Author: Linda

Bluffton is a small Ohio village with deep history, a lively downtown, welcoming local businesses, seasonal festivals and memorable places that make it an enjoyable destination for a day trip.

History and Heritage

Established in 1831 as Shannon, Bluffton is located in both Hancock and Allen counties in Ohio at exits 140 and 142 off Interstate 75. Both Swiss Mennonites and Irish Catholics settled in the Bluffton area, and that heritage remains part of the village’s identity today. Bluffton is also home to Bluffton University; a liberal arts university associated with the Mennonite Church. One interesting historical fact is that the infamous bank robber John Dillinger once robbed the Bluffton bank, getting away with $6,000

Ten Thousand Villages

Downtown Bluffton

Today Bluffton is a beautiful village to visit. Main Street has many shops, including book stores, a bike shop, antique shops, a plant and gift shop, and Ten Thousand Villages which sells items made by people in developing countries.

Main Steet also offers several places to eat, including Kira’s Flipside Grill, the Twisted Whisk Cafe, Campito Lindo, and East of Chicago Pizza and China Wok. Other local restaurants include Lulu’s Diner which serves breakfast and lunch. and Arcadia Pizza

During the season, usually May through October Bluffton has a farmers’ market on Saturdays from 8am till noon, where farmers and local artisans sell their wares.

Bluffton is also home to the Shannon theater and Shirleys popcorn. The Shannon theater is a small-town theater that shows new films at very reasonable prices. Next door Shirley’s popcorn sells movie theater popcorn along with many flavor combinations, and a flavor of the month. I have tried many of them but Windy City, a mix of cheddar popcorn and caramel corn, is one of my favorites,

Shirley’s popcorn

Along with its business, Bluffton has many beautiful homes, especially on Main Street, including some in the Victorian style.

Festivals and Seasonal Traditions

Bluffton is home to many festivals that bring the village together. During our visit it was “Play Music on the Porch Day.” Just as it sounds, many porches on Main Street had musicians playing their songs and drawing crowds. The Fall Festival this year is scheduled for September 26, 2026. It will feature horse and wagon rides, an antique tractor show, and many other activities. Bluffton is also known for its Blaze of Lights Christmas Festival. It features a holiday parade, trolley rides through town, and Santa Claus, and also features the Ream Display.

In 1938 Harry Ream and his wife Dorothy created wooden Christmas cutouts of many different scenes, including Victorian skaters, carolers, cartoon characters and more. I took my children to see these displays every year when they were young. and the village continues to display these cutouts each Christmas season.

Near the Interstate

Near the Interstate 75 exits. visitors will find many of the familiar fast-food restaurants, as well as a Holiday Inn Express. Perhaps best known stop in this area is Springfield Fireworks, which sells not only fireworks, but also gifts and moccasins and more

With its history, locally owned shops, restaurants, and small town charm, Bluffton Ohio is a memorable village that is definitely worth visiting.

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My husband and I started taking drives on Ohio’s back roads during the Covid shutdown. We were tired of staying home, frankly we were bored, you can only watch so much television, so we packed snacks and a cooler of drinks, picked a direction, and simply enjoyed seeing where the road would take us. We have continued our drives ever since.

Some of our favorite trips had no destination at all. We would choose a direction, then take turns deciding which way to go at each intersection. One day we drove through seven counties! As we drove, we found beautiful homes, charming country churches, log cabins, lakes, rivers, and all types of barns, even cemeteries. As an amateur genealogist, I find cemeteries fascinating not so much for my husband.

One of our most memorable surprises was spotting a zebra on a farm. We turned around to make sure we had really seen it, and the owner told us they had purchased it at an exotic animal sale and kept it in a heated barn during the winter.

We also saw plenty of wildlife, including deer, bald eagles, hawks, a family of pheasants, a coyote, and a fox. It reminded us just how much natural beauty Ohio has to offer.

Sometimes we’d follow a state route as far as we could, exploring places like Indian Lake and Chillicothe, Ohio’s first capital. Many attractions were still closed at the time, but we did find an ice cream shop, which made the trip even better.

An unusual old brick silo

Many small towns have banners to honor our servicemen.

Living in northwest Ohio, where the land is mostly flat, it was fun to watch the scenery change as we traveled east and south into the rolling hills. Those unplanned road trips gave us a new appreciation for our home state.

Ohio is a truly beautiful state with so much to offer.

