Dates: May 2-16, 2023

Crew: Gavin, Mark, Reid (in Cuyahoga)

Locations: Glenn Research Center, Rocky River Reservation, Cuyahoga NP, First Ladies NHS, James A. Garfield NHS, Rock N Roll Hall of Fame, USS Cod, Cleveland OH, Presque Isle SP, Frank Lloyd Wright's Graycliff, Buffalo NY, Buffalo Naval Park, Niagara Falls SP, Teddy Roosevelt Inauguration NHS, Frank Lloyd Wright's Martin House.

One small work trip for Jack, one giant leap for Jack-kind

This spring, I started working on VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover), a lunar rover and resource prospecting mission to search for water on the south pole of the moon. I had the good fortune to be designing, building, and testing cables that were essential to testing the rover and the moon-analog prototype (1/6 the weight of the real rover to simulate how it would handle on the moon), so I was able to spend a lot of time with my hands on real hardware. I helped drive the prototype rover around the rockyard at Johnson, and best of all got an invitation to attend and help at testing the project would be doing at Glenn Research Center (GRC), NASA's footprint in Cleveland. We would be testing the prototype rover in their lunar simulation testbed to understand the motor performance in lunar regolith, a very fine soil that will sink a poorly designed rover like quicksand and coats everything in abrasive dust. I was super excited for my first work trip (even if it was to Ohio).

I also took some time to explore the sights of GRC, my first time on another NASA center for more than tourism reasons. The midcentury design of the buildings gave it a real 1960s NASA feel that even made even Johnson's aged asbestos-filled buildings feel modern by comparison. We were working in the engine test building, and there were bunkers upon bunkers of rocket, jet, and electric propulsion testing equipment to observe.

Rocky River Reservation

I made it a daily habit to go straight to Rocky River after work to get in a hike, run, or do some photography and take in sun after sitting in a bunker all day. Springtime blooms were at full flourish and the weather was amazingly cooperative for springtime in Ohio. Sunny skies rewarded me for my efforts all week long. The park even had an ancient native earthworks located on top of a high bluff, although I thought it required a bit of imagination to see anything manmade left in the forest floor.

Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Saturday morning rolled along and I was excited to get to a new National Park. I hopped in the car and met the Brighton boys outside the Cuyahoga visitor center. We looked like an army of mercenary cameramen with each one of us having our mirrorless cameras along to play with. Cuyahoga is an unusual national park- it doesn't have gates or fees, people live within its bounds, and it doesn't have an iconic feature or landscape to display to throngs of influencers and tourists. What it does have is waterfalls, midwest forests, and accessibility to offer millions of people who want to enjoy the outdoors.

We started out hiking to Blue Hen falls. The hike had a good amount of elevation gain and loss, which I enjoyed as some informal training for upcoming trips (posts to come). After going up and down, then up and down, then another few ups and downs, the guys were ready to just see the waterfall.

Seeking out new and innovative bridge-crossing techniques.

When we reached the falls we set to work teaching Mark and Reid how to capture long exposures to get the smoothing photo effect on the flow. Blue Hen falls was a small pouring over a hollow into an amphitheater of layered sandstone. It made for a nice photographic subject, but getting a direct head on view didn't do it justice because of the setback distance you had to start at behind the water. This led to Gavin and I hunting for unique angles. He chose to go low, and I chose to go high.

Photography vantage points. Mine over Gavin's. The high ground always wins.

And sillier moments encountered on the way to and from the falls. I was very impressed by the hiking cat.

Returning to the visitor center, we crossed the Cuyahoga river to hike part of the Ohio & Erie Canal towpath trail, where locks are still visible from the old towpath that brought freight into the heart of the midwest. Mark and I captained our barge and abandoned ship at the first sign of danger.

We then drove to walk the brief boardwalk overlook of Brandywine falls, which are the biggest draw in the park. This is the one thing that was apparently postcard-worthy, since it's what I was able to get a card of in the visitor center for my collection. The falls were beautiful spilling down their staircase of eroded stone, although I can see how they would reach peak appeal with fall colors to complement the colorful stone.

Finally we stopped off at the Ritchie Ledges, an unusual area of rock formations and slot-like canyons with green mossy walls all around. In one slot, we saw chiseled petroglyphs from the 1800s- men and horses carved into the walls. The cool, dark green canyons felt very alien to be sitting in the woods in the middle of Ohio. They also posed their own photographic challenge- how to capture the depths of the greens and shadows, the full size of the walls while being in such constrained space, and how to make a large green rock an interesting subject. I enjoyed changing the focal point as I shot down the length of the walls, and intentionally lowering my exposure to let the moss and shade take priority.

The Ritchie Ledges offer shady mossy hiding places in the forest.

Rock N Roll Hall of Fame

The next day, we went to the one and only Rock n' Roll hall of fame on the waterfront in Cleveland. There was plenty to see on the 4 floors of the museum, although after a while there's only so many guitars, sheets of music, and old rockers' blouses you can be interested in. It was cool to see instruments belonging to Elvis, the Beatles, and every other rock star you can think of. I loved the absolutely destroyed piano of Paul McCartney's- you can tell how hard he went on that thing writing his part for Hey Jude. Since we're all music fans, it was definitely a worthy stop.

