My trip to NE USA will take my from NYC to Buffalo via Rochester NY, Buffalo to Chicago IL, then Cleveland OH, before coming back through Niagara Falls, and Toronto.
I seem to be writing quite a bit for each day, so use the Prev and Next links to go from day to day
I got a copy of all the photos taken on Coriander's camera, these can be viewed here.
I got up reasonably early, and took the red line to State. The original plan had been to get off at Lake but somehow I got mixed up, possibly from thoughts of the Hancock building.
I walked to the orange line station at Lake and got on the train to Midway airport, watching the downtown skyline receding as I went.
I checked my bags in with 3 hours to go, with a view to being free of the 30lb rucksack. The only food place was through security though so I went on through.
I went to a bar place that had a delicious looking breakfast menu. It was 1100h ... I can't get breakfast because lunch started at 1030 ?! I am starting to wonder what timezone I'm actually in!
To pass the time (3 hours of it!), I spodded from departure lounge using my phone. spong confirmed pickup details... a silver Jeep Cherokee with a Ducks Unlimited sticker. Dan is the pickup man.
The start of flight was marked by a SouthWest song sung to the Flintstones theme.
On the flight I chatted with my neighbour who works for Guitar Center. They are looking to expand in to England, so I advised on the competition, namely Sound Control (recently changed name to Reverb).
The flight landed 15 minutes early. Landing at Cleveland was marked by another song, sung to the popeye music. Very cute.. I've never had an air stewardess sing songs to the plane before!
Baggage claim was mixed up but somehow I managed to get to correct carousel.
I easily found Dan who collected me and we drove to the island.. the sun is beating down, clear blue skies, and a light breeze.. I've definately lucked out on the weather.. apparently the Island has had a week or two of solid rain.
I made it to spong's house, and dumped the bags. I was given a quick tour of the Island, and then we had dinner.. spong had crab, and I enjoyed a tasty lobster meal with salad.. though I had to get spong to break open one of the claws, it was pretty tough!
I used some time to put up the previous days logs, and then headed over to the Round House Bar to listen to the local band playing their stuff. They played a lot of cover tracks, starting with "Money" and giong through a Mexican phase then on to some USA rock songs. I recognised most of the tracks though couldn't sing along.
I missed out the final set and headed on to the brewery where spong introduced me to what he calls "The world's best lager". I am actually heading there now, so I'll let you know how it turns out :)
I would concur that the beer (Alexander Keith) is definately the best beer in the states.. very drinkable indeed, perhaps too much so.. hangover looms!