John Quincy Adams Slept Here

One of the best travel experiences of my life was one of the earliest.

On the evening of June 4, 1977, I checked into the venerable Golden Lamb Inn in Lebanon, Ohio, with my brand new wife, the lovely Robin. We had been married just hours before in Chillicothe, Ohio. I may have been a tad nervous, because I managed to lock my keys in the car. Twice. Well, once in the car, and once in the trunk.

But even with that, we were soon settled in the John Quincy Adams Room (above) for our first two nights as a married couple. The room's namesake, the sixth president of the U.S., was nowhere to be found, which was a good thing.

Still, the room is named for him because he was one of two U.S. presidents to stay at the Golden Lamb, Ohio's oldest inn, after his term in office--on November 7, 1843, on his way to dedicate the Cincinnati Observatory. The John Quincy Adams Room, with its queen-size bed and lovely view of nearby Gazebo Park, is on the second floor of the inn. Though if I remember right, the furniture has been rearranged since 1977. The wallpaper has been changed, too, I think. But I'm sure they've saved the hotel register for posterity, since it was the first time I wrote, "Mr. and Mrs. Robert Hostetler." Historical, don't you know.