DAY SIX: Wednesday September 13th Dunkirk NY to Ann Arbour MI

​I wake at 8am – no kids to disturb me any earlier today – and grab a shower and a shave before checking out of the Clarion Hotel by 8.45am. I skip the hotel breakfast for a hopeful coffee and Danish in Eyrie PA which is just 40 miles down the road. Before heading off, I survey Lake Eyrie from the harbour at Dunkirk. It is pretty bleak, the rain has stopped, but there is still a lot of grey cloud overhead. I head off along route 5, the Seaway Trail, rather than go backwards to the I90. The road is closed ahead but a detour takes me around the obstruction and back onto the route. It weaves past a number of Lake Eyrie wineries but it is a bit early for a tasting – and I am driving. I pass a nice looking harbour at Barcelona NY with a lighthouse and the Westfield fisheries. I realise this is where Julian had picked out a nice Historic Inn for me to stay at last night, the William Seward Inn – oh well.
 
I cross the state line into Pennsylvania – three states down now – and reach Eyrie in under an hour. However, Eyrie is actually quite a big city and there is little hope of finding a nice quiet coffeeshop by a picturesque harbour for breakfast. I drive past the city’s Maritime museum and the Brig Niagara sailing ship but don’t stop. Instead I swing back on to the I90 just as the rain starts again and put my foot down for the 120-mile journey across the state to reach Cleveland OH. Somehow, I manage to slip off the I90 at a confusing junction and find myself heading south towards Akron OH – Devo-land! Luckily, however, I take the first Cleveland-bound exit I see with signs for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame which brings me back onto the I90 and soon after for the turning onto North Lakeside into the city. I easily find somewhere to park near the Hall of Fame by the lake, which costs just $8 for the whole day, not that I can stay as long as that – the road will call me.
 
The Hall of Fame is in an impressive building designed by Louvre pyramid architect IM Pei and is next door to the Great Lakes Science Park - which has a wind turbine outside – and the big stadium of the Cleveland Browns NFL team. Once inside, I spend two hours touring around all the amazing exhibits which include clothes, cars, records and other memorabilia from the plethora of inducted rock stars, as well as visiting the Inductee Theatre for movies of the events. After a quick lunch, of a chicken wrap and an iced tea, I hit the gift shop so I can top up my car CD collection – the four that I bought at the airport having already been almost played to death. I buy five more including albums by Tom Petty, Bob Seger and Bonnie Raitt – perfect US toad trip driving music to put on when the iPod battery fails. I also buy a Hall of Fame t-shirt (set to be the first of many ‘tour’ t-shirts), an exhibition guide, a metal guitar bookmark, and some plastic guitar picks. I then walk over to the Science Park for a quick browse and to grab a coffee before heading to the car park and the Mustang.
 
Driving back to the I90 through the Cleveland rush-hour at around 4.15pm I pass the Cleveland Indian’s baseball stadium, Jacobs Field. Overall it seems a very pleasant American city, with plenty to do and a nice situation on the lake. I reach the Ohio Turnpike, which is what the I90 is called here, just as the heavens open once again. Great forks of lightening streak through the sky accompanied by crashes of thunder. Plumes of spray from the big sixteen-wheeler trucks mean it is very hard to see far ahead and makes it impossible to tell whether the downpour has actually stopped. I also need to make sure I avoid the many sloughed off truck tyres which are strewn by the roadside. Pulling off to get some more gas – 10 gallons at $2.19 each, much cheaper than in NY and MA – I also buy a more up-to-date US road atlas and a car charger for my iPod.
 
Back on the interstate, I pass the Toledo OH exits at around 5.45pm and decide to head north to Ann Arbour MI to stay the night. This is in homage to my old friend Steve McGookin, who spent time as a Journalism Fellow at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbour. When I told Steve that I was embarking on this mad journey he suggested that I should find a CD for every state I cross. Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska will be an easy one for later (we are both big fans of The Boss), but for Michigan songs are harder to come to mind. I am going to go through Kalamazoo later (I know a girl there!!!??), however, and just north of Ann Arbor is Saginaw where Simon & Garfunkel hitchhiked all the way from in America! My stay in Ann Arbor is also a nod to one of my favourite US economic indicators – the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index!
 
The city is a quick 46-mile detour from the I90 and I reach it around 7.15pm. After cruising around the centre to get my bearings and see the University campus, I head back to the outskirts to find accommodation and food. I stop at a Red Roof Inn and check into a standard motel room at $59.99 for the night. Red Roof’s are actually a touch above standard motel fare being owned by French hotels giant Accor. The rooms have been refurbished to a good standard, with tasteful décor, carpets, and bathroom furnishings.
 
Head straight out to find food – I know most Americans eat early and you can often find restaurants closing by 8.30pm-9.00pm. I choose Carson’s America Bistro not far from the motel and have a tasty meal of deep-fried artichoke hearts and a 14-ounce ribeye steak with fries washed down by a pint of local Mad Hatter IPA from New Holland, MH.
 
Julian calls on my cellphone to check on my progress and is amazed by the distance I have covered so far. Not quite as many miles travelled as yesterday, only around 330 – but then I spent a lot of time at the Hall of Fame in Cleveland. Best sign I saw driving through Michigan, on route 23, said: Prison Area: Do not pick up hitchhikers! Car mileage at end of day: 3,348.