Comfortable in Cleveland

Last night was one of those not good nights. The ones where you can’t get comfortable, can’t sleep and no matter what you do your mind just goes to crazy not good places. My mental debate - which is worse, zip lines from mountain tops or white water rafting left me sure: rafting. (Zip lines your strapped in and as long as you stay conscious you can hang on and have some control, But boating with a helmet, you can hang on tight and still drown.) This leads to what town is worse: Selma, AL or Morgantown, WV, Both were pretty, pretty scary. And I actually decided that Morgantown was worse, But anyway, the net result: not much sleep.

So getting up, the thought of touring Pittsburgh did not appeal. There is just something about Western PA, it was not WV, but…. I was trying to work out how to explain it today on our drive. It’s hard. It goes back to that feel / vibe thing. What I came up with though is: you know how there are some vinyl floors that always look dirty no matter what? It might be right out of the box, but there is just something about it - it feels dirty. Western Pa.

So, with much difficulty, I tried to give myself permission that we did not have to “do” something in Pittsburg. It was okay. So we did drive around the city to ‘see it’. And it IS a city - a pretty big city - but…. Yet again, being there once was enough. U2 was going to be in Heinz stadium tonight, but even that was not incentive.

So we headed toward Ohio with very low expectation.,

But the elevation lowered, terrain rolling not plunging, the sky bigger, and things felt cleaner. Ohio is not exciting, but it is not uncomfortable. It does not offer a whole lot of interesting though. The odd “how did you find that” just isn’t happening in the same way.,

So, we headed to Kent, OH to see Kent State. Yet another weird once kind of thing. Oddly, Kent isn’t a bad little college town. This just makes it even sadder that Kent State U is on the map because of a tragedy.
The school has done a remarkable poignant job of memorializing the events of May 1, 1970. There is a memorial that is symbolic, and a bit of walk way with markers at points that tell what happen, have quotes and pictures. But most moving is markers in the parking lot that mark off in coffin shape where the 4 students were shot. It is more impressive that the sculpture that bears a bullet hole. To stand on a hill side of this little state college, looking at a small parking lot, and think: students got killed on those spots for protesting. It’s heartbreaking. I’m really glad to have seen it, but…



We then moved on to find our motel outside of Cleveland. Early for check in, we wandered a little shopping area and have only checked in, eaten and made a plan. We’ll be in Cleveland for the next couple days - in the same location. I’m looking forward to that and it feels better here. I expect to sleep tonight and do need it.

We have a reservation at Lolita (Michael Symon’s restaurant) for tomorrow at 5. I’m very excited about it, but also have some fear it will be disappointing. We’ll see..,

But for now… comfortable in Cleveland.