January 22, 2011

The Accidental Macing

Well after a crazy few days in Ohio I was ready to get home. I left my hotel and headed off to Canton. I went to the First Ladies National Historic site but, being a Monday morning, it was closed. It was right in the middle of downtown Canton so I pulled over and took a picture and left, figuring I could still check it off my list. Because I hate to travel the same road twice I took a meandering drive northeast out of Canton and ended up in rural Ohio. I even had to slow down for a horse and buggy! Now this is what I'm talking about. I also happened across a covered bridge right after seeing the horse and buggy. I had to stop when I saw the following road sign. My nickname at the Ranch was Porky and this sign cracked me up and brought back some good memories. The sun was out all day and I made it home without event at 3pm.
Well now the fun begins and the best story of the whole weekend. Because I got home early enough I decided to start unpacking. I carried all my stuff upstairs and was unloading my bags when my nose started itching. Due to my cold from the weekend (and the terrible hotel tissues) my nose was pretty raw so I absently scratched it. Then it started hurting even worse. I had some Blistex on my nightstand so I thought I'd swab some of that on to sooth my face. I liberally smeared it all over and immediately felt my face start burning. I poured some water on my hands and started vigorously scrubbing my face thinking it was the menthol in the Blistex that was burning. It just got worse and worse so I ran downstairs and yelled "Mom my face is burning!" She looked and couldn't see anything wrong so she wrapped an ice cube in a paper towel and had me put it on my face. For an hour I kept it on my face and it just kept burning. When the ice cube was melting some of the water hit my lips and tasted spicy but I was in such pain I didn't even think of what that meant.

I was beginning to think I should go to urgent care because a raw nose should not cause me this much pain. After an hour and a half I went to my Dad and begged him to find me some sort of first aid cream or something. He looked to see if maybe I had gotten bit by something but my face was bright red from the ice. He asked what it felt like and I said it feels like there's a hot coal sitting just below my nose. He then asked if maybe I had touched a pepper or something spicy. Finally the searing pain and intense burning made sense and I realized I HAD FREAKIN RUBBED BEAR SPRAY ALL OVER MY FACE!!!

I ran upstairs and looked at the bag I was unpacking and saw that the entire bottom if it was completely soaked. I couldn't believe it. When I was unpacking I noticed that the strap to the big can of pepper spray was off but I thought it had just unsnapped in transit. My Dad had to put industrial strength gloves on and cart all my stuff downstairs to detoxify. He put the compromised cans outside in a bag and the bag turned bright red and you could smell a certain tang in the air. Finally after about 3 hours the intense burning subsided and it was more of a dull ache. The next day I felt like I'd been sunburned. Well now I can highly recommend bear spray as an effective self defense spray. I can only imagine the pain if it had gotten into my eyes. What really baffles me is that it took me almost two hours to realize what had happened. I've never felt a pain like that before. At least I didn't cry though. Bad ass Burnsy.

