Day 1: December 22, 2019
Crossing Ohio

Comment via blog

Previous Day
Prev
Next Day
Next
Site Home
Trip Home

Once I decided where I was going, how to get there was a no-brainer. US-22 passes about a quarter mile from my home and about half a mile from the motel where I would be staying in Steubenville. It also passes within a couple miles of where my daughter lives and right in front of the historic General Denver Hotel In Wilmington, Ohio. A breakfast meet up was quickly arranged. When I asked Meg what she liked there, her answer was Eggs Rainier. Now I like it, too.

This empty diner is just up the road in Sabina. It's kind of special to me as it was the subject of the first article I had published in American Road Magazine. It was even more special to Kim Starr who searched for, relocated, and restored the 1946 Silk City in 2003 to make a dream come true. Family health issues forced the diner to close and subsequent attempts to revive it have only been successful for short periods.

After driving alongside the diner to get a side view, I continued through a bit of Sabina and saw the petrobilia covered garage for the first time.


Like that city on the east coast, this building is so nice they named it twice. It's the Washington Court House courthouse.

In Zanesville, I stopped at my favorite ice cream bowl and bought my normal pound of mixed nuts. I didn't get to photograph them being weighed because several bags had been filled in advance. I guess the combination is pretty popular at Christmas plus the folks at Tom's were pretty busy weighing out candy.

The Y Bridge Brewing Company might not look much like a brewery on the outside but inside... it doesn't look much like one in some spots either. Owner/brewermaster Ray is a sci-fi fan who commissioned the wall painting after purchasing the chainsawed alien from an artist on US-22. It really is a brewery, though.

I took the last picture as I prepared to turn left in the middle of the Muskingum River.


It's been a long time since I've driven US-22 east of Cambridge and I had forgotten how much I like it. It has so far been spared the widening and other improvements much of the route has seen. Until the last fifteen or so miles getting to Steubenville, it is still two-lane, winding, and -- in a midwest rolling farmland sort of way -- scenic.

The Steubenville Nutcracker Village & Advent Market has the largest collection of people sized nutcrackers in the world. The drummer is outside the village as are quite a few of the 150+ locally made nutcrackers. I'll check out more of those in the daylight tomorrow. Same with many in the village as I made just one pass and photographed only a few including one who looks exactly like my sailor son.

I'd picked Steubenville for a visit because of its inclusion on several holiday attractions lists. I knew I had previously heard of the nutcracker display and was reminded of that when one of the Butrims (Anna and Joe) shared a memory of their 2018 visit. A chat followed and Joe sent me his pre-trip scouting report which included a recommendation for the Naples Spaghetti House. I might have found the Spaghetti House on my own (Dean Martin used to eat here.) but there was more. I'm a lasagna kind of guy and, with "Baked Homemade Lasagna" on the menu, that's probably what I would have ordered. But Joe said "...the meatballs, OH, the meatballs are seriously to die for." Joe knows meatball. Delizioso!

ADDENDUM: Jan 3, 2020 - I'm guessing that most readers are old enough to remember the Bo Jackson commercials and I hope some caught the "Joe knows..." joke, but just in case: Bo & Bo.


Dessert was waiting at the motel. Ovenmaster Mary stopped by last night with a lovely box of Christmas treats. One gingerbread person vanished with not a crumb left behind.

[Prev] [Site Home] [Trip Home] [Contact] [Next]
democrat