A city on the lake

When Mike and I travel Ohio, being water lovers, we often find ourselves drawn back to Lake Erie. We often follow the very scenic Lake Erie Coastal Ohio Trail. Lake Erie, one of the Great Lakes, has 871 miles of shoreline. There are many Cities, towns and villages along the lake shore in Ohio. Toledo, and Cleveland are the largest. but many other picturesque towns and villages dot the shoreline. One this trip we decided to spend the day in Vermillion.

Vermillion is a beautiful city in Erie and Loraine counties on the lake. It is 24 miles west of Cleveland and 17 miles east of Sandusky.

Vermillion is located at the mouth of the Vermillion River, which is where the city got its name. It is known as the Village of Lake Captains, due to the fact that many 19th century lake captains chose Vermillion to build their homes here and made it their homeport. You can take a walking tour of the captain homes. The self-guided tour of the captains homes begins at the Ritter Public Library located at 5680 Liberty Avenue. Below is a link to the walking tour.

www.Vermilionhistory.org/history/tour

There are many other beautiful Victorian homes, and a public beach on Main Street and the downtown features many antique shops, and restaurants.

You never know what you will find on Ohio road trips. We found this beautifully restored Woody in a neighborhood and we had to stop and talk with the owner.

Vermilion has a rich history besides the Lake Captains homes The Lake Erie shipyards built large lake schooners here. The print shop and newspaper office which closed in 1964, is now open as the Vermillion History Museum.

After a day exploring the town, we decided to find somewhere to eat. We chose Big Ed’s Soda Grill The style of Big Ed’s is reminiscent of old time soda fountains. It was a fun atmosphere and the food was delicious.

Ever since my husband and I first met, we have spent a lot of time at Indian Lake Ohio. Located in Logan County, Indian Lake is a 5,104 acre reservoir, making it the second largest inland lake in Ohio. The communities of Russells Point and Lakeview border the lake. Indian Lake got its name from the Native American tribes who once inhabited the area and found it to be an excellent place for hunting and fishing.

Today Indian Lake is known for its boating, water sports, fishing, camping, and many other outdoor activities. Beginning in the 1920’s the Sandy Beach Amusement Park was one of the lake’s biggest attractions. The park closed in 1976 but one reminder of the park remains.

This bridge is the last remnant of the Sandy Beach Amusement Park.

My husband and I visited the lake often even before we had a boat. We’ve a;ways loved being on the water, and there’s so much to do at Indian Lake even if you don’t have one. The lake offers scenic walking and biking paths near the lake. We spent many relaxing days with the kids and grandkids at Old Field Beach. You can drive directly to the beach, which has plenty of parking or you’re arriving by boat can you can pull right up to the shallow swimming area.

If you want to spend more than a day at the lake, there are many campgrounds and cottages that you can rent . Indian Lake State Park is one of the more popular and inexpensive places to camp.

In March 2024, an EF3 tornado stuck the Indian Lake area, causing devastating damage and claiming three lives. Despite the devastation the communities around the lake have shown incredible resilience. Businesses and residents have worked hard to rebuild, and Indian Lake continues to come back stronger. While some rebuilding projects are still underway, many local businesses have reopened. The Indian Head Roadhouse is one of those businesses that had extensive repairs done and has since reopened.

One of the newest attractions at Indian Lake is the golf cart drive in theater. Pattie’s Place is located across from the Family Dollar, at 13534 St. Rt. 235. If you don’t have a golf cart, don’t worry, you can bring your lawn chair.

Of course, the biggest attraction is still the lake itself. There are boat ramps in various places on the lake that provide easy access to the water. If you don’t have a boat, you can rent one at Spend-A-Day-Marina. One unique feature at Indian Lake are the lighted buoys for fun and easy night boating.

Indian Lake is also considered one of the best fishing lakes in Ohio. Those who enjoy fishing regular catch yellow perch, largemouth bass, saugeye, bluegill, crappie, and channel catfish, making it a favorite lake for fishing throughout Ohio.

During our visits we’ve enjoyed trying many of the local restaurants. One of our favorites is Buckeye at the Lake, located at 134 E Main St. Russells Point. They offer casual dining with pizza, salads, sandwiches, pasta and more. I ordered their calzone , while my husband had the boneless wings and fries. Everything was delicious. Although Buckeye at the Lake is one of the newer restaurants at the lake it has already become well known for its excellent pizza.

Buckeye at the Lake

I loved the Calzone

I never knew that there are many covered bridges still standing in Ohio. Last year my husband and I decided to visit as many covered bridges as we could on our Ohio road trips. We visited 5 of them last year since we started later in the summer. We have also limited ourselves to original older bridges, not the rebuilt ones at this time. There is a rebuilt one very close to us here in Findlay Ohio near the Riverbend Park. We have nothing against rebuilt bridges we just wanted to make the older ones our first priority.

