Ohio State Route 696 is best known as the route providing access to the town of Beaverdam, but it also extends north out of Beaverdam to the town of Pandora. Ohio Route 696 is in Putnam and Allen Counties, in northwestern Ohio. Beaverdam is where Ohio Route 696 begins, but it's also where Interstate 75 crosses US Route 30. As the two national highways have no direct connection, Ohio Route 696 is forced to play the middleman. US Route 30 has a weird sort of trumpet spur, where the cloverleaf ramp is tucked between the carriageways, and the spur pokes north to access an east-west road. Here, Ohio Route 696 begins, moving west down that road past a diamond interchange with Interstate 75. Now that Ohio Route 696 is done doing the bidding of US Route 30 and Interstate 75, it heads a little farther west to the town center of Beaverdam. At the town's center, Ohio Route 696 turns toward the north. It proceeds north for eight miles with no curves before ending at Ohio Route 12, just outside the town of Pandora.
My photo for Ohio Route 696 comes from the center of Beaverdam, Ohio, where Ohio Route 696 first bends toward the north. The sign in this photo, however, serves those driving southward. It tells those southward drivers that Ohio Route 696 turns easterly at this point. This photo was taken on Leap Day 2016 as I was heading home from Columbus.