A few weeks back, the missus and I did our summer vacation trip, something that we affectionately dubbed the "Rust Belt Bucket List Road Trip." The main impetus for the trip was a chance to see the Cardinals play in two baseball stadiums neither of us had been to before. However, given the locations of those games (Cleveland and Pittsburgh), it also afforded us the chance to see some of the other sites in Ohio and Pennsylvania, including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, another national park, two more college campuses and an amusement park that has been on my bucket list for decades: Cedar Point in Sandusky, OH - roller coaster heaven! Rather than walk you through the various sites and sounds narratively, I thought I'd take an approach I first did back in the summer of 2017 and give you a review of our trip by the numbers. Here we go...
Days away from home: 7.5
Miles driven: 1,707
States visited/traveled through: 5 (MO, IL, IN, OH, PA)
Hours spent at Cedar Point: 12
Roller coasters ridden at Cedar Point: 12 (it would have been higher if the lines hadn't been so long)
State license plates seen: 41
Canadian province license plates seen: 1
Slug bugs seen: 32 (I got 27, she got 5)
VW buses seen: 1
Jucks seen: 12 (1 got 11, she got 1) - Juck is what we call Jeep Gladiators, those Jeep pick-up trucks
Baseball stadiums visited: 2 (Progressive Field in Cleveland and PNC Park in Pittsburgh)
College campuses visited: 2 (Ohio State and Pitt)
Meals at Chick-fil-A: 3
Meals with family in Indiana: 2
Hotel nights: 6
Hotel nights actually paid for: 3 (the other three were on points)
Hotels stayed at: 4
Nights crashed with family: 1
Number of times we got drenched by a rain storm on a bridge: 1 (Roberto Clemente Bridge across the Allegheny in Pittsburgh)
Mayflies seen: Countless! It was one of weirdest - and grossest - sites I've ever seen. They were EVERYWHERE on virtually every flat surface- it was like a Biblical plague! Getting into your car without dozens of them getting in with you was an extreme challenge. It could be an Olympic sport!
Mini golf games played: 2 (I won one and we tied the other)
National parks visited: 1 (Cuyahoga Valley National Park)
Halls of Fame visited: 1 (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. We could have visited the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton but as a part of my 9 year, ongoing boycott of the imminently corrupt NFL, we did not)
Souvenir magnets purchased: 9
Souvenir shirts purchased: 3
Bucket list items checked off: 5 (2 new baseball stadiums, 1 new national park, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cedar Point)
Laughs laughed and good times had: Too many to count!
