Because vacation was so good, we decided to take our time coming home. After we checked out of the resort, we went to the Lost Canyon and rode the horse drawn cart through the narrow canyon. The trip actually ends right about where the resort skyway goes over the canyon near the ziplines.
Then we drove over and visited with Liz for a few minutes and toured her house. I know it's Eric's house too, but writing "their house" didn't sound grammatically correct. We drove a while longer and decided to lunch at Culver's. It's actually pretty good, sort of an upscale McDonald's.
By this time I was concerned about Chicago traffic on a Friday afternoon, but we had no problem the route we took (thanks, Leah.) The problem began when we exited I-80 to go to US 30 to get to Warsaw where our motel was located. We exited I-80 earlier than we needed to so that we could avoid the construction heading into Indiana. Big mistake. Traffic on US 30 going into Indiana is horrific. And the traffic lights all seemed designed to create the longest traffic jams.
The rest of the day and most of the travel day Saturday was routine, until we got to the Days Inn in Sandusky. Without a doubt one of the worst motels I have ever been in. There was a terrible stench in the room, and since nothing in the room, like linens, curtains or rug smelled up close, we could only conclude that there must be mold or something growing in the walls. It was made worse by the fact that the air conditioner hadn't been turned on. We couldn't really complain because the couple at the check in desk spoke such broken English, it was difficult to communicate with them. We turned on the air full blast, emptied a can of Glade and went out to dinner. By the time we got back I could tolerate it, although Kim said this morning that it was the worst night's sleep she had on the whole trip. She's always been wary of Days Inn, and now I am cured as well.
The only reason we stayed there instead of driving straight home was so we could visit Kelley's Island on Sunday. That turned out to be fun. We took the Jet Express Ferry across from Sandusky, rented a golf cart and toured the island. There's not as much to do there is at Put-In-Bay, but the more relaxed atmosphere is definitely to my liking.
So now we're home, feverishly planning our next trip. Branson, maybe?
Friday, August 5, 2011
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Post Visit
There's not a lot to say about our recent stay at the resort in Wisconsin, because the people I care about the most were all there, so they all know what a great time it was. My only regret was not having more energy to be able to keep up with them. But I guess when you're the old patriarch, allowances have to be made.
After the girls and their husbands were gone, we discovered that there is even more to the Wilderness than we thought. The part we had walked and thought we were at the end really wasn't even half of it. That place is just humungous. So we did more walking, but never did cover the whole place.
We did more old people stuff, like walking around the mall, driving down to a state park, and riding a horse drawn wagon. We wanted to hike on one of the trails at the park, without realizing how difficult it was going to be. It was marked "moderate" on the map and was only a few miles long, but the change in elevation turned out to be at least several hundred feet, and much of it was spent climbing up rocks. It was exhausting. I'm really glad we didn't try one of the "difficult" trails.
Checking out was difficult, but that's life. Vacations end, and one always has to get back to reality. But it was really great to see everyone.
After the girls and their husbands were gone, we discovered that there is even more to the Wilderness than we thought. The part we had walked and thought we were at the end really wasn't even half of it. That place is just humungous. So we did more walking, but never did cover the whole place.
We did more old people stuff, like walking around the mall, driving down to a state park, and riding a horse drawn wagon. We wanted to hike on one of the trails at the park, without realizing how difficult it was going to be. It was marked "moderate" on the map and was only a few miles long, but the change in elevation turned out to be at least several hundred feet, and much of it was spent climbing up rocks. It was exhausting. I'm really glad we didn't try one of the "difficult" trails.
Checking out was difficult, but that's life. Vacations end, and one always has to get back to reality. But it was really great to see everyone.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
A Better Way
I guess it's been a long time, and there's so many things I could write about that have happened in the past 10 months. There's been so much going on, but I guess that's it. Many of the things happening are things that impact my job, or rather the thought of losing it, and so my thoughts are often occupied with things I don't really want to write about.
This week, however, I've had a thoroughly wonderful vacation trip, and so I wanted to describe it. However, on the way up to Wisconsin, and now on the way back, the thing that is currently pressed on my mind goes back to my job. As a turnpike toll collector in Ohio, I constantly live with the threat that the turnpike will be leased or sold. If this happens, there are a number of scenarios that could play out, none of which could be interpreted as good to the employees there.
I think of myself as a Republican and I voted for John Kasich. In general, I support his efforts to find ways to bring Ohio's budget back under control, and to plug any shortfalls. However, there are right ways and wrong ways to do things, and to simply give away one of the state's most valuable assets for the paltry sum of 2.5 billion dollars net is about as shortsighted as one can get.
