Ohio

Ohio is known for Cincinnati chili, the tire industry and Devo in Akron, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. The Cincinnati Museum Center is in an art deco train station, and its natural history museum has a real cave filled with bats. In the town museum as well as the old church at Clyde, check out Sherwood Anderson memorabilia. This place served as the model for Winesburg, Ohio nearly 100 years ago. Hocking Hills State Park, south of Columbus near Athens, has streams and waterfalls, sandstone cliffs, and cavelike formations. It’s a great place for hiking and canoeing. The Hopewell Culture National Historical Park in Chillicothe chronicles the ancient Hopewell people and the mounds they built in various Midwestern locations. A visit to Lehman’s, an old-fashioned sort of hardware store in Kidron, will teach you everything you need to know about Amish technology, electricity-free; there are wind-up flashlights, wood-burning stoves, and hand-cranked meat grinders.

Burgers, chili, and spaghetti and beans are popular dishes in Ohio. However, you can get mushroom burgers too. Have some goetta, an authentic Cincinnati sausage made of pork, oats, onions, and herbs, in a vegan version in a few select places if you wish, or country-fried steak cooked up by Amish folks. You can find locally-sourced German food in Columbus; the freshest catch fried up for you in Sandusky, between Cleveland and Toledo on the bay; or dishes made with organic vegetables, grass-fed meat, and cheeses from the farm at a cafe in Athens. Sophisticated seasonal cuisine is available in Yellow Springs, and you can get Polish to Middle Eastern and many things in between in Cleveland. For the ultimate farm-to-table experience, watch cows get milked before you eat the resulting ice cream and buttermilk fried chicken!