Listing Through Life

We were in Canton. We wanted to be in Columbus. In between were three counties I’d never been in. We were in no hurry. I decided to try something new. I picked three small towns, one in each county. I set my GPS on the first and followed it wherever it led. When we got there, I typed in the second one and did the same, and then traveled to the third the same way. The towns were Berlin, Coshocton and Martinsburg.

We traveled the entire way on two-lane roads and some of the way on roads so narrow that there were no lane markings at all. For at least an hour, we saw more Amish buggies than we saw cars.

The landscape was a rolling mix of fields and wood lots and tidy farms and small towns. It was the most pleasant drive I’ve taken in a long time. The only bad part was that all the amazing-looking bakeries and food markets and antique stores we passed were closed because it was Sunday.

All those closed bakeries and cheese shops made us hungry. When we got to Columbus, we headed for Flip Side, a restaurant that specializes in burgers and milk shakes. My cheeseburger, onion rings and blueberry pie shake were all very, very good.

On a hill alongside the McKinley Presidential Museum was the memorial where William and Ida are buried.

The statue of McKinley was modeled after a photograph taken of him in Buffalo, New York shortly before he was shot.

Also buried in the memorial are the McKinley’s two daughters, both of whom died when very young.

There was a sign outside telling about the symbolism of the memorial. I had glanced at it and walked away. My wife was still looking when a young man approached her rather aggressively. I headed back over to see what was going on, but apparently he just wanted to inform her that he had once seen a photo in which the grassy expanse below the stairs used to be a pool of water. A careful reading of the sign proved him correct.

The whole time we were there, a steady parade of exercisers ran up the stairs, circled the memorial and ran back down, over and over.

This museum in Canton was very strange and very interesting.

There was an exhibit on McKinley, with a lot of artifacts — and talking statues of William and Ida.

McKinley’s house in Canton which has been torn down.

This was all well and good. But there was also an exhibit on dinosaurs.

And one with live animals, like parakeets.

And a hands-on science area with a tornado.

An exhibit on fashion.

A model train exhibit.

And a room with all sorts of odd stuff, like a giant paper mache lady created for a carnival ride.

And a chair we could sit in and be lifted up by a vacuum cleaner — or so we were told.

My favorite part was a row of storefronts. I’ve long thought it would be fun to buy on old barn or warehouse and build a town like this inside with each store being a different room of the house.

In the fire station, there was a pole I could slide down.

It was very eclectic and odd, but well done and fun.