CLEVELAND trip
Aug. 10-11 2015
PART 3
I don't know what road we're on, but we're approaching OH 21 - which was US 21 until probably the early 1970s.
Same intersection. This is how signs die. Notice how faded the I-80 shield is - with the I-77 sign not far behind it.
South on OH 21 - significant for being the old US 21.
I'm pretty sure this is Riverview Road in Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The area was designated a national park in 2000. The park reclaims the landscape's rural, historic feel and was established in response to locals' worries that suburban sprawl would gobble up land like it did in Cincinnati. The park also includes the site of Richfield Coliseum - home of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Cleveland Barons - which stood only from 1974 to 1999. The arena site is now an undeveloped field.
This would be continuing on Riverview. This is one of these narrow wooded roads that this website likes so much. But it was once the main road from Cleveland to Akron - probably before US 21 was founded.
This video shows what it's like to ride the Riverview!
The best of the old and the most exciting of the new! Riverview Road goes under the Cleveland-bypassin' I-271 up ahead.
The park includes the unincorporated historic town of Boston. This is east on Boston Mills Road. Up ahead, we go over the Cuyahoga River.
Looking up the river in Boston, you see I-271 overhead, and in the background you see the Ohio Turnpike, which carries I-80 here.
A closer view of I-271 over the river.
We go under I-271, with the Ohio Turnpike bridge in the background. But more importantly, we're on the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail. In keeping with the transportation theme of this website, the trail is a former towpath - a path along the now-defunct canal where horses towed boats that used the canal.
Another photo of the old towpath.
The towpath again. The old canal would have been in the overgrown area just to the left.
West on Boston Mills Road in Boston, we see this old, old Pure gas station. I'm not sure if it's still functional. The back of that sign includes an Allowed Cloud against tampering with the sign.
The towpath again, with the site of the old canal on the right.
Boston Mills at Riverview.
During this road trip, I had a mighty fine time, yep (as the cough drop commercial might say). A flat photo can't always convey the feeling of coasting up a historic road as an amazing structure soars overhead like Superman! This is south on Riverview going under I-271.
This has to be Riverview under that Ohio Turnpike I've been publicly talking about.
Riverview continues. Remember, this was once the main route from Cleveland to Akron.
This once-major highway bips along.