The Portsmouth Spartans & Other Southern Ohio Oddities

I'm leaving tomorrow morning for a little camping trip. I'll be going w/ some old Grad School friends (Brenda, Courtney, & Letitia) to the Shawnee State Park in Portsmouth, OH. I don't know if a pre-trip itinerary is really blog-worthy, but it's been a slim month for Drifting into Deep Water so I'm going w/ it.

I haven't seen Brenda in years. She's coming in w/ her kids from VA later in the afternoon tomorrow. Courtney, who's now living in LA will actually be coming down w/ her kids from Cleveland. Tish & I are both flying solo as it were (w/o kids)so we're riding together. The more direct route is to take US 23 through Columbus & down to the river, but drives don't get much more boring than the one from here to Columbus so we're gonna head down to Cincinnati & then cut east along the river. On the road, we may need to hit the Neil Armstrong Museum in Wapakoneta. You can see it from I75 & I've wanted to stop there for as long as I can remember. How many times have I driven through Wapakoneta? I would guess about 30 times. Other ridiculous tourist traps along the way used to include the giant butter Jesus north of Cincinnati, but I don't think it was ever rebuilt after the untimely lightening strike last year.

A still existing item just north of Cincinnati is, of course, the world's largest horseshoe crab in Blanchester. Why it's in OH & not some place near the ocean where horseshoe crabs are more common, I don't know, but I really like horseshoe crabs, in fact, they're 3rd on my list of top-ten crustaceans, so it might be worth seeing.

Central OH also features many other world's largest stuff, so if we take US 23 home, maybe we'll get to see the world's largest corn field* in Dublin, OH, the world's largest pumpkin in Circleville, OH, & the world's largest apple basket in Frazeysburg, OH. There's also the option of seeing the world's largest cheese wheel, cuckoo clock, crystal ball, or loaf of bread in the great state of Ohio too. ironically, I'll be taking the world's largest trouser snake on a tour of Ohio these next fee days, so if you're in the Portsmouth, OH area & would like a peak, let me know. Admission is a bit on the pricey side, but you won't be let down. Unfortunately, it's a sort of Mystery Spotesque attraction based on a lot of smoke & mirrors.

Oh, & of course, the Portsmouth Spartans... the team that after 2 seasons moved to Detroit & became the Detroit Lions. I hope there's some sort of plaque or statue commemorating the team. If not, we might have to settle for the Indian Head Rock in the Portsmouth/Ironton area before it's given back to its rightful owners... the good folks on the other side of the river in KY.

*As a side note, I'm kind of interested in the people who would go to see the world's largest corn field. It seems like it'd be hard to appreciate it just from standing on the side of the road. You wouldn't really be able to see a whole lot & even if you could, I would think that all large corn fields look the same. However, in Dublin, there's a catch. it's actually a field of giant 6' cement ears of corn. That's worth seeing! Unless, like the trouser snake, they're really just 6" w/ a lot of smoke & mirrors. That'd be a big let down.