Day Four - July 2

Danny started us up with a great good deed before we even left the hotel in Kent, Ohio. While eating breakfast he struck up a conversation with an 8 year old boy with cerebral palsy and his mother. The boy loves professional wrestling and even though our style of wrestling is about as opposite as can be, Danny went to his suitcase and found an FCA wrestling shirt to give to the boy. The boy's face lit up and the mother's did as well - she really liked seeing the big smile on her son's face. Good one Danny.
I thought Danny was worthy of a major award, so we journeyed to Cleveland and found the house that made "major award" a common phrase among old Christmas film fans. The house from "A Christmas Story" is a museum now and is a big time tourist attraction. They get 2500 visitors per day during the Christmas season and there is a 2 and a half hour wait to get in the house for the tour during that time of year. It wasn't that crowded today so nobody put my eye out with a Red Ryder BB Gun while trying to get in front of us. You can see the leg lamp in the window if you look closely, but ... you should see it from the street!
Next came President Rutherford B. Hayes mansion and museum in Fremont, Ohio. Not the most exciting stop we've had but we learned a few things here and there and I took a pretty good photo of my three buddies pointing at the entrance sign.
Then to Toledo, Ohio and to carry out a suggestion from my sister Kathy. First though I took a picture of the Toledo Mudhen's Minor League stadium. Then Kathy's suggestion. She thought we would enjoy "Tony Packo's" restaurant and she was right. For M*A*S*H* fans you might remember that Corporal Klinger - played by Jamie Farr often talked about Tony Packo's Restaurant back home in Toledo. So now the restaurant is famous and has been visited by hundreds of stars and other well known people. The walls are adorned with hot dog buns in cases that have been autographed by various stars. But the real treat at Tony Packo's is the chili dogs. Jimmy and Pee Wee got the special - two chili dogs and a side dish. Danny and I went for the Hail Mary and tackled the M.O.A.D. This stands for Mother of All Dogs and I can see why. It's a full foot long hot dog but the meat isn't your normal hot dog. It's sausage and it's three times as thick. Then throw in peppers, cheese, and copious amounts of rot gut chili and there it is. And eight hours later, there it still is. I had to finish it because Pee Wee bet me that I couldn't do it. The first 90% of the giant hot dog went pretty well, then I hit the wall. I made it through the remaining 10 percent, but I paid dearly for my victorious bet over the next couple of hours. Danny was driving and he knew to be on alert to pull over at any moment. At 10:30 p.m. I'm still suffering a little. Danny has fared better then me - he's out eating with the other two, but I'm thinking about never eating again until sometime next week. I feel like someone let Chicken Man loose in my bowels. So yes, I won the bet from Pee Wee, but I think he won the war.
At 4:00 p.m. we entered the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor and walked around the outside of the stadium and got a few pictures. Then at 8:00 p.m. we were near Lansing and did the same thing at the Michigan State stadium. This time we walked through a construction gate and were just about to walk in the stadium when we were stopped by some kind of official. We put our tails between our legs and headed to the Staybridge Suites in Okemos where we're spending the night.
In between the two stadiums Danny and I carried out a better than average good deed. We saw a Salvation Army Store, pulled in, walked around a while and looked for an opportunity to help. We saw a lady with three young girls purchase a table and chair. When she walked out to pull her mini van up we didn't give her a chance. We carried the table and chair to her mini van in the parking lot, loaded them up, gave her two good deed doer cards, asked her to pay it forward, and then went on our way.
Pee Wee got us a room at these Staybridge Suites through Priceline for under $80, but when we checked in it was a room with only one queen bed. For some reason the lady at the front desk liked us - maybe she heard about Jimmy's recent induction in the Football Hall of Fame, I don't know, but she upgraded us to a $400 suite. We thought about just staying here for 5 more days and making up stories for the blog, but that would be a bad deed.
Tomorrow we're probably heading up north until we run out of America. Tonight I'm probably not sleeping until I run out of chili. Good night.