7/26/16, “A
Little Fall of Rain”
En route,
I-71 N, Ohio
When one
travels, so much can go wrong, so much can change one’s plans, so much can ruin
a wonderful day. I would think first on
that list is a little fall of rain, especially when outdoor activities or long
drives are planned. My 2013 Eurotrip, I
got remarkably lucky with the weather, never feeling so much as a single drop
of rain in 18 days, only getting caught in the rain during two morning drives. Last year in Alaska, we were not as lucky,
rain practically ruining our trip twice.
First, a little fall of rain caused us to miss out on being able to take
a charter flight to see two National Parks, though we were able to reschedule
that flight for our last day in Alaska.
Second, a little fall of rain on the Dalton led to us getting stuck in
the mud. Third, when we finally did get
to Kotzebue, a little fall of rain almost prevented us from taking those
flights. The trip I took with my mom a
few weeks ago, while did hit some rain on the road, it did not affect our
outdoor activities at all.
That was not
the case today. I could very easily
write an extremely short entry focusing on the activities of the day but that
is not my style. First, I need to add in
my comments from yesterday. I have been
all over the country, so the shock my travel companions expected being in what
they considered the “hick” towns was unexpected to me. My old friend was complaining he did not see
any beautiful women in Ohio, a point I refused to let stand, and a debate that
continued this morning, due in no small part to the fact that prettiest girl I know grew up in Ohio.
Alright, I have forty minutes before we turn
off this road, which means I have forty minutes to finish writing and
publishing this entry. My computer
somehow fixed itself, and I was able to publish my entry, promoting it in the
morning. I knew I would only be able to
get three hours of sleep, so every minute was precious once I got
upstairs. My old friend tried to set the
alarm, and I knew I would wake up in time naturally. The alarm blared while he was setting it, and
I was ready to kill him. I soon woke up
and told everyone to get up. The deal I
had made with him was that we would be at his amusement park by 10 AM, so long
as everyone was ready to go when I was.
I calculated the latest we could leave the hotel was 7:30 AM.
We did not get on the road until 8 AM, no
fault of my own. Breakfast was quite
good, too, better than the disappointing experiences I had at the Hampton Inn
recently, and we headed towards the amusement park. I broke 100 on the road, not sure if I had previously
done it in Kentucky. I don’t think I’ve
done it in Ohio, but I’ll be back here at least one more time, anyway. Our first stop was the William Howard Taft NHS
in Cincinnati. When we got there, I
asked the ranger, “Where’s the bathtub?”
I’m not sure if any of my readers will get that joke, but the ranger
certainly did. He told me that a) the
story might be apocryphal and b) there was a picture of the tub on the second
floor of the house. The story is, of
course, that Taft, our fattest president, once got stuck in the bathtub at the
White House. We walked around the house,
my friends taking more time there than I, and I lit up an H. Upmann as we took
our ceremonial pictures.
The next stop I
wanted to take was a picture at the William Mason High School in Mason, where
my aforementioned friend grew up, thinking it would be funny to send her a
picture of the high school, and it was very close to the amusement park, which
was also in Mason. There was some kind
of event going on, and it was all closed off, so I couldn’t get the
picture.
We were soon at the amusement
park, and everything went great until lunch.
We had a fun time, doing the biggest and most famous rides. King’s Island, on the outskirts of Cincinnati
would have to be considered one of Ohio’s premiere attractions. It’s funny, my old friend got us free tickets
by saying he was reviewing the park.
Now, in fact, here I am, reviewing the park on a public blog. We did Firehawk first, which had us lying on
our backs and going in every single possible direction, including upside
down. I figured that the scariest part
would be when the seat went backwards to put us on our backs. I was right.
I was not ready for it, so I kept my eyes closed at first. I was wedged between my two friends, and my
newer friend kept teasing me, which eventually got me to open my eyes. I freaked the fuck out, but I kept my eyes
opened the rest of the ride. It was maybe
the highest thrill ride of the trip.
Next was the Banshee, which is the park’s newest ride. That may have actually been a higher thrill
than the Firehawk, and I was more in the mood after the first coaster. Next was the most famous coaster in the park,
The Beast, which is also the longest wooden coaster in the world and was the
tallest when it was built. It was not as
high of a thrill as I expected. After
that came my favorite ride of the trip, which was the Diamondback. My Ohio friend gave that a high
recommendation, and I loved it. I felt
like I was flying.
We then stopped for
chili, which led to a bit of a fight somehow, since my old friend was kind of
deceptive about how important it was to him to eat at that chili place, it
really not being important, just a food that he liked. It was very filling, and it sapped my energy
for the rest of the day. The birthday
boy, my newer friend, was feeling nauseated, so we split up. I felt bad about leaving him alone on his
birthday, but my old friend insisted I accompany him on all the rides. I will not go into the details, but we did a
few more rides, which were all much lower thrill than the earlier rides, and
then we got to the last big one, Vortex.
It was delayed due to weather.
Then it started pouring. A little
fall of rain, and it messed everything up.
My friend found a way to blame me for missing that ride, saying I spent
too much time at the gift shops and refilling my drinks (on a hot summer
day). I almost slapped him. There was one ride that was indoors, so that
was still opened, but the wait was almost an hour. After we did that, we met my other friend,
and we did the last wooden coaster and some water rides. In the end, we somehow managed to do every
coaster in the park and still make it to dinner by 8 PM, even with the late
start. Everyone was starting to get on
each other’s nerves. Well, that’s not
true. I think my newer friend and I were
fine with each other, but we’ve travelled before, and we’ve never really fought
or argued, just minor annoyances.
For
dinner, we went to the Golden Lamb, Ohio’s “most iconic” restaurant, and it
absolutely was worthy of that title. For
starters, twelve presidents, plus Henry Clay, Mark Twain, and Charles Dickens
have all dined there. Then, the meal,
which was amazing. They had an extremely
reasonably priced “taste of summer” menu, which, for me, meant corn chowder,
black bean fritters, and smoked lamb ribs, along with two beers, charcuterie to
share, and bread with butter and apple butter.
I am still stuffed, and I still can’t believe how good that lamb
was. I said I would take the second
shift of driving, and we got back in the car, where I proceeded to write this
entry, which I will now close so that I publish it and take over the
wheel. I will treat the reflections and
journey home in full tomorrow.
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