Moving to the North. aka, another country.

I have decided to write about my recent move to Ohio. For anyone who doesn't know I moved to Cleveland with my husband, Kevin, at the end of January. He is from Cleveland. He took a job transfer so we could be close to family. I've visited from time to time but never spent much time here on a regular basis.

So, back to the chronicling of my new life. I have been here for a few weeks and am finding out that life is different to what I am used to in Texas so I thought I would share.

The first lesson in northern culture is the salt. I can honestly say I never gave it much thought as to where the salt comes from, even the salt on the kitchen table. Well, up here it's all anyone can think about. It's so much salt. I never realized there was ever a need for so much salt. I feel like I need a drink of water just thinking about it.

Under Lake Erie there are some of the largest salt mines in America. The salt mines come from an ancient sea that dried up leaving millions and millions pounds of salt. Every year they mine for salt. this year I believe they are using at least 75,000 tons of salt.  Here is an example for you, One ton of salt will cover one 2-lane highway for 3.3 miles.

When it snows the snow plow trucks head out along with the salting trucks. On a side note, it can get too cold for the salt truck to work then they have to use liquid deicer. This all happens like clockwork. The plowers are up and busy at work before anyone hits the road for morning traffic.

Here are some pictures as a visual aid.
1) Mined Salt. Yes they mine that much salt.
2) They have salt houses all over the area for quick use.
3) Salt mines under Lake Erie.
4) Salting truck
5) More of the Salting Mine. They say it's so salty down there that when you lick your lips it tastes like salt.
6) Snow Plow. They are NOT messing around.