Day 31 Freemont, IN to Ashtabula, Oh

Our plans for today included the nominal goal of traversing most of Ohio from west to east, stopping for the night in the Lake Erie town of Ashtabula, a few miles south of the Pennsylvania border.  The off the beaten path adventures planned included a visit to Satek winery in Indiana that Gloria had spied while looking for a shortcut around the barricaded approach to our hotel, a trip to the Tiffin Glass Museum in north/central Ohio about 150 miles from our hotel in Idaho, a trip to Seneca Caves not far from Tiffin, and the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential library we had noted was on the road to Tiffin. 

Readers of this blog won’t be surprised that we didn’t make all four, or that the two we chose were the winery and the museum. But leaving out the others wasn’t our fault, honest we just ran out of time. We left the hotel late, 10:00 am because the winery store didn’t open to then and it was only ten minutes away.  When we arrived it looked like we were going to need to settle for this picture of  me next to a bottle sculpture by the locked door.  However, a few minutes of pounding on the glass produced the contrite owner who let us in.

Here is Gloria taking full advantage to the offer to taste ten of Satek's signature wines. I was the designated driver of the day.  They carded her! Their wines are a cut above the ordinary and prices are a few dollars lower than I would expect to pay for wine of this quality, definitely worth a look if you are in the area.

After buying a half dozen bottles we asked if we could visit the work room where some wine was being bottled.  Shean, at the machine, says that the back of his head is one of the most photographed objects in the county.

We loaded up our purchases and were off to cross a corner of Michigan (our first foray) that looked a lot like Ohio, where we spent the balance of the day.  Today was another off the map free for all where we made our own route to Tiffin, allowing the GPS to guide us only for the last couple of miles. 

The Tiffin Glass Museum and gift shop were staffed today by two volunteers, one of whom spent several hours introducing us to the extensive collection of glass produced by the now defunct Tiffin factories. Our guide was very knowledgeable and backed up by a modest collection of books and documents containing the history of these items. 

The gift store contained a large number of Tiffin glass objects for sale, most on consignment from area collectors.  We learned that the town of Tiffin is also home to two universities, several other museums, a restored theatre, and other attractions. Tiffin was definitely worth the drive.  This is another of those destinations that is worth a day or two, rather than the three hours we had. 

Regrettably we overstayed in Tiffin and road construction delayed us on the way in and  back.  At Gloria’s urging (she is really becoming somewhat of a daredevil) I took a shortcut down a road with a big “Road Closed” sign in front of it, skirted around the construction crews who no doubt now have a dim view of the literacy skills and judgment of Connecticut drivers.  However, the route worked and we were soon blissfully cruising along country road 303 across north Ohio, avoiding the interstates and moving east at 55 mph with little traffic.  Of course that doesn’t include countless little and some not so little towns we crossed as we approached the southern limits of Cleveland all of which had 35mph speed limits through their town centers. 

We arrived at Ashtabula after 8 in the evening.  This is the first time we had to refuse a room because it was unclean.  A replacement was found quickly.

Tomorrow we are looking forward to some more vineyards and the Jello Museum near Rochester, NY and whatever else we find along the way.