Ahhh, the flatlands of Ohio. Not the most scenic trip so far, but I gotta admit it's been a lot of fun. Sarcasm is the main form of communication on the road and we are all expert linguists.

To start the trip, I whacked my head pretty hard on the trunk when we were loading it, so I'm pretty sure I'll have a bump for the next few days. Greeeaaattt.

Cleveland, as my future employer so aptly said, was "a real hot bed of entertainment." haha Luckily, the girls and I are pretty good at keeping ourselves entertained, (see earlier note about sarcasm), so it's been fun.�

We took pictures of ourselves in front of the World's Largest Rubber Stamp. This is not made out of rubber. The name is deceptive. How sad. What a funny little world we live in. "World's ------est" claims seem to be everywhere: World's Largest Rubber Stamp, World's Largest Off-Price Fashion Store, World's Largest Chocolate Turtle, Oldest Brewery in America, etc. These claims are still minimal compared to the insane amounts of signs for the Ohio Turnpike, (we've seen about 50). I'm going to blame this over-abundance on the fact that this is Ohio and Ohioans go to school at Ohio State University and are therefore dumb. They can't remember what road they are on for more than 1/2 a mile. (Just kidding Ohio ... well, not really).

In Cleveland, we also stopped at Westside Farmer's Market and Alaina went on a quest for the perfect apple. Pretty sure she found it. Amazing, huh? Need the perfect apple? Go to Cleveland, apparently. Also at the market, we bought this popcorn that is both cheesy and carmely. Sounds disgusting, but it tastes great. The best part, however, is the name: Dichotomy Corn. How perfect! As a creative writing major, this just makes me so happy.

Next we headed over to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. There were these large decorated guitar statues in the lobby that represented different musicians/bands. As usual, pictures ensued. The Hall itself was only okay. As one of my friends pointed out, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame should be in Detroit. Seriously. Detroit Rock City? What were they thinking? lol So it probably wasn't worth the $18 to go see it, but at least now we've done it and we're good.

For dinner, the information desk lady at the Hall sent us to an Irish pub called, "The Harp." Alaina quickly discovered that the bathroom was infested with ants. We think they were banding together to wage war against the spiders. Based on sheer numbers, it will probably be a sad night among the spider community. Despite the unusable bathrooms, though, I had what may have been the best salad ever: crab cakes with avocado, cucumber, pineapple, tortilla strips, feta cheese and lettuce. Yum! I just hope those ants weren't battling in the kitchen as well. I suspect that is the mice's territory...

I took over driving after that. Sitting in the McDonald's parking lot, preparing to take off, I definitely confused the gas pedal with the brake. heh heh. But after that, I was okay ... for the most part. lol We made it until just outside of Pittsburgh. I had to drive over a very massive bridge, at night, closed down to one lane because of there were construction workers walking all over, and just before that, a car with the license plate, "Whtever 1" almost ran me off the road. The freakiest part was when I had just got off the bridge and the singer we were listening to -- Mat Keanry -- sang the lyrics, "I'm over the bridge." Shortly after, he sang, "I'm crashing down."

... In other words, I was ready to park for the night. We stayed at a Days Inn in Monroeville, loaded some pics to our websites, and basically just crashed. Good times had by all. :-)