Taking our talents to Northeast Ohio

Downtown Akron

Check out my hat! When in Ohio....

Hard to believe, but I think Johnny has eclipsed LeBron

So far Ohio has been a fairly confusing and somewhat difficult place to drive. On a positive note, it’s not very big (ranked 35^th in area but 7^th in population). So we made the move from northwest to northeast in less than five hours.

The West Branch State Park east of Akron was not as nice as Maumee Bay SP and the camp sites were not nearly as spacious so it took some work to squeeze our rig in. On a positive note this is one of a relatively few parks in the state that has on-site water. It is not that big of a deal to fill the tank and use the trailer’s electric water pump – but the pressurized water from an external source works better.

Even though we made reservations in May West Branch was booked for Labor Day Weekend, so we had to move for the final four days of our stay in the northeast to Punderson State Park; a move of only about 25 miles, due north.

We started our 11-day stay in the land of LeBron and Johnny Football by going to a Cleveland Indians game against the Astros on the Sunday afternoon after the Browns had played their first home game the night before which happened to have been the first home game the Browns had played since drafting Johnny. Needless to say the Browns game had sold out and the Indians-Astros game 12 hours later was not exactly the hottest ticket in town. However, that anonymity allowed us to score some nice tickets on the cheap.

The only problem with the seats was that the handicap row was directly in front of us. Normally that would not have been a problem except that (as the photo below documents) there was an old lady in a wheelchair that was STANDING UP and blocking the view! Is that legal?

We thought about yelling out some pithy insults (Hey you, in the wheelchair, sit down!) until we noticed she was wearing an Astros shirt and decided to cut her some slack.

It was a good thing we held our tongue because it turns out that she is the grandmother of Astros rookie pitcher Mike Foltynewicz who came into the game in relief and struck out four of the five batters he faced (he walked the other one). He threw 19 pitches and most of them clocked at 98 mph with one registering at 99 mph. That folks is what you call Major League Heat.

Foltynewicz grew up in Illinois and his parents and grandmother made the relatively short drive over on I-90 hoping that he might get in the game. We talked to the dad a bit and he said he and his wife had traveled to Houston for their kid’s MLB debut earlier in the month.

The Astros lost but it was a good, well-pitched game and the seats were great (when grandma was sitting down).

One of the many thriving businesses in downtown Cleveland

On the drive in to Cleveland we stopped at James Garfield’s birthplace, which is now the site of the city hall of a leafy suburb. We also stopped at what has to be one of the most obscure of the 400-plus sites in the National Park Service; a memorial to David Berger, an American/Israeli citizen who was one of the 11 Israeli athletes murdered at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich.

Basically it is a sculpture in front of Jewish Community Center in a very upscale suburb of Cleveland that was commissioned and built with private funds in the 1970s and then designated as a national memorial in 1980 because Berger’s father was friends with then-U.S. Senator Howard Metzenbaum.

Monday was serendipity day.

When I was looking at the map I noticed that the town of Kent was only a few miles down the road from our state park so, basically on a whim, we decided to stop by the Kent State University campus to see what they might have in the way of a memorial to the infamous National Guard shootings that occurred there on May 4, 1970, during a Vietnam War protest.

I’m not sure exactly what I expected, but my expectations were vastly exceeded.

First of all I need to report that Kent is not a large town…I suppose you might describe it as a suburb of Akron; fairly nice but nothing fancy. The university is large and it has a pretty, leafy, densely-developed campus with lots of fresh-faced, mostly-white kids walking around; and very, very few places to park.

It took us at least 15 minutes to find a parking spot and another 5-10 to find the memorial, which we first thought was only the historic marker (see photo below). Then we realized the sign was part of a larger memorial and that there were signs spread out around the commons area where the shooting took place. Then we realized there was a ‘Visitor Center” devoted exclusively to the May 4 shootings.

“Visitor Center” seems like an odd term to describe what turned out to be an exceptionally well-done, compact, multi-media interpretive center that matter-of-factly describes what happened that day.

Here’s my summary.

There were protests at campuses across the country in the aftermath of President Nixon’s announcement of a bombing campaign in Cambodia (where the U.S. had been secretly bombing for several months prior to the announcement); there had been some violence and destruction in downtown Kent the night of May 3 and the ROTC building on the campus had been set on fire; at the mayor’s request the governor sent in the National Guard; on May 4 a large crowd of students gathered in a grassy commons area in the middle of the campus as part of a nationwide protest; some were chanting and actively protesting many others were just watching; the guard – hundreds strong with bayonets fixed on loaded rifles and wearing tear gas masks - ordered the crowd to disperse; tear gas canisters were fired; some students picked up the canisters and threw them back; there was a good bit of wind and the gas dispersed quickly, but it did have the general effect of clearing a distance of several hundred feet between the guardsmen and the bulk of the students; for still unknown reasons a group of guardsmen on a hill overlooking the commons turned and fired 67 rounds, a combination of 30.06 bullets shot from M-1 rifles, .45 caliber bullets fired from a pistol and buckshot fired from a shotgun; the shots were fired in a 13-second period.