January 16, 2011

Hiking Cuyahoga

I woke up Sunday morning to find that my nose had stopped running and the day had dawned bright and sunny. Alas the temperature had also dropped 30 degrees but I really didn’t care. I bundled up and headed out to the Boston Store area to hike. The map was terrible and I ended up dead ending on a dirt road trying to find the trailhead. I had planned to hike 4 miles roundtrip to Brandywine Falls but because the trailhead was poorly marked I ended up driving over to Brandywine Falls and hiking out from there. The falls were really cool. There was an upper and lower observation deck and the lower one was closed because the walkway was under an overhang and was icy. This measly board didn’t stop me so I slipped under and walked out to the lower observation deck. The Brandywine trail went out to a pond and then (because I was pissed at the map) I decided to hike 2 miles further to the other trailhead to see where I had gone wrong. The parking lot was at the Stanford Hostel and it looked like someone’s home from the road so that’s why I didn’t park there. Poor signage is to blame.It was pretty though with a nice barn and I guess it’s a functioning hostel during the summer for hikers and bikers of the Towpath trail. After that long hike, I was sore from hiking in my winter boots so I thought I’d see some of the other roadside sites marked on the map. However, the maps were horrendously misleading so I just saw what I could along the way.
I managed to find the Hale Farm which is a living history village in the summer but was closed for the winter. The buildings were really quaint and pretty. After leaving the Farm I came across this pastoral scene that I think is my favorite picture from the trip. I've been to a lot of places and always manage to find something redeeming and I was seriously beginning to doubt Ohio so I was glad to come across this scene.I also came across the Everett Road Covered Bridge. It’s a reconstruction because the old one washed away in a flood in the 1970’s but I always love a good covered bridge.On my drive to my final hike I came across a sign that said Deep Lock Quarry so I pulled in and it turned out you could hike to an old canal lock and quarry so I got out to hike. I grew up around the Erie Canal so I am very familiar with locks but this lock was cool because it was 17 foot deep while other locks are typically half that.The quarry wasn't as interesting. It was a big bunch of stacked blocks and there wasn't much of a story around what the quarry was used for. It was a nice, random diversion of a hike though.
Next I drove over to the Happy Days Lodge. This lodge is one of the largest cedar structures in the world and it is named after the song used during President FDR's campaign “happy days are here again”. The Lodge was the beginning of the Ledges trail. I came across this adorable set of steps that led to another shelter. Most of this trail and its lodges were built during the Depression by the CCC and its amazing how well it all blends into nature.The trail description had mentioned caves and while these weren’t “caves” such as those I saw in Idaho they were a hell of a lot cooler than Deer Lick. The entire trail basically wound around this massive "ledge" and there were boulders piled up so I snuck my way through several piles to explore. The Ice Box cave is the highlight of the trail and it was pretty cool although you can’t go too far back. I had a handy dandy LED flashlight that allowed me to see pretty far back but I wasn't nearly skinny enough to venture further.When I was inside taking pictures I heard a group of kids coming and ones of them yells “there’s someone in there”. I then took a picture with my flash and they screamed “it’s the Ice Box ghost!” Their parents played along (thinking the kids were making stuff up) until they saw me walk out and they realized there really was someone in there. I had a great time on this trail and the intense sunshine definitely helped.Despite the chilly air it was nice to feel like I was out in the wilderness instead of someone's backyard (like the rest of Cuyahoga).

I was strolling back towards my car when I realized that I hadn’t yet bought postcards and the visitor center would close at 4pm. I ran the last half of the trail in 15 minutes and jumped in my car and sped off to the visitor center. I ran to the door as the ranger was looking out, probably hoping to close up. I blew in, out of breath and yelled “I just need postcards!”. A very cute ranger let me in to buy my postcards and I took off back to the hotel by dark to get warm again. I think today I had finally found the scenic heart of Cuyahoga and was quite relieved because I couldn't stomach the thought of actually disliking a National Park.

January 8, 2011

Happy Freakin' New Year

After staying up to watch the ball drop and catch some quick fireworks out the hotel window I went to bed. However, the light from the hair dryer in the bathroom was annoying me so I got up to swing the bathroom door shut. A few hours later I got up to use the bathroom and (forgetting my earlier foray) walked straight into the door, opening it face first. That woke me up and gave me a nice little bump on my forehead.

Upon waking up in the morning, I discovered that it was pouring rain outside and my nose was running uncontrollably. Thank goodness it was still about 55 degrees outside which made it slightly more bearable to go outside. Cuyahoga National Park runs between Cleveland and Akron so I decided to work my way from north to south. My first stop was the Leonard Krieger Canal Center. Being New Years Day, it was closed, but I thought I’d at least go for a walk. Walking down a hill I came upon a swamp and a drainage ditch with a train trestle and sewage pipes running overhead. A train even thundered across while I was reading about how sewage pipes work and picking my way among dilapidated railroad crossings and examples of insulators and switches. Did you know that silver pipe carries sewage to a treatment plant which cleans it and puts it back in Lake Erie which is where drinking water comes from? The circle of life. I crossed the canal and wound my way into a forest where I came across rusted out farm equipment that was supposed to help me envision what Ohio once was. I continued through the forest and ended up alongside the Cuyahoga River-infamous for being so polluted that it caught fire. Time magazine described the Cuyahoga as the river that "oozes rather than flows" and in which a person "does not drown but decays”. Towards the end of the trail there was a section that t passed through with a white railing in massive circle. Reading the exhibits I learned that the white railing represented the size of the massive fuel tank sitting across the river -an interesting thing to think about on a hike. It started raining a lot heavier so I took a quick trip through the “bird sanctuary” aka swamp and hopped back in my car. My next stop was Cataract Falls-the tallest falls in Cleveland County. I’m pretty sure a drug deal was going down in the parking lot so I took a quick picture of the falls and left.I continued south along the Ohio Canal scenic byway which is the main thoroughfare through the park and there were a few interesting stops along the way (although you had to fight your way through urban sprawl and poor maps to get there).

