Hey ho, let’s go!

Or not. Motto of the day. First walk to the bus station in Niagara. After a kilometre, my trolley wheel decides it’s no longer available for this trip around the world. Trolley bursts open at the bottom. Luckily a taxi driver stops, otherwise I would have missed the bus.

I’m not annoyed about the one-hour wait in Buffalo. But I am annoyed that the ticket seller had announced a journey time of 10 hours. He didn’t say anything about the 8-hour stopover in Cleveland.

Another Frank rammed a police car in New York. banned from driving for 10 years. Now he’s travelling non-stop to Las Vegas for three days.
We play a game of chess. The lady next to me hears my car story and promptly offers me a private nap opportunity for a few hours at her place in Cleveland. I gratefully accept, even though the stopover has already been reduced due to the 1.5-hour delay.

A tyre bursts at Lake Erie. Bus station in the middle of nowhere. All there is to eat are colourful vending machine bags. Plenty of time for maths games…with a clever combination I could cover all the necessary daily nutrients with 17 bags. Plus 225% of the daily fat requirement and 408% calories. Yawn. Boring!

After an hour I move on. I arrive in Cleveland at around six in the evening. Kelly, the nice lady from next door, takes me to her place so I can have a quick look on the internet. Then I head straight into town. The stadium of the “Indians of Cleveland” in Natura. Unfortunately, the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame is already closed. Another Subways sandwich, the only option far and wide to minimise my weight gain.

I drive back to Kelly’s and take a dip in the pool, right on the shore of Lake Erie. The sun is setting. At last I’m no longer sticky. After a quick nip, back on the bus to the Greyhound station. With an hour’s delay, I continue on to Chicago after midnight.

At least babies are not allowed on night journeys. One babbles, one cries and the third shoots the nightingale down for good: It constantly and emphatically extends its already impressive falsetto skills to well beyond the thirteenth stroke of C. Not a second of sleep until six in the morning.

I set my alarm clock at the Chicago bus station and lie down for an hour. Onwards at seven, without a plan. On the first underground escalator, my trolley succumbs to falling and does a few somersaults downwards. I find a WiFi cafe near David’s apartment and can finally check Google Maps to find out exactly where he lives.

David is very nice, extremely helpful, welcomes me with a goodie bag, lets me shower and do my laundry. He also has a pool, which is used extensively before I can finally lie down again after 30 hours.