Days 20 and 21: Shore Days in Cleveland

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August 29 & 30, 2021: More computer repair adventures, a visit to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and some scooting around.

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We were spending three nights in Cleveland for two reasons: One is that Paul was rendezvousing with his family, including his wife, who he hadn’t seen in over a month. The other is that I needed a few days in a “major city” to deal with my laptop repair. This worked out well because there was plenty of other things to do in Cleveland.

Long Live Rock

I started my day with a shower, laundry, breakfast, and a pretty thorough cleaning of Nano’s main living area. (I didn’t want Paul’s wife to be shocked if she came to visit.) Paul was still with his family and Dianne had gone to meet Paul and his wife for breakfast. (I’d had a few too many figs from Trader Joe’s the night before and wanted to stay near a restroom until that cleared up.)

Later I headed over to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which was a short walk from where Nano was parked with its enormous wind block and afternoon shade provider, Steadfast. I bought my ticket online and showed up right on time.

Here’s a shot up the dock past Nano. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is the closest building. Later, I’d take a photo from one of those windows (in a stairwell) down at Nano and her big companion.

This giant sign is impossible to miss, but can you see the three kids posing with the letters for their mom?

I was thrilled to see that they had a mask mandate in place — no one was allowed in without a mask on and I assume folks inside enforced the mandate since I didn’t see a single person with a mask off. And although it didn’t seem very crowded when I came in, the main exhibit floor on the lower level was packed in some places.

I tried to follow the numbered exhibit rooms and did a decent job. I don’t think I missed any of the exhibits. there were lots of things to see, from handwritten lyrics to correspondence to costumes to props. Lots of photos, several areas where you could listen to music on headphones, plenty of interpretive signs providing history and facts. I probably went through the exhibits a bit quicker than the average visitor; although I found it interesting, I really don’t like crowds and didn’t feel like getting so close to so many people. I also had some difficulty reading the signs in the first few rooms of exhibits; the ambient lighting was rather dark and they’d chosen a terrible typeface for the headings on those signs.

There were large exhibits for the big individual artists and bands like Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and the Rolling Stones. There were early rock exhibits that tried to explain the origins of rock. There were exhibits for different kinds of rock music and different periods of rock music. There was one for rock music in the Super Bowl, which had many of the costumes entertainers wore at their appearances. There was a whole room full of Jerry Garcia’s digital art work with a handful of his guitars.

The rest of the museum had other exhibits, but none of them took much time. There was an exhibit with real instruments that visitors were encouraged to touch and play — and some people did. There was a whole floor dedicated to the induction ceremonies over the year. There was a 12-minute video presentation that strung together clips of various performers with simple concert style lighting that was way too loud but oddly entertaining. (Maybe because I finally got a chance to sit for a few minutes?) One of the last things I saw as I made my way downstairs (thought the gift shop, of course), was part of Pink Floyd’s Wall — perhaps the same one they used in concerts? I’d seen the Wall performed at Giants Stadium years ago and it was a nice reminder.

Part of Pink Floyd’s Wall, perhaps from their concerts.

In the gift shop, I wound up buying a neoprene laptop sleeve with the words Long Live Rock embroidered on it. Normally $24, it was on clearance for $5 and thought it would make a perfect purchase for my new laptop.

New laptop? you’re saying? What new laptop?

Oh, you haven’t read about that? I cover it in this blog post.

More Apple Store Trips

Yes, I got a new laptop. And yes, it took two more stops at Apple stores to get it.

I got the call about water inside the dead laptop when I was in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. If there were a list of worst places to get an important phone call, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame would be near the top. There is no quiet place in that building.

To this day, I don’t know how water got in there; it was not in a place where water could have gotten in, let alone open so water could get in it. But that’s a mystery to be resolved later.

