And so begins my week back on the road. I was spoiled to have two weeks as a normal person back in my own bed, with my dog, in my car for 14 whole days -- and now I must pay.
It didn't turn out all bad, though. I finally got into the Cleveland airport (where their airport code of CLE is paraodied in all the bathrooms with a sign above the sink that reads "Help us put the CLE back in CLEan" -- LAME? Vote here....) It didn't take me long to get my feet on the ground, my suitcase in my hand and my rental car seat - well - under my seat. And so I was on my way to Canton, OH for a 3 day product trial.
If you recall from a few weeks back, I blogged about being in Angry Akron, OH with the heavily obesse, irritanted Ohioians. Whats very amusing to me is that I discovered, today, that even though Akron is a mere 10 miles from Canton, the people of Canton are completely different. The Cantonites are amazingly delightful people who say HI at every corner, laugh at your lame jokes and skip down the hall to the OR rooms (okay, maybe not quite skip, but they definitely had a happy little jaunt for being a Monday morning).
As my product hadn't all arrived, we spent the morning/afternoon trying to track things down and arrange for a morning set up and then I got to take off! Yea!
Here's a little something for all you iPod users out there. You HAVE to download the Yelp! app. Its phenominal and its tells you everything! I've gotten so addicted as I can look up restaurants, stores - everything on Yelp! All you do is put in what you're looking for and where you're looking for it and this list pops up. And whats even better is that subscribers of Yelp! can then add their comments to whatever so you can go through and find out if the restaurant is good or if the park is worth stopping at or an auto repair shop is reliable. And, in the case of today - I found the most amazing running trail ever ever ever!
Jenny Andersen - I have to tell you that I love your homeland of Cuyhoga Falls! I had Yelped the Cuyhoga Valley National Park and had been drooling since last Thursday to strap on my trail shoes and hit the gravel path in the CVNP.
It had been raining all morning, but I had this urge in me to get outside, even if it was pouring. And my wish came true. It was a little drizzly when I first got to the Park parking lot, I took off running and not long after it really started coming down. The longer I ran the harder it came down until, at the end of the run, I was entirely drenched to the point that I could barely even see. It was awesome! I would have definitely stayed on the trail longer if it hadn't been raining, but I got a good hour and some minutes in - not quite sure how far I went as the trail wasn't exactly marked and I was so sopped that I didn't want to stand looking at the map to figure out distance. I could have gone on forever though - and I think the trail actually last forever. It was just a gorgeous trail and it was continually different so that it was just an awesome intriguing run.
Here's the scoop - There's the Erie canal in NY and then they built the Ohio-Erie Canal in OH to connect Lake Erie and the Ohio River via the Cuyhoga River. Here's a little link to dear old Wikipedia with more info.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_and_Erie_Canal
I was thinking as I ran, that I should write a book about sad American stories. There are so many places around the U.S. that were cities that had families and houses and business and churches and they were there one day and then, you blink, and they were gone just because times changed and people thought of bigger and better things.
So is the case with the Canal system in the U.S. They used to transport things via the canal systems, and then the train system came along and it took over and bypassed the boats and soon, all the towns that had been built up because of the canals were extinct.
I know that the Sparta bike trail up in WI is a trail system built on an old train line - its a rails to trails system that dots the country. Its great that they make use of these old lines, but its sad that a whole culture of the U.S. has to disappeared.
So the Cuyohoga Valley trail runs alongside the old canal and also by the railroad track (took over the canal system, but still in use). Here are some picts of my rainy run on the Cuyhoga....
Here is one of the sad stories referred to - that town of Botzum that disappeared. They now have a little train stop there thats a "tribute" to Botzum but is also an actual train stop.
I was thoroughly soak and a little cold, but its always the best feeling ever to be all wet and muddy after a great run outdoors!
And back "home" to North Canton - the home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame!
No comments:
Post a Comment