Day 3: April 12, 2009 Home Through Amish Country

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Without Garmin, I navigated the old fashioned way and watched, not always successfully, for route markers. The planned route home was basically US-62 to US-22. South of Canton, that means Amish country. Three of the better known towns in the area are Winesburg, Berlin, and Millersburg. Winesburg, Ohio, was not the model for Sherwood Anderson's novel of that name. That was Clyde, Ohio; A town on Friday's path. There are a few antique shops in Winesburg but, for the most part, it looks like a real town.

Berlin is less like a town and more like a shopping mall.

Millersburg is the seat of Holmes County and remains a somewhat normal town. If you're trying to read the signs on the posts by the court house, this should help. Horses haven't been able to get a drink at the courthouse since the watering trough was removed in 1939. It's back but only as a decoration.

Just a few miles east of Danville, I was surprised by a sign proclaiming the "Longest Covered Bridge in Ohio". I'm not an authority but this didn't seem right to me. I turned around to check it out and there it was: the 370 foot "Bridge of Dreams" on the Mohican Valley Trail. It was once a railroad bridge but has been covered and converted to foot and horse traffic. When the "Bridge of Dreams" was dedicated in 1999, the longest covered bridge in the state that supported automobile traffic was a 234 foot bridge over the Grand River in Ashtabula County. That bridge was replaced in 2008 by a 613 foot wonder that not only regained the state title but took over the national title, too.

The signs in Danville show that the Amish Country Byway, a National Scenic Byway, uses part of US-62.

Construction detours played havoc with my attempts to follow US-62 signs through Columbus. I twice got caught in a circle before giving up and heading for I-71. I picked up Sixty-Two a few miles south of the city. Nothing new caught my eye on the way to Washington Court House where I switched to US-22. Nothing new or eye catching there, either, so I took a picture of something old and familiar. I turned off of the current US-22 to follow the Old 3-C Highway through Foster. I used to live in Foster and this was my view as I headed to work each morning.

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