Cuyahoga Valley National ParkApr 29, 2011
|
|
the journey is set to begin
Allan, Dolores, Mom
the train that goes through Cuyahoga NP
Mom, Dolores, and I started out journey East yesterday and the only hitch was that I didn't keep following I-71 when in Columbus, so I had to figure out how to get off the highway I ended up on and back on to the Interstate. Just a little deal, not a big one - just part of the adventure. The driving day was mostly cloudy, which was good.
It would have been nice to take the train in the park, but until Memorial Day, it only runs on weekends, and this is a Friday. All is good, as we could drive all around it and stop in little towns in the park to see the historical value of them. Mom and Dolores claimed to be comfortable in my Fit, but I knew it could be quieter without the kayak and bike on it!
We saw a few of the old locks after seeing a refurbished one at the northernmost visitor center and can only imagine life in the 1800s when these were active. Trains made the lock system obsolete only 20 or so years after they were built! I remember listening to a story of how the Cuyahoga River (river of many turns) suffered big fires because of the oil sitting on the river from the boats. Trying to clean that up was the start of the Environmental Protection Agency!
We enjoyed walking on a path and then a boardwalk where we saw lots of flora and fauna and animal remains! The day was cloudy with periods of rain and wind, but we had luck that the rain stopped whenever we wanted to get out and explore an area!
