Another 500-mile day today. We began by bailing out of the Howard Johnson (Cleveland Airport), which turned out to be the worst hotel we've stayed in in a LONG time. Here's a list of the reasons you should not stay there:

1) They provided one set of towels . (They did bring another set upon request, but only after we waited for some time.)

2) The knob on the air conditioner temperature setting was broken, so there were two options: off and very cold.

3) Despite a claim that the hotel has free WiFi, this appears to work ONLY in the breakfast room. Very few people really care to go down to the breakfast room to use their computers.

4) Breakfast was a travesty. There were plain bagels, which could be toasted, but there was nothing whatsoever to put on them other than butter. (I don't know anyone who eats plain bagels and butter.) There were two types of cereal, but no milk in evidence. There was a coffee pot (in another room), empty. That was it. They bill themselves as offering a "continental breakfast"; this does not, to my mind, fit the bill.    We went to Starbucks. (Which is about all we could find, as we were not interested in eating at Bob Evans, which would seem to be a Cleveland specialité, as they were ubiquitous .)

After Starbucks, we went to the last NPS site of the trip: the David Berger Memorial, at the Mendel Jewish Community Center. The memorial consists of a sculpture (photos enclosed) commissioned by eight families (friends of the Berger family) in memory of David Berger, who was an Israeli weightlifter who was murdered in Munich during the 1972 Olympics. (This was a major event, for those of you old enough to remember it.) David Berger had dual citizenship in the US and Israel, but was born and raised in the Cleveland area. It became an NPS site in 2006, when another friend of the family, Senator Howard Metzenbaum, proposed the bill authorizing it.

The sculpture is interesting, and the event certainly worth memorializing, but Tim and I were both rather taken at this little insight into how NPS sites come to pass. I was really struck by the same phenomenon when we watched Ken Burns' outstanding series on the National Parks (I recommend it highly if you have not seen it!): most of these sites come into existence as a result of one person's deciding that something is important and then organizing a larger or small campaign to get it done . This is just as true of the huge National Parks as it is of the tiny memorials, such as the one we saw today. There is no vision actively planning the NPS and deciding what gaps in American scenery or history need filling--there is just the random process of individuals wanting to preserve something and then raising a ruckus, and money, and influence, and getting it done. Something like the David Berger memorial is a win-win: the statue was already paid for and built; management of the park is done by the staff of the Jewish Community Center (which, by the way, is an impressive organization: it was rife with small children being dropped off for summer programs, and a steady stream of adults came and went to use the facilities, which include a gym and a medical center. There is a Subway sandwich store in the lobby.)   The National Memorial must cost about $5 a year, on average, for a new ink pad for the stamp and replenishment of the brochure supply (every decade or so), so who would vote against it? All you need is a senator friend, and poof, your son is part of the NPS.

Sight of the day: EXTREMELY cute puppy at lunch rest stop. I asked the owner how many puppy-kidnapping threats he gets; he said "a lot, actually."

The drive home was pretty uneventful, though we did get a wide view of how much various states like road work. As we approached the section on 81 in Virginia, complete with the bevy of 18-wheelers one must always expect there, we decided to take a back-roads route we have never tried before--66 to 688 and down through Culpeper. It turned out extremely well. The scenery was prettier, the traffic was near non-existent, and what we lost in speed (average speed limit 45 vs. 70) we made up in distance and stress-free driving. Cut about 20 minutes off the total time, and arrived home not cranky. Cat happy to see us.

10 days, 2600 miles, 1600 photos. More miles than usual, fewer photos. Pretty good trip.

Strangely, it was dark by 9:00. Imagine that.