One of the things that I like to do while driving is to imagine where people are going (or coming from). This is opposed to moving my head back and forth to weave specks of dust in and out of the white lines on the Interstate, which I only do while passengering, since it wouldn’t really be safe to do while driving.

What I mean by imagining where people are going usually involves cars with license plates for other states. Or, occasionally, since Ohio (and Kentucky and a lot of other states) has county markers on their license plates, cars with different county markers.

Yesterday, while I was driving home on 71 southbound just south of Fields Ertel, I saw a car also going southbound with Iowa license plates. I did not catch the county (if there was one, and I believe there would have been as I think Iowa is a county license plate state). Now, I understand that there are several reasons that a car with Iowa license plates could be here in the ‘Nati, besides going to/from Iowa.

• In the military, who don’t have to get new state license plates
• Or maybe they just moved here
• Perhaps they’re visiting family in the area and are just returning from errands or a trip to Kings Island or something

However, as I passed the car, it appeared to be an old woman and old man in there, and it appeared to have lots of stuff in the car, so I’m going to just say they were on their way to/from Iowa. Plus, that makes it part of “the game”. So, I was trying to figure out where they were possibly going (or coming from). I was really having a hard time coming up with possible destinations. I-80 is the major W-E interstate through Iowa. About the only thing I can come up with is that somewhere in the northern Cincinnati area (Mason, Lebanon, etc.) must have been their destination, and they were returning to Iowa.

Here’s the thinking. The route from northern Cincinnati, well, north-eastern Cincinnati anyways to Iowa would have you coming down 71, taking 275 W to 74 West, which hooks into I-80 at Davenport, IA, on the Illinois-Iowa border. I did some mapping / directioning and just general thinking about it, and it appears that Exit 65 on I-71 (US 35) is about the cutoff. Anywhere north of that (or northwest like Xenia) and it becomes a better route to take 35 West to Dayton to 75 N to 70 W. And as you go further north, you can just get on I-70 near Columbus. This leaves, in addition to the areas of northern Cincinnati that I already mentioned, the thriving metropolii of Wilmington, Jeffersonville or Caesar Creek State Park.

So there you have it – anyone else have any other ideas?