Rock, water, small town, (very) big town, arty town

Before visiting the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, we tried to find the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team stadium!  Ended up with the satnav gettingus hopelessly lost, but the Cleveland Police came to our rescue - a wonderful sergeant Peter asked for directions ended up escorting us all the way there!

The Hall of Fame was once again really well done - the Americans have a great way with museums!  A huge tribute to Elvis of course, but the early roots of blues music, the British influence etc. was all given its place.  Kath's favourite section was a display of Herb Ritts photographs of celebrities, including Prince, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Madonna et al.






The Hall of Fame's interpretation of the song "Another Brick in the Wall". For those who remember it...









We drove into Canada to see Niagara Falls, border checks including questions about whether we were carrying firearms or contraband!! (As if we would!!).  Although the weather wasn't brilliant, the falls are stunning, the sheer force of the water causes a mist to rise above the level of the dreadful high-rise casinos and theme park attractions that face onto the falls.


On through the Adirondacks in New York state with beautiful lakes and autumn colours, altogether a lovely drive.






From Plattsburgh, NY we took the ferry across to Vermont, plenty more autumn colours to be seen.  We stopped in Richmond, VT where there is a round church, built in 1812 by 17 families and now used as the town meeting hall.  Moving on we reached Sqwam Lake which was used in the film "On Golden Pond" and then to Lake Winnipesaukee to a strange "Bates" motel with no staff! Other inmates let us in.





Obviously we survived the night and drove on towards Boston, sadly failing to find a parking place in Cambridge so that we could visit Harvard University. We had to content ourselves with looking at the buildings from the car. We had our lunch with a local artist outside a Whole Foods supermarket - you certainly meet interesting natives this trip.

Staying on Cape Cod currently and drove to Providencetown at the far tip of the island where we spent some time walking around the harbour and the little town. Very arty but also very touristy.

Museum, windy city, museum, museum

A highlight of the journey for Peter at least. On our second day in Chippewa Falls we visited its Museum of Industry and Technology, This has a wide range of computers Seymour Cray designed and we learned a bit about his life and times in the early supercomputer era. Peter resisted adding bunny ears to a cardboard cutout of Seymour that he was photographed with. From there we drove to Joliet, a far suburb of Chicago for the night.









We took the suburban train to central / lakefront Chicago: They do not do things by half: The train was all double-decker carriages. Peter had seen this city from the air in 1998 returning from Philip's wedding and the ground view was equally impressive! On arrival, we needed directions and got them from a very friendly businessman who sounded just like Al Capone! A video team from the loacal media school interviewed us - I doubt it will make it to CNN






Next morning we visited the Joliet local history museum and watched a Route 66 video. This route ran from Chicago to south of Los Angeles and started close to the street outside! A local engineer, John Houbolt, was responsible for guidance on the 1960s moonshots - local son of Dutch immigrant made an important contribution to the space race: the quintessial American story.







Wound our way from there to Ann Arbor, Michigan in preparation for visiting The Henry Ford museum in Detroit, This was not, as we had expected, a museum to the glory of Ford but a general museum about American life in the 20th century. Very intructive, covering everyday life and technology as well as displaying a wonderful collection of American cars (all makes) including the president's cars from the year dot onward. Science Museum meets V&A meets Haynes Motor Museum...

We are now outside Cleveland, and tomrrow we visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Philips's recommendation. Weather is getting better!

Mileage to date: 7708 miles. (Magnify the map and see the red travel line.)













Kath: We've met some very pleasant people along the way: a Highway Patrolman in Fresno, when I took a wrong turn! A waitress in Joliet (living up to the name by being very jolly); The Chicago businessman; The conductor on the Rock Island Line train; The lads from the media school; The guy at Mount Rushmore who held up Daisy Bear so that Peter could photograph her next to the Presidents (I was too short!); The couple we met in the line (queue) for the Japanese restaurant in Chippewa Falls; The ex-rodeo rider, now cafe-owner where we had breakfast in Blanding, Utah: she accidentally refilled my tea cup with coffee as we were talking; The couple we had breakfast with in Pendleton Oregon; The family we spoke to in Texarkana when the rest of the place was closed; The laundromat owner in El Paso - I could go on but all of them so polite and interested to hear what we are doing.