Roller coaster ride

We are under way on Lake Erie, headed for the Detroit River. In just a few minutes we will enter Canadian waters, leaving Ohio behind. When we drop the hook this afternoon we will be in Michigan. The forecasted one footers on the lake are actually 2+ footers, on a short period, so it's quite the choppy ride, but it will be worse tomorrow so we're just plowing through it. We have four hours ahead of us, a good time to catch up the blog.

Even though I posted that we'd eat aboard on Monday, we actually decided to go ashore together and see if we could find dinner in town. We splashed the tender and ran upriver to Black River Landing. The docks were still posted with a $15 entrance fee to the Rockin' on the River festival that had happened in the enormous park over the weekend, but it was deserted on a Monday evening.


Cedar Point at night.

Lorain is clearly in the process of revamping its main street; I would guess eliminating some angle parking in favor of wider sidewalks for cafes and the like. We walked through the construction detritus on our way through town. The only place open on a Monday night was the sports bar, Scorcher's, but it was decently rated, had a large selection of drafts, and the food was fine. We were both happy to get off the boat and stretch our legs.

In the evening, the gleaming white lighthouse on the harbor breakwater was awash with light; a historical society maintains it and it seems to be a major attraction here. I tried to snap a photo but the brilliant white overexposed against the fading sunset background. You'll have to settle for the sunset shot before they lit it all up.


Sunset over Lorain harbor.

We lingered a bit in the morning, as the lake forecast improved throughout the day, but we had the anchor up well before lunch and headed out on a straight-line course to Sandusky. We were not even an hour out when the weather radio started squawking about an enormous thunderstorm with 50-knot winds. The radio alerted pretty much every five minutes for the next hour as the storm moved across the area, and eventually it hit us.

Fortunately, it was coming right at us head-on, so even though it was some 12 miles across, our closing speed was over 36 knots and we were through it in less than 20 minutes. Given our recent lightning experience. we clenched every time we saw a flash, but Vector took the wind and seas in stride.


Just emerging from the storm, as seen on our radar.

At some point the Coast Guard issued a small craft warning, but "seek safe harbor" has a different meaning in a 6.5-knot boat when confronted with storms moving at five times that speed. Our anemometer recorded the wind at 47 mph before it quit working, and we know it went higher than that. Visibility also went to zero for several minutes and I had to activate the automated fog horn.

The forecast called for rain on Wednesday and Thursday, so we planned on heading out to Cedar Point to ride the coasters on Friday. With two full days in Sandusky, we made plans to rent a car and head to Dayton to see friends, and gave them the choice of days. They chose Thursday, and I booked a car for that morning. We figured to be at anchor for both days, after the yacht club quoted us $2 per foot for dockage, and after making the turn around Cedar Point we headed down the channel and all the way to the coal docks.


Sunset over Gibraltar Island, Put-In-Bay.

We dropped the hook in a small embayment next to a long-abandoned berth (map). A small boatyard with a pair of Travelifts is at one corner of the bay, but no other traffic uses it. It was peaceful and calm behind the breakwater with only the sounds of the locomotives and rail cars moving coal. It rained through dinner time and we had a nice meal aboard, but things dried out by evening and we took the tender ashore for a brief walk downtown, landing it right at the foot of the main street.

That was not going to be a good option for leaving it all day on Thursday, and so after our nice walk through town we explored a little in the dinghy looking for other options, settling on the small city marina they call the "Paper District," where we could leave it for the day for $15.


I passed this Amphicar in the dinghy at Put-In-Bay.

Wednesday I had planned to spend the dry parts of the day exploring downtown Sandusky and maybe scoping out a place for dinner. Morning brought a beautiful day, and a check of the forecast revealed that rain, if any, would be limited to perhaps an afternoon sprinkle. Plans on a boat are always fluid and subject to change by the weather, and we quickly re-evaluated our plan to wait till Friday to go to the park.

First and foremost, both the park and its attached marina would be much less crowded on a Wednesday than a Friday. Moreover, the dockage rate would be $95 instead of $110. And by taking two nights at that rate, Vector could be secure at a dock while we went to Dayton, rather than riding unattended at anchor in forecast 25-knot winds.

