Leaving Cleveland

We had a blast in Cleveland! So the first day there we went to the Indians vs. the Tigers game in the wonderful outdoor stadium and watched the awesome firworks, then spent two hours trying to get out of downtown traffic! On Tuesday, we went to the Museum of Natural History and saw all the cute animals and exhibits they had there. We got to talk to a lady who was feeding Randy the Red Fox and playing with him and she told us all about his life and how he came to the Museum. They think he was raised by humans and then dumped off somewhere, and because he hadn't been raised with foxes, he hadn't learned how to hunt so he'd seek out humans for food. He was extremely tame and one nice couple found him whining outside in their yard, and he was so tame they brought him in the house and were feeding him like a puppy. He was too tame to return to the wild so he has a nice home now. She fed him a frozen rat and he had fun playing with it and trying to hide it from her. We also saw Spaulding the Grey Fox, and he was so cute, stalking the area waiting for his food, jealous that Randy had a rat. There were little chipmunks chasing each other around, a few deer, a wild turkey, two turkey vultures, two playful otters that we watched show off for us, several beautiful but sleepy owls, a little crabby looking Peregrin Falcon, and a gorgeous Bald Eagle. I think there might have been more, will add in as I recall them. It sounds like they try to release the animals into the wild when it's possible, so I was happy to hear that. I get sad sometimes seeing them cooped up, but when you meet the nice people that take care of them and see how much they care and love the animals, it makes it easier. And you can see that the animals love them, too. We wanted to catch a planetarium show there, but they were all done for the day. Then we went to see the Christmas Story House in the Hood :) That night we rocked with the Epoxies at the Agora. The Phenomonauts opened first, and the headlining band was the Aquabats. They were goofy, but neither impressed us too much. Phenomonauts had a better sound; new-wave-rockabilly, a little funky.

On Wednesday, we got up and went to the laundromat to do some clothes. It reminded me of our courtship when we'd go do laundry together. There's something about the laundromat that I just love, it forces you to relax and it smells all fresh (usually) from the dryers. So we made googly eyes at each other while waiting for our clothes. It was very cute. Then we drove and parked downtown and bummed around all day. We went to the Science Museum and saw the usual science exhibits and I got bugged by all the bratty kids. We then caught a showing of the Mystery of the Nile. It was great and beautifully filmed, but I kept getting nauseous from the helicopter shots so I closed my eyes for a lot of it. It was neat except for the parts when people were mean to the camels.

We came back into town for the Dickies show about 10pm!! It was awesome! We got to meet all of them (except one of the guitarists) and we were on the guestlist, even!! We felt so special! Their set was amazing and I jammed big time (so did honey bear, so cute!!), much to the dismay of my aching bod which I think is coming down with something. The club itself was a shitehole and the attitude was enough to choke on. I kept tripping over passed out or hunched over punks and was glad we didn't even consider drinking ANYTHING as I doubt the place even had a toilet, or if it did you'd have to walk through a complex labrynth of staircases that lead to nowhere and "porch lizards" skanking at every turn. And to make it all the more pleasant, they were in GROSS violation of any sort of fire codes and the place (no shit) was about 110 degrees with all the nasty sweaty bodyheat being generated from the swirling mass of freaks in the center dancefloor. We were drenched after being there for about 10 minutes and then had to endure the second acts entire set. And that band was soooo bad, I can't even begin to describe its hideousness, a lot of skinhead OI OI crap that this world would be better without. It was all worth it though when our band finally came out, so that rocked. Good times!

We are now in Effingham (hee hee), IL in a cozy little Comfort Inn. Yes, the Comfort Inn's are our favorite places to stay now. I don't think we've had better luck at any other hotel, and they're cheap too! More bang for your buck at the Comfort Inn, YAY! This AM we had a good breakfast at the Perkins that was a couple doors down from our hotel and then hit the road. We had a day of ALL driving and it was actually quite nice to be on the road again. Cleveland had cool highlights for us, but not what you'd consider a touristy place at all. I started us out today, and had a nice go of it for the most part. I did have a couple of dizzy spells that freaked me out, but I've found that panicking only exacerbates the problem so with John's help I was able to get my composure quickly. Just a little scary to be going 70 and the road all of a sudden looks like its swirling all around you. I hope that was just a fleeting thing.

We saw a live baby deer eating some grass in a nice wooded area, and s/he was so cute. I wish I would've had the camera out. There were loads of semi's today and we felt like we were playing leap frog all day trying to pass them. John took over driving after my 5 hour shift and brought us through the awful rush hour traffic and road construction crap in Indianapolis. It reminded me of one of my fave shows growing up, One Day At A Time, which was set there. We stopped for Arbys (my fave!) just outside of Indianapolis (and before Terre Houte) and had a nice lunch. Nothing terribly eventful happened on the road, there were several accidents but nothing major. There are gobs of rubber bits left on the road from trucker tires everywhere you look. Oh, and I saw two graffiti's from the old Trust Jesus guy (remember him??). I always mean to use the time in the passenger seat for writing and brainstorming ideas for crafts and such, but I haven't yet. All I've done is looked at the road atlas and stared out into the massive sky and watched the trees. And manned the CD player. It's great.

Well, again my honey has beat me to bed and I'm afraid if I don't join him I'll get my second wind. And I am so tired because after all the excitement last night, I couldn't hardly settle my mind down to sleep!!
Love to all, rock hard ;)
R&J

Roadkill report: Lots of smeary/chunkies....not a good day for any raccoon it seemed. :(

Cleveland mileage: 1074

Todays mileage: 456

Todays tunage: Dickies, Road Trippin Mixes, Ramones!

Restaurant report: Taco Bell-3x, Hardees-1x, Subway-2x, Arbys-1x, Quiznos-1x, Perkins-2x.