Day 29 - back to Detroit

What a great day on reflection.

Given that our motel was pretty well on the shores of Lake Erie, we decided to head out and do a bit of exploring.  First thing you notice - whenever you're anywhere near the Great Lakes is that the wind that comes off these immense waterways is bloomin' cold.

The second thing you notice is they are rather huge.  In fact they look much like oceans.

Third; they are heavily industrialised and I hate to think how much waste is pumped into them from unseen pipes and channels.

But they can't be that bad, as the birds (actually, given that these photos were taken in New York state, that should be 'boids') seem to really quite like them

Don't get me wrong, there are some really beautiful places along the lake shore and we stopped at some of these to stretch our legs and take in the views.

This is the old 1875 light house at Dunkirk, New York state.  

And here's the light house at Barcelona Harbor, Westfield, NY - it was built way back in 1829.

This is the view of the road from the lighthouse.

 

 Shortly after stopping of at Westfield, we crossed over the state line into Pennsylvania and drove into Erie City - a lovely town that we just had to have a closer look at.  The streets were so 'delightful' we took to our cameras to try and capture some of the street-side beauty.  Two locals thought this was a bit odd and stopped us to ask what we thought we were doing...

 

Here's our trusty stead, Lyric II (it's a long story) awaiting our arrival.  It's looking surprisingly clean here - closer inspection would prove otherwise, however.

 

 And Nige at the con.

From Pennsylvania, we passed into Ohio and stopped off at Cleveland for a while.  Here's our approach.

We were keen to see the U.S.S. Cod, a WWII submarine that saw a significant amount of action during the war.  But before we found it, we had a quick look at the Cleveland Browns American Football Stadium - it's quite large (seating for 73,000) and you can see part of it below.

This  618 foot long steam ship, the William G. Mather, was parked alongside the stadium.  It was built in 1925 and used to carry iron ore, coal, grain and other stuff across Lake Erie.  She reminded me of the Edmund Fitzgerald - immortalised by Gordon Lightfoot's song.

And right alongside the William G. Mather  was the National Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.  Well, I just had to have a look at that.  Time was a little pressing so Nige decided to have a look for the U.S.S. Cod instead.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was a real surprise. You know what it's like when you are about to give something the miss but when you do it, it turns out way better then you expected?  Well, that's how I found this place.  The Hall of Fame is essentially a very large collection of original guitars, clothes, manuscripts and others paraphernalia owned and used by almost every famous rock super star over the past 60 years.  Unfortunately you can only take photos of one small part of the collection, so my shots are a little limited from here.  They have a few cars on display.  Elvis Presley's for one.  Here's the famous ZZ Top Eliminator.

Many of the displays incorporated large LCD screens alongside, showing old music clips so you could see the musicians wearing the clothes and playing the instruments on display in front of you.

There was a great mix of gear here, from Bo Diddley's guitar to John Lennon's piano; parts of Otis Reading's aircraft wreckage to Michael Jackson's famous glove. 

Here's a prototype Fender Telecaster, handmade by Leo Fender himself.  Hmm - gotta love those solid wood Tele's.

Here's one for you, James C.  Alex Van Halen's drum kit, from 1980. 

What else was there?  Let's see - a whole section on Elvis paraphernalia, another one for Jimi Hendrix, including a heap of his guitars and clothes.  Heaps of stuff from the Beatles, Rolling Stones,  the Doors, the Who, U2, David Bowie and earlier rock and roll heroes.

Whew...

After all that, I met up with Nige at the Submarine.  Here he is, after spending some time below deck.
    

The kind folks at the gate let me in for nothing, "because I was from New Zealand".  Here's the torpedo tube at the bow of the ship.

And the mess.

Up top again.  This sub could manage 24 mph on the surface, using its diesel engines but when it went under, it would shut the diesels off and flick over to battery power.  Under water it could manage a maximum speed of 9 mph for 60 minutes, before the batteries ran dry.

This is what Cleveland looks like from the port area.

Back in the car and a final two-hour run to Detroit, where we had a super meal of gumbo, jambalaya and southern-brewed wheat beer.  

And here we are.

Amazing to think our trip has come to an end - after 11,000km and 29 days on the road.  Packing now and wondering how we are going to fit all of our stuff into the bags we came here with.  That will be a challenge.

We'll put a summary blog together a little later but for now, it's pack up time.

Thanks for coming along for the ride.

PF