CLEVELAND — Prior to Sunday, Rocky River man Joey Kinsley, known on social media as "SirYacht," had no plans for a road trip to 13 cities named Cleveland in 10 days. A lot has changed since then, and as of Wednesday, he's en route to Cleveland, Florida, the third stop on his "Cleveland World Tour."
It all started when he sent a tweet to his over 22,000 followers mapping out U.S. cities named Cleveland. If the tweet received 10,000 likes, he said, he would visit each one of them. Kinsley soon learned the consequences of threatening Twitter with a good time; the tweet got more than 58,000 likes.
I mapped out a trip to every city in the US named Cleveland. Would be pointless but I’d do it if this tweet gets 10,000 likes 😂 pic.twitter.com/KRYLTqMyMv
— Sir Yacht🛥 (@SirYacht_) April 10, 2022
“Well, if this tweet gets 10,000 likes, I mapped this route. I'll go this route,” he said in an interview with News 5 over Zoom from his car Tuesday. "I'm thinking maybe like a month or something like that, right? But I didn't think it would get 10,000 likes and it got 10,000 likes in 90 minutes.”
Why the 10-day timetable? Kinsley says he has to make it back to Cleveland (Ohio) by Wednesday, April 20 so he can catch a flight to Charlotte, North Carolina for a wedding.
"I think it's really just kind of spur of the moment. Whatever happens, happens. I really have not put a lot of thought into this, but I think there's like some bliss in that," he said.
His first stop was Cleveland, New York. Located on Oneida Lake with a population of about 700 people, the small town with a lake reminded him of home.
“It reminds me a lot of Lake Erie in that it's a big lake and the water looks like it's blue and gray,” he said.
In each city he stops at, he has three things he must do: take a picture or video in front of the town sign, buy something from somebody in that town, and get somebody to say “Go Browns!”
There weren’t many stores in the small town and he didn’t want to fail in his first city, so he found a bait and tackle shop and a family who was fishing. He took out $3 and offered it to a kid for a worm he had. After holding it for a picture, he gave the worm back and convinced one of the family members to say “Go Browns!”
Prior to packing up the car and hitting the road for the next stop on his ambitious trip, Kinsley did little to no research about the cities. His research consisted of using MapQuest to find the quickest route to each city. Everything else that happens would be a welcome surprise, he said. And as every true Clevelander knows, the weather can change on a dime, so he packed clothes for all four seasons.
“What I didn't expect is the amount of viewership. Like I thought maybe it would be a Cleveland, Ohio, thing, but all these other cities are like, they're responding and telling me what to do there, and it's really, really cool. I'm getting a lot of support.”
The next stop is Cleveland, Mississippi — home to the fighting Okra, what Kinsley called "the craziest mascots of all time.” It is a city he is looking forward to visiting.
There’s a certain camaraderie Kinsley has felt in every city he has visited and the people he has met along the way. Like Cleveland, Ohio, there are landmarks or known tourist sites that set them apart from the rest of the cities in their states.
Cleveland, Georgia is home to the cabbage patch doll. In Cleveland, Mississippi, there’s a Grammy museum and in Cleveland, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City, Kinsley said he will get “some of the best barbecue” he’s ever had in his life.
Cleveland World Tour starts now lol pic.twitter.com/dZ072N79fz
— Sir Yacht🛥 (@SirYacht_) April 11, 2022
Kinsley hopes to spread positivity to everyone he meets along the way.
“And I think if I do something like that [spreading positivity] and I just really don't take this for granted. Instead of saying like, 'I have to drive here today,' it's like, 'No, I get to drive here today,'" he said. "Just having a positive outlook on life and just like treating everybody on this trip, you know, with respect and just having a great time."
At last check Tuesday, Kinsley reached Cleveland, North Carolina before his next stop in Cleveland, Florida.
“It’s going to be like a life-changing experience, for sure,” he said about the rest of the upcoming stops.
Kinsley has started a gofundme to raise money for the trip and any extra money donated will go to the Greater Cleveland Food Bank in Ohio. Kinsley noted his road trip doesn't include all cities and communities in the United States that are named Cleveland, but hopes to visit more in the future.
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