The Frazee House overlooked the canal and reminded me of the Washington Tavern that I'd seen in PA over my Thanksgiving trip. Another stop was at the Brecksville station. During the summer a train goes through the park and makes various stops. I had planned on hiking out a ways to see some bird nesting sites but after I cross the bridge I realized that there would be no birds this time of year so I turned around and got back in my car.

I finally made it to somewhat of an oasis. I drove down to a section of the park that included Tinker Creek gorge and Bridal Veil Falls (which were just overlooks). I decided to hike to Deer Lick Cave. It was 4 miles round trip but I’m always intrigued by caves so I loaded up on Kleenex and headed out. The trail wasn’t bad at all and the rain had stopped and it was nice and warm. However, when I finally came across the caves they were literally a couple hundred feet from a parking area! Why the hell is it listed as a 4 mile hike if it’s a roadside attraction!? Normally I wouldn’t mind but I felt like crap and this just pissed me off.

After storming through the “caves” (more like overhangs) I tromped off to go back to my car. In my haze of anger I must have gotten off on the wrong trail and ended up on a bridle path. I thought maybe with all the rain, the streams were bigger in size so normally there wouldn't be a bridge. I only figured out it was a bridle trail after I had to cross 3 streams by fallen log. I got back on the right trail (or so I thought) and it started pouring rain and I could feel the temperature dropping and the trail kept going further back into the woods, rather than to the parking lot. Finally I said screw it and launched myself down a steep hill covered in wet leaves and bushwhacked back to the parking lot. I was pretty miserable at this point so I stopped at one more overlook and then made my way back to the hotel via Blue Hen Falls. It was just a short walk and they were pretty cool. I love this picture below because of my new camera setting. It was a dreary, gray day but I used my color swap feature and picked up the blue in my umbrella and then took a picture of the sky and voila; a blue sky. I hurried back to the hotel to get warm and dry. The rains were so bad that the roads were flooded. I got a lovely car wash. My adventures kept coming though when I decided to eat soup for dinner. I had left the can in my car so I decided to just open it in my car and pour it into my Tupperware container that I thoughtfully had brought along. To avoid another Adirondack incident I also brought along a vintage can opener. However, it didn’t work so well and only liquid poured out of the small opening into my Tupperware container. In my anger at the soup can I managed to knock over the Tupperware and spill chicken soup juice all over the backseat of my car. I finally managed to get the soup in the container and ran back inside to stay in bed the rest of the night. Happy New Year to me.

January 5, 2011

Freakin' Ohio

As you know, every time I have an extra day or two off of work I have a compulsion to go visit more National Parks. I had grand ambitions of going to Mammoth Caves in Kentucky (a 12 hour drive) but decided I’d rather not rush that trip because it’s a place I’d like to spend some time. When will I learn that rushing is the best way I function? I will try my best not to rant and be bitter in the following postings but this trip was pretty abysmal.

After putting off Mammoth for another day I figured maybe I could do all the NPS sites in Ohio. They are quite widespread so I narrowed my range down to the Cleveland/Akron area. Cuyahoga Valley National Park is in that vicinity and with “National Park” in its title I figured I should spend 2 days there to really get the National Park experience. Well I got an experience all right and it was unlike any other (though not in a good way).

