Our last stop on the second leg is in Cleveland - and this is the most important stop because we get to see the Guardians (formerly known as the Indians) play. We drove from Detroit to Cleveland, mostly on U.S. Highway 20, on Friday, May 26. As we've mentioned this is a baseball and national parks trip, but to date, we haven't visited any national parks on this leg - primarily because there aren't any in the northeast and midwest.
The exception is Cuyahoga Valley National Park which we visited on Saturday, May 27. I lived in Akron, Ohio (south of Cleveland) from ages 9 to 13. When I lived in northeast Ohio, it was full of heavy industry (steel, automobiles, tires) - which is mostly all gone now. In addition, the Cuyahoga River, which flows through Akron and up to Lake Erie in Cleveland was severely polluted. Some may recall that the Cuyahoga famously caught fire in 1969 as captured in the Randy Newman song "Burn On".
Thankfully, the Cuyahoga has been restored to a clean river and a national park has been created in the Cuyahoga Valley between Akron and Cleveland. We spent the day hiking along a beaver marsh in the park (and saw a beautiful blue heron), viewing Brandywine Falls, and visiting a covered bridge. And we had a beautiful sunny day to visit.
Since we were near Akron, we left the park and drove around the city to see where Todd lived and went to school in the late 60's and early 70's. The schools I attended have all been torn down and replaced with new buildings. However, the house and neighborhood where I lived are little changed. Some of our neighbors, Bill and Carol Pfeiffer, still keep up with my Mom and live in the same house as of 50+ years ago. We dropped by and visited with them for an hour. Bill still has the same Alpha Romeo that I admired when I was in 7th grade (not running at the moment). This picture is me with Bill and his daughter Gretchen. It was great to see them and reconnect.
Of course, the highlight of our visit to Cleveland to watch the Guardians play the Cardinals in a Sunday afternoon game (May 28). I've been a fan of the Indians/Guardians since I was 9 years old. It took quite a few years, but Melinda has finally become a fan of the Guards and especially of their all-star third baseman Jose Ramirez.
We've been to Progressive Field before but not for more than 15 years (I still prefer to call it the Jake). There was a good crowd of 27,000 with lots of families and kids. We spent time before the game visiting Heritage Park where there are statues of Cleveland greats like Jim Thome (left) and plaques for the great players of the past. Of course, there weren't many from the dark years of the 70's and 80's, but I was happy to see one for one of my favorite players of that era - Andre (Thunder) Thornton.
May 28th also happened to be Melinda's birthday (I'm not giving away her age but she is now eligible for Medicare), and I sprang for some good seats for a change. As you can see in the picture to the right, we were about 15 rows up just to the first base side of home plate. We had a beautiful day in the lows 70's.
The Guards led 1-0 until the top of the 5th when starter Hunter Gaddis gave up three solo homers to the Cards, prompting his quick exit. The Guardians scored one in the bottom of the 5th and still trailed by 3-2 going into the bottom of the 9th. There were two outs and the Cardinal's closer Ryan Helsley walked two Cleveland batters. The next batter up for the Guards was Melinda's favorite player - Jose Ramirez.
So, what happened? Magic happened. Jose hit a double to right and both runners scored for a walk-off win for the Guardians by a score of 4-3. The picture on the left is the team celebrating on the field and throwing bubble gum on Jose and putting the bubble gum container on his head like a crown.
The crowd went crazy, and nobody was happier than Melinda. It was a great birthday treat for Melinda, and a terrific way to end the second leg of our baseball trip.
We returned home on Monday, May 29 after 11 baseball games, 1 national park, 12 states and 1 province visited, and 3,756 miles driven on this leg. We'll be back for three weeks and then we head out for the final leg of our odyssey.
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