It’s Day 344 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. Driving mostly through West Virginia, it took me less than an hour to go from the Hilltop Drive-In Theatre, southeast of Chester WV, to the Winter Drive-In in Wintersville OH.

The Winter was a late entrant in the first wave of drive-ins, opening in August 1969. It was planned and built by the Skirball Investment Company, and it was huge. Its screen was about 120 feet wide, and its lot could hold about 1000 cars.

The Skirball folks added a second screen in the late 1970s, and the International Motion Picture Almanacs listed them as the owners through their 1988 edition. A commenter on Cinema Treasures said that the Winter “closed for several years during the 1990s”. The United Drive-In Theatre Owners Association said it reopened in 1997. Waymarking wrote that its third screen was added in 2001 and the fourth in 2004.

I don’t know who reopened the Winter and added all those screens. My first solid info after those events came this year when owner Ross Falvo and manager Debbie Harris noticed that they simply weren’t going to find many more current 35mm films to show. The drive-in had opened on one screen to start the season but would need to shut down without a way to play more movies. The embedded video of the day (from WTOV, the Upper Ohio Valley’s News Leader) talks about the Winter’s GoFundMe campaign to raise money for digital projectors.

Unfortunately, the results from that fundraiser was as disappointing as is typical. When WTOV celebrated the grand re-opening of the Winter on Aug. 24, Falvo had paid for two projectors himself. So two of the four screens were operational again, with a third planned for the coming weeks. Falvo said it was all worth it. “It’s amazing the people we get here on the weekends and weekdays that now are the grandparents that whenever they first started coming here were the children.”

The drive-in closed for the season in October, and I’m glad it’s in good shape to return next spring.

Miles Today / Total: 25 / 38922 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 200

Nearby Restaurant: The best place in Wintersville, Giannamore’s Pizza, is closed on Sundays so I went for a place closer to my hotel in Steubenville. It’s pretty much all they do, but the Capri Sausage & Meatball serves up some amazing Italian sandwiches. With easy take-out from their little place, I was glad that my hotel was within walking distance.

Where I Virtually Stayed: Google said the closest hotels to the Winter are in Steubenville, so that’s where I went. According to TripAdvisor, the best-rated hotel in town is (pausing to take a breath) Best Western Plus The Inn at Franciscan Square. Sure enough, my clean, comfortable room had all the modern amenities, and breakfast had a great variety to start my day, all at a surprisingly nice price.

Only in Wintersville: Data from Steubenville, just a few miles east, have become the centerpiece of air pollution studies, according to a 2006 article in The New York Times. It wrote, “Three decades ago, Steubenville’s reputation for having the country’s foulest air made it a magnet for researchers in the young field of environmental epidemiology.” Intergenerational studies were continuing on the residents still living it town decades after the polluting factories had shut down.

Next stop: Lynn Auto Drive In Theatre, Strasburg OH.

It’s Day 223 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. The drive from Norwalk OH to the Sundance Kid Drive-In in Oregon OH (suburban Toledo) took a little over an hour.

Once again, Cinema Treasures has some drive-in history that I can’t find anywhere else. The Sundance began its life in April 1949 when it opened as the Parkside Drive-In. The drive-in got its name because it was (and is) across North Avenue from Pearson Metropark. It opened as a single screen with a 622-car capacity, owned by Jim Dempsey.

Ray Searles purchased the Parkside from Jim Dempsey. After Searles’ death in 1960, his sons Dan and Edward, took ownership.

In 1978 a second screen was added to the Parkside, at that time part of the Co-Operative Theatres of Ohio chain and the Jack Armstrong Circuit. Later the Great Eastern Theatre Company took over management of the drive-in.

In 1987 it was renamed the Sundance Kid. It’s the last drive-in standing in the Toledo area. In the August 1998 issue of Playboy, Don Sanders, co-author of The American Drive In Movie Theater, provided a top 10 drive-ins list and the Sundance Kid was there. Jim Walter, president of the Great Eastern Theatre Company told The Press in 2013, “We had an indication two or three months earlier. They had stopped by and taken pictures. We had been selected, but we didn’t know what it was … That was a real neat thing — a real pleasant surprise. That was good stuff.”

A tornado on November 17, 2013 knocked down the original screen tower. The YouTube video of the day comes from WNWO, Toledo’s News Leader, which shot a short segment with the rebuilt screen in Spring 2014.

