The frozen north

Greetings from Cleveland, Ohio, where my grandson and his team are competing in a regional hockey tournament!  So far they’ve won a game and lost one.  They’ll play again later and that will decide if they play in the upper or lower level of the playoffs.  Good luck to them!

Cleveland is between five and six hours’ car travel time from our home in Lexington, but I am always struck by the differences between our home area and a large established city like this.  For instance, when we came into the main part of the city, we looked over to the right and in a low area could see a really old working factory.  I don’t know what they make there, but it reminded me so much of photos I’ve seen of Henry Ford’s original manufacturing plant in Detroit.  Smokestacks and that ancient look to it, like the same product had been made there for a hundred years.

Looking out my hotel room window at the grounds of what I imagine is the headquarters of the Eaton corporation.  Really nice structures and a lot of green space on the grounds.  That is, until it snowed.  This area is getting snow now, and it’s going to turn to rain and then tomorrow there will be the dreaded “wintry mix.”  Should make for a fun trip south!

Anyway, our traveling party (our son, his son and myself) have had a good trip so far.  One notable hiccup yesterday was that we went to two restaurants for dinner and were pretty much turned away.  One of them informed us that they were out of nearly every menu item, with a brief apology, and the other made a point of telling us upon arrival that they had ONE server for the entire restaurant.  Spotted a Five Guys, which is always a hit with my son and grandson, and went straight there and had a good dinner.  Luckily….

So think good thoughts regarding our return trip!