The breakfast at our Hampton Inn was a definite improvement on yesterday, thay hadn’t run our of everything 🙂 . We were on the road bright and early at 8.30 and heading north towards Cleveland. Today we’ll see another of the Great Lakes, Erie this time, after we saw three in 2019 on our “Great Lakes” trip.
However we turned off interstate 77 about 24 miles before Cleveland to visit Cuyahoga Valley National Park, another new one for us. Cuyahoga is one of those unusual parks, it lies along the Cuyahoga River between Cleveland and Akron. The Ohio and Erie Canal Towpath Trail is a restored section of the canal’s original towpath in the park’s north, and there are several waterfalls in the valley. The Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad runs right through the middle of the park as well. We first stopped at a Everett Covered Bridge. This one is a restauration that pays tribute to the over 2000 such bridges that used to be common in Ohio.
A short drive up the Riverside road we stopped at Boston Mills Visitor Center which is in the middle of the park. Boston Mills is one of the stops on the railroad and the town was established and grew to prosperity in the high days of the life of the Ohio- Erie Canal. The Ohio & Erie Canal traveled through the Cuyahoga Valley on its way to connecting the Ohio River with Lake Erie. In the wake of the canal came prosperity, a national transportation system, and a national market economy. From 1862 to 1913, the canal served as a water source for industries and towns. During 1913, much of the canal system was abandoned after important parts were flooded severely. We walked along the towpath trail beside what is left of the canal and saw one of the old locks.
After this we made tracks for Cleveland. As we drove in to town we saw the Goodyear Blimp flying overhead which reminded Neil that today was gameday in Cleveland, the Cleveland Browns ere playing the New York Jets at First Energy Stadium, only a short walk from our hotel.
Our plans were to visit the National Roack and Roll Hall of Fame which is located right on the shores of Lake Erie, next to the football stadium. It was an entertaining walk down as we followed hordes of Browns fans making their way to the game. many of the streets were blocked to traffic and their were police everywhere. The Cleveland colours are brown and Orange and we felt like we were the only people in town not wearing brown or orange!
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was outstanding, they have a huge collection of memorabilia and fantastic displays from the birth of Rock and Roll until today.
After visiting the museum, we walked down to the stadium to take in the atmosphere. The sound of the crowd coming from the stadium was incredible!
We came back to the hotel to catch up with our laundry and not long afterwards we started to see some of the Browns fans coming past the hotel. The game had aun upset finish, with only 12 minutes to go the Browns looked like they had it in the bag but the jets stormed home to win 31 to 30! The corwds of fans streaming past the hotel grew and the traffic came to a standstill , it would have been a nightmare trying to drive out of Cleveland tonight! To top it off we heard the howl of police sirens and watched 5 police cars stop and descend on a white SUV in fron of the hotel. They hauled out three men and thee women and arrested them in classic, hands on the front of the car style. We have no idea what they’d done but it made for some interesting entertainment!
