I FINALLY CLEANED THE AREA I'VE BEEN TRYING TO GET TO FOR A WEEK!

 

What a beautiful day!  Wow!  

Because the entrance ramp to 224 is closed, I have to drive north on Main Street and get on I-76 to go to Wadsworth.  

I know the areas that my friend, Tom, cleans regularly, but even if I didn't, I can sure tell where he's been.  I saw his car, and then I saw him.  I beeped, but he was so focused on what he was doing, I don't think he saw me.

What a great guy he is to spend all the time he spends keeping our city clean.  We are so lucky to have someone like him in Akron.

This afternoon, I headed to the area on Main Street I've been trying to get to for a week.  I saw this little mess at Main & Brookside, and I pulled over to pick it up.  I don't usually pick up little messes, but this one has been bothering me.

I'm so glad I stopped.  I ended up picking up 132 pieces on this little corner.  There was debris from an accident, and who knows how long it has been there.

Now Main Street looks amazing all the way to the bus stop by Akro Mills.

I've cleaned these bushes before.  They are thorny bushes, very, very hard to get the trash out.

Take a really good look at this area.  It looks pretty good, doesn't it?

Really look.

Just like all the other bushes I've been cleaning, it was a horrible mess.  

There were so many bottles and cups and paper plates and napkins and masks and gloves . . . and it's so hard to pick out of the thorns.  My arms are all scratched up.  

I thought a bee went in my glove, and I went into panic mode, because I'm allergic to bee stings.  

It was just a thorn.

I turned around and looked back at the bushes that surround this area.  Oh my goodness!  It was going to take me forever!

I picked up 1,358 pieces of trash here in three very hot hours.  

As you know, I can typically pick up 1,000 pieces of trash an hour.  This illustrates just how hard and time consuming it was to pick trash out of these bushes.

I won't go back here for another year.  It should stay clean for quite a while.

This is the trash I picked out of ONE BUSH!  Just one.  

Bottles and cans are intentionally stuck in the thorns.  People walking by must think it's fun to stick a glass bottle in the bushes.  I wish whoever does this had to pick them out of the bushes.  It's not fun at all to get them out.

But I'll tell you what is fun . . . getting in my car and looking at the area I just cleaned.  It looks brand new!

And that's why I do this.