Wayfinder's Guide to Cincinnati: Part 3 Road Trips and why it would be great to have light rail.

I have been meaning to finish this post for weeks, but got super busy at my two jobs. A big chunk of my time has been spent searching for just the right images for a rebranding project I am working on. I love doing image searches. Friday I was looking for images of “business travel" that have nice depth of field and don’t look posed and aren’t of a specific place or type of place, and… well you get the idea.

Most of the images I found that I wanted to use were of business folks traveling by train… which we don’t have…  so I couldn’t use them.

Not only did I have to keep looking, I started to think about how great it would be if we had trains. Then I could go to all of my favorite Road Trip spots more often. Don’t get me wrong, I love Road Trips, driving to cool out of the way spots & finding things I didn’t even know exist, but sometimes I just want to go to Cleveland, have dinner at LOLA, stay one night and not make a big deal about it. I would do that a lot if I could jump on a train. In Ireland, we hopped a train from Dublin to Belfast for a Black Taxi Tour and dinner at The Crown and didn't feel rushed at all. I think people would come here more too….  Just my opinion I don’t have facts to back any of this up. I said I was busy!

Todd on the train from Dublin to Belfast.

So, here are a few of my favorite places to drive for the day or weekend from Cincinnati. Some will probably never have rail options (Red River Gorge), but hopefully I can zoom down to Louisville soon... it's closer than Belfast is to Dublin.

Bloomington, Indiana: Check out the The Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center, "the only Tibetan Cultural Center in the United States since 1979." It has a very big and cool Kalachakra Stupa. We saw HH the Dalai Lama there in 2007. T. Norbu, Dalai Lama’s Brother lived in Bloomington until his death in 2008. Eat some Tibetan food and go to The Farm for brunch or dinner, starring Chef Daniel Orr and the most amazing Bacon & Egg Pizza!

Bloomington Stupa: photo by pravin.premkum

Columbus, Indiana is the most unlikely architectural hotspot in the country, due to Cummins Diesel co-founder J. Irwin Miller's decision to have the company pay architect's fees for public buildings as long as they were chosen from Miller's list. The list included I.M. Pei, Richard Meier and Eero Saarinen. Stop in the visitor's center to see the Dale Chihuly sculpture and get a map for a walking or driving tour.

Valantino Rossi at the Indy GP

Indianapolis, Indiana: We go to Indy every year for MotoGP. We also drive through to go to visit family. We almost always stop at the Mug n' Bun, an old school Drive-In with homemade rootbeer and huge tenderloin sandwiches (an Indiana tradition) and great onion rings! If you have a lot of $$ burning a hole in your pocket go to St. Elmos and get a shrimp cocktail.

Lynn's Paradise Cfae

 We love Louisville, Kentucky. Great food and grand hotels, including a modern version with a contemporary art museum in the lobby. Eat at breakfast at Lynn's Paradise Cafe. Eat dinner at 610 Magnolia (I think. We are going in a couple weeks for the first time & Ed Lee, the chef, is currently doing very well on Top Chef, so I am guessing it's good.). Stay at the Seelbach & drink at it's famous bourbon bar, one of the best bars in the world! Stay at the Brown and have Hot Brown where it was invented. Stay at the 21C and eat at Proof on Main, walk through the museum and be sure to stop in the bathroom. Go to a Louisville Bats game and visit the Louisville Slugger Museum. Heck, go to the Derby if you can!

Lexington, Kentucky is the horse capital of the world. I spent a lot of time there when I was working for Joseph Beth and miss it now that my bookselling days are behind me. Go to Keeneland, the prettiest place to play the ponies ever! Grab a book at Morris Book Shop and a bite Ramsey's. There's lots more, but those are the things I miss most. Oh, and check out the Horse Park if you have time. I haven't been since I was a kid, but always meant to go back.

Bourbon Trail:  I have not actually done this, but I really really want to. Kentucky is Bourbon Country. It has been for a really long time. Explore six distilleries and find out everything you ever wanted to know about “America’s Official Native Spirit.” I have been to Bardstown, which is a great town to base yourself in. You can visit museums dedicated to the Civil War & railroads as well as "sample the spirits." I have also been on the Bourbon Train, which is fun but a little... weird.

The Red River Gorge is a canyon system on the Red River that features high sandstone cliffs, rock shelters, waterfalls, and natural bridges.. Beautiful spot for nature lovers & outdoorsy types. It's one of the best places to rock climb in the country. Go backpacking, camping, hiking & climbing. Or stay in a cabin, and check out the Natural Bridge & zipline tour.

Cleveland rocks. That's something I am not really supposed to say, being born & raised in Cincinnati and all. But I love Cleveland. They have great food, a big lake, great sports fans, RTA and the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame. I fell in love with Paprikash at Balaton and  Chicken & Waffles at  Phil the Fire . Right now, we are planning a trip to finally go to Lola and Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Yes, Ohio has a National Park! And I cannot believe I haven't been there.

Columbus: Full discloser: I haven't been to Columbus in years. And I have family there! But, I should. They have Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream, a happening Art Scene and THE Ohio State.

Toledo, Ohio, The Glass City, has a great museum. Go to the Toledo Museum and check out the Post-Modern Glass Pavilion. The Pavilion houses a world renowned glass collection. The building itself received Travel & Leisure's 2007 design awards for "Best Museum." Tony Packos  is really famous and really good. Have a Cheese Coney in Cincinnati and a Chili Hot Dog here. Which do you like best? Then catch a MudHens game. They have a great minor league baseball stadium... and they are called the MudHens!

Ft. Ancient was one of my favorite day trips as a kid. It features "18,000 feet of earthen walls built 2,000 years ago by American Indians."  How cool is that? You can check out exhibits and prehistoric mounds. Or you can check out the great views on the many hiking trails. There are also many canoe liveries in the Little Miami River valley. I like Morgan's, but am not opposed to any.

Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park

Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park is a 265 acre outdoor art museum. There is also an indoor Ancient Sculpture Museum.

The Loveland Bike Trail consits of over 70 Miles of paved bike trails that go through cute towns and historical sites. Loveland itself has coffee shops, ice cream shops and stuff like that. It's part of a larger Rails to Trails initiative.

Yellow Springs is a village in Green County. It was intended to be a utopia and isn't far off. It was one of the last stops on the Underground Railroad and was the smallest town to prohibit discrimination due to sexual orientation in 1979. I like to do a bit of shopping, look for Dave Chappelle and grab a bite to eat in town. Then I head out to Clifton Gorge for a hike and Young's Dairy for some ice cream and a look at the cow it came from. You can ride here on the Loveland Bike Trail if you want.

Hocking Hills, or "The Hot Tub Capital of the World", is a great place for a weekend getaway. You should definitely stay in a cabin... with a  hot tub! From there you can hike, explore caves, canoe, ride a horse and of course... zipline.