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Published: November 21st 2006
Lake Erie
Russ and I enjoying the afternoon at Lake Erie. Time for another entry. Yay I hear you all say! 😊
Russ and I are now in Canton, Ohio. We've been here for about a week since leaving Detroit. Not much to say about Detroit and didn't think too much of it. We crashed the night behind a BP with all these other trucks and Russ said there was syringes lying on the ground. Weather was miserable too so it made the city seem alot more bleaker then usual. I must say, they definitely live up to their reputation of being the Motor City of the nation, lots of car factories. Apparently one of the best things to do when you're in Detroit is go to Canada!!! 😊 We saw the bridge and the tunnel to Canada and whilst tempted to cross it we will be going to Canada when we go to Niagara Falls next year so Canada can wait for now.
Once arriving in Canton we stayed at the Bear Creek KOA for 2 nights, upon disconnecting the car from the motorhome we discovered that we could not get the car into gear, we weren't going anywhere. Now, Bear Creek is nestled away out in the sticks
Cleveland
Russ and I with some of the city of Cleveland in the background. The city was covered in fog coming in off the lake. This photo was taken about 30 seconds after the previous picture so it shows the difference an angle can make. You wouldn't know that the sun was to the right of this picture unless you look closely at our faces. so this was not a good predicament to be in. We stayed put for the 2 nights and if we needed anything we had to disconnect all the lines from the RV and drive Puffy into town, what fun, not. I got in touch with my friend, Jose' who lives in Canton and he gave us the details of Frank who does the transmission work for his work vehicles. It's a good thing that our car decided to give up on us here and not in Detroit as Jose' has an apartment which was just vacated and offered it to us whilst we are here, rent free. It's a nice place, one (massive) bedroom, living area, kitchen and bathroom. I am loving the bed, it's like sleeping on a big fluffy cloud. We have access to Jose's hot tub and home theatre room next door but are yet to take him up on the offer.
In relation to the car, we have to get a new transmission unfortunately. When we wreck things we make sure we do them well! We are getting a new one with 64,000 miles on it for more then I would ever want to spend.
Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame
Me in front of the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame The transmission should be in by Wednesday or Thursday of this week so we are here for a few more days.
The downtime has been good, we've been researching where we would like to go next and think we've made a decision, Florida. There is a space shuttle launch happening on 7 December at 2138 which we would like to check out. This is a once in a lifetime experience while we are in the country and would be such an awesome sight to see. It will be the first night launch since the Columbia tragedy in 2003 as the 3 following launches after Columbia were during the day so cameras would have clear views of the shuttle's fuel tank to spot any falling debris.
If we do go ahead with this plan we will be going down inland so we can stop by Kentucky and Tennessee as when we go back up to Niagara Falls (which we WILL be seeing) I'd like to go up via the coast. We are trying not to do the same route twice. Silly me didn't even think of the difference in seasons between Oz and here. There is obviously the difference
Walking to the Game
Can you tell they love their college football? in snow but there is also a difference in that the northern states close over winter due to the cold weather, a factor I never even considered. It has been harder finding RV parks still open as the season is April to October so we have just missed out. Of course, the tourist attractions are closed too. I really want to go on the Maid of the Mist which takes you up to Niagara Falls but that closed in October so I'm going to save that until it reopens in April. Lesson learnt. So it's southern hospitality for us for now.
The last couple of days have been action packed. Jose' drove us up to Cleveland Friday and we went to the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame which is right on Lake Erie. We got there at the end of the day so I didn't get to see as much of it as I would have liked but I really enjoyed it which surprised me. I was happy though 'cos I got to check out the Elvis and Beatles memorabillia which interests me. No cameras were allowed in so I only have a pic of me outside of
OSU Supporters
A very, very small fraction of the supporters that were outside the stadium supporting OSU against Michigan. the building. The actual Hall of Fame is on the lower levels, underground. I think this especially would appeal to the older folk as there were alot of memorabillia from the 50's, 60's, 70's etc. After the Hall of Fame closed Jose' drove us around the sights and we then had dinner at the Great Lakes Brewing Co. It's the poshest place I've eaten at since getting here but of course, Russ still orders a $9 hamburger 😊 Had a bit of a hard time ordering the salmon, took me 3 goes to get them to understand me. I was about to start making fish movements with my hands.
The following day, Saturday, Jose' took us in the opposite direction to Cleveland to Columbus which is the capital of the state, to witness a college football game, Ohio State University (OSU) vs Michigan. If ever there was a week to be in Ohio, this was it. Now, college football is big here, HUGE. People decorate their homes and cars and you couldn't turn on a tv or a radio station without hearing about it. Both OSU and Michigan are 1,2 on the standings table, both are undefeated and both
More OSU Supporters
Some more BuckEye Supporters. states are situated next to each other which makes them rivals. We didn't have tickets but there must have been thousands upon thousands lining the streets surrounding the stadium. Now, not knowing what colours the teams were I wore my only 2 jumpers that I have (in case you're wondering why I'm always wearing the same thing in all the pictures, I do wash) which is my thin grey bonds jumper and the blue ski jacket that I bought in Colorado. I tell you, luck just isn't on my side at the moment. You guessed it, Michigan is blue and yellow and OSU is red and white. I stuck out like a sore thumb walking to the stadium. I was actually afraid of passing the house parties that were going on in fear that something would be thrown at me. We passed lamp posts that had been torn up and the game hadn't even started. I heard a story of one Michigan supporter which was taped to a pole. We made our way to the Varsity club where everyone was drinking beer and I must have been the only sober one there and waited for the game to start. There
Bug Eyed
Russ and I at the Ohio State University (OSU) game in Columbus, Ohio. Jose' (the photographer) wouldn't let me take off my bug eyed sunnies as they are Russell's old one's and match the one's he is wearing - 18/11/06 were no seats and it was outdoors so it was quite chilly. The game started at 1530 and at 1800 Russ had drunk quite a bit and was tired and cold so I walked him back to the car which in hindsight, may not have been such a wise decision. We walked back a different way to earlier which meant I got to see all the fraternity and sorority houses that you see in teen movies which was quite cool but we ended up staying in that car for 6, yes, 6 hours. Jose' ended up on the other side of campus and his mobile phone battery went flat so with no way of knowing where he was and not wanting to move the car in fear that he might come back and we wouldn't be there, we sat....and waited. A word of advice, a car might be warm when you get into it from walking the cold streets but after 6 hours it will be cold, hard and uncomfortable. Jose' turned up at 1230am and drove us back to his friends house and then went back out until Russ let him in at 930 in the morning. I don't know how he does it. In case you're wondering, OSU won 42-39 (don't quote me on that) so there would been alot of happy Ohioans that night.
We haven't done alot in the last 2 days which has been nice. We've managed to catch up on sleep and have watched some movies that we taped whilst away.
Before I go I thought I should mention. If you want to view any of the pics that we have put up, if you click on one of them it will open up a pop up window and you will be able to scroll through them and see them bigger and better.
Hope everyone is well. We miss you all and love hearing from you whether in email, text messages, phone calls or by adding comments to the page.
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Mom (Newc)
non-member comment
Hi from me
Hi Kids. Very much enjoyed the catchup on what you are doing. Deb, you write such a great newsy story - thanks. The shuttle launch sounds fantastic - I am jealous. The photos are great to see. I wish I could get hold of a more detailed map. The ones I have found on the internet only show the odd capital cities - not even the states - most frustrating whilst trying to follow your progress. Thought I'd throw in the "Newc" in case you confuse the Moms. Love and miss you both. Don't forget the address I asked for. I loved hearing your voice yesterday Russ.