20. Ohio

     The drive from Wheeling to Columbus was very nice, especially for me, since I was able to take a nap while Dennis drove. Poor Dennis. As we drove into Columbus, I navigated us to German Village where we would find Schmidt's Restaurant and Sausage Haus.

     We opted for the buffet so we could have a nice sampling of their sausages along with some authentic German sides. The Bahama Mama is a spicy beef and pork hickory-smoked sausage. It was my favorite. The milder version was still spicy just not as much. The bratwurst was delicious especially with a touch of spicy mustard. The sausage stew was more like sausage and noodles soaked and served in a spicy barbecue sauce. It was good just not what I expected. More like a dish that would be served back home in Texas. Because I was always told you should try everything at least once, I tried the red cabbage and apples. I thought the apples might help the taste of cabbage, but it didn't. I then tried the sauerkraut. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, however, still not one of my favorite side dishes. The German potato salad was good. I still prefer my mother's mustard based potato salad. The table next to us ordered the dark beer sampler which looked inviting but 

Dennis was driving and we had a plane to catch later. Looks like another trip to Columbus might be in order.

     When you first walk in the door you are greeted with a glass case full of wonderfully looking desserts including their famous jumbo cream puffs.

  There were chocolate, chocolate and peanut butter, coconut, and vanilla cream puffs. Our appetites weren't big enough to each have one, so we shared a vanilla cream puff. It was soooooo good! I can just imagine what the others would taste like. I know they ship their sausages, I just wish there was a way to ship the cream puffs. We strolled down the brick street to their fudge store to see if we would luck out and be able to see them making fudge. We weren't so lucky but all the fudge looked delicious. There were even Buckeyes, their version of chocolate covered peanut butter balls.
     Since I had to work the next day, we headed to the airport to see how we could get back to Dallas. Dennis returned the car, I flight listed us, checked us in, we quickly changed shoes and/or clothes, went through security, and received our boarding passes all in under an hour. Talk about close, but it was fun.
      It was a great trip, good food, beautiful scenery, and we learned a little history to boot. I now have a new bonus question for 4th grade's Civil War Jeopardy game. Until our next journey... (which will be in two days)

Leg 8

    2 days

    4 flights

    417 miles driven

      = 3 states visited

   30 states to go!

http://www.schmidthaus.com/