CLEVELAND AND MY FIRST EXPERIENCE OF SNOW

I visited Cleveland in the beginning of April 2017 on work. This was my second visit to Cleveland. My first visit is described at http://fewidlethoughts.blogspot.in/2016/10/my-american-experience.html. The second visit has been just as enjoyable as the first. I describe my second visit in this blog post. In the second visit, my knowledge on processes increased after participating in a workshop at work.

On the personal side, some photos from my visit are available in the password protected album http://s897.photobucket.com/user/sumamirle/library/Cleveland-2017. If you wish to see them and do not have access to it, do let me know and I shall send you the password separately.

My first visit was during the American summer time. This visit was in the beginning of spring or end of winter. The temperature was around 10 to 15 degrees Celsius mostly. In the flight, I watched a couple of movies, sleeping for an hour or so. I stayed in the same hotel as in 2016.

One important change (to me!!) was the plethora of TV channels to view in the hotel room. On the day I landed, I saw that the serials "Star Trek: Voyager", "Everybody Loves Raymond" and "Seinfeld" were all either being shown or would be shown. I felt like the proverbial kid in the candy store ! In the evenings and nights, these serials took up far more time than they should have. Still, on the day I landed, "Star Trek: Voyager" with its basic premise of a space ship headed back home felt particularly apt ! Further, the stories and the characters with their unique traits kept me engaged.

Unlike last time, I went for only a couple of walks during my stay this time. While the sun was up until 7:00 p.m. or so, it was not hot at all. On the contrary, the palms of my hands felt cold by the time I finished my walk. My jacket kept me comfortably warm, but I could make out that the temperature was cool. From 32 degrees (or higher) in Bengaluru to 12 degrees in Cleveland (or lower) was quite a change.

My friend took me to a hiking trail with another of his friends. Both of them are keen photography enthusiasts. I noticed something that made me feel better about India: I could see that there were names etched out on the trunks of the trees in the trail. There were messages typical of teenagers : A heart B, names of people, etc. Whenever I see such messages in and around monuments in India, I feel ashamed. Seeing the names on the tree trunks made me realise that human nature is the same in all places ! I told my friends : "This is actually reassuring to see. It isn't just the poor and the uneducated who like to carve their names on trunks of trees !" What is sad to see in India is that the lack of respect extends to historical monuments and public property, not only trees.

Since I watched TV a lot more this time compared to the first, I noticed the different types of ads on American TV. Like in India, there are many ads (or commercials as Americans call it) for cars, food and home related stuff like furniture. I was surprised to see tablets (or pills, as they term it !) being advertised on TV. There were medicines for chronic pains, tablets for constipation, supplements all being advertised. Healthcare is a concern, everywhere.

The weather report on TV channels seemed to be more reliable compared to India. Most TV channels provided weather forecasts, including temperature ranges, probability of rain and/ or snow and more often than not, I found that these forecasts were accurate during my two week stay. One big forecast was that of snow on Thursday evening and Friday morning.

There is a strip of lawn edging across the hotel building. When I landed, the signs of early spring meant that the strip was already green. The hotel shuttle took me to work at 7:30 a.m. in the morning and dropped me back at around 5:30 p.m. in the evening. I noticed that the green grass was seen in front of most houses en route to my workplace. On Friday morning, that was to change !

In fact, on Thursday night at 10:30 p.m. itself, the change had begun ! 

The lawn lining our hotel was white at around 10:30 p.m.

I peeped out of my hotel window, wondering if the prediction of snow would come true. Much to my delight, I saw that the strip of green lawn that edged across the hotel front had become white. It had snowed. When I got up on Friday morning, it was still snowing. This was a good day for wearing the thermals that I had purchased. A fine powdery snow fell outside. I stepped out after breakfast and felt flakes of snow on my jacket. The sensation was quite an experience. I quickly stepped back in to the shelter.

There was snow everywhere around us !

The city had been transformed on that Friday morning, due to the snow ! Everywhere, my eye saw only the white colour. The green lawns in front of the houses were white ; the tops of all cars were white ; white snow had settled on the pavements (sidewalks, as they call it !) and snow trucks were hard at work already at 7:30 a.m. laboriously moving the snow from the roads on to the sides to enable safe passage of traffic. All vehicles moved cautiously, respecting the snow and preventing skidding. White was the colour of the morning. I felt that the transformation was magical !

The effect of the snow lasted until evening in some places and until Sunday in others, depending on the quantity of snow that had fallen. The snow was melting when I returned in the shuttle, in the evening. I could see water from the melted snow gurgle its way into the drain. A lot of the snow at the hotel lasted for a day.

The next day, a fellow visitor at the hotel and I booked a cab and went to Holden Arboretum. Since it was Saturday morning, we left after a leisurely breakfast. http://www.holdenarb.org/ is the website of Holden Arboretum. We got down from the cab and thanked the taxi driver. He bade us a good morning and we went to the rear of the taxi to get our backpacks. I had kept my jacket there and some food in the jacket, as had my fellow visitor. This is when the cab driver realised that he had locked the car with the key in ! He apologised profusely and asked us to wait in the Visitor's Centre. He sought the help of a policeman for unlocking his cab. The policeman also did not have tools - or perhaps, our driver did not want to damage the car : so the two of them went to the driver's house which was close, luckily for us ! Around 40 minutes later, we had our bags and were ready to enter Holden Arboretum.

