Day 17 -- On the Road Again

A day late, I want to send a Happy Anniversary (11 years!) to Kara and Jess, and a big Happy 35th Birthday to my delightful son-in-law Jess!

We left Chicago, and Lucy and her parents, this morning and began the drive to Cleveland. It was hard to say good-bye to her. She is such a happy baby, and so full of smiles.

There was so much food left over from yesterday’s lunch that we were able to make sandwiches and take some salads and fruit for a picnic. I know I said that I would never eat again, but it turned out to be possible.

We stopped in South Bend, Indiana so that we could see Notre Dame University. [ed note: interestingly, the University is the 3rd to come up when Googling simply 'Notre Dame', after the Cathedral, and a 6th Form College in Leeds. Wonder if that's only because I'm Googling in the UK.] Classes were in session, so at one point, we were trapped at an intersection by what seemed like thousands of walking students. I had heard that the football stadium was called “The Golden Dome,” and I thought I had found it, but it turned out to be just a church on campus. We did see the legendary football stadium, and, surprise, it looked just like a, well, football stadium.



We didn’t pass many parks on the interstate, so our picnic lunch turned out to be at a rest stop somewhere in Indiana. It was just as good as if it had been in a park. Thanks, Amy & Brian for the great left-overs.

So, now we are in Cleveland. There does not seem to be much life downtown after dark, except that we found a kind of “restaurant row” on 4th St., and found a nice pub to have dinner and watch Monday Night Football. I keep forgetting that we are now in the Eastern Time Zone, and that all these sporting events don’t start until 8 PM. I am going to have a real problem being a sports fan in Vermont, since I seem to root against all the New England Teams. I have been in Seattle so long that I really tend to root for underdogs.

Tomorrow, it is off to Progressive Field, home of the Cleveland Indians for a quick look, (unfortunately the Indians are not on a home stand) and then the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

• New out of state license plate seen: Louisiana (thanks to a quick drive through a Notre Dame parking lot).
• Days till we see Toby & Beruria: 3
• Days till we see Paige and Ashley: 19