Ohio has over 130 covered bridges. Ashtabula county has 18 covered bridges We have not visited these yet but are planning to soon. Ashtabula county has a covered bridge guide: Ashtabula County Covered Bridge Guide for a self-guided tour or you can take a shuttle tour from The Lodge at Geneva On the Lake. Union County also has a Union County Covered Bridge Trail. These and others can be found online. I printed out a list of the covered bridges in Ohio from this site: Dalejtravis.com Also whenever we are in a new area I do an online search to see if there are any covered bridges near me.

First we visited the Historic Swartz Covered Bridge in Wyandot county. This bridge was built in 1880 and is located on County Road 130 in Wyandot county. There is a historic marker on US 23 traveling southeast from Upper Sandusky directing you to this bridge. Another bridge in Wyandot County is the Parker Bridge. It is located on Everhard Rd Upper Sandusky Ohio. We were able to drive across both of these two bridges.

The Swartz Bridge

The Parker Bridge

Another bridge that we visited last year was the Historic Mull Covered Bridge. You can not drive across this bridge but there is parking and an area to picnic here. There is also a historic marker and a painted sign depicting the history of covered bridges.

To dine near the Mull Bridge The Tackle Box 2 located at 420 Sandusky Ave Fremont Ohio It is known for its burgers and seafood.

The other two bridges we visited last year are in Logan County. The Mccolly bridge was built in 1876 It is located on County Road 13 Washington Township, Logan County Ohio. We drove across this bridge. We also visited the Bickham Covered Bridge 7500 C 38 Belle Center Ohio. This bridge was built in 1876. You can also drive across this bridge.

The McColly Bridge

These are the ones we have visited so far as we plan to continue our quest to visit all the bridges in Ohio.

Village in Wood County along the Maumee River

Historic Grand Rapids has something for everyone. Located along the Maumee River about 15 miles southwest of Toledo Ohio, you can walk along the old canal tow paths, you can shop or dine in the downtown area, you can boat or kayak on the Maumee river or you can fish the river known for the walleye run in the spring.

The Miami and Erie canal was located along the Maumee River and can be seen there today along with the towpath and remnants of some of the locks.

Mule pulled canal boat rides are still available for a glimpse to the past. You can also chose to walk along the former tow paths which are now home to many flowers and garden sculptures.

Another historical feature of Grand Rapids is The Isaac R Ludwig Mill, a restored working water-powered grist located across the river from Grand Rapids You can still watch grain being ground there today.

When visiting Grand Rapids, I always have to check out the local shops. The historic architecture lends a picturesque atmosphere to the downtown area. The unique shops include: antiques shops, book shops gift shops and clothing shops. There are also candy and ice cream shops. These were always my children’s favorite when they were young.

Miss Lily’s is one of Grand Rapids restaurants. We have enjoyed a meal at Miss Lily’s in the past but this time we decided to go to The Dairy Bar. We have also visited Snyder’s Pizza on another trip to Grand Rapids.

Grand Rapids historic Fire Department and Town Hall

Another thing we like to do at Grand Rapids is boating. We usually launch our boat at Mary Jane Thurst0n State Park. Mary Jane Thurston is a 105 acre park with camping picnic sites and boating. The boating area has a very nice bathroom facility. The picnic area have rustic shelter houses and there is electric sites and primitive sites for camping

The boat launches at Mary Jane Thurston State Park

The office, restrooms at the boat launch

Boats docked on the Maumee at Mary Jane Thurston State Park

Today since my husband doesn’t walk much yet after his accident we stopped at the Dairy Bar on Front street in Grand Rapids. This dairy bar sits right on the river as you enter the town from the east and offers a wide variety of sandwiches, sides and many kinds of dairy treats. Mike had a hotdog and I had a chili dog. We also had to try their milk shakes, which we decided were very good. I’m sure we will be visiting Grand Rapids again soon.

McComb, Ohio 45858

Union Pacific’s Big Boy 4014 – The world’s largest operating steam locomotive has been making its way across the United States as part of the celebration of our nations 250th anniversary. If you get a chance to see it, it is worth the time.

A couple years ago we decided to move into a small town in Hancock county Ohio about 7 miles from Findlay Ohio where we lived before. Our little town that we have adopted doesn’t have a lot here, we have a dollar general, two gas stations, and a pizza shop and not a lot else. Who would have thought that we would have the world’s largest steam engine going through our village, but we do have train traffic, and we happened to be on the route for this large engine.