Some instrument shots: guitars, well-loved piano, mixing board

A Christmas Story House

Another random area of interest came to us while we were grabbing lunch- right across the street were some old-looking cars and houses with people stopping to photograph them. Curious what was up, we wandered over to find out it was the house(s) where the Christmas Story movie was filmed! Complete with the leg lamp in the window, it's apparently a small museum now. We didn't go in, but hey who even knew that was in Cleveland?

The guys then took off to get back to Michigan at a reasonable time, and I was left to my own devices. This could only lead to one place...

USS Cod Submarine Museum

I went right back to the waterfront, past the Rock Hall, and to the USS Cod- a submarine museum! Getting there an hour before close, I took my time to amble through the tight quarters of the boat and just observe all the interesting details of a WW2 sub. The control room was lit with red running lights, and I took the opportunity to get some fun shots of the "christmas tree" and various gauges and valves amongst the thousands that cram every inch of wall space.

James A. Garfield National Historic Site

After being booted off the sub, I had one more stop in mind while there was still daylight. On the outskirts of town was the James A. Garfield National Historic Site, the home where he lived after his presidency. I drove over but found it had already closed up for the day. I satisfied myself with walking around the grounds and admiring the (ugly) Victorian manor with its massive front porch and menacing color scheme. Then it was time to get back to work for another week.

Presque Isle State Park, PA

Once I passed the state border into Pennsylvania, the drive settled into a lovely coast-skirting highway (I stayed off the interstate) with turquoise water on one side and lush greenery on the other. My first stop came in Erie, PA when I saw signs for Presque Isle State Park. Taking issue with the fact that it had the same name as Presque Isle in northern Michigan, I decided to investigate to confirm for myself the superiority of our Presque. Driving down the skinny peninsula that juts from Erie into Lake Erie, I did confirm this but enjoyed myself nonetheless. I walked some sandy beach and found a family flying massive kites of all shapes and colors in the stiff breeze.

Then I went to the tip of the park to check out the Perry monument, commemorating where Oliver Hazard Perry's lake Erie fleet was constructed along these shores for the war of 1812. There wasn't much else to do in the park other than wade a little and drive back out- it certainly wasn't swimming season yet.

Graycliff House

Continuing along the coast, I made a semi-impromptu stop at Frank Lloyd Wright's Graycliff house, a beautiful estate right on the cliffs of Lake Erie on the far outskirts of Buffalo. The house was designed for the Martin family, the executives of the Larkin company during Buffalo's golden age. The house was built from 1926-1930 and was the Martin summer home from 1927-1940s. I was interested in seeing a FLW house and didn't have it in my schedule to go to Fallingwater so I decided to spur off and take the Graycliff tour.

It starts with a walk through the small gardens, past a lovely pond that leads right to the front door of the home. The low, wide profile of the house emphasized the use of horizontal parallel lines everywhere they could be squeezed in. I admired the stonework making up the walls, with rust stains turning the gray and tan stone an orange color- the stones were cut locally and intentionally kept these iron-laden bricks with the idea that the home would gain a patina of sorts as they weathered. 

The low ceilings throughout the house felt oddly claustrophobic, but a docent told me it was by design- FLW wanted the family to spend their time outside as much as possible. I did appreciate the back wall being nearly all framed window, beckoning you to come out to the back lawn and stare off across the lake. 

Different uses of parallel lines throughout the house: living room, kitchen, front porch

The volunteer tour guides around the house were overflowing with knowledge on the home and Frank Lloyd Wright, so I let them tell me about all the details of the designs that I never would have noticed. I also enjoyed noticing all the touches around the house- ancient electrical plugs and switches, the old wood smell that reminded me of old houses in Hamtramck, and knobs in the shower for "cold," "hot," and "scalding."

Buffalo Naval Park

Driving into Buffalo itself, I went to visit the Naval and Military park where 3 museum ships are moored side by side: the missile cruiser USS Little Rock, destroyer USS The Sullivans, and submarine USS Croaker. Hurrying in with just an hour and a half to go through all of them, I skipped most of the Sullivans since I'd seen destroyers before and much of the tour route was closed off for restoration.

The Little Rock was interesting; built as a cruiser at the end of WW2 it was converted to a missile cruiser and fitted to carry massive Talos missiles, which sit on the aft deck now aimed at the city as a deterrent. The interior of the cruiser houses compartment after compartment of museum displays, covering every aspect of life on the ship.

On the deck of the USS Little Rock

I wanted to see as much as possible on the remaining ships and found myself practically jogging through the corridors to try and save time. The Little Rock was like a maze, and finding the fastest route to the bow gangway that lead down to the Croaker was no small feat.

I finally made it onto the sub with only 20 minutes of open time left. Fortunately, all subs look pretty alike inside and I'd just been on the Cod last weekend, so I was able to skip a lot of the reading material and just enjoy myself on the walkthrough. I made it off right as the museum closed down for the day, and then it was off to the races to get to my next and most important stop before daylight faded: Niagara Falls!

