The Morgantowner: Champaign County, Ohio

This was another of those trips I didn't think would work out. We've had a cold spell the last few days, after a ridiculously warm autumn, and it was supposed to snow Sunday and Tuesday, my two travel days. We were in New City, New York and Memphis, and I spent twenty-five hours in Centre County, Pennsylvania and an afternoon in Pittsburgh last month, and, in this county, more than sixty-nine per cent of the voters last year went for the Republican nominee. That last has become more important to me this year, as this administration does more and more horrible things. Still, I've managed to visit sixty-five counties since we came to Morgantown in July of 2012, and it doesn't seem to be the time to give up. The original plan was to get to know what this part of the country is like, for better or worse, and unless one is near Washington or Philadelphia, the people around here were likely to vote for that guy.

Champaign County is west and a little north of here, 248 miles from Morgantown to Urbana, the largest city in Champaign County. There is a Champaign-Urbana in Illinois, which I found confusing. The 2010 census lists about 40,000 people in the county, 12,000 in Urbana, 2,000 in St. Paris and 1,600 in Mechanicsburg. The rest live in smaller towns or on farms. This is a relatively small county in area, less than an hour west of Columbus and north of Dayton.

I didn't see a lot of African-Americans in Champaign County, although there is the A.M.E. Church, still active. There are historic markers around Mechanicsburg, about abolitionists who hid runaway slaves and how marshals from Kentucky who chased down slaves were themselves arrested.

I was surprised at how nice the people were here. Maybe I need to be less judgemental about people who would vote Republican (I hear Rabbi Joe say "Ya think?") Clerks in the stores were not only polite, but joked with me.

Sure, there were signs. At the motel, there were Jehovah's Witness pamphlets around, and many of the churches had big anti-abortion signs in front of them. There doesn't appear to be much of an economy in the county, and in Mechanicsburg particularly, a pretty and historic town, most of the center of the town was empty.

There is a Wal-Mart and a fancier Kroger store on the east end of Urbana. That's about it. Springfield, a city of 60,000, in Clark County, is only fifteen miles away. I plan to visit there next summer. I guess that's where everything is.

The snow Sunday fizzled, only leaving cold weather, 29-31 F. most of the way. I stopped at the Chinese buffet, one of the best of those, in Zanesville, Ohio, between Wheeling and Columbus. I arrived in Urban about 3 and decided to look around before checking in to the motel, the cheap one from the Usual Chain. I discovered a single-screen downtown movie theater, and thought to do that in the evening, only the last show was 5:30. I slept about 20 minutes at the motel, and headed out to see "Wonder" at the Gloria Theater. It was built for stage shows in the early twentieth century, became a movie theater in 1942, then a double theater, then closed. A foundation, partly faith-based, is restoring it .

"Wonder" is a tear jerker, with the unlikely pair of Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson living in fantasy Brooklyn, in a brownstone that would be worth a zillion dollars, raising a teenage daughter and a son with facial deformities. It was entertaining, but sentimental pap, and there were a few holes in the story. Still, the kids were great, and I liked Mandy Patinkin as the school principal. Much of it was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, which I guess looks better than Brooklyn.

I stopped at Kroger after the movie for some "Detox Salad," a bagel and a banana for dinner in the room. I had managed to find seven of the eight places on the National Register in Urbana, including Urbana University, founded by members of the Swedenborgian Church, and home to The Johnny Appleseed Museum, which was closed on Sunday.

I got out after nine Monday morning. It was alternately sunny and cloudy, and the temperature went above freezing. Not by much. I probably passed by a native burial mound without noticing it, then spent the rest of the morning in Mechanicsburg, ten miles southeast of Urbana, where there are twenty places on the National Register. I found all of them, then headed back to Urbana for lunch. Near my motel I had noticed a diner, called "Rockin' Robin." Since it was named for a great old soul song, and because December 11 is my sister Robin's birthday, I thought I'd give it a chance. It's small and shabby and was moved from a suburb of Dayton a few years ago. The current ownership is relatively new, and they close at 2 P.M. I opted for breakfast, and had two eggs with mushrooms and tomato, and toast. Bagels were on the menu, but no bagels. A skinny guy in a Notre Dame t-shirt cooked, there was an older woman setting up, and a young woman taking orders. The older woman asked if I had been there before, and when I told her I had never been in Urbana, she offered me a free sundae. The young girl is graduating from Ohio State in Columbus and is going back to grad school in January.

I visited St. Paris, a pretty town to the west of Urbana, and Mt. Tabor Church in Salem township, north of Urbana. I found the last of the eight historic sites in Urbana and was back at the motel just after three. I slept over an hour.

I looked at Trip Advisor to find a place for dinner and didn't find anything interesting. I looked up "Subway" and figured I'd go there. I stopped to get gas, and picked up snacks at Kroger.

I drove back Tuesday, leaving in snow before 8 A.M., because the weather forecast was for snow, wind and bitter cold. Chanukkah started at sunset.I was home before 1. There were some flurries, but nothing threatening.

I have a lot of pictures. I'm just going to post a few of them. In addition to the places on the National Register, there are many beautiful old farmhouses and churches not listed.