Fall Odyssey 2006

September 25, 2006--Heath, OH to Marietta, OH (130 mi)

It was another late start today. I was up at 8:30am but didn't get out the door until 10:30am because I was caught up in some important, relevant film called: "City Slickers II" on HBO. Damn those Super 8 Motel pimps for sucking me in like that with their alluring wares. Jeez!

My first stop today was a pre-planned visit to the Longaberger Company headquarters building in Newark, OH (see photo of "basket-bldg" above). This is one of the coolest structures I've ever seen. It may well be one of the nuttiest things I've ever seen as well, but salutaions ARE unquestionably due to SOMEbody out there that said: "we are BUILDING this giant basket-shaped office tower no matter WHAT you say!" Yes!!

I briefly toured the interior atrium of the Longaberger office basket and chatted with the concierge lady for a while about the construction of the place. I was in my final year of engineering school when I read an ENR magazine article about this structure. I was fascinated then by someone's audacious vision. My friend Deidra here in Colorado used to be a sales rep for Longaberger, so I learned all about the "basket company" before this roadtrip. What an amazing rags to riches story Longaberger is--made me want to shout: "you GO Basket Man! Make your dreams come true!" Man you can get rich doing almost ANYthing--except everything that I've been involved with in the past.

You'd think I'd could have called it quits at the giant basket building, but no, I had to travel onward to the Longaberger Homestead in Frazeysburg, OH (see photos below). I needed MORE weaving-themed fun! I did cut the Homestead tour brief though. I felt a little out of place around the senior women that shuffled by me that were out with their senior women pals hoping to buy more basket merchandise for their homes. I just felt plain silly. But first I had to see the gargantuan basket-making factory where all the English majors work. It was very cool indeed (see photo below). My only Longaberger purchase wound up being a very pricey chocolate milkshake that I procured at the big, alluring white barn place (see photo below). I took two spoonfuls, however, and pitched it in the trash--it sucked. So, that was the Longaberger spectacle. I did enjoy walking around their grounds on such a perfect blue sky day though. I left there by about 1:45pm and headed south/SE along Hwy 60 toward the much anticipated Ohio River Roads. After a Jiffy Lube pit stop in Zanesville, OH I noticed something I wouldn't have imagined existed: a Route 666--the Devil's Hwy! Interestingly, I noted the "Zane Casket Company" on Furnace Street & Hwy 666. Bet they garner some promising business with that address, eh: location, location, location.This Hwy 666 detour turned out to be a great find. This was truly one of the most beautifully, lush stretches of American scenery I've witnessed to date. I especially enjoyed the tiny, one-laned train bridge underpass along the Devil's Route that spirited the spraypainted slogan: "Repent and Accept Christ". A traveler is more likely to experience a head-on collision here at this location than to find Christ. The Route 666 neighborhood locals should start praying for a wider train bridge underpass--think of all those senior folks coming by trying to navigate their giant motorcoaches through Hell's Underpass here. Good Hell!After playing on the Devil's Route for a while I turned around and continued south along Hwy 60 between Zanesville and Marietta, OH. This is beautiful country. I was knocked out by nearly every vista I experienced in south-eastern Ohio in general: wow indeed. The photo at the very top of this entry shows a farm near Neelysville, OH along Hwy 60. No photo can do justice to the splendor I traveled past, but I snapped a few nonetheless.

On a side note, I began noticing that EVERY town in the eastern U.S., no matter how diminuative in size, possessed both a Dairy Queen AND a Dollar General. Some towns didn't even seem to have a Post Office, but townspeople everywhere were never denied nearby access to Dilly Bars and 72 cent bags of assorted color balloons. I love that about America. And, yes, that IS my car out in front of that Duncan Falls, Ohio Dollar General (see photo below). I stopped at the Duncan Falls DQ (below) for a chocolate/M&M Blizzard before pushing further south along Hwy 60--as you can see it was a good day for a treat. One other footnote: DQ consistently hires the cutest counter girls in the Free World--I fell in love for 5 minutes at each DQ counter between Denver and NYC along the way. I salute you DQ--you provide essential calcium for my bones and tears of joy to my lonesone traveling eyes: thank you and god bless.
I decided to stop for the night in Marietta, OH right on the Ohio River. I arrived in town at 6:30pm while it was yet light out and I scoped-out the very cool riverside Lafayette Hotel which was reportedly built in 1898. I checked into Room 505 on the top floor facing the Ohio River. It made me ever so happy to discover a DQ (see photo below) highlighting the riverside vista from my top floor vantage point. God Bless America.I went on a little evening walk across the bridge into Williamstown, West Virginia after checking into my room. It was a quiet and pretty evening to find myself in such a setting. Very cool indeed. I kept my hotel room window open all night because I wanted to listen to the boats pass by below. This made me sleep with one eye kinda' open all night, but there was a certain bliss to every moment of that night