Day 1 - New Old Ohio at DennyGibson.com

Day 1: May 28, 2016
Gay Nineties
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No new roads for me today but I did find a new breakfast spot. After following US-22 to Washington Court House, I filled up on bacon and eggs at Our Place. There was even a nice vintage Dodge parked out front although I don't know exactly what vintage.

OH-3 basically follows the old 3-C Highway. Between Cincinnati and Washington Court House it runs with US-22 and, at least near Cincinnati, locals refer to it as "twenty two three". In Washington Court House OH-3 jumps to US-62. Here is something I'd not noticed before and I don't know how true it is but it looks like where ever a single directional sign is used it goes with the orientation of that specific segment but when the routes get their own directional signs, as they do just beyond the Main Street Bridge in Columbus, US-22 gets the proper east-west designation. By the way, the full description of that one-sided bridge is "Inclined, Single-rib, tied steel arch, with steel box girder supports".

Along with the reopening of Ohio Village, Gallery 3 opened today with displays of various cataloging methods used by the Ohio History Connection. While I could see that different methods were being shown, I'm not sure whet they were or how they worked. Maybe I there was something more I needed to read or maybe the exhibition is still being tuned. I did manage to follow what I assumed was a geographic method the find Treaty of Greenville Calumet associated with my home county (Darke).

Just outside the museum, Ohio Village looked quite nice under beautiful skies and there was clearly a touch of the 1890s in the air.

In the village center, rides were available in a horse drawn wagon or folks could pedal themselves around the square on an adult sized tricycle.

Somewhat surprisingly, the village blacksmith shop was the only place I reached at the right time to hear much about the changes between the 1860s (when the village closed last fall) and the 1890s (when it reopened today). The smitty explained that some of his biggest sellers like hinges and nails had been undercut by mass produced products now available at the mercantile. On the other hand, people were more likely than they had been to spend money on some of his more decorative items. In addition, the smallish heads on those store-bought wire-cut nails tended to pull through soft wood so people building something to last were often willing to pay a premium for his handmade quality product. The blacksmith was also able to pick up some business repairing those new fangled bicycles the guy down the street was selling.

At the undertakers I learned that not too much had changed in the years between 1860 and 1890 and somethings haven't really changed much since then either. "I'm sure you don't want to bury your loving husband in a cheap pine box, do you mam?"

There was plenty of fun to be had in the '90s with music, dancing, and base ball. Unfortunately the ball game got delayed then canceled by rain. Just like in 2016.

Once it seemed likely that the rain was going to stay while, I slogged my way back to the museum and on to my car when a slack period arrived.

I passed very close to Dave Wickline's Roadhouse 66 and stopped in even though I knew Dave was in Indianapolis for the race. I'd barely arrived when what was probably the heaviest rain of the day hit. I held my self to one beer but I sipped it very slowly. The picture is from the car when I got in to leave.

I noticed a brewery an tap room down the street and drove back to check it out. Zaftig Brewing has been in business a couple of years and in this location exactly one week. The beer I sampled was good but these guys really go for the high powered stuff. Nothing under 7% ABV.

I found a brewery near my motel in Delaware, Ohio, that served food and beer with reasonable alcohol levels. Restoration Brew Worx has good beer, good food, two of the happiest tapmasters I've ever met, and some cool plumbing.

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