VT on a roundabout way to D.C. Brattleboro is in southeastern Vermont and sits on the Connecticut River at the mouth of the West River; New Hampshire is on the other side of the Connecticut River. The terrain in and around the city is quite hilly and forested. It has a population of roughly 12,000 and has a significant art community. The downtown area is peppered with galleries and other art-related shops. It also seemed to be peppered with a lot of aging hippies.

I must say, I was expecting a quainter atmosphere; it was kind of gritty. I did get a gigantic latte at Mocha Joe's on Main St. Good stuff. The Vermont town that impressed me more was Bennington, which is west of Brattleboro about half way to Albany, NY. Of course, I don't have pictures of Bennington, nor was I able to spend any time there. Just a feeling I got as I drove through. You'll have to take my word for it.

Hotel Brooks on Main St.

Bridge across the Connecticut River

Standard steeple

Old School...

Battle of the steeples

Top of the Hill Grill

Pulled pork sammich with baked beans, corn bread and slaw