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An unappealing Lake Erie
We thought we'd have a bracing walk by the lakefront before leaving Port Clinton - but understandably felt more buffetted than braced, and left after this quick photo op. We were very sad to leave Chicago, and our lovely friends. The weather seemed to reflect our gloom, going from sunny to cold and grey within miles. Driving out of Chicago, we took to the tolled 'Skyway' (with a wonderful view of factories, and the chunks of arbitrarily placed tar seal we've become so fond of) and soon entered Indiana. The novelty of being in another state wore off pretty fast when we discovered Indiana believes in tollbooths as well. Stopping briefly at a rest stop to load up on junk food, (as well as walk on Indianan soil) we decided to make a break for Ohio.
Having already paid $7.15 in various tolls on the expressway throughout the day, we left the main highway in Ohio just before the first toll booth, re-routing ourselves in Toledo, and heading off on route 2 along Lake Erie. Our drive took us along windswept shoreline, past picturesque farms, and past our first ever nuclear reactor. It's possible we may have sped up a little at that point, despite not spotting any two headed cows nearby. On the wings of gathering darkness (and doom?) we made it to Port Clinton, a little peninsula
Cleveland Rocks, Cleveland Rocks!
On our way outta town, Juliet trying very hard (and failing) to rid herself of the Drew Carey show theme song... sticking out into the lake. After a fairly unappealing dinner at Frisch's across the road from our motel, we settled in for our first full night's sleep since before Chicago!
Our attempt to walk a way along the lakefront the next morning was quickly abandoned - the weather had caught up with us and it was just too cold and windy. The dead fish Jenny spotted floating in the water explained the unusual miasma, and the biting wind hurried us back into our cosy heated Corolla to push onwards.
A few hours later, the skyline of Cleveland hove into view - it is a pretty city, with parks dotted throughout and solid, established stone buildings, although we're sure it must be a lot nicer when it isn't raining and blowing a fiercely cold gale! After availing ourselves of the email facilities at the public library, (which has a reading garden! Although it was closed until summer, understandably!) we chowed down on some yummy pastries and had a chat to the helpful guys at the bank - everyone is always so interested to meet girls from New Zealand!
An hour later we were in Pennsylvannia, a little sliver
Buffalo's art deco City Hall
It's a fantastic building, covered in heaps of deco detailing. Niagara Square out the front has an obelisk dedicated to William McKinley, the 25th President of the United States. Despite the bright sunshine which spoils the photo, it was FREEZING in the square, and we had to do a dash-in-dash-out photo attack before power walking back to the hostel for cheering up, ie food. of which wedges itself onto the lakefront between Ohio and New York. The states are definitely getting smaller here. We detoured off the highway for a peek at the little industrial town of Erie, of which the mainstrip was a little decrepit and run down, but has a character of its own nevertheless. And then, before we knew it, we were in upstate New York! Here the descision to take the less travelled highway paid off - while we certainly got to Buffalo a lot slower than the traffic on the tollway, we passed through a series of such pretty little towns in the late afternoon sunlight - the streets of each were lined with narrow three story victorian style houses with carved chairs on the porches, surrounded by tall shady trees. The pink shaded fields, vineyards and red barns in between townships made for string upon string of idylic and picturesque scenes.
Buffalo, NY Driving into town felt very much like home - the motorways here feel like Auckland's (although it's a much smaller city), and the city is the perfect size to be both interesting to explore and relaxed enough chill out. Locating our hostel and sorting out parking for the night, we were absolutely starving and determined to try the local delicacy - Buffalo wings. There was just one place for it - the Anchor Bar, the original - this was the place where Theresa Bellissimo purportedly invented the wings back in 1964. The Anchor is an atmospheric joint, with the old pub style walls covered with signed photographs and framed newspaper clippings. Opting for some salad as well as our chicken, we shared an order of wings, and as is the way in America were presented with a portion which would have been impossible for one person to defeat. Even as it was we had to get some set aside to go!
Next up was a trip out - Lisa (Mark, our host from Chicago's lovely partner, you will recall), having lived in Buffalo for several years before moving to Chicago, had provided us with several options for an authentic Buffalo experience, which our hostel manager was impressed to hear we knew about. Armed with a map of the area and some more recommendations from our friendly host, we trotted along to Neitzsche's, a bohemian jazz dive, which proudly claims to have had live music playing every night for over twenty years, and seems to have most of the original 1910's fittings. Their claim for this Tuesday was borne out in the shape of a very energetic jazz band, with quite possibly the best drummer in the world (the saxaphonist made up for skill with sheer enthusiasm). Jenny and Ju would like to reassert our intentions of becoming jazz drummers. And living everywhere.
The decor of Neitzsche's consisted of many framed posters, paintings and artwork, topped off with chandeliers over the bar, and large painted papier mache heads in each corner (the one over the band was a Medusa, complete with writhing snakes. We do not think these are part of the original fittings, but you never know!) M*A*S*H was playing silently on the television in the corner, and further proof of the bar's fame was all over the wood panelled walls and whitewashed ceiling - both of which were covered in the scrawled signatures of what looked like every band to have played there, the illustrious alumni including Death Cab for Cutie, whose album has been entertaining us in the car for the past couple of days (being part of Jenny's haul from Chicago.)
Tearing ourselves away at one in the morning, we returned to our comfortable (and very clean) hostel to turn in. Naturally the parking meter ran out at 7 in the morning so we stumbled out of bed into the cold to feed its hungry maw, and assessing the day as chilly, went back to bed for a good few hours. By the time we made it out again, it was time to explore some city, and the sun was streaming down so after a library stop, taking in the Mark Twain reading room, home of the original handwritten manuscript of Huckleberry Finn, and of course, a cursory internet session (yay, we are official cardholding members of the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library!) we went to see City Hall, a fantastic art deco building with mosaic details and an imposing monument standing on a huge roundabout in front of it.
The town felt so friendly that we had decided to stay another night, so we made our unhurried way back to the hostel for a meal of leftover wedges and wings, supplemented by mushrooms and paremsan on toast (we're getting really good and mix and match meals, and we've not had one fail on us yet!) Dusk exploration of Buffalo and its environs showed us the town is actually quite sizable and there is more than enough to do on a return visit - we still have at least a sculpture park, a flaming waterfall and an art museum to see! This time, however, we had to push on, so pasta and rice were followed by bed, and an 8am wake up call to feed the ever hungry parking meter again before leaving town.
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