Verona Ohio

My loose plan for peddling east across Ohio included heading south thru Darke County in to Preble County until I hit Route 40 aka The National Highway which has also been called The National Highway because at one time it went coast to coast http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_40. I runs parrallel to Interstate 70 and I have been on part of it over the years and liked what I saw so I figured it would be an interesting route to bike , but so far I have not made it onto Rt. 40 although I did cross it yesterday.

One of the great things that I have discovered on this bike trip is that it makes no difference what road you take if you are looking for something interesting and photogenic--it is a sure thing that you will come across something really neat sooner or later--and most usually sooner.

It happend again yesterday--as I was riding south out of Ithaca heading for Rt. 40 I saw a sign that said Verona 3 miles directly east so I decided to see Verona because it was kinda on the way. It is typical small town like many others in the area . It is located right on the Preble-Montgomery county line and I did not stop, just rode down the main drag and decided to coninue heading east out of town before turning south agtain for Rt40.

A little ways out of town I saw this distictive house with some colorful wild flowers growing in the front yard and stopped to take a pic. While I off the bike the owner of the house named Joy pulls into the driveway in a pickup truck and we start a conversation about how attractive her house is. This is when I learn that this is just a small part of a 20 acre place called Little Shop Antiques and Gardens which is next to Baltimore House Antiques. Joy invited me to check the place out and I am so glad she did. This place is as cool aa place as I have seen on the entire trip. I was there an hour aand plan on going back when I have a day to spend there. This is a fascinating place and if anyone gets close they should stop and see it. You can get a rough idea of what it is all about from its website but you have to walk it to appreciate it. You will spend some time there.

I learned that this is part of a 5th family generation farm.

There are all kinds of scenes like this one . Note the working windmill in the background.

This is Joy and daughter Laura. Joy and husband started the antique business almost 50 years ago and now Lauraandhubby is doing their thing in the business and working on letting the rest of the world know what is happening in Verona.