Living: airbnb in Logan Square, Chicago, IL

Working: onsite @client

Laundry: Friendly Wash Laundromat, Logan Square

This week in laundry I move on. From Ohio.

Wheeling West Virginia looms as a portal to the east. Cross the bridge from Ohio, and you’ve exited the past. Follow the tunnel through the mountain, and you enter into the future. Wheeling sits in the present between those two worlds. Wheeling is the portal between them.

Leaving Columbus towards the east is a journey of transition. The terrain gradually changes from the rolling Midwestern hills of Ohio into the tumultuous terrain of the dissected Allegheny plateau – that dynamic earth which harbors Pittsburgh.

As I make my way to Pittsburgh International along the interstate, it’s clear. The Midwest is behind me. What lies forward is altogether new.

“City of Bridges” – an anthropomorphic statue of the Pittsburgh bridges at the Pittsburgh International Airport

I leave behind my mixed feelings and impressions on Ohio soil. As well as broken glass. And a few things from my car.

Because a couple of days after last week’s wash, my car was broken into. Sometime in the night while parked on the street.

By and by it could be much worse. The camping gear’s still there. My electronics equipment is still there. My mail is still there.

Since I live out of my car, it serves a purpose beyond transportation. It’s my home – it’s where I keep the things I need. That’s why I’m careful to select airbnb’s with off street parking. Like the one I had in Columbus. Off street, gated, and full of security cameras.

Except the lot wasn’t available due to resurfacing last Wednesday night. Rather than risk a morning tow, I parked on the street. A street that my host had recommended as an alternative. Not realizing that that particular street was not the safest so to speak as far as parking goes.

And, as a result, a broken passenger window welcomed me the next morning.

My Thursday Morning Welcome

I look at it as part of the adventure.

Which includes the ensuing disagreement with my host, when I requested a partial refund to cover the expense of replacing the car window – a small fraction of my losses considering the theft and lost income. It did not go well, and the conversation – at least documented through the airbnb system – resulted in an unresponsive host.

EDIT: My Columbus host reached out later in the week to let me know she's still working on a refund solution. Things are looking up!

It’s very important to me to respect my hosts and their spaces as I travel and interact. In fact, I’ve developed and maintain several relationships with a handful of my prior hosts. So a trip gone sour – so sour to have a host stop responding to me – lends great disappointment.

But I leave that disappointment in Ohio. I move on.

Ohio is dynamic. It’s diverse. So many major metropolitan areas – the three ‘C’s over two million, plus Dayton, Toledo, and more that I never visited. Cincinnati holds a taste of the south, and of an older colonial and immigrant east. Cleveland, that Great Lake rust belt in rebound staple, reminds me of Milwaukee. And as such remains close to my heart. Columbus – with strange pockets of interest and breeds of counter culture, is a city in motion. And frustration.

What do these three cities have in common? Besides being in Ohio – they have their markets

Each of these three cities hosts an amazing, unique public market. If I had to say that there’s anything that makes Ohio Ohio, it would have to be the markets. It is, hands down, the most consistent feature.

The Cleveland Public Market

Interior of the century old Celeveland Public Market

Both the West Side Market in Cleveland and Findlay market in Cincinnati tower with ages beyond a century in length.

Inside the Findlay Market in Cincinnati

And the North Market in Columbus may be far junior in age of operation, but is no less remarkable. In fact, the rich foodie culture of Columbus lends a diversity of flavors and textures and trends – from the famous Jeni’s Ice Cream, to BBQ, gourmet doughnuts, amazing Indian, and even artisan pickles. And that’s just what I could get my hands on.

Inside the Northside Market in Columbus

Above the bustle in the Columbus Northside Market

Ohio is also a state of families. Over and over, from the people I talked to in my coworking spaces, the trend was the same. What brought them all back to Ohio, settled into their cities of ‘C’, was to come back to family. To come back to raise their children in the familiar company of their families.

That, and the rather inviting cost of living.

When you’re traveling, everything carries a texture of new. It lends all you encounter a great essence of amazing, even in the mundane. Could I call any of these cities home in the future? I’m unsure – because all that was great about any of them, was viewed through rose colored lenses of unfamiliarity.

Though it would be fair to say Columbus left a poor impression. Mostly from the theft.

Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument in Clelveland

But while there are great things in these places that make them interesting, it was the people that I met that made Ohio so amazing. More than anywhere else in my travels – I interacted, engaged, and enjoyed the company of my coworkers. Whether in the incubating space of Cowork Tremont, or the well cultivated space and relationships of Platform 53, or the happy hour on Friday with the Salt Miners.

And maybe it’s that among the Midwesterners, I simply feel at home. But I have a feeling that long after all that I disliked, and all the streets that I walked, and the tacos that I ate have left my present memory, the thing I will remember most is the people that I met. The way I felt to be a part of their lives, and they a part of mine. If only for a week.

Also the brewing history in Cincy – seen through these historic underground lager cellars – helps a bit too

As for this week, I’m in the pleasant, familiar company of my clients. Always a delight.

And as for this night, my wash is nearly complete. I suppose like some places, not all laundromats are created equal. And the sheer efficiency of this one has this week’s wash nearly complete, far ahead of the regular schedule.

Next week I’ll be washing in Pittsburgh. I look forward to moving on. I look forward to spending time in those American states that were, once upon a time, colonies to the crown.