Well, we pushed back from the gate about half an hour behind the original departure time of 0600 on our way to Ohio. We made it to Circleville just 20 miles south of Columbus round about 1600 where we needed to stop for a bottle.
Daddy has always been big into geography and navigation. As a form of entertainment when done with his schoolwork during the third grade (at Douglas MacArthur Elementary in Ft. Leavenworth, KS), he had this habit of going to the encyclopedias and reading the maps. OK, so he’s a geek with a geographical bent…he’d have no time owning up to it. So for those fellow geeks out there who want the best flight plan from Clayton to CMH (Columbus, OH), here it is:
- US-70 west (briefly) to I-40 west to Business-40 just east of Winston-Salem near Kernersville.
- Business-40 west to US-52 north in downtown Winston-Salem
- US-52 north to Mount Airy (of Mayberry fame) to I-74 west
- I-74 west to I-77 north just south of the Virginia border. I-77 will be our companion through Virginia (joining briefly with I-81 at Wytheville) and most of West Virginia (joining with I-64 near Beckley). I-77 in West Virginia is a toll road so have $1.25 available for each of three stops.
- Just west of Charleston, West Virginia, take I-64 west to the nuclear plant.
- Take US-35 north through Winfield and Point Pleasant into Ohio with waypoints at Gallipolis, Jackson, and Chilicothe (the first capital of Ohio!).
- Take US-23 north to Columbus via Circleville (make sure you stop at Renick’s farmer’s market and have a slushy…during the summer it’s lemonade but we got apple cider…and it was wonderful!).
- Take I-270 round the western edge of Columbus to the north side of town to the suburbs of Worthington/Westerville.
Total flight time was close to 12 hours but that was due to a couple of stops including an extended brunch at Princeton’s Cracker Barrel just over the West Virginia state line and occasional stops for Nicholas (and the farmer’s market, mea culpa!). Total time actually in flight was closer to nine to 9-½ hours which really isn’t bad considering how far across the country we were travelling.
The scenery along the way was outstanding, particularly from Pilot Mountain (a very distinctive formation, a mountain in the middle of nowhere with a big knob at the top) and through Virginia, West Virginia, and southeastern Ohio. The leaves were about a week away from peak (and we’d catch them even better on the way back!) and I’ve always loved mountains and the tunnels.
Speaking of Nicholas, he has been an outstanding traveler on the trips we’ve taken to the beach. This was his first really long time in the Escape and for the most part, he slept through the flight plan. When he was awake, the only times he got prickly were the normal times when you don’t get the bottle in his mouth fast enough or you have to take it out for a burp! In other words, pretty much status quo! 🙂
He was a pretty happy baby otherwise and was definitely in a playful and talkative mood when he was awake.
He put on cute baby mode in full force when we arrived at Patrick and Suzette’s house in Westerville (a very beautiful suburb of Columbus with a surplus of parks and common spaces, a rarity in urban areas…it seems rather like the Cary of Columbus without the idiot ordinances and regulations of Cary).
This was our first visit with Mairin Elizabeth and she is definitely a cutie and a snuggler. Unfortunately, she’s probably going to be stuck with the nickname Squeaks for the rest of her life as she’s into squeaking and squealing when she wants attention. We love you Mairin, but we can’t really help it. 🙂
Patrick did a wonderful job on the hospitality front with pizza from a local chain called Donato’s which was apparently taken over by McDonalds at some point (when Daddy heard this, he couldn’t help but have an image of a McDonald’s fry cook staring at a pizza oven in bewilderment). That Founder’s Choice is pretty decent and is a good way to top off a long day of traveling.
