Day 19: Cleveland
Welcome
Yesterday we drove most of the way across three states to play a show in Cleveland, Ohio.
Van call was a crisp 6.30 am and we were underway shortly thereafter, crossing The Prairie State of Illinois on the i80 which at this point of the journey carried no further highway designations. This took us below Chicago and Lake Michigan, and into The Hoosier State, Indiana. The road continues east following along the northern state line but joins forces with i90 and the Illinois Toll Road, this triple threat highway weaving its way right up to the Ohio state line.
Along the way we made a breakfast stop at Chicago Southland Lincoln Oasis where I ordered a pair of stuffed everything bagel minis from Dunkin Donuts.
Upon entering The Buckeye State the highway immediately becomes the Ohio Turnpike, while concurrently existing as the i80 and the i90 (and possibly i76?). For many years we have speculated about what a turnpike is, our main theory being that it is one of those situations where the highway diverges so you can fit an island with a petrol station and some picnic benches. This tour we investigated further and found that we were very wrong. The name comes from Middle English ‘turnpyke’ and means ‘spiked barrier across a road’ - originally used to block a road until a toll was paid. Of course, it now just means toll road, and hefty tolls we did pay to travel this premium piece of highway.
It was another great day of corn landscapes, not dissimilar to the previous few days however as a point of difference in this part of the Mid-West they do seem to have more barns, or possibly the barns and silos are closer to the road and have better colour schemes.
Corn is nothing without a good dousing of pesticides and fungicides though, and with the clear, blue afternoon skies and we were lucky enough to witness several crop-dusting aircraft flying excitingly close to the road. The below video features a Gibbs Aero Spray AT-503 coming in for a dusting pass after completing a tight climbing turn over a neighbouring field.
If you were feeling adventurous you could try playing this video in the background at the same time.
Last snack stop before destination: Liz has asked me to convey that she added hot sauce and mayonnaise to this tiny burrito.
We knew we were getting close to our destination when we passed the big flag outside Mike Bass Ford in Sheffield. Half an hour later we left the James W. Shocknessy Ohio Turnpike and entered Cleveland, admiring the view of the city skyline presented as we left the freeway. We ascended into Cleveland heights and pulled up outside Grog Shop just before 4pm, assisting the help of Leo, the venue stagehand, to help us load in.
Stagehand Leo after the work is completed.
It was a reasonably warm day in Cleveland, but it turned into an unreasonably warm evening inside Grog Shop. The air conditioning system had suffered a critical failure the previous day and the air in the room was thick enough to swim through. We were sitting in the green room when Rosie and their band returned sopping wet at the end of their set. They warned us what to expect but we didn’t believe them. I drank my 1ltr water ration and promptly sweated it back out. The Cleveland crowd were high quality, though, dancing through the heat and dishing out quality heckles the entire night.
Rosie gets the sweat palace going.
'“Show us your back, Tristan!”