Croaker interior shots: christmas tree board, kill flag, and engine room.

Niagara Falls

Driving into Niagara Falls State Park I hustled to the views of the American Falls, getting a beautiful overlook with the NY-Canada bridge in the background and looking a long ways down to the riverboats and boardwalk tourists below getting doused by the mist from the falls. I tried my hand at some long exposures here, but found that there were too many seagulls swarming everywhere to get a clean shot, and the smoothed shots didn't do a good job conveying the power of the falls.

A short walk along the edge of the (peninsula? island? outcrop?) park got me to the overlook of the more famous horseshoe falls. Because of the way the land peaked, much of it was unviewable from the US side. I really wished I was able to go see it from Canada. Should've brought my passport. I satisfied myself by getting the best shots I could, taking in the shaking feeling of being near the falls and breathing in the mist that floated up hundreds of feet from the violent end of the falls.

I was walking back to my car when I realized I was being silly- I drove 4 hours to be here and wouldn't shell out $15 to take the Cave of the Winds elevator and get to walk those boardwalks myself? I turned back around and bought a ticket. A long elevator ride down deposited us at the end of a long, dark, dank tunnel with daylight at the far end. Walking out of it, I found myself in the middle of a massive seagull swarm- I've never seen so many sitting everywhere and pinwheeling about in the sky. 

Making my way down to the maze of red boardwalks I put on the yellow poncho that they give you when you buy your ticket. I didn't think I'd actually need it, but the closer I got to the base of the falls the more slippery everything got. At the bottom point of the boardwalk, I snapped picture after picture of the rainbows arcing through the mist, the violent cascade into the river, and the falls themselves.

I (smartly) put away my camera before braving the upper boardwalk- very few people were actually venturing up there, I saw. I did think far enough ahead to bring my gopro with me, so I pulled that out to record the walk. After only a few steps upwards, the deck had become completely awash with rushing, freezing water. As I topped the staircase onto the boardwalk that walks right in front of the base of the falls, wave after wave of heavy splashes coated me head to toe. I hurried through, getting battered by the water from all directions, and emerged at the far end drenched and shivering. Worth every penny!

Martin House and Teddy Roosevelt Inaugural NHS

Not content with the amount of sights seen on the day, I decided to drive-by ogle a few more historic homes. The first was another Frank Lloyd Wright home. This was built for the same family (the Martins) as Graycliff, but was their city home. The Martin house complex encompassed almost its own square block, with several homes and a large courtyard. I wasn't able to go inside but I did walk around the outside of the complex admiring the squat, geometric brickwork and distinctly mid-century feel. 

I strayed too close at one point to one of the museum homes and a floodlight kicked on; I decided that was a good time to hightail it out of there before some neighbor saw me snooping around and called the cops thinking I was a burglar. I drove off to my final house for the day: the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site. This building is where TR was inaugurated in 1901 after McKinley was assassinated. Once again I had to stalk the grounds perimeter in the night, trying not to look nefarious as I took flash photos on an abandoned street.

It was about 9pm now and I was starving- in Buffalo there's only one thing to do about that. I went to WingNutz for buffalo wings and was thoroughly impressed. Taking stock of my situation I realized I had no camping gear, my jeans were still soaked from Niagara, and I didn't have any plan for what to do next. There was nothing to do but steel myself for the drive and head back to Cleveland. I made it back to my hotel after 2am.

More Cuyahoga Waterfalls

With one last Sunday at my disposal, I went waterfall hunting again. First I drove through the Bedford Reservation seeking the great falls of Tinkers Creek, and also managed to find an overlook of the gorge (and a National Natural Landmark) along the way. 

Working my way down into the gorge I saw people photographing what looked to me like a waterfall and traced my way down to them. There was a beautiful little falls coming out of a spillway, and I made sure to get some long exposures but quickly realized this was not the great falls I was looking for. Looking at my GPS position on maps, I appeared to be on the wrong side of the nearby railroad tracks! Rather than go back to my car and drive to the right spot I decided to bushwhack my way over and cross the tracks. A bit of aimless wandering and a bit of river following led me to the true great falls.

The trail down to the great falls ended as an overlook at the river level before the falls occur. I wanted to get closer and inspect all of them, so I did a little downclimbing and rockhopping to get out as far as I could and get up close views of the 3-part falls. 

I decided to end the day with another trail run in Rocky River Reservation. The park was looking lovely in the late afternoon sun, and I took a few pictures after completing my run just to have memories of the lush greenery and beautiful days I had on this trip.

As work trips to Cleveland go, I couldn't have asked for more. The irony isn't lost on me that I had to move to Texas and come here for work to do some serious exploration of the midwest, but such is life. I was so glad to come enjoy the springtime weather, explore the parks and woods of Lake Erie, and do some seriously cool moon rover work in one of NASA's best testbeds. This was just the beginning of my springtime adventure plans though. Flying back on Tuesday night, I had a 2 day turnaround before I hopped on another plane to NorCal... but more on that later :)