Our view from the dock. We could hear the ratcheting of the lift hills until the park closed.

A quick check with the Cedar Point Marina revealed we could come right in, and so we weighed anchor and made the half hour trek, and were tied alongside one of their 50' slips (map) by 11am. We spent most of the day in the park, riding perhaps seven or eight of the big coasters along with the giant Ferris wheel and the 300' tall whirligig. In the hottest part of the day we took a short break back at the boat and then went to dinner at the nice seafood place right at the marina. We left the park just ahead of the 10pm closing time.

We had to forego a few of the biggest and newest coasters because the lines were just too long, even on a Wednesday. And perhaps the most famous of all, the Top Thrill Dragster, was inoperative the whole time we were there. Still, we had a great time, and I would be happy to return. If we come by boat we will definitely stay in the marina again, where guests get a one-hour early entrance to the park before the public opening time.


Sunset over Cedar Point as seen from The Big Wheel. Before I got barked at for taking photos in the park; SMH.

Thursday morning Enterprise picked us up bright and early, and we spent the entire day making the round trip to Dayton to visit over lunch with good friends Di and Pam. After lunch we had a tour of their brand new house and some more conversation before heading back; we returned by way of Marysville, where my Honda motorcycles were made, downtown Marion, where we stopped for dinner at a cute Italian joint in an old warehouse, and the quaint downtown Bucyrus. We also made a stop at Walmart to make a return and stock up on a few items.

Friday morning after returning the car we took the Cedar Point shuttle over to their lakefront hotel, The Breakers, and strolled the boardwalk there before making ready to get underway. We were off the dock just before checkout time, as a phalanx of power boat clubs made their way into the marina for the weekend. We made a quick stop at the free pumpout on our way out.

The lake forecast was not great, and while, in hindsight, we should have just bashed our way over to Put-In-Bay on Middle Bass Island while it was still a weekday, instead we headed right back to the same spot in downtown Sandusky where we had spent Tuesday night. I tendered ashore at the free dock in the park just one bay east and explored the town on the e-Bike; we returned to the same dock at dinner time and walked a few blocks to the Shore House Tavern for dinner.


Vector at Put-In-Bay, as seen from The Keys restaurant. Photo: Julie Snyder

Saturday morning as we motored out of Sandusky bay into the lake, an incoming looper hailed us on the radio. We chatted briefly, and when we told him we were headed to Put-In-Bay, he warned us that it was the weekend of the Powerboat Regatta. Sure enough, we dodged and weaved our way through traffic the whole way across, including narrowly missing a Kelley's Island ferry boat that failed to give way. We arrived to the bay to find every mooring ball and dock taken, some rafted four deep.

We had planned to anchor anyway, and the anchorage was empty, mostly owing to a rocky bottom that makes setting a challenge. We had to drag it across the bottom before it set well, but then we had a very nice spot right off the 350' tall Perry Monument (map). By the end of the day, two sailboats had come in and anchored near us. Shortly after we anchored I got a text from a friend in New Orleans who grew up near here; his sister had sent him a photo from her lunch spot ashore and he recognized Vector.


The view from our anchorage. The Perry monument can be seen for miles.

The real challenge turned out to be getting ashore. There is a launch service, which nominally will pick up in the anchorage for $3 per person, but the moorings are their first priority and they told us the anchorage was "captain's discretion." We monitored their radio and some mooring customers waited a long time for pickups. We decided to splash the tender and take our chances with the docks.

I headed ashore stag, and for $10 the town dockmaster put me at the shorewardmost end of a dock otherwise entirely rented out to a club, in a thick mat of weeds. It was all that was available, so I just dealt with the weeds by paddling the last 50'. I spent a half hour or so scoping out the whole town and then spent less than five minutes atop the monument, after waiting in a half hour line. There was a line to get down, too, but that was much shorter.


It looks calm from up here, but if you look closely you'll see every ball taken and boats rafted four deep at the city docks.

