"The Jake"

Well it's no longer the Jake (Jacobs Field) and now it's Progressive Park, but like a lot of Sports stadiums that are taking the money and the sponsor's names some will always be known by names from the past...................so we visited The Jake yesterday in Cleveland, Ohio. This is the home of the Cleveland Indians, and yes they still have a team here if you'll recall from the movie Major League. We actually got a late start yesterday and changed some plans, but hey that's the way it goes with plans on a trip like this. Originally we had planned to take a lunch cruise on Lake Erie and then spend some time in down town Cleveland before taking a ballgame at the Jake, but as it turned out we got a rather late start.

We had driven by the day before a place down town call the warehouse district and East 4th street so we just headed down town to spend some time before the game. On the way we remembered seeing Thistle Downs on the map and I had placed bets on ponies from Thistle (via OTB ) but never really new where it was located, so we decided to pay a visit to Thistle Downs and take a couple of pic's for my horse racing buddies........Matt and Andy! Thistle is an old but pretty well kept race track here in Cleveland and yesterday they had live racing so we took some pictures and placed a bet on race 11 but didn't cash. I was talking to a local while in the restroom and found out that just 3 days before the Harrah's group had just bought the place via auction and were going to start renovation immediately. The plans are in place to update the track and all facilities and add a full casino, and the gentleman I was talking to said a referendum that was stalled all of a sudden looked like it would be going to the Governor for a formal signing soon. Another Prairie Meadows or Louisiana Downs in the making!

Then it was off to East 4th street down town and some dinner before the ballgame, as it turned out there was a "House of Blues" there just like in Vegas at the Mandalay Bay so we stopped in there for a bite. We got there just in time because shortly afterward the place got very busy and a 40 minute wait was put into place...................why you ask, because Cindy Lauper was preforming very shortly at the House of Blues. Needless to say the crowd was predominately female or somewhat female or well you know what I mean.

The Indians game was a win and that was good for us and the fans, it made for a wonderful evening and it was rather on the cool side (we froze) at a temperature in the low to mid 60's with a good breeze off the Lake. We bought our required souvenirs and a fitted hat for our "house sitter and care-taker", met a few nice fans and just plain had a good time while watching a Tribe win!

We're now in the process of putting things away and getting things buttoned up for our move towards Philly............made reservations to stay at an RV park outside of town for a week so we'll be spending the 4th in the city of brotherly love and Rocky!