Day 12 September 7: Stow, OH to Wilkes-Barre, PA.

 

I talked Michele into skipping the gym this morning so we could get an earlier start. After breakfast we made it to Cuyahoga National Park and got in an early hike to Brandywine Falls. What amazed us most is that this National Park is right between Cleveland and Akron, you can hear the interstate highways, but yet you are in the middle of all this natural beauty. Credit to those that had the foresight to set aside this land. The walk to the falls was impressive in the wood decking they installed to get you to the falls. I can’t imagine the amount of work to build and keep this path well maintained. After the falls we found another area with a hike called the Ledges trail, which looped us around to an impressive overlook.

After our hikes, we rented bikes. Michele has a big bike ride next week, and she needed some saddle time. We followed the trial which was the towpath trail from the Ohio & Erie canal that ran alongside the Cuyahoga River. The trail was nicely maintained and flat as it ran alongside the now overgrown canal, but with the locks still visible.

We had a 5-hour drive to our last nightly stop – the weather was bad with thunderstorms and downpours for the last ½ of the drive. We followed behind trucks to get us through the blinding rain and got stuck in traffic behind an accident, but it could have been worse.

 

We have nothing planned for tomorrow except for getting home – so that’s the last of the blog. Thanks for coming along on our National Park tour. I’ll end with a Jimmy Buffett quote from Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes. “Visions of good times that brought so much pleasure makes me want to go back again.”