I drove down to Columbus yesterday. I left Tiffin around 10 a.m. after gassing up ($3.58.9) and grabbing a McDonald's senior coffee (Cream and one sugar, please!) at the drive-thru (actually it is a 'drive-past.)

Route 53 is the first stage, 20.3 miles from the Tiffin city limit sign to US 23 at Upper Sandusky. 23 is almost an Interstate now, four lanes divided like a turnpike and most of it getting new asphalt pavement (in stages. Lots of orange cones.) Speed limit if 65 mph for the northern half, and that means 70-75 in Ohio.

21 miles south of "Upper" is Marion. Marion is a fairly large town, home of one of Ohio's seven dead Presidents, and the highway skirts the city without lowering the speed limit. Two and a half miles past Marion is the halfway point of my journey to the art gallery.

From Marion to Delaware is about another 20 to 25 miles, with one small town off to the right sdide along the way. That town is Waldo. I recall when as a child my family ventured south to visit an aunt and uncle in the mountains of West Virginia on "old" Route 23, a single concrete washboard highway - we got a kick out of the town's name. Where is Waldo? Remember that?

Delaware is the location of a good college, Ohio Wesleyan. It is mostly a very picturesque little city except that the highway now runs around the town center, through the long verdant park that borders the Olentangy River. You don't get to see the old brick and limestone architecture any more, just the bumper and trunk of the Buick in front of you.

After delaware you are subject to stop lights about every two miles, as the former wide-open countryside has been transformed into malls, shopping plazas and Panera shops. Columbus grew fast in the 80's and 90s, and now it expands at the speed of a moving van.

At the exact moment when you first can see the far-off tall buildings of downtown Columbus you will pass their city limit sign, even though there are a couple of isolated island cities surrounded by the larger uran sprawl. Once across the ring road interstate, you enter the nicest town in Ohio (in my estimation) - Worthington.

Worthington is where the speed limit finally drops to 35, and in some places 25. It is a verdant and wealthy community, with a sign code that eliminated all roadside signs and limits the height of any sign to the top of a building's lower storey. No neon. No flashing signs. Beautiful. They have along the main street (Route 23 still - now reduced to a two-on each side pavement) boutiques, coffee shops, restaurants and other stores, but only in a three-block long section. The shops have outside frontage patios with circular tables and umbrellas. Worthington is the closest thing Ohio has to matching the ambiance of where I lived for 30 years in California (but only from May to September here! Imagine having a latte with non-fat milk and ersatz sweetener in five inches of snow!)

Then Clintonville.

Ah. Back in Columbus, because Clintonville is the big section at the north end of the city. It is chock full of little shopping plazas and not so pretty, but if you get off High Street you find wonderful residential neighborhoods. I have never seen so many Sears houses (that were ordered from a catalog in the 1920's.) Clintonville is the center of the Arts & Crafts style in Ohio.

It is also the location of the two art galleries that show my paintings. So, now that I have parked, shut off the Toyota and stretched my legs, I will leave you here, while I take this new one inside and hang it up.

Thanks for riding along with me.