somehow i ended up in napoleon ohio teaching a class to a bunch of public health nurses, some head start workers and two weatherization project managers and after i was done for the day i got some indian food in a truck stop restaurant with bill (they also had chicken lickin’, blimpy, pizza and american fried food on the menu but the owners were east indian). with the long day two days after daylight’s savings i had a long evening to kill and so i got in my rental car to explore the insanely flat and open farmland around the (not so best) best western where I was holed up for two days so I drove to the closest thing resembling interesting topograpahy, the maumee river, and drove west when i noticed some blue paint marks on every third or fourth telephone pole along the left side of the road. the north country trail?
when i got into napoleon, i doubled back to the left over the river and followed the river back to the east passing the big soup plant (which is no longer surrounded by the market vegetable fields that probably caused it to be located here in the first place, thank you big agra), and driving a long way until again i saw more telephone poles afflicted with blue paint. as i suspected (thanks to ms. young being the only person i know of to provide any information about the topic of these blue splotches in northwest ohio via the interwebs), the blue paint lead the way to grand rapids (ohio), where I parked the car by an ice cream stand closed for the winter and got out.
nearly night time, i walked west along the river following the blue paint towards the setting sun perhaps gaining the attention of people in the kitchen windows of the houses on the other side of the narrow little brown canal wondering who that person is walking along the river in the near dark (but maybe i was not as suspect as the fisherman with the flat black harley). i took some pictures to share with you all (later posting them to facebook) pictures of the rapids, the river, the lake, the locks, and as i walked back into town the main drag, town hall, some building and a bicycle with lights overall a half mile walk following blue paint and a half mile walk back which was a nice way to spend a 57º evening in mid-march in ohio.
back at the rental car i tuned the radio to some hayden mass in mid-kyrie and drove west along the south side of the river until I passed the giant soup can along the state highway where I took another picture before heading back the the dullness of the (not) best western smack dab between the truck stop and the highway to end a rather kerouacian evening in some flat place in northwest ohio.
Siler,
Grand Rapids, Ohio is a nice little town. Providence Metropark operates a mule pulled canal boat from April to the Fall and has a waterpowered grist and saw mill there as well. The area is as flat as a skillet, but there are nice pockets as you found.
–Rob
You have indeed discovered one of my favorite places not quite on the NCT. In the summer you can take a restored canal boat pulled by mules from the metropark into town and visit the mill and craftsmen shops.