As a result, four students were killed, one was paralyzed and eight others were wounded; the closest distance between the guardsmen and any of the students that were killed was more than 200 feet, the closest wounded student was 71 feet away and the furthest was more than 700 feet from the hill overlooking the commons where the guardsmen stood.

I was 14 at the time and clearly recall the event; but I’m not sure that it had ever really sunk in to me what really happened at Kent State until this visit. I've got a feeling that our chance stop at Kent State may turn out to be the most memorable of the entire Ohio tour.

From Kent we drove to another atypical NPS site, Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

By the turn of the 19^th Century people were immigrating and emigrating to Ohio in a steady stream that didn’t stop until the 1980s. In 1800 the population was 45,000, by 1810 it was 230,000 and it doubled every 10 years after that until the Civil War.

One of the primary fuels for this growth was the Ohio and Erie Canal that connected Akron to Cleveland and Lake Erie. Basically, Ohio products were able to be shipped east through the Great Lakes and the Erie Canal; or south to New Orleans via the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.

The O&E Canal more or less paralleled the Cuyahoga River and the canal boats were pulled by horses that walked along a path adjacent to the canal. After the Civil War the railroad supplanted the canal and it slowly faded away. A huge flood in 1913 was the final nail in the canal’s coffin.

New bike path next to old canal lock

However, in recent decades a combination of local and regional governments and the NPS have joined forces to create the Towpath Hike and Bike Trail which connects northern Akron with southern Cleveland. It is a fabulous trail system that can be used in conjunction with a passenger train. We liked it so much we went twice; after the Kent State stop on Monday and again for a longer ride on Thursday.

Thursday was especially nice because a front had cooled things down from the mid-80s to the mid-70s and dried up a good bit of the humidity.

The plan on Thursday had been to ride from Akron north to a depot where we could catch the train but it was pulling out of the station just as we arrived. So Betsy caught a northbound train and I rode back to Akron and then drove up to fetch her.

For $3 bikers can shuttle on the train

We finished off the day with stops at the Akron Museum of Art and the Thirsty Dog Brewing Company, which is located near the University of Akron campus – home of the Zips.

New meets old at the Akron Museum of Art

Akron seems to be doing pretty well (now that LeBron is back). The downtown was relatively empty and there were several homeless/panhandlers out and about but it was clean and the buildings appeared to be well-kept and (mostly) occupied. Several years ago a fire destroyed a good part of the art museum and they did a pretty cool thing by combining the surviving old building with a modern new addition. It was a small collection compared to, say, the Toledo Art Museum but it was well-presented and interesting.

The Thirsty Dog reminded me of a lot of the breweries in Delaware where they basically just throw out some tables and taps in a corner of the actual brewery and they make you feel like they are doing you a favor by selling you a beer. Nonetheless there was a good-sized and fairly raucous early evening crowd.

By contrast Rust Belt Brewing in Youngstown (which is also downtown and similarly adjacent to Youngstown State University) was in a sparkling new facility where we got a lot of attention from the friendly bartender; possibly because the two of us comprised one half of the crowd.

McKinley had been dead six years before they got this thing finished in 1907

On Tuesday we visited the National First Ladies Historic Site and the William McKinley Library and Memorial – all in Canton – the McKinley birthplace memorial in Niles (and Rust Belt Brewing in nearby Youngstown).

Without going into all the details I’ll just say that the driving force behind the national park was the longtime Congressman Ralph Regula and the driving force behind the first ladies historic site was his wife Mary. The First Ladies museum is in a house in downtown Canton that belonged to the sister of McKinley’s wife Ida. The McKinley’s used it as their primary residence for much of the time that he served in congress, as governor of Ohio and as president.

While we were waiting for the tour of the historic site we stopped in the Stark County Courthouse (where McKinley once served as prosecuting attorney) and serendipitously bumped into the courts administrator who took us on a quick tour of the building (where McKinley lay in state for several days following his assassination in 1901).

While sipping on some Rust Belt products at the brewpub we had an extensive conversation with a couple of millennials who told us about the “largest county fair in the world” in nearby Canfield (Mahoning County) that just so happened to be starting the next day.

Thus, after spending a good part of the next day at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, we wrapped up at what is known locally as the “Canfield Fair”.

I don’t know if it really is the largest county fair of them all, but it is large (especially the pumpkins) and quite nice as the photos, hopefully, attest.

We were admiring the first-place quilt when its creator happened by

For the last five years an artist has been creating posters fair-related items (e.g. a chicken) from tiny photos of the faces of people that were taken for that purpose at the fair the previous year (layed out in sequential order). We were told these posters have been quite popular but its tedious work and the artist decided not to do it anymore.