It's difficult to describe the atmosphere at Put-In-Bay. Ohioans think of it as the Key West of Ohio, but, honestly, Key West is more laid back. We found it more similar to Block Island, RI. Lots of tiki bars and other open-air venues, with many bars and restaurants having bouncers outside. Rental golf carts choked the streets, and people wandered around town in everything from thong bikinis to Cleveland Browns jerseys.

On this event weekend the town was overbooked, and restaurants don't take reservations on weekends, although some seem happy to take them when you don't actually need them. I made a round trip through the weeds to get Louise for an early dinner, and we just wandered until we found a place that still had sidewalk tables open since it was only 6pm. Our food didn't arrive until after 7 so it all worked out.


Typical of the entire town on a busy Saturday afternoon.

It was a great spot to just watch the zoo. Several folks staggered past that were already three sheets to the wind, which was no surprise considering I watched people pounding Margaritas at 4. One gal in a thong was hamming it up for the less-than-sober appreciative guys. And no fewer than five bachelorette parties passed by us, including one on one of those pedal-car contraptions that, in many other cities, would be a rolling bar (not legal in Ohio, apparently). They clearly stopped for a few along the way.

I had originally figured two nights here, and had it been mid-week or maybe even a less-crowded weekend, we might have stayed and tried to enjoy another of the many eateries in town, or strolled around the park. But neither of us wanted to plow through the weeds again just for more of the same, and, besides, the lake forecast for tomorrow was worse than today.


Vector and her two neighbors at Put-In-Bay.

In another half hour we will be back in the US and hunting for an anchorage with some shelter from these winds. Tomorrow we will make our way up the Trenton Channel, where we hope to find a bit less adverse current than the main channel of the Detroit.

Update: We are anchored in the Trenton Channel of the Detroit River, west of Grosse Ile and just south of the Grosse Ile swing bridge (map), in Trenton, Michigan. As we entered the river depths were shallower than charted, and we had to bypass our planned anchorage and pick our way here through the shoals. In the morning we will clear through the swing bridge and push our way upriver against a knot or so of current.

Have you ever seen Lorain?

We are underway westbound in Lake Erie, bound for Sandusky, Ohio by way of Lorain harbor. Sandusky could have been a long single day, but we wanted to linger in Cleveland this morning. Lorain is about the halfway point and has a protected harbor. Today's post title is a favorite mondegreen from a Creedence classic, our first on the boat. When we were in the bus, pulling into a rest area, there's a bathroom on the right.


Not the best lighting, but our only chance for this shot. That's Vector inside the "C".

Shortly after my last post, I called the downtown marina in Cleveland to see if they had room for us, or at least a place to land a tender. They told me they were full up, but the long face dock was being reserved for a large yacht that was unsure if they could make it in. They told me the yacht was sending someone over to measure, and they should know by 2pm if the dock would be available or not; coincidentally about the time we would arrive. They said we could tie up the tender if not.


Vector docked behind the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

As we got closer to Cleveland we could see a very large but familiar yacht anchored offshore of the breakwaters; a quick check of the AIS confirmed that it was Bella Vita, whom we had encountered docked back in Clayton. We guessed this might be the yacht in question and we knew for sure there was no way she was getting to that dock.


World's largest rubber stamp.

Sure enough, when we called back about fifteen minutes out they told us the dock was available and we could come right in. By 2 we were tied alongside at the "Rock & Dock," behind the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (map). At $2 per foot, this is the most expensive marina in Cleveland, but it's the only one right downtown. And on a Saturday afternoon in the height of the season, it was packed and hopping, with three boat clubs taking up the bulk of the dockage, their members congregating in circled chairs every few dozen feet.


Our neighborhood from Terminal Tower. Vector is just about center frame, above the dome (click to enlarge).

In the immediate neighborhood is not only the aforementioned Rock Hall, but also the Science Center, the William G. Mather steamship museum, the Goodtime III tour boat, a popular trendy nuevo-Mexican joint with three sand volleyball courts, the waterfront "Cleveland" sign popular with tourists, a pedal-boat and jet ski concession, and First Energy Stadium, where the Browns play.


Fountain of Eternal Life, with Terminal Tower (looking much shorter than reality) in the background.

