In which our intrepid hero discovers the Island of Misfit Motels…
Once past Zanesville, continuing eastward on U.S. 40, I immediately began coming across old motels again, relics of the beautiful nostalgic time between the 1920s, when travelling by car became common in America, and the 1950s, when the Interstate Highway System began to suck up all of the nation’s cross-country traffic, leaving the old motor hotels as dry as a farm after the river shifted course.
In which our intrepid hero revisits Zanesville, glorious Zanesville…
Population is an odd thing. In Ohio, the population has been stagnant for some time. There is a small net outflow of population, just barely compensated for by births. But within the state, population is far from stagnant. There is an outflow of people, often quite large, from every one of Ohio’s major cities save one (Columbus). There is also often an outflow from inner-ring suburbs. Where are they going? Basically to further suburbs. Ohio’s small cities and large towns are experiencing equally bad declines, with some having lost half their populations since World War II. Zanesville, Ohio, along U.S. 40/I-70 an hour east of Columbus, is one such town. Where did all those people go? I haven’t been able to find out.
