I’ve been looking forward to the Ohio leg of the trip, because Ohio was pretty much a blank slate in my mind. Steven Mills, a freckle-faced boy who used to throw worms at me at the bus stop when it rained, moved to Ohio with his family when we were in first grade. I‘ve since met a few people from Ohio, or met people who subsequently moved to Ohio, and they are universally lovely and interesting. And on the Erie Canal we met some wonderful Ohio-native Loop boaters who have been tremendously helpful and enthusiastic ambassadors for their home state. But I had never been here, and even the name Ohio – with the lack of real consonants and those big round Os on either end – seems somehow vague and indistinct.
Two of our Ohio stops have been in beach resort towns. I should say “beach” because there’s very little sandy shore in Ohio and in both cases the primary attractions seem to be lake-adjacent bars serving cheap beer, fried foods, and sugary cocktails. That’s not all, of course – we’ve also seen many beautiful classic cars, eaten burgers and dogs at Eddie’s Grill in Geneva-on-the-Lake, and visited Perry’s Cave in Put-in-Bay under the guidance of a sarcastic and funny teenage guide.
These towns were filled with tourists from not too far away, enjoying what we think is probably only a few months of warm sunshine before the lake turns into a snow-generating machine. They looked and dressed much like their Times Square counterparts. We wondered where people of color go on vacation.
Cleveland was different. It had a more downtown-urban vibe than anywhere else we’ve visited so far, including Buffalo, and green space and public art.
There was still surprisingly little pedestrian traffic, but car traffic was another story – the streets were jammed between 4:30 – 5:30 every day as workers tried to get onto the interstates to head home. We asked why people don’t just wait to leave work a little later. Nobody had an answer for us.
When not in some sort of work uniform, many people in Cleveland wore t-shirts that say something defensive about Cleveland, like “Cleveland over all” or “Give me Cleveland or give me death.” We also saw a lot of Cleveland Indians gear, though almost always using a big red “C" rather than the old cartoon Native American mascot logo. We bought tickets to a game and ate a hot dog covered in cheese and froot loops. Yes we did.
We visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (of course) and the Prosperity Social Club, a homey little bar in the Tremont neighborhood that serves gastropub Polish food and flies the rainbow flag.
I won’t pretend to understand Ohio based on a week of tourism that also included grocery shopping expeditions, trips to West Marine for boat repair supplies, several homeschooling sessions and a whole bunch of work conference calls. But those big Os are now a little less blank to my mind. And there's still Toledo to explore!