We didn’t really know what to think about the next stop on our trip, Ohio. We originally decided to stop in Ohio because, frankly, it was between the Northeast and the West and there was a national park there. The Drew Carey show was the basis for just about everything I thought I knew about Ohio prior to coming here. I had only heard of Cuyahoga thanks to R.E.M. After spending several fun days there, we were pleasantly surprised (even though we were camping in an area apparently known as Helltown). We loved Ohio and had a great time there.
One of my best friends from high school that lived in Akron for several years, Chris, came up to meet us. We were going to stay outside of Cuyahoga Valley National Park, because we couldn’t find any camping hear the park. Chris was looking for a place to stay on Airbnb and stumbled on a full RV hookup in someone’s driveway within the national park. Thanks to that, we were able to camp less than a quarter mile from the Towpath Trail. The hosts were great people and it was the perfect campsite from which to explore the park. Cuyahoga Valley National Park is an interesting park that is different from any of the others that we have been to. It is an urban park with a very rural feel. There are homes and businesses located within the boundaries of the park. Several areas in the park used to be polluted but have since been reclaimed and recleaned by nature. It is a different park, but it is a great park.
The Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail is one of the main attractions of Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The Towpath Trail follows the same route that the Ohio & Erie Canal once did. The trail is called Towpath because mules used to tow the canal boats up the canal from the shore. A large portion of the trail rides along the roads that the mules used to work on. The trail also runs along the Cuyahoga River, a river that used to be so polluted that it caught on fire several times. Luckily, the river has long since been cleaned up. That was a great story to share with the kids. We biked several days on the Towpath Trail and saw remnants of locks and the quarries used to build them, a great farmer’s market, and a reclaimed wetlands which just so happened to tie perfectly into one of Archer’s recent homeschooling lessons. It was also great having an old friend along as a tour guide.
We also visited Cleveland while we were staying in Cuyahoga Valley National Park. We expected Cleveland to be a very industrialized city with not a lot going on in it. But, the city surprised us as well. Cleveland is actually a really cool city. We ate lunch at a great taco place in the neighborhood of Ohio City, shopped at the best market we have ever been to (West Side Market), and visited the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame. We had to catch ourselves as we thought, “We feel like this is a place we could actually live”. Yes, there is a huge lake here but there aren’t many mountains, so we would be out of luck for skiing. We said that to ourselves even though there was a ski resort within half a mile of where the Airstream was parked…
The highlight of Cleveland was the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame. Our first impression of the museum was formed by the awesome architecture of the glass pyramid and by fighter jets that just so happened to be practicing for an air show above our heads as we entered. The clothes, guitars, original handwritten lyrics, and music from our childhood rock heroes inside mesmerized us. There was an interactive floor where Smith and I played guitars, basses, and ukuleles. Archer played her instrument, the drums, and gave the guitar a shot. Archer and I even got to jam with a band playing “Shook Me All Night Long” by AC/DC. She nailed it on the drums. I had grabbed the guitar and all was going well until we got to the solo, which I do not know. Oh well. We faked it and finished up the song. It felt so good to play with a band again, especially when my daughter was rocking the drums. A tour of Johnny Cash’s old tour bus as we were leaving just provided the icing on the cake.
Our time in Ohio was great. We had a great time exploring Cuyahoga Valley National Park and spending some quality time in the bike saddles. I loved getting to catch up and reconnect with an old friend that I had not seen in almost a decade. As with many places, we did not have enough time to do this place justice. I think we will have to come back to Ohio if, for nothing else, to just jam at the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame again.