Rather than watch the latest movie, The Nut Job 2, I picked Dunkirk on Screen 2. It’s my second viewing, but Dunkirk’s actually a good movie while The Nut Job 2 has bad reviews and is likely to be my only choice a time or three over the next few weeks.

Miles Today / Total:  62 / 27036 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: Dunkirk / 137

Nearby Restaurant: I’m always on the lookout for authentic German cuisine, which is why I landed at the Black Forest Cafe. It had been much too long since I had a Schweineshaxe, the amazing slow-roasted pig knuckle that tastes so much better than it sounds. Add a glass of Paulaner and I was all set.

Where I Virtually Stayed: I was back at another Hampton Inn, this one another TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence winner. Everything was top-of-the-line Hampton, from a comfy room with a full set of amenities, a pool and hot tub outside, and the solid breakfast in the morning. What more can I say?

Only in Oregon (OH): Just two miles away at the edge of Toledo is Tony Packo’s Cafe, which is known for its mentions on M*A*S*H and its Hot Dog Bun Museum. Over a thousand hot dog buns line the walls, and every bun was signed by somebody famous.

Next stop: Summer Drive-In, Plymouth MI.

It’s Day 222 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. There were some nice diagonal highways pointed in my direction so my drive from the Hi-Road Drive In north of Kenton OH to the Star View Drive In Theatre just outside of Norwalk OH only took an hour and a half.

Once again, Cinema Treasures has some drive-in history that I can’t find anywhere else. The Star View (often written as Starview over the years) opened on October 1, 1949. It was owned by Jerry Steele and Lou Ratener and managed by Ernest Plitz. Gordon Evans became manager in 1955 when Plitz left to manage a drive-in chain in Florida. In September of 1956, Steele bought out Ratener’s interest in the drive-in theatre.

The Star View has a capacity of 520 cars with in-car speakers and (these days) radio sound. In its early years, one promotion to attract patrons during the fall was to give them a coupon for one gallon of gas at the nearby gas station, but only if the temperature fell below 50 (later 40) degrees. On May 17, 1953, the top of the wooden screen tower burst into flames during a show. (There’s an amazing color photo at Cinema Treasures.) Patrons were given ‘fire checks’ for another show. The wooden screen tower was rebuilt.

In 1957, Jerry’s son Bill Steele took over the ownership and the operation of the Star View. Bill later commented about the unusual things that have happened there over the years. “One time we didn’t get the print of the movie that was supposed to be playing that night. We were lucky that it was playing at the Apollo Theatre, Oberlin also. The Highway Patrol helped us get the movie to the drive-in. After the first reel was over at the Apollo Theatre, they helped us by getting the prints to the drive-in.”

In December 1971, the wooden screen blew down. It was replaced by a steel screen tower which stands to this day. In August 2007, Bill sold the Star View property and equipment to long-time employees Steve Witter and Jan Doughty. The Drive-In has since upgraded to digital projection.

The YouTube video of the day comes from the Norwalk Reflector, which shot a short visit to the Sky View in 2008.

There’s only one screen, and in this case it meant no escape from my sixth viewing of The Emoji Movie. Timeout.com wrote, “Disregard that PG rating and keep your children far away from director Tony Leondis’ vile animated faux-comedy. … The Emoji Movie openly rolls its eyes at full-fledged thought, legitimizing poor communication skills by cheering on the decay of attention spans.” So it’s not just me.

Miles Today / Total:  74 / 26974 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: The Emoji Movie / 136

Nearby Restaurant: I came to the Casa Fiesta because I hadn’t had any Mexican food for a few days. It’s got some Mexican dishes, but I was surprised at how often Cajun appeared on the menu. After my chips and salsa, I feasted on turkey and sausage jambalaya. It was a little offbeat, but it worked.

Where I Virtually Stayed: The Best Western Norwalk won a TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence, and once I stayed there, I learned why. The staff was friendly. My room had the full set of amenities including solid wifi. Breakfast was great, with biscuits and gravy, eggs, plus all the continental regulars. I wish that every Best Western was as good as this one.

Only in Norwalk: The Firelands Museum in Norwalk is Ohio’s oldest museum, commemorating the Firelands tract at the western end of the Connecticut Western Reserve, intended as financial restitution for residents of Connecticut towns burned by British forces during the Revolutionary War. The Museum started on the second floor of a Carnegie library and grew and evolved ever since.

Next stop: Sundance Kid Drive-In, Oregon OH.