Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
For a week I've been riding the county and town roads that you can discover only on
local maps; they crisscross the landscape like netting—narrow lanes through corn and
soybean fields, past suburban-style farmhouses, formidable barns and silos, and a re-
markable number of small cemeteries. In Wauseon, Ohio, I noticed the mailboxes for the
houses across the street from the graveyard were alongside the graveyard, as though the
occupants beneath certain headstones are still getting their phone bills.
The challenge is finding your way through the maze of roads, trying to avoid the
more heavily trafficked direct routes between population centers like Sturgis, Michigan,
and Mansfield, Ohio. I zigzagged to stay on the empty routes, passing through villagey
places like Centreville, Michigan; Orland, Indiana; and Centerton, Ohio, where horses
were likely to be grazing in side yards. In slightly bigger towns—Whitehouse, Ohio, for
