Road trip: Driving through vacations in Ohio

June 5, 2010

Interestate 80 is not the scenic route.

This past Memorial Day weekend roughly 28 million people drove around the United States, according to AAA. Some even had destinations in mind when they pulled out of their driveway.

Make that 28,000,002.

Sunday, we took a road trip from Detroit to Cleveland — mostly to check out the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (review to come later) — and see if Cleveland’s downtown had more to offer than Detroit’s. (Sadly, it was just as abandoned, though much cleaner, kind of like a vacant hotel room, more on that later too.)

Ohio's top speed.

First of all, if you have to drive anywhere, avoid Ohio. The police are everywhere and the

Top notch, clean and safe service centers. Where's the charm?

speed limit randomly changes from 65 mph to

60 mph to 55 mph at sudden whims. Though orange barrels along the road side take care of any other speeders.

Ohio feels more like a drive through state than anything else.

It’s that empty land between Frankfurt and Prague but it’s not Frankfurt and Prague, it’s Cleveland and Toledo.

It’s where people stop for gas and never venture off the highway too far in fear of being in The Hills Have Eyes IV or losing time from a carefully calculated trip.In fact most tourists end up

The drive from Detroit to Cleveland includes about 1 million orange barrels

in Ohio in route to somewhere else — and they’ve got the silver plated spoon and Ohio t-shirts to prove they actually did drive through.

Of course, the state is very accommodating. You don’t even have to get off the highway to fuel up at some the cleanest Service Centers in the nation.

But sadly, these service centers lack the dusty trail charm of a true road side diner. Instead, it’s a collection of chains — Burger King, Starbucks and that pizza chain I can never spell, starts with an S and reminds me of Tora, Tora, Tora.

And that’s the trade off — save time and see nothing but a service center. Maybe Robert Frost was a little more right — the road less traveled may make all the difference.

Inside the service center.

There may be something comfortable about these places for some travelers — a taste of home, or something around the corner, but it’s extremely boring.

In fact, it doesn’t matter where you stop, all of the service centers look exactly the same (we stopped at two just to take a look) though we do think there were different people in them.

On the road, watch out. People in Ohio drive with the Midwestern weave, unable to maintain a straight line for more than 30 seconds. They kind of swerve from side to side as they text their friends, talk on the phone or just lazily try to entertain themselves while on the the open road.

Barn, field, bus -- a common scene along the highway.

The reason for that is, while Ohio is a true slice of Americana, it is a boring ride. The section of Interstate 80 we cruised \rests on the edge of Lake Erie so it’s as flat as a ruler. The only vistas you’ll come across are of the occasional barn.

There may be some romance to the rural life, but when you’re hitting 70 mph, you don’t get much of a look at it — and there weren’t enough exits to explore it.

Photos by Vikki Stenstream.