Somerset, PA to Dayton, OH via Wheeling, WV

I got up at 6.30am and I left my hotel at 9.15am to continue my drive towards Dayton, Ohio. I had an easier day today as it was only just over a 5 hour drive. I broke that up too as I stopped after about two hours in Wheeling, West Virginia as I wanted to visit Independence Hall. When I got to the centre of the city, it was another city that seemed quite quiet and the hall appeared to be locked up so I was concerned that it too was closed!




Thankfully there was a sign to say that the temporary entrance was around the back. Other than the curator, I was the only person in there although he did say that sometimes they can have 180 visitors in a day. First of all I watched an 18 minute film about the building and all the history. It’s the former Custom House that then became a courtroom (on the third floor) and is the actual room where it was decided to form the 35th state – West Virginia. It was really bizarre being in that actual room totally by myself where history was made in 1861.

The room where hitory was made:


I set off again at about noon and about an hour later stopped for a sandwich somewhere on the road. Next door to where I ate was a McDonald’s and I laughed when my SatNav told me that we were in Mickey Road! (I’ve also discovered that when an exit sign says something like 41A-B my SatNav reads it as "41A minus B!")

I then drove the remainder of the way to Dayton and it seemed an easy journey as the traffic was light. Before I found my hotel, I went into downtown Dayton and (easily!) found The Canal Street Tavern where The Kasim Sulton Band are playing tomorrow and took a photo of the outside of the building. I got to my hotel at about 5pm. For the first time ever I’m staying at a Red Roof Inn. They are one of the cheaper hotel / motel chains and I thought it was going to be a bit of a dive but I was pleasantly surprised as it’s clean and is a larger room than I’ve had at other places on this trip. My first room didn’t have a strong wireless signal so I changed rooms. There’s a Bob Evans on site so I went there for dinner. This is a restaurant chain that I haven’t been in before either and it was cheap but filing.



I got back to my room at about 7pm and did some website stuff and then actually watched a couple of the programmes I had saved on the iPlayer before I left the UK.