• Day 1- 18 miles
• Fairhaven to woods near Gratis (Preble Co.)
• Day 2- 28 miles
• Near Colonial Vineyards, Ridgeville
• Day 3- 27 miles
• Ridgeville to King's Mill
• (Cross Little Miami River, think of Buckleberry Ferry)
• Day 4- 25 miles
• King's Mill to Marathon
• Day 5- Rest day
• Day 6- 17 miles
• Marathon to Bethel

• Day 7- 20 miles
• Bethel to Georgetown
• Day 8- 12 miles
• Georgetown to Decatur
• Day 9- 16 miles
• Decatur to Panhandle
• Day 10- 16 miles
• Panhandle to Cedar Mills
• Day 11- 15 miles
• Cedar Mills to Otway
• Day 12- 17 miles
• Cedar Mills to Idaho
• Day 13- 18 miles
• Idaho to Scioto Trail State Park
• Day 14- 12 miles
• Scioto Trail State Park to Hopewell Culture National Historical Park (the mounds stand in for Weathertop)
• Day 15- 19 miles
• Hopewell Culture NHP to Tar Hollow State Park
• Day 16- 19 miles
• Tar Hollow to Ash Cave, Hocking Hills State Park
• Day 17- 19 miles
• Hocking Hills to Carbondale
• Day 18- 19 miles
• Carbondale to Athens
• Day 19- 19 miles
• Athens to Burr Oak State Park
• Day 20- 19 miles
• Burr Oak to Eagleport
• Day 21- 7 miles
• Eagleport to Ruralsdale
• (Muskingum River stands in for the Loudwater)
• Day 22- 6 miles
• Ruralsdale to The Wilds Wildlife Center (Muskingum Co.)
• Day 23- 6 miles
• The Wilds to Cumberland
• Day 24- 6 miles
• Cumberland to Claysville
• Day 25- 34 miles
• Claysville to Newcomerstown
• Day 26- 20 miles
• Newcomerstown to Sugarcreek
• Day 27- 18 miles
• Sugarcreek to Zoar
• (Boliver on the Tuscarawas River stands in for the site of Nazgul attack at ford. Ohio Historical Society's Zoar Village stands in for Rivendell).

Bob Evans Restaurants show up a winner every time Ohio Magazine asks people to list their favorite best value restaurant. At least that happened when I was there. Once there was a rule that chains weren't to be nominated-just to give some other restaurants a chance to shine. No matter. People in Ohio are wild about Bob Evans. At least the folks who enter restaurant contests are.

As one reader stated, "You said no chains, but we go there all the time. The food is always good, as are the service and the prices."

I like Bob Evans myself, especially for breakfast--and recognizing that breakfast is one of its hallmarks, the chain has cooked up a different kind of contest itself. This one is on Ebay. People are bidding on a 3-day vacation and breakfast with Bob Evans himself. The neat thing about this, is that proceeds are gong to Habitat for Humanity.

What's the impetus for all this? With its roots firmly in Ohio, even though it's reaches are far outside the state's borders, Bob Evans Restaurants have a new item on the menu and their own blog, "One Stack at a Time." The blog is basically devoted to Stacked and Stuffed pancakes. Readers can add their favorite choices. There is also a video that shows how to make Stacked and Stuffed pancakes yourself. The listed favorite from the blog is roasted apple carmel cream. Here's a link to the press release about the contest and Bob Evans's new endeavors. Also, if you want to join in the auction, hurry. You only have two days left. This is a great opportunity to have an Ohio vacation and help charity as well.

If you're a history buff like I am, and obviously connected to the internet if you're reading this right now, you should take a trip over to Youngstown State University's Oral History Digital Program, where you can download transcripts of over eleven hundred oral accounts given by Northeastern Ohians since 1974. The histories recorded span subjects such as the World Wars, Vietnam, Immigrant Cultures, the steel industry before and after it settled and abandoned the Youngstown-Warren region of Ohio, the Holocaust, religion, and so much more.

I've read through a great many of the oral history transcripts myself, trying to familiarize myself with the region in which I grew up. You'd be surprised how much you don't know about where you come from. So take a dip into your heritage, and see if you can't find out some of the reasons why Northeastern Ohio is what it is today.

I have to admit that "severe weather" warnings seem to be getting more common, along with warnings of "don't go out if you don't have to." I don't think it's because we have more bad weather than ever before. It's just because we hear about it a lot more in this day of instant information. If you'd like to see just how bad Ohio weather can get, and you don't scare easily, there's a good website Ohio History called Severe Weather in Ohio. It might make you a little less ready to run for the basement, thinking the latest storm isn't all that big a deal, or it might make you take the next plane out in terror. i wouldn't recommend that course, though. You can't run from Mother Nature.

