Current Location: Cleveland OH
Mileage: 460
States traveled: NJ, PA, OH

If you have a look at that mileage mark up there, you’ll see that Darren and I had an exceptionally long day today, and pretty much all of it was spent driving to the first stopover point here in Cleveland. We got going a little late (I overslept a little – surprise surprise – and there was some Tetris-like wrangling of the cargo to make it all fit in the Explorer and still allow me to use the rear-view mirror. Driving into a driving rainstorm, followed by a low visibility snowstorm didn’t help our time either – add in the gale force winds, especially in the mountains, and I had a fun day. But by 7-ish, we were in the land of Cleve. And we went to see “Hellboy”. Well, what do you want? It’s Sunday night, everything is pretty well closed – what do you expect us to do? (It was good, by the way. But now’s not the right time.)

Incidentally, to anyone planning to drive the Ohio Turnpike anytime soon – bring LOTS of coffee. I’ve been on the New York State Thruway dozens of times, and (thanks in part to Governor Roosevelt’s decree that there be no roadside advertising) I’ve always thought that was a boring ride. Well, now I’ve been to Ohio. Not a sight to see for nearly 100 miles. Even the rest areas, while huge, are standardized and boring. No signs, no information, and at least today, very little traffic. Roads like the Ohio Turnpike necessitate that rumble strip in the shoulder. Oy.

Anyway, tomorrow it’s into downtown Cleveland and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and then southward to West Virginia. More later…