The Gipper's Guide to America

DieHardBrownsFan

@gftchris said:
Thanks gip. I had toyed with the idea of a lake erie tour, I think if I go from one end to the other (detroit to niagara), and have to drive back again, I might as well go the other way around.

Lake Erie, where Perry defeated Barclay.

http://www.nps.gov/pevi/learn/historyculture/battle_erie_detail.htm

One Post

@the-cysko-kid said:
Im in cleveland day in and day out for work and you couldn't drag me there for anything extracurricular that wasn't sport related with one exception. I do love the museums and the university area. One of my favorite cleveland restraunts is in university and the other is on nearby coventry. As for the rest of cleveland...Fuck that place.

Im considering my vacation in Aug. I get three weeks but wont take that much but have time to play with. Cleveland seems to be one of the stopping points.

DieHardBrownsFan

Cuyahoga Valley National Park will disappoint you. It used to be a National Recreation area until some politician used his influence to have to become a National Park. Yosemite, Yellowstone, Sequoia, etc. are national parks. This is at best a State park. Some hiking trails, very small falls and hills. Mostly fields and trees. Not something I would travel far to see.

The Gipper

@diehardbrownsfan said:
Cuyahoga Valley National Park will disappoint you. It used to be a National Recreation area until some politician used his influence to have to become a National Park. Yosemite, Yellowstone, Sequoia, etc. are national parks. This is at best a State park. Some hiking trails, very small falls and hills. Mostly fields and trees. Not something I would travel far to see.

I have been to 52 of the 59 National Parks.

Of the 7 I have not been to, 5 are in Alaska accessible only by float plane. 1 is in Samoa. And there is a new one in California

They come in all shapes and sizes and variances.

There are 409 National Park Units. I have been to about 300 of those. I will be traveling to Alabama and Georgia to see 7 more before this month is up.

Those too are of all types and sizes, ranging from a single house in a city to vast grasslands/deserts/mountains.

I can tell you all about them if you like.

I have gone to all kinds of lengths and distances to get to some of them....including a 70 mile one way trip in a catamaran, plus another in a boat that went only 8 mph that took 3 hours one way to make 22 miles.

So I guess it is up to each individual to determine how far and to what lengths he would go to see them.

For gft......he doesn't have to worry about that. To get to the CVNP he just has to drive down the road a bit. It is the only National Park that sits between two major metropolitan areas.

The Gipper

@gftchris said:
Thanks gip. I had toyed with the idea of a lake erie tour, I think if I go from one end to the other (detroit to niagara), and have to drive back again, I might as well go the other way around.

That would be OK too. You probably get better, cheaper flights from the UK to Toronto.

gftChris

@the-gipper said:
That would be OK too. You probably get better, cheaper flights from the UK to Toronto.

Potentially. At the moment, London to Detroit is around £450. Haven't checked Toronto.

The Gipper

@the-gipper said:

In checking I see that I still have quite a number of "battlefield" or at least "war related" National Parks units which I have not been to. Here is a list of some I would like to visit at some point:

Revolutionary War related sites: Boston NHP (Bunker Hill, Old North Church). George Rogers Clark (Indiana)

War of 1812: Horseshoe Bend (really a battle with Creek Indians, but 1812 related)

Going here in few weeks.

Civil War: Pea Ridge, Ark. Andersonville Ga. Ft. Scott Kan., Peco, New Mex.

Going to Andersonville as well at end of Feb.

Indian Wars: Fort Smith Ark. Sand Creek Massacre, Colo. Fort Larned, Kan., Big Hole Battlefield, Mont., Washita Battlefield, Okla., Knife River, North Dak.

I have since been to both the Big Hole and Washita.

WWII: Tuskeegee Airmen Ala, Port Chicago Cal. Rosie the Riveter Cal., War in the Pacific, Guam.. Minidoka, Idaho (Japanese Internment camp)

Also going to the Tuskeegee Airmen site.

Cold War: Minuteman Missile NHP, South Dakota.

I will be visiting the Big Hole battlefield in a couple of weeks....plus I may make a return trip to The Little Bighorn.

The Gipper

One Post From the Truth said:
I would love to go to Cleveland and hang out with the freaks. See the town.

I resemble that remark!

The Gipper

@gftchris said:
Potentially. At the moment, London to Detroit is around £450. Haven't checked Toronto.

That sounds pretty damned reasonable. Looking at the conversion, that is only about $650.00. Damned reasonable.

For that I should go the other direction.

gftChris

For sure. London's not cheap though!

The Cysko Kid

I'm going to Yosemite in may

gftChris

I hope you're planning to grow a suitable moustache in that time.

The Gipper

@gftchris said:
For sure. London's not cheap though!

I could stay with relatives. I have several cousins near there. Croydon for sure. Northhampton. An aunt by marriage still lives near Liverpool. My Gillingham and Chatham connections are gone though.

The Gipper

@the-cysko-kid said:
I'm going to Yosemite in may

Enjoy the view.

gftChris

@the-gipper said:
I could stay with relatives. I have several cousins near there. Croydon for sure. Northhampton. An aunt by marriage still lives near Liverpool. My Gillingham and Chatham connections are gone though.

Well, Croydon's almost London I suppose

By american standards the rest are definitely not. If you're around, give me a shout and I'll buy you some cold fizzy tasteless piss, or a real beer.

The Gipper

@gftchris said:
I hope you're planning to grow a suitable moustache in that time.

Plus, he has to have the right color.

The Gipper

@gftchris said:

Well, Croydon's almost London I suppose

By american standards the rest are definitely not. If you're around, give me a shout and I'll buy you some cold fizzy tasteless piss, or a real beer.

Probably not happening any time soon........but when you are in Cleveland, could be so.

Westside Steve

@gftchris said:

People - I have tentative plans to visit Cedar Point for a few days later in the year (may get pushed to 2017). Obviously, swinging by for a Browns game is a must, but is there anything else in the area? I suspect we would end up flying in to detroit as it's direct for us, picking up a car and going from there, in a round trip. I suspect Niagara is on the list as well, and maybe Toronto.

Anything I might not know about worth taking a look at? Nature and astronomy would be a big plus as well.

Cedar Point is very close to put-in-bay where Westside Steve plays a great deal of the summer.

www.westsidesteve.com

One Post

@the-cysko-kid said:
I'm going to Yosemite in may

Don't get bit by them deer ticks.

The Gipper

Recently visited several National Park Units in Alabama and Georgia:

Little River Canyon National Preserve, northeast Ala. Canyon, river, waterfalls, wildlife

Horseshoe Bend National Military Park: Site where Andrew Jackson battled Creek Indians and wiped out about 1000 of them.

Tuskeegee Institute National Historic site. College founded by Booker T. Washington....and where George Washington Carver spent his career. The two men are buried only like 40 feet apart.

Tuskeegee Airmen NHS: Site where the training of the "Red Tails" occurred, black fighter pilots during WWII

Jimmy Carter NHS: Site of boyhood home of Carter

Andersonville NHS: Site of Confederate POW camp....where like almost one out of three prisoners that were held there would die.

Ocmulgee NHS: site of prehistoric native American "mound city"

Selma to Montgomery National Trail. Commemorates the 1964 Civil right march that resulted in the Voting Rights Act.

Also went to south of Tallahassee to the St. Mark's Wildlife Refuge to try to see Whooping Cranes. Could not see them but saw plenty of herons, ibises, and gators.