The site was developed with information from a book called Thunder in the Heartland: A Chronicle of Outstanding Weather Events in Ohio, by Dr. Thomas Schmidlin and Jeanne Appelhaus Schmidlin. Brief accounts of twenty-five events are presented, with photographs and, in some cases, videos. Whoever designed the site did an excellent job. There's a weather glossary and a good page of links. If you go to Weather for You, you'll find out that, on any given day, there was a time when the weather was a lot worse. Maybe it will make shoveling the snow a little easier. Want a forecast? Just go to the National Weather Service. It's a lot faster than waiting for the news.

The site deals with tornadoes, floods, heat waves, and some mysterious eight-foot waves that hit Cleveland. Toledoans remember the day in, 1992, when twenty-eight tornadoes passed through Northwest Ohio, a record that I'm glad I missed. There is an event on the list that I remember well, even though I survived it in the next state over. January of 1977 is a month I'll never forget. The blisters on my hands from shoveling snow ten times a day for a whole month lasted till spring. I never want to see twenty-five below on a thermometer again! After that shock, it takes a lot to impress me.

Every once in awhile an email ends up in my junk mail that looks interesting. Today there was one from Americantowns.com announcing that Columbus is part of this on-line venture designed to let folks know what is happening in the cities and towns where they live. My email was about Columbus specifically. When I went to the website Columbus is the city that appeared but that must be because somehow this site knows this is where I live. If you go to the part that lets you switch to other towns, you can pull up various towns and cities around Ohio. I went to Willoughby to see if the linked worked and Willoughby happenings showed up.

But, about Columbus. Mainly there is a list of activities happening at the Wexner Center for the Arts, the Columbus Public Library, the Columbus Symphony and the Columbus Museum of Art. I imagine the list will get bigger as time goes on and organizations know that this venue for getting the word out is available. One useful piece of information I also saw was the reminder that Columbus Public Schools is closed on the Martin Luther King Jr birthday holiday.

When I browsed down the list I saw a few things I knew were happening before but forgot ,and some things I didn't know. There's a Family Fun Day at the Columbus Museum of Art, for example, this Saturday. It's part of the gubernatorial festivities. When you see an activity listed, you can click on it for more information. Along the left side of the page there's a textbox style column with specific highlights.

Americantowns.com is also a place where you can find out realtor information, movie times and get maps to find out how to get to all the neat places there are to go. Personally, I liked that I could scroll down the list to see what was happening in the order that it's happening, then click on links to the sponsoring organization to find out more. It seems like this will be a good place to go to not loose track of the neat things there are to do in Columbus and the best way to schedule them in. It's a website where you could do some serious browsing.

For a city with a lot of problems, Youngstown has a lot of citizens with a great passion for the place. Particularly in the younger, newer generations growing up in the wreckage of past industrial economic betrayals and disappointments, I find more and more Youngstowners who are blogging and journaling about the city and what it was, is, and what they hope it will become.

What many of the Youngstown blogs I come across do are paint a portrait of the city rather than the bloggers themselves, which I find fresh, and a welcome addition to the many blogs that detail the daily lives of their bloggers.

In the online blog of the Walruss, Youngstown's new alternative newspaper, the city's renaissance call among its bloggers has been reported, detailing a variety of blogs, like John Slanina's "I will Shout Youngstown" blog, which he states has been a way for him to remain connect to his hometown and also as a tool for him to express his thoughts on city planning and economic development. His blog, among many others, like Mike Prelee's "Tales from the Rustbelt" provide readers both in and outside of Youngstown with a picture of the city from the inside.

This city has many tales to tell, and needs its tellers. Hopefully we'll have more in the near future.

With the weather in a state of flux this is the time of year to pick up a good book. Here are some suggestions I've culled from a couple of Ohio's sources. Perhaps you have some other ideas. Send them along. Here's to not waiting for what Oprah says to read before heading to the library or bookstore. Check out Ohio's brand of literary tastes for some reading pleasure. They run the gamut from classics, to mystery to literary to just plain fun. The websites have what's on the agenda for the coming months as well.

Here's a smattering of what's being read in January, or at least suggested.

J-Link Book bunch at Panera's in Clintonville (Columbus) is reading The History of Love by Nicole Krauss.

Newburgh Adult Book Discussion Group that meets at the Central Branch of the Ohio Township Public Library System is discussing Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (Oh, wait a minute. This group is in Indiana, but since I took the time to write it up, here's a nod to them.)

Lori Foster, a Cincinnati-based romance writer wanted for Christmas the following: Drop Dead Gorgeous by Linda Howard; Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris and A Marked Man by Stella Cameron.

Twinsburg Public Library Mystery Book Discussion group suggests Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem

Williams County Public Library discussion group in Bryan is reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte