No Longer the Mistake by the Lake

Cleveland

June 18th through June 29th


Although we are not fond of 7 hour car rides we were looking forward to getting off of our feet after the 25 miles we walked in our two day adventure through Chicago. No true scenic routes so we opted for the freeways and turnpikes on our way to Cleveland. We arrived at my parent’s home and were welcomed by the ear piercing bark from their 5 pound watchdog BAMBAM. Although it took him awhile to warm up to us, he became our best friend. I am not sure whether he or Roby will miss each other more.

After settling in we were just excited to relax and visit with family and friends. My parents spoiled us with excellent meals even a full lobster dinner on Father’s Day. It was probably the first Father’s day I got to spend with my Dad in over 20 years so it was very special and we had a great day at my sister’s pool enjoying the sunshine and an excellent dinner. A strange word to use-sunshine- especially in the same sentence with Cleveland, but somehow we were blessed with a beautiful week.

We did not have a lot on our agenda but we managed to find an excellent mountain bike trail. Okay so there are no mountains in Cleveland but it was a great 10 mile trail through a wooded area which ran along a lake. It was built by a mountain bike club so it was decked out with perfectly placed rock crops, bridges, drop offs and technical turns. Thankfully it was completely shaded because it was rather humid and we did not need the sun beating down on us. As we were admiring the view of the lake, Roby came to an abrupt stop. His mind was not playing tricks on him. He saw a log move-a big fat black one-oh no-it was a snake right on the trail. No chance of just rock hopping over this one. Although it looked menacing it probably was just a garter snake. After this great adventure we had nothing but problems with my bike. On our way home as we were driving on the freeway at 65 mph my bike decided it did not want to stay strapped in. Everyone was driving by screaming out his/her window trying to tell us that the bike was hanging off the rack. We felt like we were in “Planes, Trains and Automobiles”. We found a clearing and stopped to fix it. It was hanging on by its last strap. Then the hydraulic brakes decided they did not want to work anymore. We had to go to three different shops to even find someone who was qualified to fix them. However, they would have to order the part which would take a week to get and oh by the way cost over $600. Well we did not have a week to give them nor was I going to pay $600 so we decided my bike would not know the difference so we put mechanical brakes on and it was ready to roll before we left.

Our other biking adventure took us along the Tow Path trail which is over 100 miles long and winds along the famed Cuyahoga River and used to be the route the horses would use to tow the barges down the river-hence the name. We went with my sister Alissa for about 20 miles enjoying the Cuyahoga National Park and stopped in the historical town of Boston Mills. We even caught the tail end of the Ranger’s story about the history of the Park and the Canal System which in its day made Cleveland one of the more sought after areas to live and produced some of the wealthiest people during its heyday-hard to believe!!!


Next on our list was to see our friends Chris and Jamie whom we had not seen in over 5 years. It is amazing even after so much time having passed we still felt like we had just been with them. I guess that is how easy it is with good friends. You just pick up where you left off. Their boys have grown into nice young men and we even got to go watch Jake race in a motorcross event. Roby spent a day with Chris and his boys flyfishing and we got to spend several evenings with them. We were glad to be able to spend so much time with them and hope that it is not another 5 years before we see them again. (hint-hint).

Everyone was giving us a hard time because we wanted to go to a baseball game. See, the Indians were in last place so no one could fathom why we would want to spend a perfectly nice Friday evening at the ballpark watching the Indians. We did and they won! My sister-in-law Frannie was able to get us free tickets and you could not have asked for a more perfect night for a game. My parents were willing to go with us and we had a Friday night date with them with dinner at my favorite pizza restaurant-Geraci’s and the game. I think Mari was a willing participant because she had 3 hours of uninterrupted time to work on her needlepoint.

Our final adventure was a sailing trip on Lake Erie with my dad’s law partner Jon Sobel and his wife Linda. They had come to Kauai a couple of years ago and we took them out on the outrigger canoes so they were reciprocating and took us out on their sailboat. I think we got the better end of the deal. I think the sun gods were on our side again because we could have not asked for a more beautiful day. Unfortunately we did not have anymore of our seasickness patches so we had to brave it out on the choppy waters. After about 30 minutes Linda noticed we were turning a bit blue in the face and she so politely asked us how we were doing. I think she was giving us an out to get back to calmer waters. Thank God-because once we got behind the break wall we were new people and actually got to enjoy the trip. I think next time we need to have some of that medical marijuana with us to ease the nausea.

It is always nice to go home. Everything is so easy and nothing feels like it can go wrong. We had a great time just hanging out with my parents and brother and sister and the nieces and nephews but unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. We needed to pack up and get moving.