OT: Talkin (non-football) Worst State Ever Tuesday

Ex wife is an osu grad. She's a bad person and her buckeye family are hyper religious, racist bucknuts.

I learned my lesson there.

Ohio is the wasteland between Pittsburgh and Ann Arbor.

My wife's sister teaches at Pickerington Central-one of the great Ohio athlete factories-so we get to sample the greater Columbus area quite a bit. Actually, outside of the NW quarter of the state, Ohio is quite nice-topography speaking. I found it interesting that, while tagging along on a shopping outing at a fabric store, there was a very large section of Michigan fabric alongside the OSU stuff. I wear my Michigan gear with discrimination and the conversations I encounter are friendly. Otherwise, the average, run-of-the-mill Ohio resident is just fine.

Edited: It's the NW quarter of the state that is topographically challenged.

I'll give my two football related stories - both dating back to when I was in the Michigan Marching Band in the mid 1990s.  

In the first, we were getting ready before the game outside the stadium some distance away.  We had been assigned a couple of armed state troopers to be our security.  A small group of about 30 of us were slated to play a pep rally at a large alumni tailgate a couple hundred yards away from where we were.  As we prepared to walk over the state troopers informed us that we'd have to cancel the appearance.  Why?  Because these 2-3 armed cops couldn't guarantee our safety walking near the tailgating OSU fans.  A bunch of college kids in marching band uniforms were at risk from OSU fans despite having armed guards.  

The second was another trip after we upset OSU in the Shoe.  As we boarded our buses to drive back to AA I saw a grandfather with his toddler grandson sitting on his shoulders and I watched the grandfather teach the little kid how to give the middle finger to us.  Then we got on the highway and a few miles outside of Columbus a state trooper pulled over four of our buses for speeding.  Our driver informed us that the buses had a regulator on them that prevented them from going more than 65mph.  Cop was just being a dick after losing the game.

Went to Cedar Point on a whim one day with a buddy. Could only ride 3 of the coaster cuz his shoulders were too big that the restraint wouldn't lock. Ended up in Detroit for a Yanks/Tigers game instead

I used to spend a lot of time at Put-in-Bay. There I am sitting around enjoying a nice cold adult beverage and somehow they feel the need to start playing that stupid Hang On Sloopy song. 

Oh and got a 15 over ticket on my way back from Cedar Point.  Speed trap on Ohio 2. 

i'm going to go the other way on this.....

if it wasn't for:

cheaper gas

Tony Packos

the fact that i have to cross the shithole on my way back to MI

I'd never go there....

Oh, and Weller Antique isn't impossible to find there either.

I have to travel through the smelly place when visiting family in Michigan.  I can confirm that crossing into Ohio from either Pennsylvania or Kentucky immediately brings you upon flatness.  I mean, it's so immediately and startlingly flat, I can see why the Flat-Earthers would say the Earth is flat.  I try to remain positive by telling myself that it marks the half-way point of my drive.

I've driven many times through Nebraska and Kansas, and have also driven in Nevada and western Utah, but I've never driven in flatter territory than in the area around Bowling Green OH. Stultifyingly boring.

Isn't all of Ohio a speed trap?

I've driven to Washington DC from Ann Arbor several times. It always feels like it takes two days to get through Ohio, and yet, the total drive is only ten hours. I don't understand how that works.

Only experience with Ohio was driving through (which I've done many, many times) on the way from Michigan to the East Coast and back. Always tons of highway patrol, eager to give speeding tickets to out-of-state plates. Also, too many Ohioans in our great state during the summer.

They don't understand that the left hand lane is for cars going faster than the ones in the right hand lane......

A couple years back we drove from SC to Mich for Christmas and, as we pass into Ohio on 75 in Cincinnati there was a distinct sewage odor as we cross in. My daughter, all of 5 at the time, said “eewwww, Daddy what is that smell, did you fart?”  I said “no sweetheart, that’s the smell of Ohio.  We just entered Ohio and will have to be here for another 3 hours.  I’m sorry. “
 

Ohio is like Ukraine without the charm.

I found one positive in OH, right outside of Columbus actually.  Friend of mine invited me to play Muirfield Village, OMG, great great course no matter the location.  Even designed by an OSU grad. 

I grew up in Ohio. Scared for life. 

Used to live in Cleveland.  They had a different place to go for your drivers license and your plates.  Went to first place without my checkbook and they only took checks.  The other place only took credit cards.  Pure Ohio.

I may be in the minority here, but I rather like Cleveland. Not in the way that I like NYC, or Seattle, but I've had a good time on the half dozen times that I visited Cleveland. There's a taco joint downtown that is phenomenal - Barrio's. I've hit the Rock and Roll Museum up a few times, caught an Ancient Egyptian exhibit the Cleveland Museum of Art, and saw several shows at The Improv. 

Been to the Cincinnati Zoo, as well. Other than speed traps and the Buckeyes, Ohio isn't that bad. Of the 39 states that I've been to, the only ones that I have no interest in visiting again are Iowa and Nebraska. Simply nothing there worth seeing for me.

I had a long layover in Toledo when taking the train back to NYC (shuttle bus to Toledo from Detroit.)  Decided that a bottle of liquor would make the train ride better, so went to find one.  It was after midnight.  At a gas station, dude told me to walk across the bridge & a few blocks later there would be one.  Lovely neighborhood with guys wandering the streets in packs looking at you to determine how easy it would be to rob you.  There was a Cadillac parked on a lawn.  The anti theft device on it was a dog chained to the tire... it was parked on a chain.  After finding the store to be closed this haggard looking woman rides up to me out of nowhere on a bike and wants to get friendly.

It was all explainable by the word "Ohio."

On one hand, after assuming everyone from the state was a jerk, or worse, my best friend in the Army was from Ohio, and so was my best desk sergeant as an MP.

On the other hand, JT was short and the crowd at that game was the closest I've felt to being in a dangerous mob. It scared me—and the refs.

The Toledo War is my main reason. Hate older than statehood itself. 

Ohio is horrible, the drivers are bad, the people are assholes, the potholes can swallow my truck whole, the inbred trailer park rednecks are the rudest people you will ever meet. 

source: I live in Columbus and work on Ohio States campus. 

Some guy struck me on the back of the head outside their stadium after the Harbaugh “guarantee” game.  It was some lowlife student with 6 or 7 of his inbred, extras-from-Deliverance buddies with him. It was my girlfriend and me, so we just walked on. 
 

On that same trip though, we got pulled over by an Ohio State trooper while many of us passengers had open beers in our rental minivan. Not sure whether he knew and decided to be nice, or it wasn’t worth his time, or the stench of Ohio overpowered the Stroh’s, but he let us go for speeding with a warning.

Jenny's ice cream is pretty great.

The rest of the state is shit.

One of my best friends decided to get married in Ohio,some off the map location. The town had an intersection with a blinking red light. 
 

the venue was a metal exterior with a slight incline roof with an aesthetically, welcoming pull door as the entrance. This is not even the best part. Some of the guest arrived in OSU jerseys and work boots. As the event continues, my friends and I are standing outside and notice two multi-colored F150 backing up to align the truck beds together. Why? So they could transfer the fridge from one bed to the other. 
 

my tought: these two dudes decide the wedding reception was the logically location to transfer a fridge. 
 

My son goes to school in Ohio, about 30 minutes outside of Columbus. His campus and the surroundings are beautiful. Everything else is sh**. The end.