F 1 D 0 - 2004 05 25 at 1315

Akron Ohio.

Funny thing. This place
would have appeared entirely
suburban had we not taken a 
while to explore it ourselves
in the morning!

Last night, we had dinner with Mark and
Chris, our hosts. We went to Steak and 
Shakes. It's a nice 24 hour diner, if you
like your hamburgers thin. You can have as
many as you like (single, double, triple)
but for a place with "steak" in the name,
I'd hope for something thick.

(Remember Cleveland's Gold Coast Cafe, serving
Vienna Beef? That had perfect burgers)

I was left with the impression that we only
had suburban delights here in Akron. Malls and
big places with huge parking lots. 

Well, it ain't so!

Akron has a lovely downtown, replete with places
to walk, art studios and galleries, cafes, big 
buildings, libraries and all of the bits and 
pieces you expect from a city. It has as much
as Hamilton or Guelph. A university, a bus system,
and lots of pedestrians in the downtown.

We found Market Street, and that's the line
where have the streets are named (something) North,
the other are (something) South.  Lots of happy
living businesses, and not too many boarded up
scary ones. 

In fact, I didn't see any scary people here.

This is a good thing.

We should wake up our hosts, and find out if
they want to lunch with us, or if we just take
the time to say goodbye to them, and head off
towards Boston or New Jersey.

You heard right, gentle reader, we don't know
which city to head to. We'll decide soon.

It's been a wonderful day so far.

Breakfast at Waffle House. I continue to think
of Zig Ziglar's description of the people who 
work there. It's accurate. They're hard working
and very motivated. The entire kitchen is in plain
sight, and they don't rely on modern technology to
get things done. Paper handwritten receipts, simple
cash registration, and shouting between the cooks
and the servers get things done.

We had a steak and eggs breakfast there. Mine was
perfect. So was Jeff's. High praise from us.

It was a big drive - while it is Akron, the
sign said "Welcome to Springfield". Wow, right
away we saw a pink cadillac. I went to see if
I'd run into Homer Simpson here. 

Ok, we should wake up the nice people. 

Akron was good, and they've been good hosts
to us. We've learned plenty about gaming and
Dungeons and Dragons in particular. 

There's more to say, but
...That's all for now.