Back at Nano, I got online, checked inventory at the Crocker Place Apple Store, saw they had a low-end MacBook Air, and drove over to buy it. (Parking overnight in that garage had cost $20.) Unfortunately, all of their MacBook Airs had sold before I arrived. While I was at that store, I ordered one at the other store. I was able to get one, but I was not allowed to pick it up until the next day. What kind of crazy bullshit is that? Answer: the Apple kind.

After calming my rage, I took care of other business: I stopped at a Target to buy a new piece of luggage. The bag I’d used as a carry on to get my GoPros, drone, laptop, and their oh-so-potentially-dangerous batteries into the passenger cabin on the plane had finally broken. (Heck, it had to be 20 years old so I got my money’s worth.) I needed one around the same size to replace it. I found one at Target.

So at least I got that done.

I can’t recall what I did Sunday evening back at Nano. It couldn’t have been too interesting. I probably just read out in the cockpit.

I do know that it rained like hell that night. It was a magnificent thunderstorm and I really enjoyed it — I so seldom get to enjoy storms where I live because I’m either thinking about going to work (drying cherry trees) or worried about lightning strikes starting wildfires. No worries here.

The rain did get much of what was in the cockpit soaking wet before I finally zipped down the side panels by the clothesline. In the morning, I’d wipe down the tables and benches and stand up one cloth covered bench cushion so it could dry in the sun. I also wiped down the wooden bench beneath it, which had already started to grow mold. It was the first time I’d seen mold on a wet surface for 20 years; we just don’t get that in the desert where everything dries so quickly.

Sunday Scooting

I started Sunday with a 7 AM breakfast about a mile away from Nano with Paul and some members of his family. Although I could have walked it, I decided to take one of the ubiquitous scooters. I chose the Lime brand, downloaded the app, opened an account with Apple Pay as my payment method, and was scooting up East 9th Street within minutes. I arrived early and got a table for three inside, but when Paul arrived with his wife, son, and two grandsons (one of which was still a tiny baby), we moved to a wiped down outside table. We had a nice breakfast and I don’t think I embarrassed myself. (Did I? You folks are probably reading this now.)

After breakfast, I walked back to where the car had been parked overnight on the street about three blocks from Nano. I’m curious to see whether they track me down to pay the $25 ticket. The meter, which mattered after 7 AM, takes quarters, for Pete’s sake. Who has quarters?

I drove to Eton Apple Store, picked up my computer, and returned the car to Enterprise. They drove me back to Nano. By this time, it was around noon.

Hungry, I walked over to the Mexican restaurant Paul and Dianne had eaten in on Saturday, when we first arrived. But now it was Monday and the place was (of course) closed.

When I got back to Nano to come up with a lunch plan, I saw that Paul had returned. I found a Vietnamese restaurant within scooter distance and offered to get us both lunch. He agreed. The only problem is that I told him it was Thai (because my brain registered Thai) and he asked for Pad Thai, which a Vietnamese restaurant does not have. I found something similar on the menu for him and got myself something similar to pho. Then I scooted back with the food and we had lunch.

Getting Ready to Get Back to Blogging

I spent the rest of the afternoon setting up my new laptop. This involved downloading and installing two apps: MarsEdit, my offline blog composition tool, and Affinity Photo, my photo editing tool. Both downloads took a painfully long time, mostly because I was using my iPhone as a hotspot for the computer and Verizon throttles that bandwidth down to 600kbps (not a typo). While some of the marinas we’d been had offered excellent, fast, free wifi, this one did not.

I eventually got it done and started to blog again. I wrote about Day 13 and got it online that evening. Although I can’t remember, I probably started the post for Day 14, even though I didn’t finish and publish it until the next day.

At this point, I was about 7 days behind; I’d have to write and publish two posts a day for the next week to catch up. Was I up to the task? I think it depends on how many shore days we have; I don’t think I can knock off two posts on a travel day.

There was a gorgeous sunset that night. Before going to bed, I shot a few more photos of the city’s lights. Would I ever come back? I think so.

The sunset filled the sky to the west with shades of orange.

I really like the way Cleveland lights up at night.