Well, aside from Buc-ees…

At 133 miles into our latest move, we stopped at a rest stop in Ohio for the bathrooms and to feed the cats.

Kate spoke to one of the maintenance staff that said that it is only about a year old. It is also manned 24/7. It is one of the cleanest and swankiest rest stops that we have seen. It appears that this is one of the modernized “re-imagined” Ohio rest stops with:

• Clean bathrooms
• Dog-walking areas
• Tourism information
• Outdoor storybook trail

It is probably the one near South Vienna, Ohio between exit 72 and 66 going west. The Ohio DOT refers to it as the Madison Rest Area. This is what the overhead Google Maps looks like:

And this is what the 2024 Google Street View looks like:

That must be the old rest stop in the Google Street View. The building is fresh, clean, and new with a flagpole to rival any Camping World store. The parking is recently poured concrete with a lot of tractor trailer and RV pull through spots. This is what it actually looks like:

It has more educational nature signs than some state parks that we have visited.

It has a map of Ohio physiographic regions, where to find various plants at the rest stop, and several gardens at the rest stop.

It even has a storybook trail. I think Findley State Park is one of the few state parks where we have found one of those.

Inside the rest stop, the walls are plastered with things to do in Ohio.

The back wall has a large map with cities, state parks, and things to do just down the road (i.e., the 1-6 on either side).

The map shows a few campgrounds that we might try to stay at in the southwest of Ohio. We stayed a Stonelick a few years ago, but it is not in a good place going east to west. The John Bryan State Park might work. According to the map, there is also Madison, Buck Creek, Great Council, Sycamore, and Kaiser Lake State Parks.

Aullwood looks highly amusing, but it might not live up to the hype. It would be super disappointing to find out those sculptures are 3 feet tall. If it is related to the Audubon Society, it might also be a bird sanctuary. It would be kind of creepy to have birds nesting in the eye holes.

There are historical artifacts from Ohio. Apparently, I-70 replaced the old US Route 40, also known as National Road. The basic story seems similar to Route 66; it even had quirky roadside attractions.

It was very impressive for a basic rest stop. The welcome to the state ones are often fairly impressive too, but the one at the border of Ohio and Indiana was closed.