Roller Coaster Pilgrimage: Day 3 & 4

Day 3: King's Island (just north of Cincinnati, OH)
After sleeping late and getting some much needed rest, we headed for brunch at the Waffle House. MMmmmmm...excellent diner food. The Chocolate Chip Waffles melted in my mouth and the "real" hash browns as they call them, guess they are fake everywhere else, were yummy!

Before jumping on any fancy roller coasters on a full stomach we decided to catch us a game of miniature golf! We had seen the place on our way in the night before and I think we all thought, haven't done that in a long time.











Back to the hotel for a nap and wait out the afternoon heat. 5pm we enter the park and for almost half the price! It's a big park, with several section all different in theme. We headed for the Nickelodeon section first. Scooby-Doo & The Haunted Castle ended up being a BIG waste of time, totally not scary and our laser guns didn't work well. Next the Fairly Odd Coaster, short, but a good way to get us introduced to coasters for the day. Stepping it up a notch we head for the Rugrats Runaway Reptar, your feet dangle from your seat as you whip around corners and hills; I liked this coaster, could have road it again, but unlike Fun Spot, lines are long and you have decide what you want to spend time on. So not wasting anymore time we head straight for The Beast. We are ready. It was awesome. Can't really describe it; it's fast, you go up giant hills to come racing down and make sharp turns and dash through dark tunnels. It's very cool. And I can only imagine how much more exciting it was for Baha and Jim when they went again at night and you can't see a thing!

So mission accomplished we jumped on a few familiar rides: swings, bumper cars (totally lame), scrambler & the monster (their name for the spider). Turns out I can't do loop coasters or spinning rides anymore, I am not feeling so good on the spider and after we get off I am only able to do one more coaster ride, The Racer.

This image of Jim on the Spider, really does express his and my feeling about this ride:











A trip to the top of their replica of the Eiffel Tower and we are done.













Day 4: Long as drive Cincinnati, OH to Boston, MA
Yup, it was a long as ride. 15hrs to be exact. Baha did the first tour of duty and then Jim and then me to pick up the last leg. Baha got the best of it, daylight and sun, Jim got daylight for most, but a TON of rain, I got all darkness and some crazy ass fog through the Berkshires, but we made it safe and sound, with some new stories to tell.

Roller Coaster Pilgrimage: Day 2

Day 2: Buffalo, NY to Angola, Indiana
After a nice breakfast at Ambrosia's in Buffalo with Ethan, Jen and Phin we got some new ice for the cooler and hit the road. Baha took first shift taking us all the way to Fun Spot. Along the way we passed through Erie, PA, Cleveland, OH and Toleda, OH. I had never seen one of the Great Lakes before and we got to glimpse Lake Erie on your journey, Man what an amazing site! It's huge! If I didn't know it was a lake, I would think I was looking at the ocean.
Now Fun Spot is a tiny little park, but I imagine the most fun thing to do in that area of Indiana. And for our short visit, it was fun. I particularly enjoyed the Zoo, where they have a whole collection of Big Cats! Beautiful animals, that unfortunately, they took in or rescued from bad situations. Lions, Tiger (no bears), cougars, black leopards and a little deer family (poor deer, seemed like they were more like lunch with all the big cats surrounding them). First ride we went for was the reason we came all the way to Indiana in the first place!
The Afterburner:

As it turns out, we each only rode it once! Come to find out we aren't as young as we thought and can no longer handle loop coasters. As they say, sometimes you find out things the hard way, but at least we had fun doing it. A few turns on some other rides and back on the road.








Back on the road, Jim at the wheel we headed for Cincinnati, OH.
It was beautiful landscape, though seemingly endless.










Tired and not sure of a better option we settled on Motel 8, right down the road from King's Island. The hotel itself was fine, it was just a little bit pricer than we planned, but you can't beat the convenience.

Roller Coaster Pilgrimage: Day 1

Jim Long, our partner in crime on this road trip, has already most fabulously described our journey in great detail (see A Tale of Two Coasters, Road Trip, & A Tale of Two Coasters Day One through Four), so I am going to give the crib note version.

This journey all began out of a semi-drunken conversation Baha, Jim and I had at by b-day celebration. I can't exactly recall how the conversation began but, I remember at the end we had this great road trip conceived. We would drive from Boston to Indiana to ride the Loop, via Buffalo with a side trip to Canada's Niagara Falls and then from Indiana to Cincinnati, OH to King's Island to ride The Beast! The Loops (really, Fun Spot's Afterburner) significance is that it is 1 of 4 left in the world of this particular type of coaster and most importantly is used to be at Riverside (now 6 Flags) where our friend Jim has many a memory. And we all know the value of nostalgia. As for The Beast, well that just happens to be the oldest wooden coaster in the World and I also think the longest at 4mins (possible +) long. Now doesn't that sound like a roller coaster pilgrimage worth taking!

Day 1: Friday July 19th Boston, MA to Buffalo, NY (with side trip to Canada)
With a cooler full of drinks and lots of treats for the road we were off. I took the first shift Boston to Syracuse, not to be a hero, there would be plenty of driving to go around, it was daylight and I could drive this part of the trip with my eyes closed, do to many trips to upstate NY to visit family, particularly my dad. Baha did Syracuse to Buffalo.

We arrived at Ethan, Jen and Phin's house at 4:30pm. Ethan is a very good friend of Jim's and he was gracious enough to let us crash at their beautiful, huge, awesome Victorian house for the night. Hurray, one less night in a hotel! And very good company with homeade beer and friendly cats. While they went to a family dinner; Jim, Baha and I went a mile drown the road and crossed the boarder into Canada via Peace Bridge. Few minutes later and we were at Niagara Falls. Jim and I have seen them, but they are beautiful and we wanted Baha to see them. Being that close how can you not!?!









As you can see we had beautiful weather that day and in fact every day of our trip. Perfect Simpson clouds galore.

4th of July 2007

Another summer, another 4th of July! This 4th of July we sort of carried on a tradition. For the last few years, my brothers & Jim have joined Baha and I for the fireworks. This year the bros came down earlier with mom and Tonia (our new family addition) and we had 4th of July grub. The usual fair, hot dogs, hamburgers, potatoe salad, macaroni salad, chips, beers..and Andy delighted our taste buds with a fruit salsa with homeade tortilla chips....mmmm yummy!

Jim Almost bailed on us, but fortunately he changed his mind, missed the food, but made it for the fireworks. It wasn't the best weather for the fireworks, but it could have been worse.

Yes is was rainy and windy, but not pouring. We all had umbrellas and the fireworks still looked awesome!

This was Tonia's first year at the Boston Fireworks, best in the country! She was chilly, but new big bro Greg was a gentleman and shared his sweatshirt. Aaahhh.

Rain or shine, Baha has his tripod and is ready for some firework action! His is the umbrella in all my firework photos.