Eight years ago was my first trip to Cleveland, and I've been back at least once per year since. That first trip in 2007 had me flying into Chicago, staying for a couple of days, then taking the train to Cleveland. The train leaves at about 10pm and arrives in Cleveland right at dawn in the spring. The Cleveland Amtrak station is not a station so much as it's a platform with a small temporary building. Clearly passenger train travel's glory days have come and gone in Cleveland. I walked up the hill into Downtown, following and chatting with a local guy who had taken the train after his flight was cancelled, and got some advice on what to see and do. This experience, a random guy being really nice to another random guy after a grueling train ride with no sleep, left me with a good impression of Cleveland, and the people there are one reason I go back so often.
This year, I chose to go during a larger Midwestern trip. Though I had originally booked a regular one-stop from San Jose on Southwest, it arrived at 1:35am, and I found that less than ieal. I found an American flight for $20 more that departed Monterey, but was a red-eye. Another trip to Cleveland with no sleep.
My arrival in Las Vegas was met with a phone call from the airline, warning me that the flight was delayed an hour and a half. We would be departing at 1:30am local time, and arriving at 7:30am Chicago time. The difference between that 2007 trip to the Midwest and this one is mainly that, while on this current trip, I have to work. I have meetings to call in to and coding to finish tomorrow morning. I can still make the meetings, but I'm not realizing that I probably should have kept that original Southwest flight that arrived so late, just because I probably would have had a better chance at actually making it in on time, and could then at least get a few hours' sleep in a comfortable Hilton family bed.
There's US 6 stuff in here somewhere. See, this is another US 6 trip. Trip number 7. I'm basically driving from Chicago to Cleveland and back over four days, with a full day in Cleveland. This will take me along a stretch of US 6 that I've only driven once, a year and a half ago. It's the section I had to skip on my trip across the country last year, as I had to drop south to Louisville and go back north to Chicago. So, practically a year to the day that I would have been traveling that stretch of US 6 between Hammond and Interstate 69 in Indiana, I will make it up over a full day.
The tentative plan is to leave Chicago (specifically, Elk Grove Village, just west of O'Hare, where I got a very good car rental deal that I can reach via one PACE bus from the edge of the airport property) at about noon local time, then drive to Gary. In Gary, there's an interesting brewery I'd like to check out (for one: it's in Gary, which is strange enough), and then I'll visit a pizza place that boasts free wifi and Chicago style deep dish (since I'm missing it on this trip). After that, it's off to the hotel in Syracuse, on Lake Wawassee. The hotel actually supposedly hosts a brewery.
A year and a half ago (November 2013), I went into the hotel bar both to check out the place as part of my trip, and to inquire about the brewery. I was told that they were not producing at the time due to some dispute between the partners (it's sad how common this is with small breweries), but the plan was to eventually start production again. Looking at their web site, it looks like they're producing again. But it all remains to be seen. At the least, the hotel bar has good beer on tap.
The next day, I'll drive all day to Cleveland. I took the day off of work so that I could concentrate (since I'll be well-rested) on US 6. I'd like to visit a brewery in Napoleon, Ohio, and may stop at Mad Anthony's tap house (the brewery is in Fort Wayne) in Auburn, just south of US 6.
On Saturday, I'll follow US 6 along the Lake Erie shoreline until it dips south toward Fremont, then continue on Route 2 to Toledo, where I'll overnight. I haven't spent any time in Toledo since 2010, when I stopped very briefly on my back to Cleveland from Detroit. Toledo reminded me somewhat of Rochester, New York, but I may just be confusing the two in my memories, so I'd like to see them again. Plus, since it's within 50 miles or so of US 6, I'm counting it as a US 6 city.
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