South Bend, IN to Elyria, OH (via Oberlin, OH, birthplace of Rollaway) Day 8

You know, the only thing I thought might pull Indiana (the tiniest bit) out of being a complete waste of time was that the hotel had a pool. It even looked pretty nice (much nicer than the rest of the hotel, which, it turned out, didn't have towels. That's right, no towels).

Woke up this morning, got organized and showered and dried off (with a washcloth) and poked our heads out the door. Cold and cloudy and windy and rotten. And voila! No bad feelings about leaving. At all.




Actually, we stopped at a Perkins for breakfast, and as we were driving there, we passed J Willy's - a bbq joint that was featured on Ramsey's kitchen nightmares. The restaurant was closed and falling down. We took a picture, feeling a distressingly large sensation of schadenfreude.

 We were thrilled to arrive at the Ohio border!

  Interestingly, when we stopped for another coffee at one of the Ohio Turnpike Service Plazas, we got a call from Benton Roark (whose wedding provided the excuse to actually go ahead and take this trip. We told him we were planning on getting as close to Cleveland as we could (and keep the hotels at "small town" prices) and he suggested that we should pay a visit to Oberlin (his and Sarah Wolfman Robichaud's alma mater).

So we did! 

It was pretty cool to be able to text Benton and Sarah and tell them we were having beers and some lunch at their old hang out, (and the food and beer were both very good!) Oberlin was beautiful, but the available accommodations were a little steep, and the local production of Hairspray only had weekend shows (and today is Monday) so we drove 6 miles to Elyria, where we got a nice room at the Red Roof Inn with free wifi and breakfast and an indoor pool that was delightful!

In the news for tomorrow, did you know that in addition to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland is also home to the house where they filmed "A Christmas Story"?