Today's drive was north, nearly every bit of it on Ohio route 42. We've ridden 42 (at different times) from Cleveland, Ohio to as far south as Ghent, Kentucky, but today, it was just a couple of hours' worth, between Waynesville ("The Antiques Capital Of Ohio," and home to the annual Sauerkraut Festival), near our house, up to just a hair past Plain City (I don't know what Plain City is famous for
), then right back down exactly the same way.
If yesterday's trip was a roller coaster road, today's could have been a drag strip for much of the way. Straight, straight, straight, with some minor turns here and there, and when I think of Ohio, it's this terrain I think of first.
Gentle, flat views over acre upon acre of corn, still green this time of year, but the tassels golden, field after field of it, broken up occasionally by a gang of grain elevators and smaller silos, a red barn or three and a white farmhouse always nearby.
Towns...Xenia (aka Tornado Magnet)...Wilberforce (home to two HBCU schools, in a town (not even a town or village, really) of about 1,500 people...Cedarville (good dessert pie shop)...South Charleston...London (Madison Correctional Institute, meaning state prison)...then Plain City.
First stop was a family-run butcher/deli/general store/lunch counter. Only four people allowed in at a time, though the sign on the door announced that couples counted as one, but they had to stay within two feet of each other.
Shelves about half-filled, though the frozen meats were well-stocked, but no lunches.
That was the farthest place out. We went there first, then retreated back, stopping at Der Dutchman Restaurant And Bakery, mainly for doughnuts.
My favorite bakery in the entire world, don't even have to think twice about it. Custard and fruit pies, filled doughnuts as long as your forearm, filled with cream as thick as cake frosting, iced apple butter bread, iced cinnamon raisin bread, fritters, cheese, whoopie pies, jams, relishes, homemade mush, it's a delight just to stand in there and let the sugar aroma tickle the nose hairs.
A dozen doughnuts (for freezing), and they wouldn't fit in our giant thermal bag, so I had to have them packed into smaller boxes and buy a thermal bag from them as well, and surrounded by ice to keep them cool. Mission accomplished.
Side note: we used to have a Der Dutchman about 10 minutes from our house where we live now. When I brought MrsTasty home to meet my parents in 1989, they took her there especially, because she said she liked "heavy German food," and for my folks at that time, that was a 75-minute drive each way; little did my wife and I guess that a dozen years later, we'd buy a house just down the road a piece.
Sadly, a few years ago, the Amish bakers pulled a London 1666 and burnt the place to the ground, and they chose not to rebuild.
They used to do a breakfast buffet that was ok, except they put out big plates of all their doughnuts, chopped into bite-sized pieces, so you could have a bit of this and a bit of that. We really miss that. We ate there at least once a week before the fire.
Der Dutchman - Walnut Creek, OH | Dutchman Hospitality
Doughnuts packed away, next stop was Yutzy's Farm Market. They're famous for their deli meat, and people come from an hour+ away, so there's always, always a line, but it's worth the wait. I like their sauces and condiments, though, and their produce is excellent.
Home - YUTZYS
I got some nice mustard and sandwich dressing there today.
Just down the road from Yutzy's is The Cheese House and the only place that has ice cream I like (though none for me today). We did get some cheese, of course, and some birch beer:
Deli Meat and Cheese Market | Homemade Gourmet Foods
After that, we were hungry, and there are three entrances to a state park with Native American burial mounds along the road; we stopped at the first one, the main entrance, but there were too many people there.
The second one proved much quieter. We were the only ones there. We dragged a picnic table to the shade, unpacked, sat down to eat our picnic...and a car showed up. Derpy dad with two screaming girls. Then another, and another, until by the time we finished, there were six noisy groups of picnic spoilers loping about. Usually, it's the insects that irritate you at a picnic...
Indian Mound Reserve – Greene County Parks & Trails
Next stop after that was the house. We were gone a little over five hours all told, and had a nice little haul of doughnuts and cheese and mustard.
Tomorrow...international market and the country's largest liquor store (for my elusive bottle of kirsch)
