Day 1 – Stratford, ON to Cincinnati, KN

This morning I woke up early, turned my alarm off and fell straight back to sleep. I’m recoving from this awful bug that everyone’s got so getting out of is bed a challenge. After my third snooze alarm, I finally found the will power to flop out of bed and into the shower.

We managed to leave by 7:30am which isn’t bad but we did plan to leave at least an hour earlier. Our car had a generous dusting of snow last night so before we could go anywhere, I had to brush it all off.

I gave Kitsy (the farm cat) a cuddle and packed the last of our stuff in the car. I was so paranoid that she’d jumped in the boot I had to keep checking multiple times through out the day.

Crossing the boarder was the smoothest crossing we’ve ever had. We weren’t asked too many questions and passed through without having to go to secondary. This road trip we are doing in our Volkswagen Jetta which is not as fun as the bike but at this time of year definitely warmer!

Our first stop was the giant cow head. This area of town was quite sad because a lot of it has been abandoned. A lot of the places here are boarded up and there’s very few people around. This cow originally advertised Wilson & Sons Dairy where they sold ice cream, however now it is probably better known for it’s appearance in 8 Mile, when Eminem and his friends shoot it with a paintball gun (CGI of course).

We went for lunch at Johnny Packos which I have been desperate to visit. Not only do they sell amazing food, this place is full of history and signed buns.

Johnny Packos has been serving delicious food since 1932 and is a true piece of Ohio’s history. It is so popular and successful that they have had to keep extending the restaurant and have now opened five locations. Back in 1970, Burt Reynolds came here for a visit and was asked for his autograph. Instead of the regular paper or napkin, he signed a bun and unintentionally set a tradition for countless celebrities do the same and get their bun on the wall.

Our next stop was Ohio’s highest point. It was a bit odd getting there as you have to drive past a school and some other buildings, I’m still not sure if we were allowed up there but we did it.

For dinner we went to Olive Garden which for Americans is just another chain restaurant, but for us Brits it’s a novelty. I had the shrimp pasta with the salad that I have heard so much about. This salad is so popular that it was replicated for the girls at the Playboy mansion (they have a podcast so I’m learning all about life at the mansion).

Of course we did the typical thing when you’re on a road trip and totally forgot about rush hour traffic. When we eventually arrived at our accommodation we were happy to find it was a toasty 15 degrees compared to – 2 back in Stratford.

We stayed at an Air BnB called the Ludlow Bungalow which was so cozy we didn’t want to leave. The hosts Karen and Connor did a great job converting their garage into a bear den and left us talking about how we wanted to do the same in the future.

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