As states go, Ohio is really not a place you think of much. It’s feaking cold and rains forever. The ski slopes don’t even qualify as hills in most states. Yet, this place has “balls”! An attitude that breeds an atmosphere where anything can happen and probably did. OK, I was born here and spent much of my life trying to figure how to get out. Its cold, it rains, taxes suck, crime is terrible, it even smells bad! Hell when I was a kid the river even caught fire. It was so bad that, in the middle of the night my favorite football team moved to Baltimore! Baltimore!….really, do I need to say more.

But Ohio is actually so weird that its incredibly cool. After-all, this is home of the “Mistake on the Lake” which is also the home of Superman: Cleveland. This is the place where Pigs Fly and once the home of the second largest City in the US: Cincinnati. This is where Edison made lights and the electric chair while Goodyear built his blimps. Its even the home of the “Rubber Capital of the World” (I will leave that alone). The Wright Brothers built planes in their bike shop and the Air Force hid aliens. This is where the Army builds tanks and where you can ride huge roller coasters. Hell, this is where you come to vacation, if you live in North Dakota!

This is also home to some of the weirdest shit in the country. There are actually many articles on some of the weird (and cool) things you can find in Ohio and we consulted as many as google and friends could give us. I found the most complete source was roadsideamerica.com (over 500 listed) …. and we even found more!

So this blog is a tribute to all the crap, people have created along the Ohio roadside with a few really cool museums and attractions that need to be highlighted.

So our story begins with our friends in Ohio. We had left Ohio for a quick flight to Florida to pull weeds and pick up a couple of months of mail. Upon returning, we learned that our friend’s daughter had tested positive for Covid-19……that damn thing keeps screwing everything up. She didn’t have any major symptoms, but we couldn’t stay there any longer and couldn’t visit anyone else until we heard the results of our friends test. We had not visited with the “unclean one”; but we had been around her mom. So with a day to kill we decided to se how many unique and strange things we could find between Columbus and Warren, Ohio. My parents live in Warren and we couldn’t visit them until we got the test results. If I gave them the plague and was responsible for knocking them off …. my brother would give me crap forever!

We spent the night at a Hyatt Place in Dublin, the location of our first targeted “attraction”. Again, “Express Deals” with a discount on “Priceline” got us a room for about $75 about $50 less than booking directly.

Our first stop, had found its way on many lists of strange things. “Cornhedge” is a field of about 100 ears of concrete corn in a small park in Dublin. Why anyone in there right mind would want 106 ears of concrete corn is beyond me ……but anyway.

That was an interesting spot…but on to Sunbury and a creepy Ronald McDonald Sign.

From Sunbury (good stop and start for our travels) we traveled up the road to Mansfield to see the old Ohio State Reformatory. It was built around 1900 and was in operation until 1990. Tickets are $25 but you could two for $35 through Groupon. You can do this on the app just before you go in for a $15 savings. This is a very cool building to tour! Do it before it caves in! Paranormal tours are also offered.

Mansfield is worth a return trip to see Electro the Smoking Robot and his dog Sparko from the 1939 World’s fair….more recently famous from his appearance in the 1960’s film “Sex Kittens Go to College”. But unfortunately the Mansfield Memorial Museum was closed and we couldn’t find anyone around. So off to see the giant Razor Blade!

Our next stop was the cemetery in Seville, Ohio to see the grave of a Giant family. The couple were from Nova Scotia and both of them were over 7.5 feet. She gave birth to a 23 pound boy that was 30 inches long…..he is also buried here.

Time to head to Akron….but wait….Cousin Eddie’s RV from the movie National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is in Medina only another 20 miles out of the way. “Really the one with the full shitter!” “We got to go!”

Castle Noel in Medina Ohio is billed as “America’s Largest Indoor Year-Round Christmas Entertainment Attraction”. When we got to the old church that had been transformed into a Christmas Wonderland, it was closed due to the virus. Unfortunately Eddies RV was behind a large fence and we couldn’t see much from the front. So we headed around the back and down an ally until we came to a driveway where the fence was open. I took a picture from the opening, since I was not willing to trespass and could here someone working inside. Reva however, was more brave than me and stepped inside the fence. I heard a man greet her and invite her to come in if she wanted. Awesome!

Allen was great. He was the Maintenance Man/Caretaker/Manager and the only one around Castle Noel. We talked a bit and he invited us inside to take a quick look. He was getting the place ready to reopen for the holidays and explained that everything in building was originally used in a Christmas Movie or came from a Christmas Display. The main attraction in the museum was the Christmas Wonderland they had created with the Grinch’s sled and everything you would expect to see if you were in “Whoville” or in any of the various Christmas Movie sets. Of course we only got a quick glimpse inside but wow! We definitely need to come back and tour this place once the world gets back to normal.

Medina Ohio….who would have guessed, a Christmas Wonderland that we never knew about. Hard to believe we missed that over the years. This was one of the big surprises on this trip…..go check it out, with or without kids.

Anyway, back on the road. We had learned that our friend’s test had come back negative, so we were free to head to the parents house. But first there were a few more attractions to take in.

On to Warren Ohio and the world’s largest drumsticks in the ally they named in honor of David Grohl, Nirvana’s Drummer. This was the town I grew up in but there were a few new surprises for me.

So that was a 180 mile one-day adventure looking along the Ohio Roadside. This also was just a glimpse of the 500 plus Roadside America listed attractions that you can find in Ohio. Ohio people like weird shit! Get off the couch and go check some of it out…..you will be in for a fun time!

Just for added fun, here are a few other things we found along the roads of Ohio.

If you have read this far…great and thanks. Please post your favorite Ohio sites in the comments and share this link….love to see more weird shit in Ohio.