I havent been posting for quite a while. At the end of January my husband had an accident and had a bad break of his femur. He spent over two weeks in the hospital and then spent another three weeks in a rehabitation facility. He is still not getting around like we were used to but hope to be getting there soon so we can continue our travels around Ohio.

Schedule — Big Boy 4014 Tour

Last weekend this amazing train engine and cars made its way through our small town of McComb Ohio. We did not have to go far to see the Big Boy, it came to us. It did not stop here but that did not stop the visitors from coming here to see the huge engine We were able to park near the farmers elevator. I was surprised that we had such a great spot to see it.

Note the cars on the other side of the tracks to get an idea of the scale of this large engine.

We had quite a crowd of viewers for our small town. The engine and train cars that followed was a very impressive site. The engine never slowed down as it was going through town but the crowd didn’t seem to mind at all.

The train will come back through town again on July 14th I plan to be there to watch it again.

Just a couple of the cars the engine is pulling,

I hope we can soon get back to traveling Ohio and finding some of the wonderful places that our state has to offer. We love finding small out of the way places to eat and experience different foods, though my husband is quite a picky eater. I love to find historical sites as well as other places to visit and have been turning my husband into someone who likes to experience the great historical places Ohio has to offer as well all the other wonderful sites. Hope to be adding another post soon.

26929 Cummings Road

Millbury Ohio 43447

We recently spent a fun Sunday visiting this car museum in Millbury Ohio in Wood County Ohio. My husband is a car guy and he was very excited as soon as we entered the building. We were told that the owner has been collecting cars and trucks for years and decided to build the museum to share his collection with the public.

The first room we entered had the Delorian from Back to the Future, the Mystery Machine from Scooby Doo and the Batmobile. Also Herbie from Love

The next room had rows of tables and chairs a self-serve snack bar and many of the candy, cigarette dispensers from years ago. There were also juke boxes. Not everyone will remember when candy and cigarettes were sold from dispensers everywhere, but I have to admit I’m old enough to remember those. There is room after room of cars, trucks, gas pumps and other memorabilia.

This is such a fun place to visit whether you are a car person or you just love to visit memories of a time gone by. The music played in each room is different depending on the period of the vehicles We had a great time.

Just an update to our moving to a new home and village.

We are delighted to be in our new home. We finally got moved at the end of December 2024 and are enjoying our new life here in our home. The previous owners did a lot of remodeling already, so we didn’t “have” to do anything to settle in. Now the fun begins as we make our house our own. We didn’t even need to paint as the colors they chose were compatible with our furniture. Almost all of the boxes are unpacked, and we are just organizing things. In the meantime as we were moving into our new home, my husband was diagnosed with some health problems and has through a number of tests and he just recently finished treatments in Columbus Ohio. We are looking forward to a complete recovery for him as we start a new chapter in our lives.

We plan to resume road tripping through Ohio this spring and renew our sampling of Ohio’s many small towns and cities and Mom and Pop type local eateries.

491 South Main Street Mt. Victory, Ohio 43340

Travelanddineohio.com

Mt Victory is a small town with many antique shops just south of Kenton, Ohio, on State Route 31 in Hardin County. We pass through Mt. Victory often on our way to Columbus, as we prefer Route 31 as a back way to Columbus.

The Plaza Inn is located at the southern end of Mt. Victory. It’s a quaint little restaurant and bar with homemade food. We love to eat at the Plaza Inn. They have a breakfast buffet from 8am to 10:30 am on Saturday and Sunday. They also have a full breakfast menu.

They also have a supper buffet with fried chicken, fried fish, salisbury steak, noodles, creamed corn, mashed potatoes, and a full salad bar.

Inside the Plaza Inn is the Dealership Bar, which is a full bar with food specials, and craft beers. The decor is automobile memorabilia and advertising.

The Plaza Inn is also has an air strip. It fun to see a small plane fly in so its pilot and passengers can come in to dine. It’s not unusual to see a couple small planes parked beside the Inn.

The Plaza Inn and antique shops are not the only attraction in this area of Ohio. The area north of Kenton and South of Mt. Victory between Rt’s 309 and 31 is home to one of Ohio’s old order Amish comunities.

We really enjoy driving through Amish country and this area is not commercialized as some Amish communities are.

Pfeiffer’s Station General Store at 19950 County Road 144, Kenton Ohio, is a great place to visit in this area. We went home with homemade cookies, some bulk spices, and a pie. It was wonderful, the cookies didn’t even make it home.