This picture is from my 2020 Corner to Corner to Corner II trip. The corners involved are the southwest and northeast corners of Ohio and the II identifies this as a repeat of an earlier outing. The first Corner to Corner to Corner was in 2001. It was just the third trip documented on this site and was partially a practice run for a much larger trip that would follow in four months. Similarly, this trip, the first of the COVID-19 riddled 2020, could be considered a test run for a larger trip planned for two months in the future. Pretty much by coincidence, the larger trip being prepared for in both instances was a retrace of a trip taken by my great-grandparents in 1920. In what was perceived as a way to limit exposure to COVID, the trip was organized around two nights at a motel near Medina. I reached the motel on the first day by following US-42 north and returned home on the third day by following OH-3/3C Highway south. in between I followed those same roads in and out of Cleveland and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Trip Peeks are short articles published when my world is too busy or too boring for a current events piece to be completed in time for the Sunday posting. In addition to a photo thumbnail from a completed road trip, each Peek includes a brief description of that photo plus links to the full-sized photo and the associated trip journal.
If I maintained a list of questions I frequently ask myself, “Why another Route 66 book?”, would be high on the list. I have never arrived at a reason that another one is actually needed; only justifications for ones at hand. Those justifications generally take the form of answers to two questions. They are, “What makes this book different from all others?”, and “Why should I buy it?” In practice, I ask them in the reverse order which means that, if I don’t have a good reason to buy a book, I’ll probably never get around to discovering what, if anything, makes it different.
Although not of the coffee table variety, this is first and foremost a photo book. It contains upward of a hundred photographs, in color, printed on good quality semi-gloss paper. They are primarily documentary photos. That does not mean that they are boring, but it does mean that properly recording each subject is the main goal. The book is certainly not without its share of creative composition, but there are no abstract-light-patterns-on-pavement style pictures. There are usually two or more photos on a page for a max size somewhere around 5.5 by 3.5 inches. That might keep you from displaying it on your coffee table, but it is plenty big enough to show off bridges, buildings, and signs.
Yes, the pictures are cool and those of some fairly obscure places enlightening, but it is the words that made me happy with my purchase. The histories of most of the pictured buildings are told. Some are reasonably well known and available elsewhere, but Miller’s telling is both complete and concise. Others are not so well known, and I’ve little doubt that Miller’s aforementioned sleuthing ability brought out some details and possibly some entire stories. Maybe others knew all those details about the schools of Valentine, but I sure didn’t, and the story of the Ostermans and Peach Springs was all new to me. There are other examples of what I take to be sleuthing in the book, and all of them add to my appreciation of it.