We're Halfway There!

We’re Halfway There!

44 Counties Down –

44 To Go

on Our “Help Ellen Achieve World Domination in 2010: Ohio 88 County Tour.”

We have had so much fun helping "Ellen" to dominate our little part of the world! We're also feeling relieved that we don't live in Texas or Alaska - although, who knows, could be fun!

But for now will stick with our motto of: Today - Ohio. Tomorrow - The World!

(Okay, maybe we are getting just a little carried away ...!)

Forty-fourth Stop: Akron - Summit County, OH

04/17/2010:

Day 7 and Stop #44 – We’re Halfway There - of our travels to “Help Ellen Achieve World Domination in 2010” and our “Ohio 88 County Tour” begins in Akron in Summit County, Ohio and a visit to Quaker Square. The Quaker Square Inn at The University of Akron Hotel in the background is a converted silo complex that once held more than 1.5 million grain bushels and is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places!

We kind of got the feeling that someone was watching over our shoulder as we stopped at Quaker Square in Akron, Ohio for the 44th stop of our “Help Ellen Achieve World Domination in 2010: Ohio 88 County Tour.”

Ohio is full of beautiful parks and we couldn’t miss the opportunity to bring “Ellen” to Brandywine Falls in Summit County as part of our 44th Stop of our “Help Ellen Achieve World Domination in 2010: Ohio 88 County Tour.”

Not only are Ohio’s parks beautiful but the waterfalls are spectacular – here’s one in Brandywine Falls in Summit County where we stopped along our “Help Ellen Achieve World Domination in 2010: Ohio 88 County Tour.”

Forty-third Stop: New Lexington - Perry County, OH

04/10/2010:

One last stop on this sixth day of travels, and it’s Stop #43 of our “Help Ellen Achieve World Domination in 2010: Ohio 88 County Tour” and we are in New Lexington, county seat of Perry County, Ohio – and, you guessed it, we found another cannon!

One more picture before we leave Stop #43 of our “Help Ellen Achieve World Domination in 2010: Ohio 88 County Tour” New Lexington, Ohio. We’ve got a three-hour drive ahead of us before we can call it a day – so it’s time to mosey on down the road.

Forty-second Stop: Lancaster - Fairfield County, OH

04/10/2010:

Our 42nd stop of our “Help Ellen Achieve World Domination in 2010: Ohio 88 County Tour” is in Lancaster. Lancaster is the county seat of Fairfield County in Central Ohio and Fairfield County, founded in 1818, is home to over 122,000 Ohioans.

We’ve made it to Stop #42 of our “Help Ellen Achieve World Domination in 2010: Ohio 88 County Tour” and look who we’ve found hanging around in downtown Lancaster, Fairfield County,Ohio!

Forty-first Stop: Logan - Hocking County, OH

04/10/2010:

We are working our way back north and on Stop #41 of our “Help Ellen Achieve World Domination in 2010: Ohio 88 County Tour” we’ve come to Logan, the county seat of Hocking County, Ohio.

While on Stop #41 of our “Help Ellen Achieve World Domination in 2010: Ohio 88 County Tour” in Logan, Ohio, we’re beginning to see another pattern – a welcome one – not only is Ohio full of cannons but there are beautiful murals to be found in some of the most unexpected spots.

You never know who you’ll find behind the reins – look who’s doing the driving on Stop #41 of our “Help Ellen Achieve World Domination in 2010: Ohio 88 County Tour”!

We’ve had a great time in Hocking County, Ohio on our 41st Stop of our “Help Ellen Achieve World Domination in 2010: Ohio 88 County Tour” but we have a lot of ground to cover before we get home and we’re pretty sure this wagon isn’t going to cut it.

Fortieth Stop: McArthur - Vinton County, OH

04/10/2010:

We thought it was quiet in Pomeroy – but we really found quiet when we hit Stop #40 of our “Help Ellen Achieve World Domination in 2010: Ohio 88 County Tour” – McArthur in Vinton County, Ohio.

Not a soul around and not a sound to be heard!

Everyone’s probably inside watching “The Ellen DeGeneres Show”!


 We’ve gone a little north and a little west to come to the 40th Stop of our “Help Ellen Achieve World Domination in 2010: Ohio 88 County Tour” which is the town of McArthur and the county seat of Vinton County, Ohio.

Before we left Stop #40 of our our “Help Ellen Achieve World Domination in 2010: Ohio 88 County Tour” in Vinton County, we debated over hopping on a ‘bike’ for a quick pic – but figured a shot of “Ellen” behind bars was probably not such a good idea. Time to move along before we get ourselves in trouble! 

