Well, yes, Cleveland is a long way from New York and New England, but that is a relative term.

You could quite easily make the trip from NY to Cleveland in a day. Over the course of 2-3 weeks, that really isn't that signficiant. Now, it is basically going the "wrong" direction from New England, but even there, you could work in some other areas, like Niagara Falls, Toronto, or Montreal and do a loop of a trip that still would be very reasonable and unrushed over the course of 2-3 weeks.