You need the magnifying glass to make out the faces in the photos

So the fair organizers have come up with a new participatory art project called Locks of Love. The idea is that you purchase a lock ($3), write something on it and hang it on the wire chicken. This is only the first day, but the idea is that over several years the chicken will fill up with locks. We wrote "Texas" on our lock, which should help us distinguish it from the other locks if we ever come back to look for it.

The Football HOF is well done. They do a nice job of covering the history of the NFL and providing plenty of simple but effective interactive connections to memorable moments for all ages.

The grand finale is an 18-minute, theater-setting recap of the last Super Bowl. As a transitory fan of the Seahawks this was a pleasant experience for me. As a dedicated and loyal fan of the Houston Oilers/Texans, Betsy endured.

Me and O.J.

On Thursday night we watched the Browns preseason game and that reminds me to report to everyone back home in San Antonio that, even though there is a tremendous amount of Johnny Football hype here in northeast Ohio, it is not appreciably greater than the JF hype in San Antonio.

On Friday we moved to a state park (Punderson) about 25 miles north of the West Branch SP. We moved because, back in May when I made reservations, West Branch was already booked up for the Labor Day weekend.

It was an easy move and we spent a lazy day going to the store, exercising and checking out our new park home, which is OK but not anything close to Maumee Bay, the state park where we stayed outside of Toledo.

On Saturday we visited the home of President James Garfield, which is a NPS-operated historic site. Similar to the home of Rutherford Hayes, Garfield’s home in Mentor (about 40 miles NE of downtown Cleveland, near Lake Erie) the Garfield family lived in the house until it was donated to an organization dedicated to its preservation, and both families left most of the furnishings with the house.

So the Hayes and Garfield homes are both in excellent shape and furnished much as they were when the presidents lived there. Garfield was a career teacher and politician so he lived a relatively modest life. Ironically, his wife Lecretia, who survived him by 30-plus years, became wealthy through donations that were raised by wealthy benefactors after Garfield’s assassination. She used a good chunk of the money to make major additions to the house in Mentor and to purchase a winter home in Pasadena, California.

Garfield’s tomb sits atop a hill in the beautiful Lake View Cemetery. We both agreed that Garfield’s tomb was even more elaborate than McKinley’s and, as the name of the cemetery suggests, there is a view of the lake from the steps of the tomb.

This was especially nice for us because, just as we finished looking around inside the tomb (there is a docent stationed inside to answer questions) the Navy’s Blue Angels began their performance at the Cleveland Air Show and we had a nice view of them as they performed stunts over the lake and, occasionally, flew so close to the small crowd gathered on the steps of Garfield's Tomb that we could read the N-A-V-Y on the wings.

That reminds me to mention that Ohio State beat Navy in the opening game of the season. We happened to be eating at a restaurant in Mentor with TVs when the game was on and, surprisingly, the crowd did not seem passionately interested. In fact, I think we were watching with more interest than anyone else in the place.

Alert readers may have noticed that we are visiting lots of places associated with dead presidents. No, this is not an accident and, yes, we are planning to visit every birthplace, home and burial site of every former president with ties to Ohio.

Ohio claims to be the “home” state of the most presidents and, depending on the criteria used to define "home" it's true. Virginia is the only challenger in this contest.

One thing that is not in dispute is Ohio’s claim to having the most ostentatious, over-the-top presidential tombs; and I’m sure that is directly related to Ohio’s undisputed claim to being the home of the most assassinated presidents (McKinley and Garfield).

I suppose it stands to reason that the burial/entombment of an assassinated president is going to draw more interest than one who dies decades after leaving office. Interestingly, Ohio is the resting place of two additional presidents that died in office from natural causes – so stay tuned for more dead presidents in future posts.

From the cemetery we drove into downtown and a near downtown area known as Ohio City that is the home of not only the Great Lakes Brewing Company but also a fabulous city market where we bought fresh meats and vegetables (and, of course, sampled the beer).

On Sunday we drove to Akron in a pouring rain that finally let up right around the scheduled afternoon start of AA baseball game between the Akron Rubber Ducks and the Erie (Pa.) SeaWolves.

It's a pretty nice stadium tucked into Akron's empty, but relatively clean, downtown. The Ducks lost a lethargic and sloppy game but, importantly, Betsy got a Rubber Ducks logo t-shirt which she showed off at the gospel music event we stopped at after the game.

On our final day in Northeast Ohio (Labor Day) we went to the Popcorn Shop in downtown Chagrin Falls, famously depicted in the the cartoon strip Calvin and Hobbes (a favorite of both Betsy and Tex).

A Kong-like Calvin storms through Chagrin Falls with the Popcorn Shop in his hands

Calvin & Hobbes comic strip creator Bill Waterson grew up in Chagrin Falls; a fact unknown to us until Betsy happened to mention our plans for the Popcorn Shop visit to Tex in a phone call the prior evening.

This stop in Calvin & Hobbes creator Waterson's hometown was clearly predestined for a popcorn-loving Presbyterian

The Popcorn Shop overhangs the waterfall on the Chagrin River that gave the town its name