Trip Stats And Other Stuff

So, you know how when you go on a trip by plane and you want to buy stuff, you always have to keep in mind the weight of your bags and how much will fit? Well, when you go on a driving trip with two people in an SUV, you just keep buying stuff and throwing the bags in the back, or on the back seat or even under the seats. Then you tell the border guy that you only spent $450 on stuff to bring back and that seems reasonable. And then you get home and there are bags full of stuff that you bought everywhere! I never used to buy things on trips. Maybe a t-shirt or something. Now, it appears that I'm going a little crazy. But, what can you expect when you're in Costco in Oregon and there's no tax and you really, really need new sd cards and a portable hard drive? Or you're in a sports store and there's a really good sale, and no tax, on a very cool looking tennis racket. Oh, and the biking shoes that we found in Montana, also no tax. Marilyn bought stuff too, just not the big ticket items. Marilyn also used her organizing skills to lay out all the things that we bought. 

This is the overview. I wasn't in the room when Marilyn was organizing so I was a touch shocked to see all this stuff. I have to admit I don't remember when we even bought some of the things. Maybe I just wasn't paying attention! Or, I could have been taking pictures!

In this section, you can see our bear spray. We thought we should have it in case we met a bear on our hikes. We didn't. Now we have bear spray. I may carry it when we are walking around in sketchy parts of Toronto. Or, we can carry it when hiking on the Bruce Trail. I also got the cool Bearanoia t-shirt in Alaska. At the top, you can see the wine sippy cup that I encouraged Marilyn to buy when we visited a winery in Washington state. I still need to get a shot of her using it. And you can also see the pieces of quilting cloth that Marilyn got in the numerous quilt shops that we visited. Those will be made into quilts at some point. 

On the other side of the table we have the biking shoes. I'm quite excited to try them out. And, of course, there's the Passport 2 Terabyte portable drive. Everyone should have one of these to back up pictures etc. We also bought some food items after checking to make sure we could bring them back. The cans at the back are smoked salmon from Alaska that we got from the factory. You can see some fridge magnets too. We have started getting them from various places that we visit. 

I had to do a separate shot of the t-shirt section. We both got moose shirts, mine from Yukon and Marilyn's from Alaska. But, the best ones are at the top. They are our biker shirts from the 500 000 biker rally in Sturgis, South Dakota. It took some looking to find ones without partly naked people or death heads on them but we managed. I'll definitely be wearing mine the next time we're around a lot of bikers! 

And, that's pretty much it for the pictures. I'll be making a slide show for us and to show anyone who is interested. I will also likely make a facebook album of some of our favourite shots. I think we are considering making a book out of some of the pictures too.

As for the stats, Marilyn's been going over the charge card bills and receipts and we have a few interesting things to report. 

We converted all the gas prices to $/litre so it would be easier to compare.

• Times we bought gas: 37
• Total spent on gas: $1406.21
• Highest price: $1.79/litre in Muncho Lake, Northern BC
• Lowest price: $0.89/litre in Strongsville, Ohio
• Total Distance: 14 280 km
• Total Distance Walked (cities & hikes according to Marilyn's FitBit): 290 km
• Number Of Provinces/Territories Visited: 4
• Number Of States Visited: 16
• Number Of Cities/Towns Visited: 25
• Pounds Gained: Marilyn 0 (zero!), Dave 2

We also were talking towards the end about ways you know that you've been on the road for a long time.

• You walk into walls or the toilet in the middle of the night because you think you're in last night's room.
• You don't look at your watch for the time, but to see what day it is.
• Waking up in the morning and really having to think to remember what city, state and/or hotel you're in.
• When you start talking to/swearing at the GPS as if it was a person.
• When you want to throw the GPS out the window when it says "Recalculating" every time you stop for gas or a rest.
• Learning to be satisfied with McDonald's coffee in the coffee desert of middle America.
• When one person wants the other to take pictures of nice rest stops!
• When you realize that 836 songs on the ipod is not enough for a 36 day trip.
• You come to hate the colour orange as it represents the next 15 km of road construction that you have to deal with.
• You become adept at eating light lunches in the car on long drive days.
• And you learn the zip code trick. This is where some US gas stations ask for a zip code when you use a card to buy gas. Not having one, you have to go into the store or kiosk. But if you take the three numbers in your Postal Code and add 2 zeros, you get a Zip Code that always works. Our L4X 1C4 became 41400!
• Finally, you realize that you've had an amazing time and can't wait to do it again!

Thanks again for reading all of this and following along with us on our trip!
Dave & Marilyn

Home Again!

In spite of our gps biting the dust at a bad time, we arrive home at about 3 this afternoon. The gps, which has served us really well, decided to go crazy just before we crossed the border. It first started saying I was going 70 mph when I was barely going 40. Then it showed us driving in a triangle where there were no roads. Luckily, we were on a freeway heading towards the border and navigated ourselves to the Peace Bridge. It's scary how dependent you become on those things! I'll see if there's a way to reset it I guess. Can't live without one now!

We did end up getting to Cleveland's West Side Market this morning. There was a fire in the market around Christmas last year and they reopened in February. Apparently it was mostly smoke damage and the final result is a really clean and shiny market. We talked to one of the vendors who told us that the place looks much better now. It's an old building with a beautiful ceiling as you can see. 

The market is a bit like St. Lawrence in terms of what it sells but there are many more vendors. Each has a small stall with a glass case. Some vendors have adjoining stalls for a larger space. 

This is the outside of the market. As you can see, we had a cloudy, threatening start to our last day on the road. 

