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Saturday, September 25, 2010

Next stop Cleveland….

As most people who have been reading my blog or have met up with me so far along the tour know, i missed the 4th Chicago show. I had already booked my travel plans that included a non refundable flight and hotel just outside of Cleveland before Roger had announced an extra 4th show in Chicago. It was too expensive to loose the money for my flight and hotel just to see  this show and then have to book another flight and hotel.

I took a shower, packed the rest of my case and headed out on the blue line train for O’Hare airport. This was the view in the bathroom the morning i left the hotel, not only do the Danish guys drink beer they also appear to wash in it too!

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My flight was at noon and i arrived at the airport around 10. I had already checked in online so it was just a case of dropping my bag. Had some breakfast in the United lounge although after last nights dinner i was only able to eat a couple of slices of toast! Headed for the flight around 11:30 and took my exit row seat on the plane. Wasn't a huge plane, two seats one side and one seat the other side, mind you it was only a 45 minute flight!

Leaving Chicago, the 3rd airport of my tour so far!

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We landed in Cleveland around 2pm due to the one hour time difference. I took the shuttle to the Budget car rental and picked up my Chevy Malibu that would be getting me round for the next 6 days.

I cant believe they have vending machines in the airport where you can buy IPod's and digital cameras!!

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I was heading out to Sandusky, Ohio for 2 nights. About an hours drive west of Cleveland where I'd booked a motel about 3 miles from a place called Cedar Point. This is one of if not THE largest rollercoaster park in the world!! I've been 3 or 4 times before, the last time about 5 years ago. I had bought a cheap day ticket on eBay a few weeks before i left the UK and had it delivered to my friend Gail in Phoenix, she gave me the ticket when her and Joe came up to Toronto last week.

I had my Tom-tom sat nav with me which i had brought from home, i had already programmed all my hotels, venues and stops for my travels into the sat nav before i left the UK so it was just a case of fixing it to the windscreen and hitting the hotel in Sandusky and following the instructions!

I saw the sign for the motel, i was excited they had COLOUR TV’s! it was nice to know the hotel was heated as well, not that i needed it in this humidity,lol I wish the car below that was in the parking lot of the hotel was my rental car! After walking up to the house /office for the motel that’s off to the side of the rooms i was convinced the motel should be rename to The Bates Motel! Chris, the people wandering around here are worse than your Walmart people pictures!!

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One thing i didn't realise when i booked the motel was the train tracks run about 50 feet away from the highway, the freight trains run all night long and even though i was tired enough not to hear them most of the night, the room door rattling as they sped past woke me a couple of times!

The Rollercoaster park doesn't open till noon but doesn't close till midnight, i was a bit worried yesterday, when i arrived it was blustery high winds, not good for being on a rollercoaster! This morning it seems to have died down a bit and the humidity isn't as bad and it feels a lot cooler. Hopefully all the rides will be open today!

Pic below was taken round the back of the motel, looks like a shot from the movie Children Of The Corn!!

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It’s now 9am Saturday morning as I'm writing this, just gonna shower and head out for a bite to eat (not much as i don't want to be riding the coasters and covering people in my breakfast!) have something i want to send at the post office and then gonna drive up to the theme park.

3 comments:

  1. Si, we missed you last night! Figures that we get front row seats the only show you aren't at :). What a freakin feeling when the Wall crashed literally at my feet. Not sure why everyone thinks it's too close up front. NO WAY IT ROCKED UP THERE!!!There is no better. Now I can go back and dive into the blog and reviews. Bring on more shows!!!!

    Happy trails

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  2. People of WalMart! That's Jaime's and my favorite blog!!

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  3. Ohio scares me (and that's after several visits)! Maybe because I'm not from the Midwest.
    Julie :)

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