I left Friday morning and for a change of pace, I decided to head west on Route 20 and parallel the shores of Lake Erie on my way into Ohio. I’d never been that way before and it was nice to see more of Lake Erie (the cause of all our lake effect snow). Things quickly soured as soon as I pulled into Ohio but as I arrived at the James A. Garfield site in Mentor,OH the sun was out and it was a balmy 62 degrees so I set out to enjoy myself. I was the only one there so I got a one-on-one tour of the mansion. I wasn’t allowed to take pictures inside the mansion so I took a bunch in the visitor center but on my way out I saw a sign that said no pictures were allowed there either (oops). The mansion was gorgeous and it had a really cool layout. To be honest, I didn’t know anything about Garfield besides the fact that he once was president. I didn’t even know he’d been assassinated! Shame on me because he was one of the most fascinating people I’ve ever learned about. And he was the first left-handed President! So here’s a short synopsis of his life and death.
Garfield was a farmer his whole life and his ascension to President was basically the result of a series of lucky circumstances that he frankly didn’t even want. He was a general in the army and was called to serve in the House of Representatives because Lincoln said he didn’t need any more generals, he needed congressmen. In 1880 Garfield went to the Republican National Convention to support his friend’s Presidential nomination. There was a long deadlock and no one could agree on a nominee until someone shouted out Garfield’s name and everyone switched votes and nominated him. He also changed the face of presidential campaigning. Previously, presidential candidates had never campaigned publicly, instead relying on their advisers and speech writers to say everything. However, Garfield loved giving speeches and he was the first candidate to have a successful front porch campaign. The farmhouse he lived at was right by a railroad so supporters and reporters would come by and he would give speeches and by a margin of only 10,000 popular votes he won the election.

When we were touring the mansion I asked how he made his fortune and the guide told me he was never a rich man. In fact, he couldn’t afford a home in D.C and couldn’t afford to have his own horse and driver at the White House. It was only after he was shot that his wife received a bunch of money from Americans (the equivalent of $6 million today) and used it to expand the house and add a presidential library in it.

Garfield was only in office 4 months before he was shot in the back by a crazy man (Guiteau). One bullet grazed Garfield's arm; the second bullet lodged in his spine and could not be found, although scientists today think that the bullet was near his lung. Alexander Graham Bell devised a metal detector specifically to find the bullet, but the device was reading the metal bed springs. He died 80 days later from infections resulting from doctors poking and probing the wound with unwashed hands and non-sterilized instruments.

Here’s a bit of the backstory of the killer-because he was just plumb crazy: Guiteau decided that God had commanded him to kill the ungrateful president. Borrowing $15, he went out to purchase a revolver. He knew little about firearms, but did know that he would need a large caliber gun. He had to choose between a revolver with wooden grips and one with ivory grips. He wanted the one with the ivory handle because he wanted it to look good as a museum exhibit after the assassination, but he could not afford the extra dollar. He spent the next few weeks in target practice — the kick from the revolver almost knocked him over the first time — and stalking Garfield. On one occasion, he trailed Garfield to the railway station as the President was seeing his wife off to a beach resort but he decided to shoot him later, as Garfield's wife was in poor health and Guiteau did not want to upset her.

Guiteau became something of a media sensation during his entire trial for his bizarre behavior, including constantly cursing and insulting the judge, witnesses, and even his defense team, formatting his testimony in epic poems which he recited at length, and soliciting legal advice from random spectators in the audience via passed notes. He maintained that while he had been legally insane at the time of the shooting, he was not really medically insane. What was interesting was that Guiteau said "The doctors killed Garfield, I just shot him"-which was basically true. However he was found guilty and after the guilty verdict was read, Guiteau stepped forward, despite his lawyers' efforts to tell him to be quiet, and yelled at the jury saying "You are all low, consummate jackasses!"

I very much enjoyed visiting Garfield’s home. The grounds were really pretty with a nice windmill and some old farm buildings. There was even his telegraph office used during his campaign. There were still a few hours of daylight left and I saw on the brochure that his memorial and birthplace were close by. Without asking for directions I headed out to find the cemetery with his memorial. Suffice to say, the route there went through a rougher section of Cleveland. What perplexed me was that all the buildings and businesses were condemned with broken and boarded up windows, graffiti and trash everywhere and yet there were tons of people walking around (in complete disregard of crosswalks might I add). Where were they coming and going to I wondered? I finally found the cemetery and the memorial was quite impressive. After driving down a very questionable alley I emerge into Mayberry. There are parents pushing children in strollers, French bistros, cobblestone streets and Christmas music softly playing over loudspeakers. Within a quarter mile I had entered a completely different world. Odd.

I then had to make a quick stop at the David Berger Memorial (another NPS site). The NPS site said it was located on the grounds of a Jewish community center. I drove all around that darned center and did not find so much as a sign acknowledging that it was there. Oh well, I’ll still check it off my list.

My last stop of the day was Garfield’s boyhood home. He was the last president to have been born in a log cabin. The cabin was reconstructed but it was still neat to see. Night was falling so I headed to my Hampton for the night.