Our good friends Jo Ann and David arranged to come down to meet up with us at 4pm, and in the meantime I walked around the neighborhood getting my bearings. At some point I noticed the access road to the pier was closed off, with police directing traffic, and when I investigated I learned the Browns were having a scrimmage at 4pm. That meant no parking available anywhere and miserable traffic, so our plans for cocktails on board went right out the window.

Instead they picked us up in front of Rock Hall and we went down to The Flats neighborhood for dinner, after first battling our way through the game traffic. With them was a six-week-old puppy, whom they are fostering for a guide dog program. The dog was incredibly cute and garnered lots of attention everywhere we went. They are old hands at this, having now fostered several guide dogs, and even adopting one who washed out of the program (due to allergies). Apparently, foster handlers get first dibs on adopting dogs that don't make the final cut.


Nari the guide-dog-to-be.

Parking at the Flats was also tight, because having just a single downtown game would have been too easy. The Indians were also playing downtown, at Progressive Field not far away. Riding around in the dog-mobile, a long-wheelbase Chevy van, limited our choice of spots. Eventually we made it to our restaurant, appropriately the Thirsty Dog, and discovered we could have driven right up to it in the boat. If we ever come back and anchor we will keep in mind that The Flats has easy boat-in access, right on the Cuyahoga River.


The most I could capture of the rotunda ceiling at Heinen's, formerly Cleveland Trust.

This is the same river, by the way, that caught fire several times, once in my childhood memory, eventually leading to federal environmental regulation. While I would not drink out of it, it's come a long way since then, and now tour boats run up and down the river all day, turning around at Collision Bend before the riverfront becomes strictly industrial.


The floor of the same space, complete with intact Cleveland Trust logo and a harmonious arrangement of tables.

After dinner, David and Jo Ann took us on a brief tour of downtown. Urban renewal has also come a long way in the decade since our last visit here, when they also drove us around downtown. They also ran us out to Walmart to reprovision. We were hoping to wrap the evening up with a brief visit aboard Vector, but parking was still impossible in the very popular waterfront area, even well after the scrimmage was over. We agreed to try to reconnect the following day instead.

Yesterday morning I put the e-Bike on the ground and set out to explore a little of downtown on my own. I first made my way to the Terminal Tower, a landmark building that held the record as the tallest building outside of New York City for quite some time. The lower levels that once comprised Cleveland Union Station are now a shopping mall, but still decorated in the original Beaux Arts style. The mall is dying on the vine.


Cleveland breakwater light on our way out of the harbor.

I purchased a 1pm ticket for the 42nd floor observation deck, and had nearly perfect conditions for an expansive view in all directions. Afterward I rode through downtown some more, stopping at Heinen's Downtown market, cleverly integrated into a nicely done restoration of the Cleveland Trust rotunda building. Lots of Cleveland's historic buildings have escaped the ignominious fate of similar buildings elsewhere, and are making comebacks through repurposing. This morning, looking for a post office, I ended up in The Arcade, now mixed use with retail on the lower levels and a Hyatt hotel above.


The Arcade, now a Hyatt hotel with struggling retail below.

We again got together with Jo Ann, David, and Nari-the-puppy in the evening. Parking was not as tight, and we got the chance to do a little tour of Vector and some cocktails aboard before heading off to dinner; at my request we went a bit further afield to Little Italy, which involved a lovely drive through the parkland of Doan Brook gorge, past the cluster of museums around Wade Oval, and through the campus of Case Western Reserve University. We had a nice dinner at Mia Bella.


Nari visits Vector before dinner. Steamer William G. Mather in the background.

While fairly busy all weekend, the marina was positively empty this morning, and after my excursion to the post office we offloaded the last of the trash and recycling and made ready to get under way. It was a great stop and I could easily have spent another few days in Cleveland, but there is much left for us to explore in the great lakes before the marinas close in Chicago.

Update: We are anchored in Lorain Harbor just west of the east breakwater (map). It was a flat calm cruise and we made excellent time. We're eating aboard tonight but I may splash the tender and go ashore just to have a look around. Tomorrow morning we will head to Sandusky.

