I’m finally getting time to write about my summer trip to Cleveland and Buffalo. I had a marvelous time! I was able to rearrange my trip to drop my rental car off in Buffalo and fly directly home to Orlando. This saved me a lot of time and stress by not having to drive back to Cleveland first and then take an indirect flight home.
I did have some struggles physically boarding my flights. On my way to Cleveland I had to board one of Southwest’s 737-800‘s, their least accessible plane in their fleet. There is a much larger storage area directly to your right as you enter the plane than on other Southwest planes. This makes making a turn in a wheelchair to get close to the seats impossible for me. Instead I had to simply kneel down in front of the front row of seats and then push myself back up into the seat. Next time I will probably have the aisle chair placed in the aisle in front of the front row of seats so I can transfer to the aisle chair and then into my seat directly.
An equally bad complaint about the 737-800 is that the arm rests are completely fixed, even on the middle seat! I had an open middle seat next to me the entire trip but it didn’t matter because my body was going to be crammed into that 17 inch wide seat width. I ended up with bruised hips. This was the only direct flight to Cleveland, but my struggles boarding were worth avoiding an additional layover.
Anyway, once I arrived in Cleveland, everything went very smoothly. I landed around 8:20pm on a Saturday night and the airport was completely dead. I don’t think I saw more than one person, a janitor, in my entire walk from the gate to outside the airport. Every shop was closed. If I hadn’t known better I would have thought it was 2am. There were two rental car shuttles waiting outside the airport as soon as I exited. The shuttles were accessible, but the electric motor on the ramp didn’t work, so the driver had to manually open and close it.
I eventually got my convertible Ford Mustang rental, spent about 15 minutes installing my hand controls, and I was off into the Cleveland night. It had been over 12 years since I last drove in Cleveland, but the streets started coming back to me immediately. I went to my hotel, the same place I had stayed 12 years before, and got my room with no issues. A couple of my Cleveland friends came over late with water and snacks before I eventually fell asleep around midnight.
The next day I went to my friends’ house to meet their cats and then we went for a late lunch at the Rocky River Brewing Company. We had some local brews and I had a corn beef hash Ruben sandwich with potato pancakes instead of rye bread. This was perfect for me because I hate rye bread. It would be the first of many potato based products I would eat while in Cleveland.
After resting a bit we decided to go watch the sunset over Lake Erie. We drove over to Bay Village and found Huntington Beach. You wouldn’t imagine much beach action in Cleveland, but you’d be wrong. The sand was popular with families on a weekday night and there was even some decent surf. The water was only 73 degrees despite the warm summer day. As the sun went down the fireflies came out and started flickering beautifully all around us.
There is very nice accessible parking to directly access the beach. It is a bit hard to find while driving because there is a road that is completely dedicated to providing handicapped parking. Simply look for the sign telling you where to turn to get as close as possible to the beach. I was able to get over the sand with assistance using my regular chair and freewheel. The sand was much denser and more stable than Florida sand making it easier to roll over even without the wide tires of my beach chair.
While everything looks warm, calm and peaceful now, I was told that winter time on Lake Erie is quite different! Cold Cleveland winter temperatures causes the water to become a frozen slush before eventually freezing completely solid. Of course the locals have a tradition of getting in the water every New Years Day. I’d consider it with my full body wet suit. Consider thinking about it at least.
After sunset we went to Mitchell’s Homemade Ice Cream where I had a tin roof sundae (Vanilla Bean ice cream, hot fudge, locally roasted Spanish peanuts, homemade whipped cream, and a Bordeaux cherry). Despite being after 10pm, Mitchell’s was rocking with a great old fashioned ice cream shop atmosphere. The place was packed, people were enjoying their delicious ice cream, the model train circled around the whole place. What a fun place to visit after a hot summer day.
The next day was a rainy morning and my friends had to work, so I went over to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame to take some pictures and do a little shopping. The Hall of Fame is right along Lake Erie and is a fun place to walk around even if you don’t want to pay to get inside the exhibits. Right next door is also the Great Lakes Science Center.
After getting some souvenirs (a pen and a lighter for my collections) I went to meet up with my friends at the West Side Market, an amazing indoor marketplace selling every variety of homemade food products.
I had never been to the Market before and it was a bit overwhelming the different offerings. Every kind of Eastern European dish, pierogies, meat pies, fresh seafood, salsas, hummus, fancy French desserts, and ridiculously cheap fresh product. I felt I could eat three meals a day there and never be bored. I had a couple meat & cheese potato pies along with some cinnamon crunch cookies.
After a nap we headed over to Lakewood for dinner. While waiting for a table, we went to a nearby Malley’s Chocolates, a well known chain of candy stores in Cleveland, where we had some chocolate pretzels. There was some struggle finding an accessible entrance as the front door had multiple stairs and there was no sign pointing towards the ramp on the opposite side of the building. But we eventually found it.
For dinner I had possibly the tastiest tacos I’ve ever had in my life at Barrio. It was pouring rain, we had to wait over an hour, we got harassed by local weirdo standup comic Skitzobill, but it was all well worth it because, oh my gosh, those tacos were good. At the table are paper and pencils for you to fill out your custom made taco order. I had two jalapeno lime shrimp soft tacos and one Thai chili tofu soft taco, both with napa slaw, cilantro, caramelized onions, and Bario crack sauce (spicy ranch). I want more now! Damn.
After dinner I drove around Cleveland by myself and reflected on how far I’ve come in the 12 years since I was last there. When I originally went to Cleveland, it not only was the first job I ever had, but was also my first time living on my own. It was quite the leap for me, but looking back now having traveled across the country on my own many times, it all started in Cleveland.