And Pennsylvania thanked us when we left:

Then we were in Ohio!

Like PA, Ohio boasts lots of pretty farmland:

But I think what I will remember the most about Ohio is seeing the service plazas off the Ohio Turnpike shaped like Ralph Wiggum’s head (Brian’s words):

Right? Incredible likeness:

The other thing I noticed in Ohio was that many farms had a private pond, often with a little dock and/or diving board. They were all pretty awesome, but they only seemed to come up when I put the camera down. Sorry!

We also drove near Toledo! This is the first city we’ve actually really been able to see well from the highway since we left Virginia:

Anyway, then we got to Michigan!

We made a quick stop in Ann Arbor so we could go to Zingerman’s:

For the uninitiated: Zingerman’s is kind of the Zabar’s of the midwest (sans housewares). It’s an awesome deli with a ton of local products, gourmet food, things made with care, etc. It’s also a really interesting company with (apparently) good core values. So I’m a big fan, and so is Brian (in fact, going there today was his idea). Hooray!

We did run into some rain tonight, plus we had a silly little detour due to… construction, I guess (it wasn’t clear), so we had to backtrack a bit. We’re staying at the Knights Inn in Saginaw, Michigan, which is about 3 hours from Traverse City (though the detour may be an issue). We got in quite a bit earlier than we did last night, so we’re hoping for an earlier start tomorrow…