Most of Holden Arboretum was draped in a broad swathe of white. In one way, I suppose I could say that this was the wrong time to visit it. Yet, the experience was still good, overall. The two of us saw a small lake (by American standards) and went on the Canopy Walkway. The walkway is a triangular 500 feet long suspension bridge that spans across trees. The bridge swayed as we walked ! I could see the ground from the walkway. A guide whom we met later said that in summer or fall, the bottom of the trail could not even be seen due to the foliage. Those are probably the best seasons to visit Holden Arboretum.

Our next stop was the Emergent Tower. There are 202 steps in the tower. The view from the top is nice, as one would expect. We saw a small lake. On a good day, Lake Erie is visible from the tower. By this time, the afternoon sun had caused some of the snow in Holden Arboretum to melt. As we headed back to the Visitor's Centre, we saw green grass where there had been white snow on the ground earlier. We ate the lunch that we had brought with us sitting on a bench.

 

The snow melted during the course of the morning, revealing the greenery concealed under the mantle of snow !

 A senior lady approached us and introduced herself as a volunteer guide. She offered to show us around for 30 minutes. The lady was extremely knowledgeable about the trees in Holden Arboretum and its layout. She took us around, describing the trees, the layout and the new features introduced. It was nearly 4 p.m. when we reached back at our hotel, a Saturday well spent.

My friend informed me that he wanted to go to the Sringeri temple at Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania on Sunday. He, his friend and I went in the friend's car early on Sunday morning. This was my first experience of an inter-state highway in America. In Ohio state, there were a minimum of three lanes. The condition of the road was good. At a few stretches in Pennsylvania, the road narrowed to two lanes. The exits were indicated in advance. Road signage is clear.

We overtook many long trucks, most of them being logistics carriers. Often, a car followed them with lights flashing. "This is to inform the other vehicles that this truck is completely loaded. We would need to overtake carefully", informed my friends.

One good service I observed is the rest houses that dot the highways. Toilet facilities are available in these rest houses and sometimes vending machines. In Pennsylvania, we saw places of interest displayed in a rest house. A grander version of the rest house is the service plaza. There are rooms for truckers to rest, coffee shops and free Wi-Fi. These are welcome value additions for people on the road.

We passed a few rivers en route to Stroudsburg. I saw an RV parked on the banks of one of them, a house on wheels, in fact. The trees along the inter-state highway were almost barren, since it was still early spring. It appears that the road has been carved in through the hills. I noticed that there were traces of dampness on the rocks that lined the road. Parts of Pennsylvania appear less prosperous than Ohio.

We reached there just past noon. The website of the temple is available at http://svbf.org/ for reference. The temple is clean. I felt a sense of calm and peace upon me as I folded my hands in prayer. There were several cars at the temple. My friend said : "Quite a few people drive down from New Jersey." The temple has idols of Sharadamba, Anjaneya and other deities also. The offering (maha prasad) was distributed in a hall a few hundred metres away from the temple. My friends and I relished the curd rice and pickles provided as the maha prasad !

We left the temple at around 2 p.m. My friends took me to Black Moshannon Lake, described at http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/findapark/blackmoshannon/ for reference. The lake was formed due to the construction of a dam. The waters submerged trees, whose stumps emerge from the surface. To my friends who are keen photographers, these stumps were points of interest. One of them explained how the ripples on the water could be (in a sense) nullified using the right camera settings. The name "Black" comes from the colour of the water flowing through sphagnum moss. Looking at the distant lake though, "Black" is a misnomer: it should have been called "Blue Moshannon" perhaps ! There is a trail through the bog which explains the history and the flora and fauna associated with the lake. We ate snacks at picnic benches near the lake. The picnic benches are a permanent fixture and are a thoughtful addition for visitors.

Black Moshannon Lake was a visual treat of blue, actually !

Another highlight for me during the trip was watching "The Fate of the Furious". The movie has a lot of action, but as my friend told me, there is another attraction in the movie for Cleveland residents : the streets of New York shown in the movie are actually Cleveland ! Since he pointed it out, I recognised downtown Cleveland in the movie. Other movies like Captain America have also been shot in downtown Cleveland. The theater experience in Cleveland is more or less like Bengaluru. The big difference is the quality of the seats : I could almost recline horizontally in Cleveland. The volume of the movie was also lower than in Bengaluru.

I attended a cricket practice session since my friend plays cricket. There was a match on the following Sunday. My friend and his team practiced for more than an hour. I was proud that Indians have kept the following of cricket alive in America. I saw that the players were enthusiastic about their game. It was only after this evening that I realised how much effort goes into the making of a serious cricketeer. The team that I saw was an amateur side. However, that does not mean that the passion for the game and the desire to excel is any lesser among such team members ! The effort put in during practice was testimony to this statement. While they practised, the son of one of the players gave me excellent company. He was proud that he hit many sixes and fours off my bowling !

After dinner that evening, my friend showed me the lights of downtown Cleveland on the way back.

This just about sums up my second visit to Cleveland. There are several memories that stay in my head as I conclude this blog. The foremost one, though, is of a transformation that occurred one evening when "green" became "white", due to the snow !