Trip Day 9: Kirtland to Cleveland to Chicago

Friday morning we woke up and checked out of the super deluxe America's Best Value Inn and headed over to the Kirtland Temple. Kirtland is a peaceful, pretty little town 45 minutes or an hour outside of Cleveland. I'm not sure what people do for employment there (it seems a little far for commuting to Cleveland), but we drove through some really nice residential areas on the way to the Temple.
The tour of the temple was very good. The Community of Christ has a really nice visitor center where we watched a film about the history of the temple and the church in the area. After the film, the screen goes up and these huge curtains part, revealing a gorgeous view of the temple through a huge floor to ceiling, wall to wall window.




Our tour guide was a member of the Community of Christ (formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, started by former saints who didn't accept Brigham Young as a prophet after Joseph Smith was killed and chose not to emigrate to Utah), originally from Canada. She definitely knew her audience (our family, another big family from Utah, and another member of the church from Boston, I think), and talked about "our ancestors" and generally was very warm and friendly. When she took us into the temple, we sat on the very benches that the Saints sat on during the dedication of the Temple, and the singular events that followed afterward (Doctrine and Covenants 109 and 110), and invited us all to sing "The Spirit of God." It was very moving. I hope the boys felt some of the spirit that was there.
It is a pretty building, but it would have been great to see it as it was built originally (it wasn't stuccoed white, it was more of a blue-grey stucco, made to look like huge blocks of stone, and it had a red roof).
After the tour, we walked around the grounds for a bit and then got back in the car. We didn't have time to tour historic Kirtland. Next time.

We drove into Cleveland in the early afternoon, under a perfect blue sky, which is somewhat unusual for Cleveland (only 66 sunny days per year, according to this site. Can you imagine??!!). We got off at a park right on Lake Erie (which the boys were quick to tell me was not very eerie), and walked down to the end of a pier to admire the blue lake and the Cleveland skyline.




Here's Joseph casting a spell on me with a stick he found. We were listening to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and he had magic wands on the brain.



Mosey said, "Take a picture of me with this sign, mom!" and threw his arms around it like his best friend.



Brigham didn't go with us onto the pier. He had been bugging Mosey (actually pretty rare on this trip, my boys are pretty decent travelers and didn't fight too much in the car), and refused to stop when I asked him, so Ben got after him, and he started sulking, and refused to leave the van. So I took a picture of him pouting, because he is pretty cute when he pouts.


But he's a good natured kid and pretty soon was smiling again. Although he still refused to get out of the car and go look at the lake. Stubborn little sucker. :-)



We needed gas, so we wended our way through a really nicely renovated historic area of residential Cleveland (why can't they make houses like they used to?!), and stopped at a Shell station for gas. Ben went into the convenience store to buy snacks, and when he came back to the car, he hopped into the passenger seat (I was driving), and said he was ready to go. I assumed he had disconnected the gas hose from our car.
That proved to be a faulty assumption.
Ever wonder what happens if you drive off with the nozzle still in the gas tank? Well, we found out. The entire hose pops off near the top of the pump. No, it didn't spray gas like a severed artery, thank goodness. Although I think the boys were a little disappointed that it did not. Ben got out of the car and tried to reconnect it with no luck. He went into the convenience store and the employee there seemed clueless and annoyed, and finally just told Ben he could leave and they'd call someone. Oops.

Once we were back on the road, we got into more Cleveland-type weather, and it rained on us all the way through Ohio and into Indiana. We got off at South Bend, Indiana, to drive through the Notre Dame campus (in the pouring rain), and see all the goings on as the campus got ready for Barack Obama's controversial commencement address there two days later.

I was driving most of this time, but as it got dark, the rain continued to pour down on us, and the Interstate was undergoing construction, so there were concrete barriers right up against both shoulders of the 2 lane Westbound side of the Interstate. I HATE driving with those stupid concrete barriers hugging the side of the road. I constantly feel like I'm about to drive into the other lane, or sideswipe the concrete barrier. Finally I couldn't take it anymore and got off at the next exit so that Ben could take over (I have bad night vision on top of everything else, so it really was a bad combination for me). Well, we got off in a very shady area of Gary, Indiana. Ben was really nervous as we pulled over to the side of the road and switched drivers. It really looked like a part of town where we probably shouldn't be. I didn't even know where we were, so I asked him and when he said "Gary," I just started laughing. I had no idea of the rise and fall of poor Gary, Indiana. The only thing I knew of it was from that song from The Music Man. I always pictured it as the epitome of small-town America. Well, if it ever was, it sure isn't any more. Ben asked me why I was laughing and I started singing the words from the song, "Gary Indiana, Gary Indiana, not Louisiana, Paris France, New York or Rome! But Gary Indiana, Gary Indiana, Gary Indiana! My home sweet home!" (If you think I'm crazy, go see this). Ben looked at me like I was even crazier than before, and I realized he has NEVER seen or heard the music from The Music Man!! What? How is this possible?? How did he get through his childhood without seeing The Music Man at least once in a school musical, or Stake Road Show?? In fact, I discovered the one gaping hole in Ben's musical education. He'd hardly seen any musicals at all. I resolved to remedy that as soon as possible when we returned home. It's my duty as an American!! (and we watched Oliver! last Friday night, so we're on our way)
Anyway, we finally got across Indiana and crossed the border into Chicago, Illinois, under the pouring rain. Phew!