Big Day of Sightseeing in Cleveland

(Diamond, OH) Hi 81 Lo 73) -- Today was a very busy day of sightseeing in Cleveland, but before I get to that I have to mention that our good friends Harry and Jessica came to visit us on Saturday. They're staying for a month or so at a park about 20 miles from us. They came over and we went for lunch at a Mexican restaurant in nearby Lake Milton, then visited a local winery.

                                (*** Click on the photos to enlarge them ***)

Jessica, Harry, and Dee sampling some wines.

It was great seeing them again and catching up on our summer travels. They spend the winters next door to us at Adelaide Shores RV Resort in Avon Park, FL. Thanks guys for dropping by.

This morning we headed to Cleveland, about an hour away, to do some touristy stuff.

We've never been to Cleveland before. It used to be called "The mistake by the lake", but it's been cleaned up a lot since then. I must say though, they have some of the worst, pothole-filled roads we've ever driven on though. But it appears they do try to keep up with pothole repairs, as evidenced by this unusual machine we spotted on one of the downtown roads. The guy drives up to a pothole, then first blows high pressure air in it to clean out the loose dirt, fills it with tar or asphalt or whatever, then covers it with gravel. Pretty slick!

One of our favorite holiday movies is "A Christmas Story". Ever since I heard the movie was filmed in Cleveland I wanted to make a visit to A Christmas Story House and Museum. It's in a residential area west of downtown.

We took the guided tour ($10 each, with a $2 discount for seniors), which includes the main house and the small museum across the street. The house was bought just before it was condemned, and the owner rehabbed it to look exactly as it did in the movie.

If you never saw the movie (which I can't imagine that being possible), or are not as "into" it as I am, you may not be familiar with the references below.

Of course the leg lamp was there.

The museum had many of the costumes and props that were used in the movie, such as the snowsuit that little Randy wore.

The "Special Award" that the Old Man won. It was obviously Italian, because the box was marked "fra-jilly".  :)

The kitchen cabinet where Randy hid when he was sad.

It's amazing that, as popular and classic as the movie is today, it was very un-appreciated when it was released in Nov 1983. The studio didn't market it at all and it was in theaters for only three weeks. Also, it got terrible reviews, as you can see here. (These are readable if you click on them to enlarge.)

Our visit to the Christmas Story House was a hoot! We now want to watch the movie again. :)

After grabbing a bite to eat at a nearby sub shop, we drove about four miles to the Lake Erie waterfront to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.

Here's a side view of the building.

I have mixed feelings about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. I've always had a beef with their selection of inductees. There are many groups and artists that I don't think have proved their longevity, but they're already inducted. Be that as it may, the building is beautiful, and it covers five floors of exhibits. But it was almost too comprehensive, if that's possible. Unless you're a fan of every artist and band, you basically have to just walk around until you come to a singer or group you're interested in. I was glad to see they had special exhibits on Elvis, The Rolling Stones, and my favorite group, The Beatles.

It was neat to see original clothing, instruments, and hand-written lyrics from all the greats. Also, each floor had a theater that showed rock and roll videos of all kinds. The cost ($22 for adults, $17 for senior citizens and military) was high for what we felt we got out of it. (Probably half of the exhibit space was for music from the 90's to now, which doesn't interest us at all.) We spent less than two hours in the museum, and I thought sure it would be a 3-4 hour visit. We're glad we went, but it was kind of a "mark it off the list" kind of thing for us. As they say, your mileage may vary.

In front of the museum we saw this historical marker, touting Cleveland as the birthplace of rock 'n' roll.















We finished our sightseeing before rush hour began, so we made our way back to the park through some rain showers.

We got a call from All-Pro RV Repair today. They'll have our new cooling unit in Thursday, and we're taking Tumbleweed to them on Friday morning to install it on our Norcold refrigerator. Also, they have approval from our extended warranty company, so the repair should cost us only $50. Yay! Meanwhile, we're going to the office for ice each day to try to save as much food as we can. So far so good!

See you in a few days.