The drive up to Michigan was something I did for myself, and I visited a number of historical and cultural sites along the way. But I took the trip to drive a kid home for the summer and now I had a passenger for the rest of the ride. So I front-loaded most of the activities into the first half and focused on getting home more efficiently during the second.
Zoo
But we did make some stops on the way back. For instance, the kid loves zoos. We took a cross-country road trip a few years ago and visited six zoos in a week week. That’s the bribe I use. If you let me get new counties I’ll take you to zoos. Now to be fair, the kid earned undergraduate degrees in zoology and entomology so it’s a genuine interest.
However the Akron Zoo was a bit unusual (map). Well, the zoo was normal enough but the clientele veered from the expected. Somehow we’d randomly arrived on what must have been medieval cosplay day. Essentially it was a Renaissance Fair at the zoo. So the people watching was actually more interesting to me than the animal watching, seeing how the animals were pretty standard for zoo experiences.
Bridges
But let me jump back to the initial drive once again and talk about some of my lists. Longtime readers know I’m always searching for opportunities to count things that I enjoy. Covered bridges have been a particular favorite of mine in recent years and there are a lot of them in Ohio.
I think I may have to create a map of these someday.
Helmick Covered Bridge
This one was an adventure. County counting requires a lot of obscure routing so I generally navigate by exact longitude and latitude coordinates. This is considerably more reliable than simply putting the names of destinations into phone-based driving apps.
However, I was so remote that even this wasn’t working for me. I kept going down increasingly sketchy gravel roads that turned into dirt tracks across farmers’ fields. Theoretically, I suppose I could continue onward but I decided to heed frequent No Trespassing signs out here in shotgun country. Instead I drove intuitively in search of workarounds a couple of times before actually reaching the bridge (map).
Then I hopped out of the car for a quick photo opp. Notice the swampy area at the right bottom corner of the image? Well, I didn’t. I left the door open and dozens of mosquitos swarmed into the car in maybe the minute I was gone. I swatted and shooed mosquitos as I drove well into the next day.
Other than that the Helmick Bridge was a pleasant example of an enjoyable architectural style. Apparently it’s also one of the oldest in the state, dating to the 1860’s. Back then it existed as a convenient way for farmers to reach a couple of nearby grist mills.
Stutzman Covered Bridge
Visiting the Stutzman Bridge the next morning was much easier. It took nothing more than a thirty second detour from Highway 39 in Walnut Creek (map). That put it maybe five miles away from Berlin, Ohio, the heart of Holmes County’s Amish country.
The local community named it for Jonas Stutzman, an early 19th Century Amish settler. Nonetheless, the bridge is completely modern, dating only to 2009. It’s nice to marvel at and drive across but it’s certainly not historic. Maybe add a century to its pedigree first.
Brewing
Well, I managed to add to my brewery list too. The usual caveats apply: small samples; quality over quantity; responsible behavior; and whatnot. And I don’t talk about the beers as much as the general vibe.
Millersburg Brewing
The notion of a brewpub in Holmes County, with a near-majority Amish population, intrigued me. Millersburg is the seat of government in Holmes County, as well as its largest village. It also supports the only true brewery or brewpub in the county as far as I could tell, a place called Millersburg Brewing, which seemed a fitting name (map).
The Amish aren’t know for hanging out at taverns but there were still plenty of “English” people who did. English is simply a shorthand used in the Amish community to describe people who are something other than Amish. Someone could be Scandinavian or Japanese or Cameroonian and they would all be “English.” So obviously something like a brewpub caters to the English population rather than the other half.
Actually Millersburg itself seemed pretty English overall. I saw only a couple of Amish people. But drive a few miles east into Berlin and wow, almost everything seemed Amish. They’re limited to horse-and-buggy distance so they don’t stray far, and maybe not even to the next town over very often.
I’m not sure where I’m going with all of this but Millersburg Brewing was fine.
Harper’s Restaurant and Brewpub
The next evening I was in East Lansing, Michigan, planning to load the car with my kid’s stuff the following day. I mentioned the entomology thing earlier, and that’s why I had to drive. We couldn’t bring an extensive collection of live insects onto an airplane. It’s not quite as bad as Snakes on a Plane but I’m sure it would creep out the other passengers if it was even allowed.
I’ve been to several of the breweries near Michigan State University over the years but I’d never made it to Harper’s. Really, it’s more of a student hangout than a brewery, although they do make their own beers so I needed to go there simply for the sake of completeness (map). Because it’s all about adding to the lists.
They don’t serve tasting flights and their selections arrive in plastic cups, and it was about what I would expect of an establishment practically across the street from a major university. But it was also the “off season” between graduation and summer classes so at least it was quiet. I would probably feel really, really old here any other time of the year.
Hoodletown Brewing
We stopped at one more brewery on the way back after we left the Akron Zoo. Hoodletown Brewing was more my style (map). It was an unusually windy day but most of the people didn’t seem to mind, although I decided to stay inside. I don’t know the history of the building but it seemed to have some sort of industrial past. It was big and open and airy though, with garage doors that opened to the outside world.
Be sure to check out Part 1 where I drove the back roads of rural Pennsylvania and Ohio.
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