Hello Cleveland!

Source: Wikipedia

So a Greyhound bus driver who was supposed to carry passengers from Cleveland to New York got lost and drove around Cleveland for several hours. It was only then that the passengers expressed concern which makes me wonder whom to blame in this situation: the driver for getting lost or the passengers for not noticing that they’d never even made it to Parma. I think the biggest problem is the driver kept going and didn’t stop anywhere in Cleveland. My wife and I went to Cleveland back in 2000 and I had a great time. Most people, when I told them where we were going, said, “Why would you want to go to Cleveland?” They made it sound like they were saying, “Why would you want tuberculosis?” I can think of half a dozen reasons why I wouldn’t want tuberculosis and at least as many why I would want to go to Cleveland. I had only two days to explore and that wasn’t close to enough. The first day I went to the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, and nearly didn’t make it. We were actually staying in a hotel in Strongsville, a suburb so far out on Cleveland’s outskirts its practically in Toledo. I was taking the bus to Cleveland and, like most outskirts, the gap between Strongsville buses was big enough to, well, drive a bus through. And it wasn’t until I was on the bus that I realized I’d left my directions back at the hotel. Needless to say at the time I didn’t have a smartphone. Or even a cell phone, although I did have great confidence in my ability to find my way around. I thought about asking the driver if we could go back, but instead just formulated a new plan. I knew the Hall Of Fame was on Lake Erie and I thought, hey, how big could that be? When we got to downtown Cleveland I got out and headed straight for the lake–and right into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, after a nice walk around downtown Cleveland. I even got to see the world’s largest rubber stamp.
The bus back was a little different. I didn’t have a schedule so I got what I thought was a bus going back to Strongsville, but the route ended somewhere in the middle of Middleburg Heights and I had to hoof it the rest of the way. The next day I made sure to bring along all my information so I had everything planned better, and that night I read a story about a delegation of Cleveland city officials who went to Paris to promote The Other City Of Light as a tourist destination but instead stayed in luxury hotels and went to expensive restaurants and left the taxpayers the bill. I thought, hey, if they’d offer me the job I’d be thrilled to go to Paris and promote Cleveland as a tourist destination and I’d be fine with staying in a cut-rate hostel. Or I could take Parisians around Cleveland. The Cleveland Museum Of Art is pretty amazing even if it’s not as big as the Louve and it has actual doors instead of an annoying pyramid thing serving as an entrance, but that’s another story.
Anyway I understand that bus drivers can’t usually spend a lot of time looking at their phones while they’re carrying around passengers, but after a couple of hours I think it would have been okay if this driver had made an exception.

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10 Comments

  1. BarbaraM

    Visited my collage friend in her home in Cleveland while on Winter Break – never saw anything except the “Frank Zappa and the Mothers Of Invention” concert. Or at least, that’s what I remember of the trip (no pun intended, but that’s another story).

    Reply
    1. Christopher Waldrop (Post author)

      So it was a long strange trip and you don’t remember that the Maha Vishnu Orchestra was the closing act? Maybe if you ever go back to Cleveland you can remain a little more levelheaded and see more of it.

      Reply
  2. Allison

    My sister lived for two years in Cleveland, and I enjoyed my visits there. There’s a huge open market that sells produce, baked goods, meat, etc. Westside Market, I believe. The science museum is fun, the people are nice.

    That said, my colleagues and I used to give Cleveland a hard time and watch “The Poorly Made Cleveland Tourism Video – Parts 1 and 2” on YouTube any time we headed there.

    Good old Greyhound.

    Reply
    1. Christopher Waldrop (Post author)

      The science museum is high on my list of things to do if I ever go back to Cleveland–it’s right next to the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame and it was hard making the decision to pick one over the other. And I think it’s funny that people give Cleveland a hard time. Clevelanders seem to take it in stride, being good Midwesterners.

      Reply
  3. Ann Koplow

    I love the exceptional circles you create here, Chris. I hope you can find your way to the voting booth today.

    Reply
    1. Christopher Waldrop (Post author)

      Fortunately I live in an area with early voting and voted a week before, and I’m happy to say that when Voting Day rolled around I had no regrets, and I am still mostly happy with the results, even if things here in Tennessee didn’t go as well as I hoped.

      Reply
  4. Jay

    The driver HAD to be a man. A woman knows enough to ask for directions.

    Reply
    1. Christopher Waldrop (Post author)

      Yes, the driver was a man, and I still maintain that a man will ask for directions if he’s driving somewhere he really wants to go, which tells me that driver really didn’t want to go to New York. Go figure.

      Reply
  5. Ann Koplow

    Hello, Chris!

    Reply
    1. Christopher Waldrop (Post author)

      Hello, Ann, and rock on!

      Reply

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