Conneaut to Cleveland

We are under way in Lake Erie, with the Cleveland skyline growing larger dead ahead. We should be in port by 2pm, and we're hoping to drop the hook just off the downtown airport so we can tender ashore at the Rock & Roll museum.

Shortly after my last post, we arrived at Conneaut, Ohio and dropped the hook in the harbor, in a designated mooring area near the west breakwall (map). There was a bulkhead near the port authority dock, but it was awash. From the lake, two landmarks are prominent: the iron lighthouse marking the end of the west breakwater, and a wind turbine on the pier.


Conneaut breakwater light, an iron tower like so many here in the lakes, on our way out yesterday.

The wind turbine was apparently hit by lightning two years ago, blowing apart one of the blades, which must have been quite spectacular. It puts our own lightning strike into perspective. The city has been locked in a court battle with the power company ever since over fixing or removing it.


What's left of the wind turbine.

We tendered ashore to what little of the bulkhead was far enough above water to tie up the dinghy, and strolled the very small harbor neighborhood of the town. Live music was emanating from the BBQ joint right on the pier, but we had our taste buds set for the well-rated Italian place, Biscotti's, a short walk up the hill. The home-made meatballs were excellent.

We're almost out of beer, but the lone package store in walking distance was closed when we walked past. Other than bait, tackle, and ice, there really is nothing else available at the harbor area. There is a well-rated food cart right on the pier, near the popular boat ramp.


For such a tiny place, Conneaut has impressive tourist signs. This one in front of aptly-named condos.

It was very calm in the harbor and we lingered a bit yesterday morning before setting out on the five-hour cruise to Fairport Harbor. Had we stayed the rest of the day, we would have witnessed a thousand-foot laker, the Presque Isle, come into port. We passed her in the lake. In between Conneaut and Fairport is Ashtabula, another harbor of refuge, and we passed there the tug Kristin Joelle working a dredge scow. We remembered her from Oswego; apparently the whole dredge operation came through the Welland ahead of us while we were on our excursion from Rochester.

Fairport harbor does not have full-length converging breakwaters extending from shore like many of our other stops; rather, the east breakwater runs parallel to shore with a large opening to the east. Thus we found no truly calm spot in the harbor, and settled for dropping the hook close to the one angled section of the east wall in the marked mooring area (map).


Fairport lighthouse, the newer iron one (really) on the west breakwall, as seen from our anchorage. Older stone one is on the hill in town.

We bounced around for the remainder of the afternoon, and it was a little bouncy overnight as well. We never went ashore, opting instead to eat aboard. Other than the historic stone lighthouse at the top of the hill, not much was calling me here, and the lone accessible restaurant was a tiki bar at the east end of the harbor.

It was still bouncy enough this morning that we weighed anchor right after our first cup of coffee. Today's ride is a bit rougher than yesterday's. Tomorrow will be much worse, but we'd planned at least two nights in Cleveland anyway, where we have good friends and Red Cross colleagues.


Sunset over the Conneaut breakwater.

It's a beautiful day and we're having a pleasant cruise. Pleasant weekend days make for lots of traffic, and when I dialed the radar out a couple of miles, the screen looked like chicken pox. Somewhere in the middle of skirting the myriad small fishing boats we came across some orange-striped spar buoys that we did not understand; fearing they might be inadequately-flagged fyke net markers we drove around them and gave them a wide berth.

My next post will be underway departing Cleveland.

Wal-Mart saves our bacon, again

Photo by Chromewavesdotorg

We are at the Wal-Mart in Eastlake, Ohio (map), just a couple of blocks from Lake Erie.

We arrived in Willowick yesterday afternoon to visit with friends, who had offered their driveway to quarter Odyssey for a night or two. Unfortunately, we just could not make the geometry work -- the street was only 20' wide, the driveway less than 8' and exactly perpendicular to the street, and, to make matters worse, a telephone pole at the corner of the driveway and the street. I would have had to run over a good swath of lawn to make the turn, and even then, we'd take up the whole driveway, and they'd have to put a car at a neighbor's house -- there is no on-street parking between 2am and 5am anywhere in the city.

