Time for another installment of the vacation edition of Sign of the Times, meaning another trip to an exotic locale close to home. This time, it’s ol’  Toledo.

I spent a day in Toledo last week with two goals in mind; one, to visit the Fallen Timbers battlefield site south of Toledo, and to attend the Collingwood Arts Center poetry reading hosted by Michael Grover.

First stop, the famous Tony Packo’s where I had a decent lunch (a dog, a bowl of chili, and an iced tea for $6.49) and read the Toledo City Paper. And what do I find there? A review of “Food, Inc.” which I saw the night before at Cedar Lee. And, a glowing review of a new Indian restaurant in Toledo called Masala Cuisine of India, which I quickly decided I would find and have dinner at later that day.

So now, it’s 12:30 and I’ve got 8 hours (!) to kill.

I drive around a bit along the Maumee River north of Tony Packo’s, with its vast open lots where shipbuilding factories once stood, and pass a newish-looking development  known as the Toledo Skyway Marina with an old coal-fired power plant in its midst. A local news crew filming a segment tells me that power plants future was uncertain for a while, but that now there are plans to save it and convert it to condos or apartments.

I drove on an stopped by the International Park just off of Main Street before crossing the Maumee into downtown Toledo. One small sign swayed my decision to turn left; ship museum. I soon found the Willis Boyer Museum Ship anchored to a dock on the Maumee River, paid 6 bucks, and took a nice leisurely 2-hour tour of the magnificent 617-foot -long iron-ore boat launched in 1911.

I talked with the director of the museum, a young guy named Paul, an ex fighter pilot, about the financial situation of the museum, their relocation a bit downriver toward the lake next year, and their quest to buy one of the two remaining Hulett ore unloaders now in storage in Cleveland.

Next, I cross the river via Main St. and make my way to the Toledo Museum of Art. The TMA, like the CMA, has free admission, with $5 parking. I saw the show of native Toledo artists (which was a mix of good and not-so-good, IMHO).

But the TMA’s Glass Pavilion was the most impressive. It felt like being in no other structure I’ve ever been in. Free and open and transparent throughout, just a remarkable structure that seemed to hover in space somewhere, pleasantly altering your idea of what a building should look and feel like.

After the museum, I drove on through the charming town of Maumee, Ohio on the way to Fallen Timbers. I found it in a round-about, off-the-map kind of way. It’s wedged between a housing development, a bike path, and a busy freeway, with a shopping mall (always a shopping mall) just on the other side of the freeway.

The story is that if the U.S. hadn’t won the Battle of Fallen Timbers, there may never have been an Ohio, much less a Michigan, Indiana, or much of the other midwest/Great Lakes states. Or at best, it all would’ve been a part of Canada.

The site is mostly a quiet, wooded knoll in a clearing overlooking the Maumee River below and to the east. There’s a main central statue, two-sided monuments on either side with the names of American soldiers killed and the other side with the names of participating Indian tribes.

By this time, I was getting real hungry, so I drove to Masala Cuisine of India for dinner. I had 2 veggie samosas ($1.99) with mint chutney and mango chutney (the samosas were fine, the chutneys ho-hum), then had an onion kulcha ($2.99) and a complex and kickin’ spicy chana masala ($8.99). The chana and the kulcha were probably some of the best I’ve ever had anywhere (including some of the Indian joints I sampled in London years ago). I talked to the owner who hails from California via Michigan, who tells me his is only the third Indian restaurant in the Toledo area. All I know is that his utterly kicks ass.

I finished off at the Collingwood Arts Center, housed in a cool, eerie Victorian-era building, (which, according to Grover, houses a few ghosts) with an energetic poetry reading hosted by Michael Grover that ended just after midnight. Followed by a small shot of caffeine and a 2-hour drive back home.