Cleveland Rocks!! (part 2)

click on images to see them a bit larger

Oooook. This is going to be long, soooo....
I decided i needed to get out of Rochester and experience something new (for a bunch of reasons) and to just be adventurous for once.
I mean it's no traveling around the world (Rissa) but it's what i could do at the moment :)
I told no one about my plans, i wanted to just pick up and GO; by myself, to wherever it was i could find.
I planned it out a little, atleast the direction i was going, and i got Jodi's GPS so i wouldn't get completely lost.
But i wanted to just drive, and eventually find something. I left Rochester pretty early (for me at least) as you can see here:

I was a little excited, fake smile and all

It was very chilly when i left so i was a little worried it would be a shitty day.
Being on the road was awesome. Being completely alone, no one even knowing you are gone or where you are (even my parents), it felt great.
It was really a feeling i had never experienced before.

I stopped at a few places along the way for food at some shitty subway where the footlongs were $7!!! YEAH! For turkey.
AND they didn't take subway points, BULLSHIT!
Oh and this kid made the healthiest sub possible for his friend. It consisted of some kind of meat, cheese (EXTRA cheese), and a complete bag of nacho Doritos (on the sub), all toasted to perfection, oh and a ton of mayo. I wish now that i had gotten a picture of this, but it was disgusting.

So I headed back out and saw a sign on the thruway for a park or something a little bit later, so i ended up stopping again at "Concord Woods", somewhere in Pennsylvania i think.
Took a little hike through the woods, which was nice, and the weather had heated up by then, so it was quite enjoyable:

the pond

Ok, so after that i don't think i stopped again until i hit Cleveland.

Crossing into OHIO!

Cleveland
(i was driving, so excuse the low quality shots)

It was a bit of a drive, but it was very relaxing, enjoying some good music and the breeze made it pass like nothing, this song in particular caught my attention along the way:

Conor Oberst - Moab

They say the sun won't burn forever
That's a science too exact
I can prove it, watch, we're crossing the state line
See those headlights coming towards us?
That's someone going back
To a town they said they'd never, yeah
They swore it on their lives

You can't break out of a circle
That you never knew you were in
And there's nothing that the road cannot heal
Nothing that the road cannot heal
Washed under the blacktop
Gone beneath my wheels
There's nothing that the road cannot heal

Some will spend their precious time
Trying to decorate their lives
Taking measurements for some new look they want
So from 1-10, 10's exactly what I am
0 being everything I'm not

You can't break out of a circle
That you never knew you were in
And there's nothing that the road cannot heal
Nothing that the road cannot heal
Washed under the blacktop
Gone beneath my wheels
There's nothing that the road cannot heal


The drive gave me a lot of time to think (and not think at all) about a lot of things (i'll just leave it at that)...

So, I got to Cleveland and pretty much found the first place possible that i could park. I had no idea where i was! But i was on the lake and there were a bunch of cool looking buildings around so i parked there and explored a bit, i laid down on a hill and just relaxed after the long car ride:

Cleveland Skyline

Cleveland Skyline & Me


relaxing on the hill
(that's the hall of fame)

Eventually i walked down towards the lake and come across a sketepark. There were two kids there so i decided to ask them if i could take some portraits of them. They said "hell yeah" so i went back to my car, go my equipment, and hauled it down there for a few quick shots:

i've never shot any action BMX
i'll have more elsewhere at some point

After THAT i decided to just walk around where i was, around the lake and around the stadium. I don't know how i didn't realize it, but i was right outside the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame:

this is the back of the building, once i realized from the sign where i was...


Rock & Roll HOF front

Cleveland Browns Stadium

Then I decided to explore the city city. I put some more money in my parking meter and headed off downtown. The first thing i realized was that there was NO ONE around. The city was so empty it seemed, i was expecting a lot of people, especially since it was around rush hour, but it was so bare, less people walking around than Rochester. I also noticed that it was THE cleanest city i have ever been to, there wasn't ANY garbage ANYWHERE and the sidewalks were spottless, even the homeless people got all dressed up and looked nice. It felt very strange. The only thing that was dirty was this poor bird:

i don't know how the hell he managed that

Anyways, I walked around for an hour or two, the city itself was kind of small, not too much going on, but i walked around pretty much the whole place:

the inner city

found this little guy in some park in the city

So after that I went back to my car and wanted to see Jacobs Field and Q Arena, so i set off to find them. I got to them and there was a baseball game about to start so parking around there was $15 so i couldn't really park and walk around. But i drove by them, ha.
I was getting pretty hungry around then so i searched for food in the GPS. I walked to a few places, but it seems that the city closes its doors at 6pm. EVERYTHING was closed, not ONE place was open, it was really weird. So i got into my car and drove around for literally at least an hour and could find nowhere to get a sandwich or even pizza. So i stopped at some ghetto grocery store and got some turkey to make a few sangwiches with the bread i brought with me!

By that time the sun was beginning to go down so i headed back to the lake to watch the sunset and eat. These aren't exactly my "style" and i usually think sunset pictures are a little cliche, but it was quite a beautiful sunset, as you can see, after a long day, it's exactly what i needed:

these small renditions don't do it justice, click to see them a bit bigger

Soooo...i think that's enough for this post. I have a bunch of shots from the drive home. I stopped at a few places along the way that were pretty sweet. So i'll leave that for tomorrow or sometime later on! For now, after those sunset pictures, i'll leave you with a breathtaking view of my hotel room! Goodnight!