Had it been imperative to get in there, I'm sure I could have spent half an hour doing it, involving what we like to call the 27-point turn, and probably some wood blocks to run over the curb and perhaps nosing into the driveway across the street. But hey, this Wal-Mart was only a couple of miles away, so why ruin the lawn? After visiting a little bit and trading tours of our respective dwellings, they followed us over here and then brought us back to their place for a delicious home-made lasagna dinner.

We are in a remote, isolated, and quiet part of the lot here, and notwithstanding our general desire to spend only a single night at any given Wal-Mart, we opted to stay tonight as well, so that we could spend most of today touring around the city in their car. We really enjoyed the waterfront area and the area around the river known locally as "the flats." We even popped into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for a few minutes (we declined to actually buy tickets -- museums of this type generally do not call us). One of the exhibits is Johnny Cash's MCI tour bus, parked on the concrete in front of the museum. Sort of a busman's holiday for us, I guess.


Photo by TKCS

We wrapped up our visit with a nice dinner at a local Mexican restaurant that is one of their favorites, where the food was quite good. We really enjoyed visiting with them and seeing the area, and they were very gracious hosts, shuttling us back and forth as well as being tour guides extraordinaire.

Tomorrow morning we will clear out of the Wal-Mart, and very briefly head west back towards Cleveland. We have reservations for lunch at the Shoreby Club in Bratenahl, which we learned today is a very tony neighborhood with many expensive lakefront mansions. I suppose lunch will be our big opportunity to live the high life Cleveland-style, possibly to the annoyance of the wealthy neighbors as we maneuver Odyssey through the neighborhood. The club assured me that they get semis in there all the time, though, when I inquired about being able to park.


Photo by cfour33

After lunch we will head east along the lake, en route to Rochester, NY. Louise discovered there will be a big scooter rally there this weekend, and we're close enough to make it worthwhile. We had almost swung down towards Atlanta last weekend for a different scooter rally, but had decided against it on the basis of time, distance, and weather; later Louise was bummed to discover that the purveyors of a new line of women's cycle gear would be at the Atlanta rally to show off their wares (ahead of some big fashion show in Milan, apparently). So this will be the make-up rally of sorts (albeit sans the Italy-bound cycle fashion crew).

Speaking of Atlanta, we've been on pins and needles all day, with all four of us jumping any time one of our phones buzzed (we are all involved with the Red Cross). While we were having lunch at a local grill, we kept catching glimpses of the massive flooding there on various news channels. Apparently, the chapters down there have things well under control, but the scope of the damage is extensive enough to have warranted a national call-out had it happened in any of a number of other places. It may yet come to that, of course, and so the whole scooter rally thing is really contingent on us not getting a call. We're pretty confident, though, that if we have not been called by now, we won't be.

All photos used under a Creative Commons license.

Heading for the lake

We are at the Elks lodge in Lexington, Ohio (map). The lodge is essentially in a strip mall, and we are in the parking lot. The lodge was also closed when we arrived, and we'll likely be on the road before it opens; apparently, the lodge is now sharing its facility with a restaurant open to the public.

As we get closer to Lake Erie, Ohio is becoming less rural and more suburban; US-42 was still rather narrow with almost no shoulders as we left London, but after Delaware it became luxuriously wide, with comfortable shoulders, full-size lanes, and even wake-up strips on the edges. Today I expect more of the same as we approach Cleveland, but we will move over onto I-71 once we hit the outskirts.

Tonight we will be in Willowick, east of Cleveland, where we will visit with friends. We may also take an extra night to visit Cleveland itself.

Greetings from London

That would be London, Ohio, where we are at the Wal-Mart (map). We had first attempted to stop at the Wal-Mart in Xenia, about 30 miles southwest of here, but the lot is prominently posted with "no overnight parking" signs, even though our directory of such stores made no mention of it.

We had a visit from Belterra security yesterday morning; apparently, they had a sold out crowd for the Sara Evans concert last night, and thought they would need the whole parking lot, so they stopped by to ask us to move across the street to the truck lot. We told them we would be leaving shortly anyway.

