Author: Simon Ashworth

The first time we tried it, the kids were already in fleece pajamas and half asleep in the back seat. Ten minutes later they were…

The road dips, the trees close in, and suddenly a wooden roof appears over a quiet river in the middle of Ohio. We only meant…

A gravel shoulder, a short walk, and suddenly the ground just drops away into a green gorge you never saw coming. That was the moment…

I pulled off the highway in Ohio expecting a quick stretch of the legs and maybe a shady bench for my sandwich. Instead, I ended…

The plan was just coffee and a quick stretch of the legs on a long Ohio drive. Then a plain little donut counter handed over…

The first time I pulled into an Ohio state park cabin loop, I expected a plain room and a gravel lot. What I got was…

The first clue was a gravel lot packed with minivans on a plain weekday morning in Ohio. Inside, the air smelled like hickory and the…

The parking lot was bigger than the town seemed to need, and that was the first clue. We only pulled off the road in Ohio…

We only pulled off the road because the kids needed a stretch and a snack break. Twenty minutes later, all of us were standing inside…

We only stopped because the kids needed a bathroom and somebody mentioned pie. Hours later, we were still wandering, arms full of fresh corn, a…

The first time I pushed a cart past a pallet of dented soup cans in rural Ohio, I expected leftovers and found a full week…

The parking lot was full, and that was the first clue. We had pulled off a quiet Ohio road on a Sunday just past noon,…

My ten-year-old asked who Elvis was about halfway through our drive, and I realized a music museum might be a tough sell. I figured a…

A twenty-minute boat ride across Lake Erie does not usually promise anything more dramatic than wind in your hair and a gull or two. Then…

The plan was just to find a place for the kids to burn off energy, and a farm in northeast Ohio seemed simple enough. Nobody…

The plan was simple: find a hot afternoon escape with air conditioning and a bench. Instead, my kids ended up with their faces pressed to…

The GPS said to turn onto a narrow country road, and honestly, I almost kept driving. What waited at the end was a big barn…

A hand-painted sign, a gravel lot, and the smell of fresh donuts were all it took to turn a random fall drive into a favorite…

The first cold snap in Ohio changes everything about a weekend drive. Hillsides that looked like one green blur all summer suddenly separate into maples,…

A gravel-shouldered exit off an eastern Ohio interstate doesn’t promise much, and that’s exactly why this stop lands so hard. Behind an ordinary brick entrance…

A wrong turn on a two-lane Ohio road once landed me beside a wooden fence where a pair of enormous draft horses were being harnessed…

A wrong turn down a park road in Ohio once led me to the sound of rushing water and the low groan of wooden gears…

My first scoop of gummy bears into a paper bag happened by accident, during a wrong turn down an Ohio back road that ended at…

Driving north on a flat stretch of western Ohio highway, you might notice a low white mound rising out of a field like something dropped…

The first cool morning of the year in Ohio always sends me looking for a gravel parking lot with a hand-painted apple sign out front….

A quiet residential street in western Ohio hides something you would never guess from the sidewalk: a whole miniature world made of creek stones, concrete,…

Driving the two-lane roads of southern Ohio, you pass a lot of hay fields and hand-painted produce signs before anything makes you slow down. Then…

The smell of hot oil and cornmeal breading hits you before you even reach the door, and suddenly a two-hour drive across Ohio feels like…

There is a stretch of northwest Ohio where the river bends wide and the road narrows to a shady two-lane, and if you slow down…

Most of the time, walking in the woods in Ohio means looking up at the trees. There’s one spot northeast of Cleveland where you do…

There’s a spot in Ohio where you can stand on a small island, look up, and see a stone column taller than most buildings in…

Driving the back roads of eastern Ohio, you pass a lot of barns, a lot of hay wagons, and every so often a parking lot…

The first cold snap in Ohio always feels like a countdown clock. One week you are standing in a gravel lot with a cone melting…

The smell hits you before the door even closes behind you: warm cocoa, roasted nuts, a little caramel underneath. I wasn’t expecting much from a…

The first thing that caught my attention was the music, drifting out of a building I had walked past without a second thought. Inside, a…

The plan was a quick stop for a soda and maybe a screwdriver. Two and a half hours later, I was still wandering past cast…

A rainy Saturday and a restless back seat once sent me looking for anything indoors in Ohio, and what I found was a counter where…

Somewhere in southeast Ohio, tucked into a small downtown block that most travelers drive straight past on their way to the hiking trails, there is…

There is a certain kind of sandwich in Ohio that makes you laugh out loud when the plate lands in front of you. The pork…

A wrong turn down a gravel lane in northeast Ohio can end with wooden beams overhead and a creek murmuring below. This corner of the…

Some of the best stops in Ohio are the ones nobody plans for. You’re halfway through a long drive, half-thinking about lunch, and then something…

Somewhere in southwest Ohio, there is a supermarket where the shopping carts have cup holders and a retired amusement park monorail sits parked outside like…

Somewhere on the east side of a working-class Ohio city sits a cafe where the walls are covered in autographed hot dog buns and the…

Somewhere in central Ohio, behind the columns of an old post office, there is a room where the air smells faintly of butter and the…

Somewhere along a two-lane road in Ohio, past fields cut into neat rectangles and mailboxes with no names on them, the smell of warm sugar…

Learning to ride a bike gets a lot easier when the ground stays level and nothing with an engine comes anywhere near you. Ohio happens…

Somewhere between a gas station coffee and the next exit sign, Ohio starts hiding water where you least expect it. You can park, walk a…

Somewhere along a narrow riverbank road in southwest Ohio, the trees open up and a stone tower appears where absolutely no stone tower should be….

Somewhere between a gas station and a cornfield in Ohio, a giant white screen appears out of nowhere, and suddenly the evening has a plan….

There is a very specific sound that tells you cheese is fresh, and once you hear it, grocery store bags never taste the same again….

Somewhere in eastern Ohio, a small brick depot sits along a working rail line, and stepping inside feels like walking into 1943. I expected a…

Somewhere between a rainy Saturday and a stack of unpaid bills, I started hunting for places in Ohio where my kids could run wild without…

Somewhere in central Ohio, a few ordinary streets get taken over once a year by a smell you can follow with your eyes closed: hot…

September in Ohio has a strange habit of feeling like a second summer, with warm afternoons showing up long after the pool towels have been…

Somewhere in northwest Ohio, there is a five-acre patch of gray shale where a kid can pick up a rock, split it open, and hold…

Somewhere along the northern edge of Ohio, the road runs out and the water takes over. What looks like a quick photo stop turns into…

Some of the best walking in Ohio happens in the first half mile, before anyone’s socks slide down or the snacks run out. I learned…

Somewhere in southwestern Ohio, a two-lane road rolls past cornfields and then, without warning, delivers you to a parking lot full of families holding waffle…

Winter in Ohio has a way of shrinking everyone’s world down to the living room couch. But there’s a whole circuit of resorts across the…

Gray skies have a way of ruining plans, especially when you have a kid who wakes up with a full tank of energy. Ohio happens…