Day 2: To Chicago (Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois)

Waking up today at Geneva State Park Campground, it was raining. We took our time to get ready which involved making some oatmeal and taking hot showers at the shower station available on site. We then packed up and drove down to the beach, on the shore of Lake Erie. The water was very calm and we heard a bird that sounded like it was screaming “SHA-RON” which was pretty funny. Nick recorded it on his camera.

We then commenced the drive to Cleveland, which was only an hour away. We located a municipal parking lot that would allow us to leave the RV for a few hours, then we visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which was awesome.

Inside, we saw all kinds of cool memorabilia. These were some of the highlights I thought.

Jim Morrison's Fifth Grade Test and Varsity Swimming Letter

One of Ray Manzarek's Keyboards

Jimi Hendrix watercolor painting

Stevie Nicks' performance outfits

Beatles – In My Life original edited handwritten lyrics

Bob Marley – Turn Your Lights Down Low original edited handwritten lyrics

Kirk Hammett's guitar from Enter Sandman video

There were many cool sights to see here for sure.

We left the Hall and then headed for the first National Park on our route – Cuyahoga Valley National Park, which is located half an hour south of Cleveland. Nick’s feelings were strong about this Park, so I’ll let him describe it:

We arrived at the park and encountered a closed visitor center. As we drove around – inside the park –  looking for a different visitor center, we passed ordinary homes, a hardware store, and more closed facilities. The scenery was unremarkable in my opinion. The park’s main feature seems to be a biking trail running along a historic canal. When we finally reached an open visitor center, it was the size of a normal house with no RV parking. I left the engine running and told Sharon to run in and buy a pin for our collection so we could get out of there. 

The only picture we took of the park.

Basically, I don’t think Cuyahoga Valley National Park should be a national park. Until 2000 or so, it was a National Recreation Area. Most likely some Ohio politicians traded political favors to get it upgraded. The place is not nearly in the same class as Yellowstone, Zion, or the other parks. It would be much more appropriate to designate it an Ohio state park or a National Historical Park. In any case, now we can cross it off our list and never have to come back!

We left the park. Since we didn’t have lunch yet, and haven’t yet filled our fridge with a grocery run, we stopped at local family restaurant, which was not very good. It’s always a bad sign when there are 50 tables, and not one is filled…

We then began the 5 hour drive to Chicago, which was pretty uneventful. We passed through Indiana (where I had just been last month for work) and set the clocks back one hour. We also passed the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, which is a great place, and one of our favorites from a previous trip.

We had been trying in vain to locate a place to park the RV in Chicago, but turns out there are no RV parks within at least an hour of the city. Fortunately, Nick located a website that told us we could park the RV at a truck marshalling yard for the convention center in the south side of Chicago for $22/night. This implies that we would have to boondock, or have no hookups (no electricity, water, or sewer connections). The RV has a 12V battery which allows us to run lights, radio and the water pump, so we can brush our teeth etc. The yard was extremely sketchy, but what do you expect from a deserted truck marshalling yard?!

Nick’s high school friend Serj and his wife Tasha then came and picked us up out of the yard and we went to get dinner, which was really good pizza at this place called Coalfire. It was a nice evening and we got to catch up and meet Serj’s cute baby boy Maxwell.

 

 After dinner, we got back to the yard and got ready for bed. Rather than fold out the popout bed (canvas walls) we decided to keep the RV totally contained, and just sleep on the couch. (Just to deter anyone might have wanted to come slashing through the canvas walls at night.) We also had an airhorn and a knife for self protection. Nick also set up an alarm, so that if anyone were to come bursting through the front door, a high pitched siren will shock them (hopefully).

In all it was a busy day, and hopefully the ensuing days will be more mellow.