[35mm Ohio] Burgers, Beetles, Beer, and Ironton

Dec 16

Northwest and southern portions of the state via a Minolta XD-11 and Kodak Ultramax 400.

- Exterior of Kewpee, Lima.

Nate and I had decided to take a day and wander throughout the northwestern portion of Ohio. Using two cameras and three rolls of film, we had started things off in Clayton, Greenville, North Star, Celina, and Wapakoneta. Around lunchtime, we made it to the Kewpee Hamburgers in Downtown Lima. Rumor has it that Wendy's Founder Dave Thomas "borrowed" his chain's concepts from Kewpee's iconic square burger patties and thick shakes.While the similarities are eerie, Kewpee has a small town charm that Wendy's can't match and serves up diced olives on its burger (which is a surprisingly good feature). The meal was the perfect thing to eat on a day of traversing to no specific destination under cold, gray skies.

- Kewpee Hamburgers, Lima.

We eventually made it to Defiance in search of a tower of Volkswagen Beetles. Nate was not only kind enough to drive on this day, but also open to wandering towards any random sights my map and curiosity could conjure.

- Defiance.

The bug tower serves as a roadside marker for a local used car dealer. One of the vehicles is painted up like the iconic "love bug" and one features a mannequin that looks like a zombie.

- Defiance.

The goal that day had been to make it to the Tri-State marker where one can stand in Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana simultaneously, but waiting for a ridiculously long train on top of detours for coffee and film had hampered the remaining daylight. We settled on stopping at Father John's Microbrewery in Bryan.

- Father John's Microbrewery, Bryan.

The food was good and so was the beer, but the highlight came from conversation with our new friend a few stools over: A.J. aka "The Mexabilly Gangster" who switched between hurling heartfelt insults at us and trying to get us to party with him.

- Father John's Microbrewery, Bryan.

One of the things we kept discussing that day was how if it was summer, the idea of being on a road trip and wandering might've felt more palatable. Hell, Ohio itself (or this particular geographic region of it) might even be more appealing when the weather's better and days last longer. A consensus we landed on when after finally paying our tab and heading home to the other end of the state: Ohio's roads at night feel like purgatory. I guess the same case could be made for almost any other locale, but the monotony of both backroads and highways in the dark is mentally and physically draining. Not that the daytime repetition of rural Ohio's corn fields, Dollar General stores, and vape shops is much better.

I finished up the roll of Ultramax 400 a few weeks later in Ironton when Ryan and I were heading back from West Virginia.