Day Four- OH/IN

We left Days Inn outside of East Columbus. We got on the highway towards downtown Columbus with one goal in mind: find a Starbucks. There wasn’t that much in Columbus that we were interested in, but there was a small area in downtown called German Village that was highly recommended.

The Skyline of Columbus from the Interstate

We parked at the Starbucks and walked around town -- cobblestone streets -- with our iced coffee. The German Village was mainly a residential area with old restored houses. There were German shops including the famous Schmidt’s Sausage Haus and Schmidt’s Fudge Haus where we dined and bought fudge -- so did Martha Stewart. Jessica ordered pretzel bites and German potato soup, while Orit got the haus buffet complete with all types of sausage, cabbage and sauerkraut. We finished it off with some nice German fudge, which had the consistency of homemade chocolate icing. The twenty-something guy behind the counter had a thick German accent. We tried to make him talk more but his answers were always so brief. Before leaving the area, we walked through the Book Loft -- a cool, independent bookstore.

German Pretzel Goodness

Orit's Plate o' Goodies

Everyone loves the Buckeyes

WEINERSCHNITZEL!!!

After traveling West on US-40, the National Road we decided that the road which was first built in 1811, should be renamed the National Yard Sale Road. No joke, we must have driven past at least one hundred junk sales.

The National Road

From Columbus, we made our way to Indianapolis, Indiana. We got word from one of our road trip books that there was a National Cookie Cutter Museum in Knightstown, Indiana. With both of us having a sweet tooth, we said ‘Deal Howie!” When we arrived in the small town, there was no museum in sight. The only people around were those running stands at the fair so we asked a few local Methodists selling BBQ for directions. Unfortunately, they informed us that the museum was long gone. We jumped back in the car and went on to Indianapolis.

Welcome!

We stayed at a Motel 6 near the Speedway which was frightening. Jessica asked the woman behind the desk if they had internet. She replied with "Honey, you aint in no Hilton. What do you expect for $35?" Followed by "Do you see what I'm wearing?" So we took that as a no. Since we weren't interested in spending any time in the room, we simply dropped off our bags and headed straight towards downtown. We had dinner and saw a movie at the Circle Centre Mall area, which despite being crowded with families and professionals, was still kind of sketchy.

Jessica still prefers Daytona

As close as Jessica was going to get to Peyton Manning.

When we got back to the hotel, there was a cop car sitting outside. Now we had true reason to worry. So we walked up to the cop and asked him if this place was ok to stay in... He started off with "Well, I'm not going to lie to you. There have been some problems here." But he said that he would stay on patrol here until 3:30am until he gets off work and then ask the next guy to drive by for the rest of the morning to check in on the place. Nice! Drama for only $35.

See if we survived the night...More to come! haha (we did, no need to worry!)