Ohio travelogue

Coming to you from Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. Cuyahoga is a mouthful. Locals drop the first A when they say it, sort of the way we say Bufflo and Niagra. Sometime it even comes out Cuyga.

A lovely, vibrant downtown. We enjoyed dinner with our niece at Butcher and Sprout. Drinks were good. Food was OK, not great. Joe drove over from Slippery Rock and joined us Saturday.

The highlight of downtown, aside from the river ambling violently with spring rage, was an emporium called The Jenks Building. It had live music on one side, a bar filled with microbrews, books for sale everywhere, pottery homemade ukes and even a basement art gallery. It was as quirky as Vidler’s in East Aurora but more woke with none of the cheap shit from China.

We heard Rachel Brown and the Beatnik Playboys Machine Shop play a bunch of funky music including a cool to hear cover of Chris Isaak's "Wicked Games." Not many can pull that off.

I came away with a George Carlin classic, “When does Jesus bring the porkchops?” Beth snagged a Carole King album. 

The Cuyahoga Valley National Heritage Area is great, a beautiful place loaded with springtime ephemerals and a ton of raging waterfalls. We would return here for the forest and Jenks but not the food.

It was pleasant to hike even in the rain. We walked past at least 6 waterfalls of varying ferocity including Brandywine. There were no apple trees. The federal visitors center was fully staffed with with white people.

We also visited the Kent Farm Market and came away with freshly fermented sauerkraut, a pound of primo coffee from a microroaster ($18 for 16 oz.) and a bunch of ramps.

After eating a few meals here, the one thing lacking is outstanding food. Nothing seems outstanding.