Ohio Turnpike bathrooms

The bathrooms at the Ohio Turnpike rest stops are great. Nice and large (two aisles of stalls) and always super clean. I think they have someone on staff who's only job is to make sure the bathrooms stay well stocked and cleaned. You never have to wait for these bathrooms (which for women is a rarity!!) Some of the bathrooms have the paper towels hidden under the mirrors (there are little stickers that say the towels are under the mirrors) and some have the regular paper towel dispensers. I like the ones hidden under the mirrors because it makes everything look so much cleaner. The sinks are automated and the toilets are automated.....but that brings me to the first negative.

Automatic flushing toilets have been become one of my bigger pet peeves in life. It has made our society lazy. It has also made our society not care. For whatever reason, I am one of those people that the toilet never automatically flushes for. Not sure if I stand up to fast, or if I'm just too skinny to set-off the motion detector (that can't possibly be it!) But either way....it rarely automatically flushes for me. I always have to hit the little manual flush button. I'm happy to do it. I'm used to flushing my own toilet. But there are those people that just don't care. They get up from the toilet and it doesn't flush and they don't seem to even care about trying to get it to flush. They just walk out of the stall....their business showing for the next person to see. Unacceptable. Flush the damn toilet. I am more and more appalled each day at how people just don't care. Sorry about the minor sidebar.

Overall, the Ohio Turnpike bathrooms are great. Nothing to really complain about other than my own pet peeves. They get a 5 out of 5 toilets. I love that they keep the bathrooms so clean...that's a huge plus in my book.

BW3's: Perrysburg, Ohio

Wings, beer, sports....that's what BW3's has to offer. The bathroom at BW3's looks all nice and shiny on the surface, but you start looking a little deeper and notice its a little eww! In the stall, there was quite a large puddle of water (at least I hope it was water) on the floor behind the toilet. If you have a leak....fix it. The first picture displays that water on the floor. It wasn't a small puddle, it was so much water that I was concerned my jeans would get wet. Love the tile though......OK, so I have a small tile obsession.

 

The counter tops are yellow and black, which is interesting to say the least. At least there was soap and paper towels. Not crazy about their trash bin thing...its in the counter top and instead of going front to back, it goes left to right. It's just not intuitive.

I give BW3's a 4 out of 5 toilets. The only real issue was the water on the floor. If there is a leak, please fix it!

McDonalds: Port Clinton, Ohio

Port Clinton, Ohio is my home away from home. My husband and I spend our summers there and occasionally make trips there during the winter. On a recent trip to check on my in-law's boat, we stopped at the McDonald's near the Catawba Island entrance. The restaurant is one of the McDonald's that have been recently renovated to be more modern and 'hip'. The bathroom has also been renovated and is quite nice. A few complaints though......one would be the lack of soap. There was only one sink and one soap dispenser and of course, it was out of soap. That means that the employees probably rarely check on the bathroom (they seemed a little busy, and it took almost 10 minutes to get our food!). There were two bathroom stalls, one is a handicapped stall and the other is a very very very small narrow stall. I chose the very small and narrow stall. The door almost hits the toilet when it swings inward (it should probably swing out) and to close the door, you either have to step between the toilet and the wall, or step on the toilet (seriously!). I decided to not step on the toilet that I was about to use and just squeeze between the toilet and the wall to close the door. It was a little claustrophobic and I don't get claustrophobic! There was some stuff on the floor that I'm praying was dirt (you can see it in the first picture) but other than that, it was fairly clean. Also found a piece of toilet paper in the sink....kind of odd.

I like the updated tile and I of course I loved the tile that looks like wood (I would marry that tile.....I would do my whole house in that tile if I could afford it....its a love affair and its a little sad). I took the two pictures below. You can see the awesome wood tile in the second picture. With all of the updates they did, they could have at least installed hand dryers that start automatically when you put your hands underneath them. Instead, they have the ones that you have to press the button to start. For anyone that is concerned with germs, this just isn't a good thing to have. McDonald's could have skips on the expensive wood tile and installed the motion sensor hand dryers.

Overall, the bathroom was nice, however the lack of soap and the tight squeeze to get into the stall really did this one in. I give the McDonald's bathroom a 3 out of 5 toilets. Not sure how often I will be going back to this particular McDonald's, but I would probably avoid going to this bathroom unless I had some hand sanitizer with me!

Granite City: Maumee, Ohio

Granite City is one of my favorite restaurants. Their bathrooms have awesome granite (go figure!) counter tops that are really nice.  On a recent visit to celebrate my birthday, I visited the bathroom only to find that it is still one of the better designed bathrooms that I have seen to date. One odd thing I found is that one of the bathroom stall doors had a sign (printed from someone's home computer/printer, I assume) that said if the door sticks, just push it a little harder. Needless to say, that was not the stall that I chose to use! I honestly have little to complain about with this bathroom. It is well designed, the fixtures are current (hey, the restaurant is about 5 years old...what do you expect?), and it is always clean every time I have used it.

Overall, I will definitely use this bathroom again and I give it 5 out of 5 toilets. Good job Granite City...you are my first 5 out of 5. Now....if someone could share the French Onion soup recipe, that would be greatly appreciated :-)

El Vaquero: Perrysburg, Ohio

The whole family went to El Vaquero tonight for dinner. I do want to preface this blog post by saying I'm not rating the restaurant, only the bathroom! The bathroom needs some serious work. I went into the stall that was right by the wall and there was a hole in the plaster! I even looked in the hole to make sure there wasn't a camera (hey, I don't want to end up on one of those hidden camera shows.) The walls are painted a coral orangy color- nice and bright for a Mexican restaurant. You can tell it has been painted several times over because they are trying to cover up bathroom graffiti on the walls. There was toilet paper on the floor in both stalls (there were only two stalls). The first soap dispenser that I tried didn't have any soap and the second one I tried only had a little bit of soap left. The awful light fixture that was hanging on the mirror needs to go. Gold light fixtures went out of style in the 90's (although my parents still haven't gotten that memo). Will I return to this bathroom? Probably. The food at El Vaquero is pretty darn good, so that it what will keep me coming back.

I give this restroom 2 out of 5 toilets. If there was soap in all dispensers and if there wasn't a creepy hole in the wall, it might have gotten a 3.

Target: Rossford, Ohio

I visit the Target in Rossford, Ohio quite a bit and almost always make a trip to the bathroom. Their bathrooms are typically clean and pretty well maintained. And the best part, they are normally not that busy! We frequent Target in the evenings so maybe I have a skewed point of view of these bathrooms. Being able to do your business without having tons of people in the same room doing the same thing is something I look forward to. I like the overall look of the bathroom and there is plenty of room to move around in the stalls. The sinks, stalls, and toilets are pretty standard and nothing to write home about.Will I use this restroom again? Of course I will! I make a Target trip almost once a week!

Overall, I give Target of Rossford 4 out of 5 toilets for their women's restroom.