It’s mid-December, and my wife Karen and I are traveling Interstate 75 to Ann Arbor, Mich. The morning sky is wrapped in a blanket woven with multiple shades of gray. Our hearts, however, are like sunshine, glowing with anticipation of the day’s activities. A good day to be on the move.
A few miles south of Bowling Green, a thought occurs to me: “Is Motawi Tileworks open on Monday?” Karen checked and said they were closed. A bit of a letdown for sure, but better to know then before driving another hour or so and deal with major disappointment at their doorstep.
Our reason for the trip was to visit Motawi to pick out some of their beautiful handcrafted art tiles to give as gifts.
Time for Plan B. After breakfast at the Waffle House in Bowling Green, Karen suggested we follow state Route 25, formerly known as the Dixie Highway, as it heads south out of the city on Main Street to make our way home to Lima. Being the inveterate wanderers we are, it sounded like a good idea.
I’ve lived in Lima nearly half a century, and best I can recall I’ve never worn the tires on this section of said road. If you’ve resided in this part of Ohio for any length of time, you have an idea how flat the terrain is. To be sure, there are wrinkles here and there that break up the topography, but they are sometimes only visible with discerning eyes.
The rich farmland we were traversing overlays limestone bedrock formed in an ancient sea. The lay of the land as we know it was then scoured and graded by the massive weight and force of glaciers during the Pleistocene Ice Age.
We approached the village of Portage, one of those places where if you blink once you might miss it. OK, in this case you might have five to eight blinks. Later research would show that the namesake of the Portage River was platted in 1836, with a post office in operation since 1829. I didn’t see it or a local watering hole, but I’ll take a closer look next time. The 2020 Census figures reveal a population of 398 residents.
South of town we cross the nondescript north and middle branches of the Portage River which are then joined by the more easterly south branch to make a full-fledged river that empties into Lake Erie near Port Clinton.
At midday there is little traffic on the mostly four-lane road, which makes reading the landscape a bit safer. Off to the east, I notice exposed limestone walls which indicate a past or present quarrying operation. I wonder if there is evidence of ancient sea life in the rock layers?
The Dixie comes to an end at Cygnet Road, which intersects 1-75. For years I’ve been driving by the exit for Cygnet and never had the inclination to check it out. Always someplace else to get to, I guess.
A drive east on Front Street reveals a plumbing business, a volunteer fire department, a church and empty storefronts. Once an oil boom town, a fire in 1891 caused significant damage to the village, and a nitroglycerin explosion in 1897 killed at least six people, according to Wikipedia. Census figures for 2020 show the village population at 543.
But the village name has me wondering: a cygnet is a young swan. Were there large numbers of wild swans in the region when the place was platted in 1883?
My curiosity about the world extends to trains, and as we made our way home I wanted to stop at North Baltimore to investigate CSX Transportation’s Intermodal Transfer Terminal west of town. The facility, which handles hundreds of thousands of shipping containers yearly, is located on CSX’s east-west mainline, carrying containers on stack trains to and from East Coast ports, Chicago and other locations. It is also a transfer point for trucks picking up and dropping off containers.
Seven cranes do the lifting, and I am ever curious as to the content of those containers. Most likely, products we use every day.
It was time to head for Lima, but not until we exited the interstate at Findlay so I could get an old-fashioned chocolate soda at Dietsch Brothers ice cream shop. As we drew closer, the store in my sights, it hit me: “They are closed on Mondays!” Why didn’t I remember that from a past experience. Oh well.
It was a good day as we made our way on roads never traveled, learning more about Northwest Ohio. We did go to Ann Arbor on Wednesday with the first stop being Motawi Tileworks.
Reminder to self: Call first to make sure you know what a store’s business hours are before venturing forth.
Phil Hugo lives in Lima. His column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Lima News editorial board or AIM Media, owner of The Lima News.
