Comfort Inn, 840 North Washington Street, Van Wert, Ohio 45891, United States.  - I think they all use the same architectural firm to design the buildings

So this will be shorter because I don't think I have that much to say.  Ha, ha!!  I woke up at 6:45 am and went down for breakfast after showering and washing my hair.  This may have been the best breakfast, but they all use pre-made food.  This one had scrambled eggs in the shape of a small pancake,  different breads - no buns to make an egg McMuffin so I took a biscuit and split it and put some ketchup on it - unfortunately no hot sauce or Tabasco to shake on.  But there was juice and coffee and I took a muffin for later which turned out handy - it almost seemed freshly baked and pumpkin-spicy.

I used GPS to get to the interstate and drove on it until I got to Peoria when I tried to get the GPS to take me to rt 24.  I eventually made it.  I will have to figure out how to control the GPS better.  I drove through farm country once I was past Peoria.  The farms did not look that much different from Iowa or Minnesota really.   They were still large and had modern barns and grain silos.  I think I began to notice more old-style farmhouses gussied up, although there were still ranches and other newer style buildings in front of the modern farm buildings.  The houses generally were surrounded by trees.  I tried to take a few photos to document my observations, but nothing special.

By noontime, I had hit the Indiana border.  Here too there was not much difference in the farms.  Large, modern buildings, the land pretty flat, lots of corn, I don't think I saw more than 2 or 3 herds of cattle since Illinois though.  After passing by Fort Wayne, I began to notice more trees and hills, fewer big farms for awhile, and then they came back.  By the time I got to the Ohio border, though, the countryside seemed to be going more toward smaller farms, houses and barns closer to the highway and then more of a small town, suburbia look, not that different from what Clifton Park NY looked like 50 years ago.  I ended up just across the border in Ohio, headed toward Akron and not far from an interstate or several of them.   I had checked for hotels back in Indiana just before I left it and the rates were about $40 less than what I found here, but I guess the psychological advantage of getting to another state makes it worth it.  Maybe....

I did stop for lunch in the small town of .....I associate it with one  of our founding fathers - maybe Jefferson - in Indiana I think.  It was Monticello.  I had lost Rt. 224 and then sort of found it and decided to park on a street nearby to get to it later and walk around to find somewhere interesting....or expedient...to eat.  I guess I was trying to  move away from gas stations and supermarkets for the time being.  At first I was striking zero, then I saw a sign over a building saying cafe, then I saw asign saying open.  I walked across the street, opened the door, and began to be a bit uncertain.  It was an ice cream shop that also served a limited sandwich and entree selection.  They apparently had recently opened.  The girl at the counter seemed to be putting her training into practice.  She took a moment or two to come up with the proper greeting phrase.   I asked if I could order something to go.  And she responded that yes, I could.  So I gave her my order for lunch and I added an ice cream cone to have after I ate my sandwich so she would only have to ring it up once.  I swiped my credit card and included a generous tip. She went in back and told me that my order was on the grill when she got back.  Then she served two ice creams for a couple and rang them up.  I was thinking she was cooking the orders as well and that my sandwich would be overdone by now.  She went back and I walked around the room looking at the signs.  I walked some more, I began to pace back and forth.  After what seemed decades, she returned with my sandwich.  I asked if the first one had burned, and she said no, the cook just wanted to be sure that it was thoroughly done.  Hmmmm??  The sandwich I had was fine and the ice cream was quite good - Wisconsin ice cream, it was.  But their name was Extra Scoop or something like that and I got 2 scoops of ice cream for the one-scoop cone price.   It was a weird gimmick.  It took me so long too eat and it was quite hot out that the ice cream started melting in rivulets down the cone and onto my shirt and all over the sidewalk.  Oh, oh.  Then I panicked because I thought I was wearing my favorite orange skull mask that Candae made for me and I was afraid I had lost it when it took it off to eat.  I looked around the outdoor tables and the sidewalk, but no mask.  I was  very happy though to find it tucked into my vest pocket when I got back into the car.  I had actually been wearing one of the plain black masks.  I was quite relieved.

Now I am settled into the Comfort Inn with a king bed.  It makes the room much easier to get around than when I have two queen beds.  They are really only good for laying out all my stuff on one while I sleep on the other.  I never bother putting anything away because I would have to remember to take it out of the drawer.  Much too much trouble.