On the way out on the highway, Marilyn took some shots out the window of the downtown area. This is part of the skyline and the stadium where the Cleveland Browns play.

So, that's it for trip pictures for now. There will be one more post with some stats and other stuff. 

Cleveland - Last Day Of The Trip!

This was the sunrise from our window this morning in Indianapolis. It seems that it was darker at 6:00 than it had been on other days and we actually saw the sunrise today!

It seems like forever since we started this trip. Maybe that's because we keep forgetting stuff but it has been 35 days! As usual on a trip it's a happy/sad feeling on the last day because the trip is almost over but you get to sleep in your own bed the next day! We arrived in Cleveland in time to hit Costco to pick up some beverages to bring home. They have better prices than duty free! And, amazingly, we are once again in a hotel right in the centre of the city's sporting heart. We are in the Radisson directly across from Progressive Field where the Indians play. Just down the street is Quicken Loans Arena where the Cavaliers play. We did a few hours of walking around and saw a good bit of the downtown area but there is a lot more here. It's another city, only 5 hours away, that we think we'll come back to explore more. 

We have reservations at Michael Symon's Lola tonight (pics etc. later) and it's just around the corner. We walked by to confirm and it's on a cool little street, 4th Ave West, that's a pedestrian mall. You could spend a week just eating on this street!

Here are a few Cleveland street scenes. There was really an interesting mix of old and new buildings. We went up to the 10th floor of the library and got a couple of overview shots as well.

Here you can see the stadium where the Cleveland Browns play as well as Lake Erie.

Outside the library, Marilyn found these little guys and a reading nest that was made from scrap wood. 

We went into what was called the 5th Ave Arcade. It was two long hallways in an old building that had recently been repaired and used for shops. The ceilings were probably the most interesting parts of the arcades.

This is called the Old Stone Church. It's an interesting contrast between old and new.

Ok, we've just gotten back from our dinner at Lola and it was the perfect way to end the trip. The place was full and everyone was having fun. For appetizers we had an heirloom tomato salad and beef cheek pierogies!

Marilyn had an amazing pork shank with heirloom beans, fennel and myer lemon. The pictures don't really do the food justice I think, but you get the idea!

My entree was a smoked Hampshire pork chop with chilies, cheesy polenta and bbq onions. Both were very, very tasty! 

Tomorrow morning, we'll be checking out the West Side Market, a famous market in Cleveland that was rebuilt after a fire in the winter. Then we hit the road and get home in the afternoon some time. There will be at least another post to wrap up this trip!

Indianapolis, A Great Second Last Stop

Hard to believe, but we're on the second last night of our trip. We arrived in Indianapolis, Indiana an hour later than planned because we both forgot the time changed again when we crossed into the state. Now we are on home time again so emails and blog posts won't arrive at weird times. Our hotel is a football lover's dream. It is a Holiday Inn directly across from Lucas Oil Field which is where the Indianapolis Colts play. Already, this was our best hotel! When we got in we had an extra large room on the top floor overlooking the stadium. The downtown area was a short walk through pleasant streets except for one tunnel that I didn't love but turned out ok. 

Here's the stadium and we were there just as the big front windows were closing. I believe the roof retracts as well.

After that bit of gawking by me, we were off to the downtown area. Here are a few shots of some of the streets and buildings. Once again, they have preserved most of the heritage buildings which really adds to the feel of the city. In our short time here, we enjoyed Indianapolis and would definitely come back to spend a few days here.

This is looking towards the Circle Centre which is a large 4 storey mall with all the usual mall stores in it plus some that you only find in the states. Still tons of shoe and dress stores... 

This started out as a basic street scene because I liked the old buildings, but then I noticed the orange car. I had to get up quite close to see what it was. And I still had to look up the exact type it was. 

Meet the 2013 Jaguar F Type. Wow!

At what I think is the centre of downtown, there is a large area simply called The Circle. Around the outside are shops and businesses. The centre is dominated by a large monument dedicated to all of the Indiana people who have been in wars dating back into the 1800s. It has different carvings on each side depicting battle scenes. 

They also have bricks in the surrounding walkways dedicated to fallen soldiers from all the wars.

Here are some other views from The Circle.

It was around 30 degrees and we were a little warm from walking so we went into Starbucks for some iced drinks. And then I saw this guy. I'm thinking Indiana, Daniel Boone, Davey Crocket etc. I had my phone out but it was too obvious to take the picture that way. So I put my Nikon's shutter on quiet mode and aimed from the hip, like Daniel Boone would have, and took a couple of shots, hoping for the best. Here's what I got. I was very close and that looked like a real raccoon hat. (Like I would know!) I wouldn't have paid as much attention if he'd been wearing a whole costume, but just the hat? This is not something you see every day!

This is the Capitol Building.

As we were walking around, we found this interesting statue of a famous college basketball coach named John Wooden. He coached UCLA to phenomenal success but he was from Indiana and is celebrated for his integrity and honesty as much as for his success. 

Now it was getting close to dinner time. I liked the look of this place because it was all about the Colts. 

But then, we saw the Weber Grill Restaurant. We couldn't not go there. It ended up being a good choice. 

Marilyn had a grilled shrimp skewer plate. It looked nicer than this but the server came over and whipped out the metal skewer before I could take a picture!
 

I had a bbq combo because I had to try their ribs and brisket. I think this is 3 types of ribs in a week. I will be paying in sweat over the next weeks I'm sure but it was worth it! The brisket was the best I've ever had and I will be looking up the Weber recipe for sure. 

We're off to Cleveland early tomorrow morning for our last day. There's a reservation in place at a great restaurant and we'll have a good amount of time to explore the city.