My Trip to Ohio

My wife and I just returned from a trip to the Columbus, Ohio, region. Any time I take a road trip across the country or even just across the state of Missouri, I am always awed by how much open land there still is in the United States. 

Our nation's population has increased by about two and a half times since I was born and more than doubled since I was a little kid. Yet, it seems to me that the amount of open land has not decreased by all that much. Indeed, some of the rural areas have actually lost population, while almost all of the country's population growth has been in the metropolitan areas. 

We traveled to Ohio by way of St. Louis and Indianapolis and came back by way of Cincinnati, Louisville, and St. Louis. Just driving across Missouri on I-44 between Joplin and St. Louis, one sees a lot of open land, but I was even more struck by the amount of open space in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky, because I've always thought of those states as at least somewhat more densely populated than Missouri. Except for when we were passing through the large cities (namely Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Louisville) much of our trip was through farm country. There were numerous times when only about a half dozen homes were visible when I looked around in every direction, as far as the eye could see. 

We saw some interesting sights along the way. In St. Louis, we visited the Missouri Civil War Museum at Jefferson Barracks and the Missouri History Museum at Forest Park. The Garst Museum in Greenville, Ohio, was also an interesting stop. The Annie Oakley and Lowell Davis wings of that place were very interesting, especially the Annie Oakley section. The highlight of the whole trip, though, was visiting with friends.