Thirty-ninth Stop: Pomeroy - Meigs County, OH

04/10/2010

We’re heading toward the halfway mark with Stop #39 on our “Help Ellen Achieve World Domination in 2010: Ohio 88 County Tour” - Pomeroy, Meigs County, Ohio. It was pretty quiet in Pomeroy – so we grabbed a couple of pictures and moved on along our way.

 

 

 

 

 

More cannons! We couldn’t pass up another picture with a cannon before we left Stop #39 of our “Help Ellen Achieve World Domination in 2010: Ohio 88 County Tour” in Pomeroy, county seat of Meigs County, Ohio.

Thirty-eighth Stop: Athens, Ohio

04/10/2010

We traveled from Marietta down to Athens, Ohio. Neither one of us have ever been to Athens and we were pleasantly surprised when we pulled into the Ohio University campus. It is absolutely beautiful. We ran around taking pictures and even made some friends...

We discovered that Ellen's fans are not only friendly, but talented, too!

Thirty-seventh Stop: Marietta - Washington County, OH

We started our sixth days of travels for our “Help Ellen Achieve World Domination in 2010: Ohio 88 County Tour” in Marietta, Washington County, Ohio. Marietta is in southeast Ohio and across the Ohio River from West Virginia.

We got an early morning start by waking up in Marietta. It was a beautiful morning for picture taking by the Ohio River.

We had a great time walking through the park along the river and managed to get in a couple of history lessons as well!

We couldn’t leave Marietta without one last picture in front of this beautiful Weeping Willow tree. But, time’s a wastin’ and we have to turn this show around and start working our way back (in a roundabout way) north.

Thirty-sixth Stop: Monroe County, Ohio

It’s the last stop for the night on our “Help Ellen Achieve World Domination in 2010: Ohio 88 County Tour” and we’ve come to Stop #36 - Monroe County, Ohio. We found this sign at the county line indicating Monroe is the “Switzerland of Ohio” – and wondered: “What does this mean?” Hah! We found out in a hurry. There’s nothing quite like deciding you are lost, on top of an Ohio mini-mountain in the pitch dark! We drove up and down and round and round, unable to see past the headlights, until our GPS-friend tried to get us to drive right off the side of the mountain one too many times. We admitted defeat – and were finally able to turn around! We eventually got out of Monroe County and back to civilization and wound our way down to the next county to spend the night in Marietta – in preparation for the next day’s round of travels! Whew!

Thirty-fifth Stop: Caldwell, Noble County, OH

04/19/2010:

After many twists and turns through southeast Ohio we came to Stop #35 – Noble County, Ohio where we found this beautiful mural in downtown Caldwell.

Thirty-fourth Stop: McConnellsville - Morgan County, OH

04/09/2010:

We're still traveling through Southeast Ohio and after leaving Muskingum County we went East to Morgan County and the county seat of McConnelsville. From downtown McConnelsville we continued East to Noble County - but on our way out of Morgan County, at the top of more hilly terrain, we found "Big Muskie" and had to add some more pictures to our stack....

Some "Big Mus

kie" Fun Facts:

*It was the bigg

est machine to ever move on land and was built to mine coal.

*It weighs 27 million pounds - as much as 13,500 cars!

*It could move 39 million pounds of material per hour!

*Big Muskies is one and a half times longer than a football field!

*Nearly 10,000 acres of land mined by Big Muskie were donated by AEP to the International Center for the Preservation of Wild Animals in 1986 to create The Wilds - North America's largest open-range preserve for threatened and endangered species.

Thirty-third Stop: Zanesville - Muskingum County, OH

04/09-10/2010

We actually made two stops in Muskingum County. The first day out we headed southeast and stopped in Frazeysburg where we found some huge baskets at the Longaberger Homestead.

On our return home the next day, we found ourselves in Muskingum County again, this time in Zanesville, and spotted a street lined with the most fabulous statues - so we knew we had to stop, get back out and snap some more pics...

These statues and more, found in downtown Zanesville, are the work of sculptor Alan Cottrill.

Thirty-second Stop: Roscoe Village - Coshocton County, OH

 04/09/2010

It is now the fifth day of travels for our "Help Ellen Achieve World Domination in 2010: Ohio 88 County Tour" and we have come to Stop #32 - Coshocton County, Ohio. Traveling into the county, we found Roscoe Village. After having a wonderful lunch in a restaurant in the village, we began to explore and take pictures...






