Sat-Sep 6 - Lima OH to Carollton, KY via Indiana

We "done good" yesterday by driving into the storm. It poured late last night and this morning it was grey, but no rain. We decided to keep pushing west and then start a swing south.
Route 81 from Lima is a small 2 laner that got us to Indiana in an hour or so. Corn and soy, or soy and corn, take your pick. They seem to always alternate the corn and soy fields side by side so we are assuming it has to do with crop rotation and also reducing cross pollination of different seed type (but I am a computer guy and Dave is a power guy so what do we know?).
I love the open fields from horizon to horizon, probably because I have spent 50+ years staring at trees. The roads go either east-west or north south. So it is nearly impossible to get lost (despite my best efforts..).
I should have been a history or geography major so I could understand the changes with time of this area. I can guess (remember, engineer) that there used to be small farms that hacked a living from the wilderness followed by small towns with division of labor, followed by bigger agriculture feeding the cities via rail followed by megafarms consolidating all the smaller farms followed by what ever comes next.
We saw a lot of abandoned houses, churches and barns which would bear out the idea of little farms getting gobbled up. Also the small towns in eastern Indiana have a lot of empty, dusty store fronts. I must say that if you stop anywhere to look at a map, anyone walking by will ask if you need help. That friendly mid-westerner myth seems to be real because everyone is very helpful.
We turned south and followed Rt 1 until we hit one of two detours (which take you half way to California and back by the way). Since everything is square, a detour can only mean you are going a long way out of your way. I bet these little starving towns hate detours around their towns!
It sort of spit rain drops all day so we wore the rain stuff pretty much all day. It was cool so it was ok. Not like yesterday when it was 90 degrees and wearing rain gear was like donning a sweat suit.
We crossed the Ohio River and into Kentucky, and like every time we cross into Kentucky, things change, and not for the better as far as economic well being. (Still way better than West Virginia).

We found the "Hotel Chernobyl" which was an abandoned Comfort Inn, but a newer one was built right behind it (and we had no rubles to pay anyway "Comrade"..). Great Mexican restaurant (unlike the other night) and back to bed. This vacation stuff is exhausting.
I think we may go back up on the fertile plains of Ohio tomorrow since we have been through the Appalachian hills many times. We really need to get "way out west" somehow, but not this trip.