And Here. We. Go.
Day One: Chicago -> Cleveland
We left relatively early (by 9am) and made a stop at a Dunkin Donuts for iced coffee and Munchkins. Therefore I had to make a potty break somewhere east of Gary, IN. *Sigh* What happened to the days were I could hold it for 10 hours? Our first quick stop was South Bend, IN. South Bend is about 2 hours east of Chicago and is most famous for being the home of Notre Dame. I dislike ND, so that was not the reason for the stop. Amy spent some time beforehand (as she usually does) mapping out cool and funny signs, theatres and roadside oddities for me to photograph. We had three stops there, one of them being the State Theatre. Which, as a bonus, had an inspiring message on the marquee:
They've used this theatre as a church recently - I swear I had the "Jesus Loves (Y)ou" song in my head for hours afterward.
Our next stop was for lunch somewhere at a
After the GPS took us unnecessarily through the back roads to get back on the Turnpike (I'm convinced the GPS hates us - it either takes us through the hick roads in the country or the bad neighborhoods in the city for no good reason) we stopped at a large antique mall in Maumee, OH, just west of Toledo. It was very large - it looked like it had been a supermarket or similar store at one point. I managed to snag an old kids hockey book and a Looney Toons cereal bowl I had as a kid. It also had its share of kitsch and crap, and a few unintentional hilarious items such as the stop sign below:
Personally I like it when someone writes "Hammertime" on it better, but to each their own. Had it not been so large and expensive, I might have brought it home for a good chuckle. Yeah, yeah, I'm going to hell - tell me something I don't know. We got back on the turnpike forgetting that a) we needed to get gas and b) that the trunk open lite was on, so we had to get right back off of it and take care of that. We're so smart sometimes.
From here we drove straight through to our hotel in Cleveland. Technically it was Middleburg Heights, but who's counting. We stayed at a Red Roof Inn which was quite large and nice to my surprise. This was a trend that was not to be followed. After unloading our crap we went to dinner at a vegetarian Indian restaurant, and got some frozen custard. It was delicious.
Day Two: Cleveland -> Niagara Falls, NY
We primarily stayed in Cleveland because it was a good halfway point and for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I had been to Cleveland once briefly in 1995. It was that summer when we had a stretch of 100+ degree days and like 800 people died in Chicago - I was in Cleveland when it was 103. The Hall of Fame had not been completed yet, so there really wasn't much to look at - all I remember was eating at a Fuddruckers and spending as much time in the hotel as possible. On our way to the HOF, a triathlon was just finishing up in the area so I drove around aimlessly trying to find parking as all of the streets near the main lots were blocked off. Thankfully we got there shortly after opening so there really wasn't much of a wait to get in.
The Hall of Fame IMHO, is someplace you go once and don't come back unless there's a particular exhibit to see. They did have a lot of interesting artifacts (I liked all of the costumes they had - but no Madonna cone bras?) but most of them were from way before my time - and I'm not that young. It was interesting to a point - music history is not my thing. I was a little disappointed that there weren't more exhibits on the 80s and 90s, but I guess it's too recent history. The special exhibit was about Bruce Springsteen which was neat. I know I didn't appreciate it nearly as much as my mom and brother would have as they're both huge fans. They don't allow pictures in the museum, so take a moment to imagine all of the things I saw. Thank You.
After the HOF, we walked smack dab into a Puerto Rican pride parade where the triathlon was when we entered. WTF? It was more difficult to navigate getting back to the highway as additional streets were closed and the GPS kept telling me to get on an on ramp that didn't exist. This resulted in much swearing and I called the GPS lady a bitch a few times. After much hand wringing, we finally made it back to I-90 and headed east. We made stops in Ashtabula (I love saying that word) and Conneaut and ate lunch at the latter town:
This was a neat old fashioned drive in that made their own root beer. I actually had some - it wasn't bad and I hate root beer. If you look closely, you can see Amy in this picture - she's the last one in line. After eating, we nearly missed the fact we crossed into Pennsylvania. We had no idea Conneaut was practically down the street from the OH/PA border.
Our only stop in Pennsylvania (well aside for gas), was in Erie. Here was a place I wish I could have spent more than an hour in. Very industrial, with a lot of old buildings that would have been fun to photograph. I did catch a couple gems, one being the beautiful Warner Theatre:
They restored it recently and it's currently being used as a performing arts theatre. The marquee is one of the most beautiful I've ever seen. On the way out of town, I spotted a ghost sign in an alley and hit pay dirt when I found several ghost signs in a two block area. This one is my favorite:
I highly doubt I have dignified credit - good thing this furniture store is out of business or I would never had been allowed to step foot in the door.
We made a quick stop at Valvo's Candy Shop in Silver Creek, NY. Amy had shown me a horrifying picture of a huge waitress that was in front of the store. Her name is Dolly Dimples, judge for yourself:
We had no idea of the hilarity that awaited us though. In addition to a candy store, they also sold garden ornaments and statuary. The parking lot and an adjacent former gas station was just covered in cement creatures. I took a ton of pictures of them as they were honestly too weird not to be believed. You'll find a bunch on my Flickr site, but here's one that'll haunt your dreams:
What would inspire someone to display this monstrosity? Look, she's making the Baby Jesus cry in the background. After a good amount of gawking, we actually went into the candy store and bought a few items. The folks there were nice - I just find this whole set up, well, disturbingly funny.
From here we headed to Buffalo, where in all honestly we spent not a lot of time in. In retrospect, I would have maybe cut some time we spent at Niagara to explore here, but alas, the waterfalls were alluring to me. We did stop to eat dinner at the Lake Effect Diner in Buffalo which is in a refurbished dining car. It really was tasty - I had cold carrot soup as part of my meal. Disregard the look on my face, it really was quite good.
Our last stop was at our motel in Niagara Falls. It was Amy's turn to drive and unfortunately for her one of the bridges we had to drive over was down to a single lane, so she had to white knuckle that a bit, Of course there was a huge back up at the toll booth as well. We stayed at the Moonlite Motel on Niagara Falls Boulevard, which probably was the huge motel strip 40 years ago, but parts had seen better days. I've always wanted to stay at a "vintage" motel, and since the hotels on the Canada side were outrageously priced, I figure it was as good a time as any to fulfill this dream. By the time we got there, I was working on a massive migraine and pretty much passed out. Which was fine, as we only got like 10 channels on the TV anyway.
Next: Two days at Niagara Falls then it's onto Canada. I know everyone can't wait!
Gotta love road trips, so much marvellously weird stuff to see. (Dolly Dimples is kind of shaped like Dolly Parton.)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear you survived the Moonlite Motel. It sounds like someplace Norman Bates would hang out!