Photo courtesy of the Cleveland-Bolivar County Chamber of Commerce used with permission

Last Saturday afternoon, I rode through downtown Cleveland. The Greenstrip was bathed in brilliant sunshine, and the temperature was unseasonably warm for mid-March. I have probably made this same drive 100,000 times in my life. Yet as familiar as my journey might have been, something was strikingly different.

There was no one there.

Ok, to be completely honest, there were some people there. There were four or five cars in front of the Cotton House hotel. Two…