Ohio is a different country

Yesterday morning after we left Karen and Mack we had to take non interstate roads to connect to the best route. My Google maps did what it did for us in France last spring. That time, as we plotted a route to the Abbeye of Fontenay between Dijon and Paris, Google took us on a tiny road which was probably the most direct but not the straightest  road. The scenery however was five star. 

Something similar happened yesterday. We ended up on a winding route that took us past farms producing corn, hay and milk.  The road wound through small towns with stop signs and small churches.

The trees were less brilliant than in New England, but it is a beautiful corner of the world. The barns were sometimes painted, sometimes peeling.

The houses had stately porches. The towns had small engine repair shops and Dollar stores instead of Walmart and Best Buy. These people seemed self sufficient and independent. We saw a church named Spring of Joy and that summed up the feeling of this corner of Ohio. It seems like a different country than the one I live in in Massachusetts. It made me want to stop and rock on one of these front porches and talk to the people living here.  I think that's what politicians are supposed to do. Do any of them come to this corner of Ohio?