Jon Crispin's Notebook

Today, Peter and I drove from Meadville to Cleveland, mostly on Route 322.  It was a cool gray morning and 322 is a road that I have ridden on and driven many times.  The fields were so green and lush; soy beans and field corn grown mostly on small family farms.  I had wanted to stop and photograph on our way to the Indians game, but I felt a bit of pressure to get to the stadium and park with plenty of time to spare.  It was a great game for the many Sox fans that made the trip with Boston winning 14-1.  Afterwards Peter and I had an amazing meal at Mallorca.

As we were driving back to Meadville I was again taken by the rural beauty of Eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania.  The roads are in quite good shape and the farms are nicely kept.  This shot is facing East on Ohio Route 167 not far from the PA line.  There was so little traffic that I just stopped the car in the road to take it.

I stopped to photograph the fields on the way home and found myself thinking about the farmers in the midwest who are suffering through one of the worst droughts in recent history.  Not four hundred miles west of here in Indiana the corn is dying for lack of rain.  And yet the farmers in this part of the world seem to be in the midst of a bumper crop. I actually thought that if the Indiana farmers saw these fields they might cry.

And finally, our route back to Meadville took us through Linesville, PA.  I got the chance to show Peter the famous spillway on Pymatuning Lake where the “ducks walk on the fishes backs”.  I know it is really bizarre, but it is something I grew up with and it doesn’t seem that weird.  We met a nice woman who is driving across the country visiting places like this.  Here’s a link to her blog.