Cleveland?

Yesterday's sight-seeing trip to Cleveland turned out to be a lot of trip with little seeing...I'd prepped Bat-Enkh to take the tour of the WW II submarine USS Cod (a great self-guided tour), to explore the William G. Mather, a Great Lakes ore ship (another cool self-guided tour); and tour either the Indians' or the Browns' stadium as proved most convenient.

After the 2 1/2 hour drive we pulled up to the USS Cod and right next to the "Open All Day Every Day 10-5" sign was the "Closed Today, Come Back Tomorrow" sign. Strike One.

Here's Bat-Enkh outside the USS Cod compound--closed for tours.

I drove around the corner were the William G. Mather used to be moored and it had been moved to the next landing. Driving over to the landing, the parking attendant informed us that the ship wouldn't be open for tours until late May early June when the weather finally warms up and tourists come out. Strike two.

The William G. Mather--closed for tours.

Well, how about Browns Stadium (in whose shadow we parked). Closed until late April. Strike three. One out.

Bat-Enkh outside Browns Stadium--closed for tours.

How about the Indians' ballpark? Closed until late April. Strike one. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is right there, but they wanted $22 EACH to walk in and look around. Karen and I paid less to go inside the Cathedral in Canterbury, England...Strike two.

We decided to head up from the lakefront to find a Cleveland-esque restaurant to eat in but after walking for what seemed to be a long time covering several city blocks, the only food we found was inside the food court inside the Galleria. Strike three. Two outs.

At that point we were getting tired and hungry. As a final back-up plan, I'd researched what sounded like an interesting food/flea market to check-out across town. So we hoofed back to the car and drove a few miles of Cleveland streets. When we arrived where the market was supposed to be, it was really hard to determine if we'd arrived anywhere. I did see a building that may have housed a market but it seemed too small based on the information I'd read. I didn't notice any parking, the area seemed more run down than "artistic" or pleasantly "bohemian," nothing appeared to be marked, and neither one of us noticed a street flow of excited shoppers anywhere to be seen. With traffic moving right along, we kept moving right along, too, deciding not to stop. Strike one.

We worked our way back to the lakefront several miles west and found a restaurant within sight of the lake. Finally, a quaint eatery near water's edge...the day was not a total loss. We parked, walked in and the waitress informed us they'd just lost their power so they could serve us soup but couldn't cook anything else. Bat and I just looked at each other and started laughing. Strike two. We gave up trying to find anything quaint and ended up eating at a BBQ place just off US 90. The menu was the best part of the meal. Strike three. Three outs.

With our side retired (nine strikes in row), we figured it best to just make the 2 1/2 hour drive back to Coshocton and call it a day. Besides, we knew we needed to be on the road by 3:15 AM this morning in order to get Bat-Enkh to the Columbus airport to catch his flight out. But today is another story. Maybe I'll tell it to you tomorrow.

By for now...