We crossed back into Kentucky over the Marland Dam Bridge, and resumed our eastward trek on US-42. Jill-the-GPS kept trying to put us on the Interstate, and we finally allowed her to when we hit the outskirts of Cincinnati, where our objective was just to get through the city congestion as best we could. We do have a club in that town, and it might have been nice to visit, but there are no really good parking options nearby.

Our plan had been to clear out of the city on I-75, and move back onto US-42 in West Chester. The freeway came to a grinding halt, though, just north of the city, I think due to construction, and so we bailed off early and slogged our way through all the suburban glotch on US-42 anyway. Even if there was a traffic light every half mile, at least we were not sitting at a standstill on a stark freeway.

US-42 splits the difference between I-75 to the west, and I-71 to the east. The former heads north through Dayton, and the latter more northeast through Columbus, and we are right now in between those two cities. Since one Interstate or the other is a faster choice for almost everyone, 42 is fairly lightly traveled, and we had a very pleasant and relaxed drive, notwithstanding the narrow and winding nature of the road. The speed limit is mostly 55, but we seldom could get up over 45 for most of the route.

Last night we had an excellent dinner at Los Mariachis Mexican restaurant a long block west of here. (There is also a Bob Evans, no relation to Sara, right here in the parking lot, and we're thinking of brunch there before we leave.) The place looked like a hole in the wall when we rolled past yesterday afternoon, and we could find no reviews on line, so we took a chance. Wow -- the place was packed. It seemed like all of London was waiting to get in there -- always a good sign. I think we were the only out-of-towners in the joint. Anyway, the food was superb; highly recommended, and they have a full bar as well.

Today we will continue northeast on US-42, which will swing back over towards I-71 in Mansfield.

Photo by OZinOH, used under a Creative Commons license.

Quick update from Akron

We are in Akron, Ohio at the Red Cross chapter office here (map).  As long as I have mentioned it, let me just say that this is also the nicest chapter office I have ever seen -- it's a beautiful new purpose-built building that they occupied perhaps five years ago; the walls are adorned with plaques dedicating each space to the donor(s) who made it possible.  The Ohio flooding response is headquartered here in a large conference room in the basement.

We made it nearly all the way here last night, stopping about five miles away at (can you guess) an Olive Garden for dinner.  We spent the night in the parking lot of a shopping center across the street (map).

No sooner had we walked through the door this morning and started the process of signing in than my phone started ringing.  It was another call from the Disaster Operations Center (DOC) informing us that three new operations were being put together, for New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.  We are on standby alert that they will be redeploying us almost immediately to whichever of those three operations will be the largest.  We need to start rolling that way as soon as possible, as we are between six and eight hours from those floods, but we can't leave here until they figure out how they are going to backfill us here.

I don't think I will get another chance to post until we land in the next location -- stay tuned here for updates.

Bryan, Ohio

Continuing with the holiday-weekend urban-assault camping theme, we are again at a Wal-Mart, this time in Bryan, Ohio (map).

After a fairly leisurely start this morning, we made our way to the Thayer Cemetery in Northville. In spite of some low trees and a dirt road, we made it without any real problems. We had no trouble finding the markers we sought in the very small cemetery, which turned out to be located adjacent to (so we were told by a passing security guard) the oldest remaining one-room schoolhouse in Wayne county. The schoolhouse was boarded up, but otherwise appeared to be intact.

From there we made our way to a gas station in Ann Arbor that my various internet resources told me had some of the cheapest diesel still available in a large radius, at $2.759, and we put in another 165 gallons, nearly filling the tank. I am hedging, since fuel is still going up, even though we will soon be in Kentucky, where it is traditionally cheaper.

We then skirted out of town to the southwest on US-12, picking up US-127 which brought us here. We will stay on 127 south tomorrow most of the way through the state, until just north of Cincinatti, when we will find some way to skirt around the city to the west. We are looking at either the Anderson Ferry, just west of the city, or the Markland Dam.

We are bound for Nashville, and the northern terminus of the Natchez Trace Parkway. We are hoping that most of the parkway will be reopened by the time we get there -- most of the downed trees have been cleared, and they are still working on some down power lines.