500-plus-mile journey kicks off

Editor's note: Jason Werling, a former photographer for the Sandusky Register, traveled the entire length of the U.S. 250 highway — from Sandusky southeast to Richmond, Virginia — in 2011 with his young sons and chronicled the journey in the newspaper. Nearly 15 years later and to commemorate America 250, Werling and his now college-age sons are making the more than 500-mile journey once more this week. This article covers Monday's leg of the trip. The next two days of the journey will be included in Thursday's and Friday's editions. Happy 250th birthday, America, and a happy first day of road tripping on U.S. 250 through the state of Ohio. Back in 2011, my two boys, 5-year-old Will and 4-year-old Payton, and I decided to explore where U.S. 250 in Sandusky goes to and ends. We also documented all we could find along the way. That first trip led to five more trips on other routes from Sandusky. Fifteen years later, we decided to do it again for our nation's 250th birthday. Our journey takes us over two- and four-lane highways for over 500 miles of U.S. 250, and we are traveling one state per day for three days in Ohio, West Virginia and Virginia. Trip kicks off Our first day included an 11 a.m. start at the corner of Milan Road, Cleveland Road and Sycamore Line in Sandusky, where U.S. 250 begins and ends, depending on which direction you are going. We are taking the easterly route and will eventually end in Richmond, Va. We are documenting the journey at facebook.com/250roadtrip if you're interested in a play-by-play of the journey. We didn't make it very far before our first stop at Jolly Donut, just over the City of Sandusky/Perkins Township line. We were greeted by new owner Josh Lang and shared the details of our trip. The boys, now 19 and 20, grew up with almost weekly visits to Jolly Donut before school. That may be where they got their height, as they have both eclipsed me. I think I'm shrinking. After picking up six or seven donuts, we jumped back on the road with Will taking over the driver's seat, a luxury I didn't have on past trips. We took a photo opportunity at the Shores & Islands Ohio welcome sign at U.S. 250 and Ohio 2 as a throwback to a similar photo we did in 2011. There will be quite a few throwbacks to the original trip. Shores & Islands Ohio is a major sponsor of this year's trip as our region celebrates America's 250th. Our journey shares some "Lake Erie Love" all the way to Richmond, Va. Continuing through Erie County, we took a quick offshoot and drove through Milan, the birthplace of Thomas Alva Edison, and also snapped a few photos of the historic town square and statues of Edison. We then entered Huron County with a stop in Norwalk, the Maple City. A coffee stop at Sheri's Coffee House felt like a good idea, and the boys saw a familiar face with Deariea Lanier behind the counter. We grabbed a quick photo with her and took our drinks on the road. U.S. 250 is considered an east/west route, but has a lot of north/south portions. We headed southeast toward Ashland and Wooster. In our previous road trips, the boys kept a checklist of road signs, animals and attractions along the way. Payton and I checked off a lot of barns and cows on the checklist during this part of the trip as Will drove. We also saw a few horse and buggies as we traversed through some of Ohio's Amish Country. We also had a rule in past trips that if the boys saw an ice cream place, we had to stop. The 19- and 20-year-old versions of the Werling "young men" are bigger fans of getting to a destination than they are of getting ice cream. We made pretty good time. They didn't want to stop at Grandpa's Cheese Barn just outside of Ashland?! Next time, for sure. After a quick offshoot through downtown Wooster, we continued on through the Dover/New Philadelphia area. We stopped at Warther Cutlery, a high-end knife producer that includes a gift shop and museum. The business also has America 250 engraved cutting boards available. We had one personalized for the trip and made our way to a late lunch in New Philadelphia. The downtown is undergoing a streetscape project, much like the one Sandusky just finished last year. We ate at Gavin's Grill and continued with our trip. We stopped at a rest area, Tappan Lake, just as we did 15 years prior, and took a rest. Will took some photos, Payton caught and identified a swallowtail butterfly, and I took a four-minute nap. Our next stop was another throwback to 2011 as we stopped at the 250 Pit Stop, a gas station in Dillonvale. We originally took a photo of the boys holding their Angry Birds stuffed animals with employees from the 250 Pit Stop and thought there was a slight chance the employees might still work there. That wasn't the case and we just took a photo with the boys and the same birds they had 15 years ago. Needless to say, they weren't too excited, but they survived. The final stretch of the route in Ohio took us through a winding and hilly section through Harrisville as we inched closer to West Virginia. An inland island Our day 1 goal was to cross the state line and stay on an island. Yep, that's right, there's an island in West Virginia. The Ohio River splits to form Wheeling Island, and that's where I booked an Airbnb for the night. During our road trips, we always let people know about the islands we have in Ohio, as many don't know about the Bass Islands and Kelleys Island we have in our region, much like you probably didn't know West Virginia has an island with a casino. The Werlings are in Wheeling for the night, and we will pick up that journey for a full day on U.S. 250 in West Virginia just as soon as the young men roll out of bed for Day 2. Give us a follow at facebook.com/250roadtrip for more photos and updates.