Trip to American Heartland – Columbus, OH – Richey's Travel Adventures

As is inevitable during this time of year I get to take an all expenses paid trip to the American heartland. Hearty food (with cheese) and hearty weather. This week’s location? Columbus, Ohio.

Given it is the month of December, I am on my annual 12 days of Christmas bow tie run. Usually this means just showing my holiday cheer at our office but this week I had to take the professional risk of showcasing this at a few business meetings. It went over well as my colleague was wearing an equally edgy bright blue suit. We brought our A game to Columbus and ready to talk about performance presentation standards. If the content wasn’t entertaining at least our clothes would be!

Did you know that Columbus is not only the state capitol of Ohio but also the birthplace of Wendy’s Restaurants? I found the original site of the first restaurant where Dave first decided to not cut corners on his burgers. The restaurant is long gone now and in its place is a Catholic Charitable Foundation. Proving that all good burger joints go to heaven.

Finally, my colleague and I visited Schmidt’s Sausage Haus of Man vs. Food fame. We had to put our stomachs on the autobahn buffet where the only limit is the size of your gut and how much you are willing to suffer the meats sweats. And what do you eat after you eat several plates of sausage, green beans with pork, potatoes with pork, and spaetzle with pork? Why not a huge creme puff or chocolate cream pie. And to drink? A kale and berry smoothie or a shot of wheatgrass? No give me good ol machine made beer. Sorry Orange Theory, my all out speed is going to be a little light tomorrow!

I finally figured out something that only became clear to me this evening. Being from a midwestern family we always diverted away from “spicy food”. However growing up on the west coast I always attributed this to meaning hot (picante not caliente). In the Midwest spicy means flavorful. So I ate the “spiciest” sausage they had called the Bahama Mama and found it to be very tasty and not hot or burning at all. I can now feel superior when visiting my family in the Midwest and i ask for the spicy dish on the menu at the local diner.