The alarm went off around 5:30 and after a bit of social media time, I got up and got ready for the day. While I ate my peach cobbler donut, Nick got ready for the day. He ate his chai frosted donut and then we rounded up our stuff and hit the road about 7.
The drive itself was pretty uneventful. No real traffic issues and only a couple short storms, which all things considered was pretty good. However, at our fuel stop, my gas tank wouldn't open unless I was actively holding the unlock latch while Nick was opening the fuel door. Because obviously the first fuel stop of a 2700 mile road trip is the perfect time for that to happen!
We made it to Letchworth State Park about 11 after a beautiful drive through NY’s farm land. Our stop at Letchworth was fairly short but so worth it. We went to Inspiration Point and Upper and middle falls. This was perfect and let us see the famous views from this park.
Once we’d gotten our fill of views of the “Grand Canyon of the East”, we hit the road. It was more back roads for quite awhile, through beautiful farmland, corn fields, and vineyards, before we eventually got back on I-90. The drive continued to be uneventful, which honestly was a surprise for me given that we crossed into Pennsylvania. I spent MANY years of my life driving to central PA, and those drives were NEVER uneventful. This one though was decent. Also a nice surprise was that there was a very nice view of vineyards and Lake Erie behind the welcome center in PA. The rest areas along 81 and 80 in central PA are definitely not big and bright with a nice view!
Our next stop was Presque Isle State Park, along the shore of Lake Erie. Maybe if I’d been more willing to venture into the sand, I would have liked this park more, but for as much as it’s mentioned, it really was just…fine. Actually it was kinda confusing. I mean, you can’t even see water from their lighthouse museum. But, it offered us the opportunity to take some Pennsylvania pictures for that 50 state photo map I’ve got going.
Back in the car, I told Nick where our next hotel was and to find dinner near there, since it was a little over an hour away, which would put us there right at dinner time. He did that and programmed the GPS, before falling asleep. It was an uneventful and fast trip down into Ohio from Presque Isle, and I found that as soon as I crossed the border into Ohio, it was like driving in New England again. I felt right at home amongst those fast, lane switching, no use of turn signal drivers.
The GPS led me to the Winking Lizard in Beachwood, OH for dinner. This was practically across the street from our hotel, so very convenient. We were seated immediately and dinner here was pretty decent. I had a margarita and Nick had a couple of midwest hard ciders, I think. He had their steak special, which he said was fine. I had a chicken parm sandwich on garlic bread. We finished dinner splitting one of their “specialty” ice cream cookie sandwiches, which was delicious. It was a decent dinner, and pretty inexpensive for what it was. Winking Lizard seems to be a chain around there, and I’d eat at one again if in the area.
After dinner, we headed across the street to our hotel, the Spark by Hilton Cleveland-Beachwood. Check-in was quick and pretty soon we were settled in our room, 242. Spark is Hilton’s budget brand, but the reviews on this one were excellent. This location seems to be pretty new…or at least it’s new to the building. Hilton had redone a Clarion and turned it into this Spark. True to the reviews it was very clean, and the room was comfortable, although Nick and I both agreed that the furniture looked like Hilton had gone to Ikea for their decor. We had zero issues with it though.
We settled in, watched a wild storm, and crashed for the night. Today had had a lot of driving, but also some great exploration.
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