I thought that by arriving in Ohio I could burst into song..."Down by the banks, of the Ohio"...turns out, the Ohio River was nowhere near us AND the song is a murder ballad...he asked his love to take a walk (just a little walk) and he proposed to her, she rejected him, so he killed her! Nice....can't believe 'our lovely Livvie"?... ONJ?...Olivia Newton John....sang this to us (amongst others)!!
So anyway, I digress.....we arrived in Ohio....on a busy road, driving fast, so I took a photo as quickly as I could....
but damn, I missed some of the sign. I thought to myself "that won't make the blog" so we stopped at the Visitor's Centre and I managed this one....
While at the Visitor's Centre, I picked up some brochures....and one of them was the Cleveland Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. So I mentioned it to Stuart who straight away said "We'll go"
It was raining quite heavily, Cleveland is a big city and it can be quite stressful driving in these cities....but off we went. We found parking right near the Centre, which is next to the First Energy Stadium...home of the Cleveland Browns (a football team).
It turned out that Stuart didn't want to go to the Hall of Fame, he just did it for me which was so nice. He and Joshuah took a walk into downtown Cleveland......
and I went and did the Hall of Fame on my own.
I could have spent the day in there, but we only had a few hours in Cleveland. The phrase "Rock and Roll" was popularised in Cleveland in 1951, when an Ohio disc jockey, Alan Freed began playing this style of music...that's why the museum is there.
There were loads of exhibits, booths to listen to music that "changed the world", costumes worn by famous artists,
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| Dresses worn by The Supremes |
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| David Bowie outfit |
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| Sgt Peppers outfit and guitar belonging to John Lennon |
instruments belonging to famous artists, famous songs written on bits of scrap paper, letters written by famous artists to record producers and magazine editors and even Janis Joplin's Porsche...
I was taking photos of all these things and over the PA I could hear a recorded message "Do not lean in to the exhibits". I thought that's not me so kept snapping away. The message kept repeating itself coincidentally every time I took a photo, but I still thought nothing of it. Eventually one of the security people came up to me and told me to turn my flash off. Every time I took a photo it would flash, which triggered off the announcement. What got me was, why wouldn't the announcement be..."turn your flash off"?
There was a theatre where they went through all the inductees to the Hall of Fame since it began, which I really enjoyed. There were 30 second music snippets, from each inductee...the only Australians were ACDC......and I was glad to see ABBA and Neil Diamond both made it in the last few years! Actually, all you knockers of my music taste......most of the people/bands inducted, I own some of their music!!
It is the 50 year anniversary of the Rolling Stones (which Liz can attest to having seen them in Glastonbury recently), so there was an exhibit for them. After seeing that I came out of the room to find Joshuah waiting for me. It was quite expensive to get in to the Museum, so I was pleasantly surprised that Stu had bought him a ticket. Turns out he didn't!! All those times in 1999, travelling around Australia when we (Stuart) hid the kids or lied about their ages to get them in cheaply or for free or snuck them into places...it all came flooding back to me. They had found a wristband (ticket) on the ground outside and a safety pin to hold it together, which Joshuah put on and walked in! OMG!! Turned out to be a blessing as I got Joshuah's photo taken with the Rolling Stones....
So we managed to leave Cleveland without getting arrested, although we had to drive through the city centre and got stuck in a major gridlock.....5pm, raining, centre of Cleveland....not fun.
We drove to our night's accommodation in Sandusky, Ohio, checked in around 7pm and Stu asked the guy at the front desk what there was to do in Sandusky. What to do in Sandusky??? It is home to one of (if not THE biggest) tourist attractions in Ohio.....the "Roller Coaster Capital of the World"...Cedar Point!!!!!!! Wow, I was so excited by this (not)....but sadly (secretly happy) it looked like the weather would be too wet to be going on rides the next day, so we would have to give it a miss. Basically Stu and I were scared!
(I reckon another thing Sandusky is famous for are these creatures...they were EVERYWHERE....
and I saw this...no idea what is though....)
Bloody hell...the gods looked favourably on Joshuah the next day and the weather was fine, so Stu and I reluctantly made our way out to Cedar Point with Joshuah. I had offered to wait for them while they had a fabulous day, but Joshuah really wanted me to come, and when a 17 year old wants his mum to spend the day with him, how can you say no! Er..No?
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| On our way out to Cedar Point |
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| Charlie Brown characters |
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| Charlie Brown characters |
We parked the car and as we were approaching the theme park, the noise of the roller-coasters and screams of the people on them made my stomach turn....and I really wanted to feign sickness. Before I knew it, I was in a queue, making my way towards my first roller coaster ride since Dreamworld in 1999.
The worst thing was, you queue underneath it and it is made of WOOD!! So I did it (and 4 others), but kept my eyes shut the whole time. Stuart thought this was a waste of money so he said he would tell me when it was OK to open my eyes. So one ride we were on, Joshuah was sitting in front of us, next to a Tom Cruise lookalike...(this isn't important to my story, (not that this story IS important) but he really did look like Tom Cruise, only 30 years younger)...ANYWAY....we were on the ride and Stu said "open your eyes now", so I did...as we went woosh....straight down...at huge speeds. I screamed "SHIIIIIITTTTTTT" the whole way down, Josh turned around and growled at me for swearing...and Tom Cruise (lookalike) said "it's OK, my mum swore when she went on this for the first time too!!" Thanks Tom!
After doing scary rides and queuing FOR EVER, I found a ride that looked not so scary, with small queues (now I know why), but you might get a bit wet. Stu said he would mind the cameras, so I forced Josh onto it with me...he didn't want to as you get wet, but I said you only get a bit wet. Well, for the first time EVER, I was wrong, Josh was right....you got wet...soaked actually.....and we spent the rest of the day freezing in our wet clothes...bad call Mum!
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| Josh and I behind the water! |
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| Josh really impressed after the ride! |
Stu and Josh tackled the big rides....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfoUyK8BvdE
this sign was enough for me to know not to go on it.....
and the worst one was where they stood up, called the Mantis....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q06Qt4Ftupk
My favourite was the one where you sat in a "bucket' and it gently took you from one end of the park to the other....smiles all round!
So we were there for the day...I reckon it would have been a maximum of 5 minutes of rides and around 6 hours of queuing. Americans are very patient, polite queue-rs and noone got annoyed or jumped the queue. I spent a lot of time waiting patiently for the boys and chatting to others who were also waiting patiently and they said they come back year after year, don't go on the rides, but just wait for the husbands/wives/kids that do! It was the first time Josh had been on rollercoasters, so to get the best in the world is pretty good. I liken it to the snowboarding...they got one of the best places to snowboard as their first experience.
We left Sandusky around 6.30pm and drove to our next night's accommodation...a cheap little hotel, still in Ohio. It was in a place called Holiday City. I'm not sure what the definition of city is in the US, but this place was no city! There were 4 hotels in the middle of literally nowhere, no food outlets...just 4 hotels and that was it. We had the cheapest one, and the smell of cigarette smoke from the front office lady filtered through our room all night. Lovely! But it was an OK place to spend the night before we hit Chicago the next day.
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