A quick look at the map gave us a reasonable goal of Lewisburg, PA, the home of Bucknell University, a little over 200 miles away as our target destination for the evening. That would be a drive of a little over three hours, put us well on the way and allow us to see The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Tuesday afternoon instead of Wednesday morning. That makes our Wednesday drive much easier.
So into the minivan everybody piles. It is about dusk and the light is getting worse. I had made up a sheet for each child that listed the state and showed a picture of that state's license plate. The goal is to check off each state when you spot a vehicle from that state. Immediately upon hitting the highway, the kids start competing and fighting as they play. Accusations of cheating, unfair seating advantage, etc flew at high decibels. We were thrilled when the light finally dimmed enough to discourage the kids from even trying to continue the game.
Anyway, we got to Cleveland early enough to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame the next day. It is a really interesting place for adults to spend time -- a real museum that spends a lot of time and space detailing the history and roots of Rock & Roll and its evolution. Needless to say, this does not hold the attention of a six- or eight-year old. Having said that, on the other side of the spectrum, there were a lot of people considerably older than me at the venue. I thought to myself "This is interesting, either their are a lot of old people in Cleveland, or this museum is particularly interesting to those people older than 10 when the Beatles first hit the stage."
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| At the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame |
After leaving the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, we were making our way to the hotel which the GPS systems, including Google Maps had a hard time locating. The hotel is in an area of town that is recently gentrified and only opened three weeks ago. While we where trying to locate the hotel, we were caught in an amazing hail storm. Hail about the size of marbles started falling from the sky. I was fearful that it would damage the car and tried to take refuge under a medium-sized tree. It was somewhat fruitless however and throughout the approximately 10-minute long event, was worrying that we would get a cracked windshield or sunroof. Subsequent to this, I noticed a lot of cars with pock marks from storm damage -- whether they were from this storm or earlier ones, I don't know.
