To get to Cleveland, we basically had to drive the entire expanse of Pennsylvania, which is about the distance from San Diego to San Francisco. This was the first of the long legs of the journey, so Tiff and Jojo settled in with their laptops to watch a couple movies and I worked on the blog while Jay-R got stuck driving. Interestingly enough though, the drive wasn’t as bad as we thought. We pulled into our hotel around 11pm and promptly knocked out.
The next morning, well rested, we set out again on our journey. First on the agenda was to go and check out the house depicted in The Christmas Story, which was one of our favorite movies growing up. If you don’t remember the movie, it was the one with Ralphie and his Christmas exploits to get an official Red-Ryder carbine action 200-shot range model air rifle. Still doesn’t ring a bell? Well, it’s the one they play over and over again on TBS once the holidays roll around. Once we arrived, the house was pretty much how it was in the movie, with the leg lamp in the front window. We snapped a couple pics and we were on our merry way.
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| A Christmas Story house |
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| Oh Fudge! |
We then headed downtown to take a quick look at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. When we arrived, we were met with the skyscrapers of downtown, the Cleveland Browns Stadium, Lake Erie, and the massive glass half-pyramid that made up the Hall of Fame. The sky was weather was cold and cloudy, but we made the most of it and captured some awesome pics and video. The area is very picturesque, reminding us of the Gaslamp district in San Diego. Lake Erie is pretty spectacular, as I’m sure the other Great Lakes are. It literally appears as if we are on the edge of the ocean, but without the salty sea air that normally comes with it. Unfortunately, the city itself is pretty dead, with no feeling of urban culture. I suppose this stems from the fact their “King” turned his back on the people. Aside from where we were touring, seeing the environment firsthand, I would have probably left as well.
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| Crew in Cleveland |
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| School of Rock |
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| I Love Rock & Roll |
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| Rockin Out |
Leaving downtown, he headed over to Melt Bar to have lunch before we hit the road. Melt Bar is another restaurant shown on Man v. Food, that features all sorts of grilled cheese sandwiches. They have a challenge where you can try to engorge a sandwich consisting of 3 slices of grilled bread, 13 different types of cheese, a mountain of fries, and cole slaw. Unfortunately, we didn’t dare try since we were all lactose intolerant! Not a good idea to have that much cheese on a long drive… Anyhow, Jojo ordered the special mama’s meatloaf grilled cheese stuffed with pirogi. Jay-R got the cheese-steak melt, Tiff dined on the eggplant Parmesan melt, and I feasted on the Monte Cristo melt. Even with our “regular” orders, we weren’t even able to dent half, so we boxed up our leftovers and stumbled to our cars in a gluttonous stupor.
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| Mama's Meatloaf stuffed with Potato Pirogi Melt |
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| Monte Cristo Breakfast Melt |
With our short time in Cleveland up, we bid the desolate town of Rock & Roll adieu. It may have been a great kingdom once, but not any longer. We now set St. Louis in our navigation. It was time for the blues and BBQ.
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