Day 10 - Battle Creek, MI to Cuyahoga Falls, OH

At last we had a short driving day. So we slept in late, had a quick bowl of cereal and were on the road at 9:04. First stop was Starbucks for a Mocha and Americano. Surprised? Next up was a car wash to get 10 states worth of bugs removed from the grill and hood. That done we were off on Interstates 94 and 69 east and south to Indiana. Once across the border we found are way to Interstate 80/90 and again headed east. Ok I missed the turn onto 80/90, but took only minutes to recover.

Interstate 80/90 is not a freeway. There is nothing free about it. It’s a toll road to the tune of $12.30 today and more tomorrow. And most of the time the road surface is not as good as the free roads. So where does the money go? My guess is the big fancy Plazas found along the way. And what do I mean by big and fancy? First of all they are huge. And they have a Starbucks. And a Burger King. And a bakery. And four or so other eating establishments. Kinda like food court at the mall. And there may be as much as 30 or 40 miles between them.

Along our way we passed Toledo, Ohio. Some might think the Toledo Scale was manufactured in Toledo, thereby giving the town a certain measure of notoriety in the weights and measures community. But alas, Toledo Scale was based in Columbus, Ohio.

Further on we came across Sandusky, Ohio, which received a plug from Charles Dickens in his book American Notes. He described the town as “sluggish and uninteresting enough…” How could Dickens have known that one day Sandusky’s Cedar Point Amusement Park would have the largest collection of roller coasters in the world?

Arriving in the Akron area we headed to my cousin’s home in Cuyahoga Falls, where we caught up on the last 20 years worth of news. We also shared old family photographs and what Barb and I had found in Iowa. Then off to dinner. Barb had to good sense to order something other than Italian. I didn’t.

Tomorrow should be another slow day. I hope to find a Best Buy and replace the two, yes two, lens caps I’ve lost. And with a Honda dealer next to the motel, I might just get an oil change. 299 miles today.