First, for the TLDR crowd: food was meh and the two hour drive between the two cities is the most frustrated I've been behind the wheel in a long time. Worse than I-15 just south of Logan. Worse than eastern Nebraska. And worse than New York.

Anyhow, I highly doubt anyone is interested, but I thought I'd return and report about my venture into central Ohio and the Cincinnati metro area (which includes part of Kentucky). A week or so ago I asked for any recommendations for food in those areas. As Ohio isn't the first (or even the thirty first) place you'd think about when the topic of food meccas is brought up, I had pretty low expectations. I didn't have a lot of time, but I think I made the most of it. I was in Columbus for an immigration hearing for a long time client but I flew into Cincinnati to save time.

The best thing I had was in Columbus at Schmidt's Sausage Haus. They have an all you can eat buffet (called the "Autobahn") of sausage and other German staples. This place was featured on Man vs. food and DDD, so I had high expectations. The food was pretty good and I was overall pleased. However, I learned that Czechs make better sausage here in Texas than those Germans in Ohio. However, the ginormous cream puff desserts were very tasty. And it makes sense, as Ohio State loves creampuffs, as their schedule (OOC and in conference) is full of them.

The signature food dish of Cincinnati is their chili. And when I say "their" chili, I mean it. It's a sort of bland, bitter version of what most would consider good chili. It's super runny and has bitter chocolate, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and allspice. I tried it at a couple places, including the famous Skyline Chili. I had it 3-way (on spaghetti with about 1/4 pound of shredded cheese) and on hotdogs. I passed on the 4-way (same as above but with beans), 5-way (beans and onions), 6-way (added jalepenos, IIRC) and 7-way (I don't recall what the 7th was). I honestly didn't think it was too bad and I would recommend it just for the experience. Also so that you can know, as I know, that almost every other regional cuisine/dish is superior.

I've been to midwest a few times and there are parts that I like, but this trip just felt like a long trip in Shelbyville/Ogdenville from the Simpsons. I'm sure if I had more time that I could have found more enjoyable. But therein lies the problem, as I would be reluctant to want to spend more time there. I drove around U of Cincy and OSU campuses and both seemed nice. A lot less modern than I would've thought. I got to go inside OSU's stadium and down to the field. It was pretty awesome and the new 5,000 seat additions are being worked on. I talked to an old retired guy who volunteers to check visitors for about 20 minutes. Basically a glorified Walmart greater. But the dude knew his stuff. He knew how many feet below the ground level everything was. He knew all kinds of stuff about the stadium. He also had a lot of praise for BYU and ou'r program. So there's that. Although when he mentioned "the team up north" he didn't get it when I said "oh, you mean Utah, right?

The other interesting thing was that everyone (and I do mean EVERYONE) that I had some interaction with talked about football. At the movies, in every restaurant. At freaking immigration. Everyone there is a football fan. And I guess it's nice that they all have something to rally around.

Also, the drivers were the worst. The limit between the two cities is 70 for most of the way and I probably averaged 60 or so for the whole drive. Semi's and old men just hanging in the left lane for no apparent reason.