While taking pictures we heard "Ellen! I Love Ellen!" and asked these fans if they would like to get in the picture - which they were happy to do. Ohio Loves Ellen!

It’s time to hop back in our carriage – oops this isn’t it – and head out of Coshocton County and on to our 33rd stop of our “Help Ellen Achieve World Domination in 2010: Ohio 88 County Tour.”

Thirty-first Stop: Orrville - Wayne County, Ohio

It’s our fifth day of travels to do our part to “Help Ellen Achieve World Domination in 2010” with our “Ohio 88 County Tour.” We begin this trip in Orrville, Wayne County, Ohio at the J.M. Smucker Company. Ohio loves Smuckers and Ohio loves Ellen!

Thirtieth Stop: Mt. Gilead, Morrow County, OH

Yikes! It’s just about midnight and these fans are getting tired. One last stop, #30, for this trip and it’s in Mt. Gilead, Morrow County, Ohio. We’ve got about 140 miles to go before we get home – and start planning our next trip for our “Help Ellen Achieve World Domination in 2010: Ohio 88 County Tour.”

G’Night!

Twenty-ninth Stop: London - Madison County, OH

After traveling through far too much wide open space and past far too many prisons (!) we have come to Stop #29 on our “Help Ellen Achieve World Domination in 2010: Ohio 88 County Tour.” It’s pretty dark in these parts, but we’re pretty sure we have made it to London, Ohio (and not London, England) which is the county seat of Madison County.

Our Progress

Our mission is to take a picture of "Ellen" in each of Ohio's 88 counties as part of our "Help Ellen Achieve World Domination in 2010: Ohio 88 County Tour".

At this point, we have made it through 28 counties. The map shows the counties we have done marked off in Blue.

Twenty-eighth Stop: Springfield, Clark County, OH

Ooh baby – there is seriously something wrong with “Ellen’s” neck in this picture – it’s getting late and we’re obviously “stretching” to stay awake as we travel a little bit north and a little bit east to Stop #28 on our “Help Ellen Achieve World Domination in 2010: Ohio 88 County Tour” – Springfield, Clark County, Ohio.

Twenty-seventh Stop: Xenia - Greene County, OH

We’ve made it to our 27th stop on our “Help Ellen Achieve World Domination in 2010: Ohio 88 County Tour” and it’s a welcome site – Xenia, Ohio, county seat of Greene County.

What a day! We spent too much time in Dayton. We spent too much time in Hamilton. And, we spent too much time in Cincinnati! By the time we got to Xenia it was getting dark and we tried to catch a train to the next stop, but…

Time to hit the road. This train isn’t going anywhere, so it’s back to the car and on to Stop #28...

Twenty-sixth Stop: Mason, Warren County, OH

Aaah, we had a little fun in Mason, Ohio. Our goal was to get a picture of "Not Exactly Ellen" outside of Kings Island Theme Park. We pulled up outside the gates, got out and prepared to take the shot - when a Barney Fife wannabe came flying up and told us we had to leave and couldn't take pictures. No sense of humor and no sense of adventure. We continued to roam around the perimeter - with Barney watching us all the way - looking for somewhere to get our picture and hit the road. We found it! Thanks to the Great Wolf Lodge - we were able to finish our mission and hit the road for the next stop!

Twenty-fifth Stop: Cincinnati - Hamilton County, Ohio

03/31/10
We spent a lot of time in Dayton this morning. The we spent a lot of time in the city of Hamilton. So, we are far behind schedule - but we're having a great time and seeing places and sites we may have otherwise missed. It was already late afternoon by the time we pulled into Cincinnati but we found plenty of spots for some great shots of "Not Exactly Ellen." And, of course, we spent way too much time in Cincinnati, too!

The view from Paul Brown Stadium - Home of The Cincinnati Bengals!

And another view from Paul Brown Stadium - Home of The Cincinnati Bengals!

Stop #25 – Cincinnati, Ohio. Great to see the stimulus bringing jobs to Ohio – but then again, if we had jobs we wouldn’t have time to do our part to “Help Ellen Achieve World Domination in 2010” with our “Ohio 88 County Tour”! Hmmm…

Stop #25 of our "Help Ellen Achieve World Domination in 2010: Ohio 88 County Tour" - Cincinnati, OH. A little football, a little baseball - Ohio knows how to have fun - that's why we love Ellen!