Returning to an Ohio town on the decline

America is in the middle of its most volatile presidential election season in half a century - and the

Midwestern state of Ohio is set to be a key decider in the race. London-based American
writer and broadcaster Michael Goldfarb returns to the state he first reported on two decades ago to see how much has changed.
If you've done any travelling at all you will know this experience.
You arrive in a small town on your way to somewhere else. The place looks interesting but you can only stay long enough for the townscape to worm its way into your memory. You kick yourself from time to time that you didn't spend longer there and realise, as the years pass, you will never get a chance to go back.
Ripley, Ohio, was one of those places for me - a lovely town on the majestic Ohio river. Twenty-three years ago I passed through while making a series about the US Midwest for the BBC.
But recently, I had a chance to return. I had been driving around Ohio reporting on the upcoming presidential election. I had been in towns and cities still reeling from the last 40 years of social and economic change in America, places like Toledo and Cleveland and Akron.