Our drive yesterday was easy and smooth. The traffic was light and the weather dry and clear. Driving through Pennsylvania was familiar and uneventful, a drive I have made many times going to Pittsburgh to visit relatives or taking my daughter Kathryn to Penn State. But instead of turning off for my birthplace, Ted and I continued on I-80 toward the Ohio border.
The hills and undulating roads were behind us after 8 hours on the road; Cleveland was a little more than an hour away.
On our way to Cleveland, we passed the recently shuttered Lordstown GM plant that manufactured the Chevy Cruze. The enormous white sided plant was surrounded by empty parking lots that used to be full of cars of workers and owners to be. Unlike the closed factories we saw on our Great Allegheny Passage trip in 2017, these lots have yet to sprout grass and other weeds through their unused blacktop.
Late in the afternoon, we arrive at a Travelodge in Cleveland, an unassuming hotel on the western outskirts of Cleveland in the Lakeside district next to Lake Erie. On a whim we looked up the hours of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and to our good fortune find that it is open late, till 9 pm on Saturday. After quickly storing our gear in our room, Ted orders up an Uber and in 15 minutes we are driven to the museum lakeside.
We both are transported to our respective youths as we look through the exhibits of our childhood rock. On the other hand, there are only so many guitars, costumes and memorabilia you can look at before they all become blended together.
After our trip to the Hall of Fame, we went to an nearby Mexican restaurant for dinner where we met a fellow bicyclist who shared his guacamole and chips with us as we downed Negra Modelo beers.
We had a light meal and as we were having our second beer the extent of the day was beginning to weigh on us. Time to call for another Uber and call it a night.
