Get Your Wallet Out, Les

I owe my great adventure today to Les Matheson. Les gets it. He knows how important it is to support public radio and has done so most generously for as long as I can remember. When I was preparing for this journey, he was one of the first to come on board as a sponsor in a BIG way.

First, he is contributing $1 per mile for the total distance I travel in the state of Ohio (it’ll be close to 500). As if that wasn’t enough, he challenged me to find Jerry Gibson, proprietor of Gibson Bagpipes, premier crafters of these fine instruments. Jerry’s shop is located in Willoughby, Ohio. This is where I am tonight.

In addition to finding Jerry, my challenge was to get him to play the pipes as a part of one of my live reports. The payoff is an additional $500 contribution! Okay, mission ALMOST accomplished.

I found Jerry today, a miracle in itself, considering how directionally challenged I am. I had to leave the Underground Railroad Route to get here, which meant I had to find my own way. This is dangerous – I could have ended up lost forever in the suburbs of Cleveland. But I made it – here’s Jerry to prove it.

I would have gotten him on the air today, but he had no fully assembled pipes in the shop. He is going to get a set assembled and I am going to call him later this week and get him on.

The challenge of finding Jerry was great fun, but being able to spend some time in Willoughby has been even better. This is a beautiful town in the suburbs of Cleveland. Here’s a brief history:

Willoughby's first permanent settler was David Abbott in 1798, pre-dating Ohio's bid for statehood by five years. Abbott and his family had close relations to the local tribe of Erie Indians along the banks of the river the Indians called the "Sha-ga-rin" or Clear Water. This river was later called the Chagrin River. In 1835, the village was permanently named "Willoughby" in honor of Dr. Westel Willoughby, Jr., a public health official that the founders of the Medical College, which was based in the city, hoped to attract to the area. This medical college would later merge with Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, OH to eventually become Western Reserve University, the predecessor to Cleveland's Case Western Reserve University. Many historical buildings from this period survive to this date, affording the downtown Willoughby area some outstanding specimens of 19th century architecture.

There is a veteran’s memorial in the center of downtown with a prominent statue of a Union soldier with the inscription “In memory of the soldiers of Willoughby who served their country in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-65.”

Tomorrow I head to Ashtabula. It should be a good ride along Lake Erie, a little cold in the morning (there are frost warnings tonight), but clear and sunny. I’ve just about run out of Ohio, with Pennsylvania on the horizon. I hope the wind stays at my back.

Large versions of all my blog pics can be found at my photo gallery

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