Notice, I'm not even making the argument here, as some have, that the turnpike is NOT a state asset. Others have argued that case persuavely. I'll just concede the point and move on. There is a much better way to deal with the turnpike that would put it in state hands, and make a whole lot more money. It's called High Speed Tolls.
I discovered this while driving around Chicago last week, and I think it's a most marvelous thing. I had seen a High Speed Toll plaza in Pennsylvania near the Ohio border the last time I drove through there, and while I thought it was kind of cool, I didn't think much more than that. But the Illinois Tollway has taken that concept to a whole new level. With High Speed Tolls, drivers with transponders simply drive through the plaza area, and their transponders are automatically read without them having to even slow down from highway speed. People without transponders have to pull off down a ramp to pay in cash and then reenter the roadway. I don't know exactly how many of these on-road plazas there are, but there's a lot of them.
I believe the Ohio Turnpike could be retrofitted to accomodate high speed tolling, placing plazas along the roadway every 20-40 miles. Some of the current toll plazas could be eliminated completely, and others would be reduced to partial plazas. Now that the turnpike EZ Pass system has been in place for nearly two years, people are aware of it, and have gotten used to it, and even many more would apply for a transponder if this change were made, thus streamlining the system even more.
What about the loss of jobs that would result? Not to worry, because this system should also be instituted on other interstates in Ohio, particularly I71 and I75. About 15-20 years ago, the federal government was advocating that states build more toll roads. Some states did. Ohio did not. I never thought that it was practical to convert existing interstates into toll roads. But with high speed tolling, most of the obstacles disappear.
If the governor would institute such a plan, instead of settling for the shortsighted plan he has, Ohio would be much better off.
This week, however, I've had a thoroughly wonderful vacation trip, and so I wanted to describe it. However, on the way up to Wisconsin, and now on the way back, the thing that is currently pressed on my mind goes back to my job. As a turnpike toll collector in Ohio, I constantly live with the threat that the turnpike will be leased or sold. If this happens, there are a number of scenarios that could play out, none of which could be interpreted as good to the employees there.
I think of myself as a Republican and I voted for John Kasich. In general, I support his efforts to find ways to bring Ohio's budget back under control, and to plug any shortfalls. However, there are right ways and wrong ways to do things, and to simply give away one of the state's most valuable assets for the paltry sum of 2.5 billion dollars net is about as shortsighted as one can get.
Notice, I'm not even making the argument here, as some have, that the turnpike is NOT a state asset. Others have argued that case persuavely. I'll just concede the point and move on. There is a much better way to deal with the turnpike that would put it in state hands, and make a whole lot more money. It's called High Speed Tolls.
I discovered this while driving around Chicago last week, and I think it's a most marvelous thing. I had seen a High Speed Toll plaza in Pennsylvania near the Ohio border the last time I drove through there, and while I thought it was kind of cool, I didn't think much more than that. But the Illinois Tollway has taken that concept to a whole new level. With High Speed Tolls, drivers with transponders simply drive through the plaza area, and their transponders are automatically read without them having to even slow down from highway speed. People without transponders have to pull off down a ramp to pay in cash and then reenter the roadway. I don't know exactly how many of these on-road plazas there are, but there's a lot of them.
I believe the Ohio Turnpike could be retrofitted to accomodate high speed tolling, placing plazas along the roadway every 20-40 miles. Some of the current toll plazas could be eliminated completely, and others would be reduced to partial plazas. Now that the turnpike EZ Pass system has been in place for nearly two years, people are aware of it, and have gotten used to it, and even many more would apply for a transponder if this change were made, thus streamlining the system even more.
What about the loss of jobs that would result? Not to worry, because this system should also be instituted on other interstates in Ohio, particularly I71 and I75. About 15-20 years ago, the federal government was advocating that states build more toll roads. Some states did. Ohio did not. I never thought that it was practical to convert existing interstates into toll roads. But with high speed tolling, most of the obstacles disappear.
If the governor would institute such a plan, instead of settling for the shortsighted plan he has, Ohio would be much better off.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Frustrations
Frustrations come in many forms. When they involve playing a game, they can normally be set aside as unimportant or irrelevant. Nevertheless....
There were only a handful of video games that ever interested me, and my favorite was Super Mario Brothers 3. When I owned it about 15 years ago, I got to be pretty good at it. I never got bored with it even after beating it became somewhat routine. A few months ago, I discovered that it had been re-released for the Wii. I tried playing against my daughter when visiting her once and discovered that I couldn't complete even a single level in world 1. So naturally, I had to download it onto my own Wii to practice.
While working at it over the past few months, I'm slowly getting better, but it frustrates me that it's taking so long. Granted, I'm not spending hours and hours doing it, but I can't be getting THAT old, that my reflexes have become so slow.
The two things that give me the most trouble are the note boxes and the sliding duck. For the most part, the note boxes are not vital to the game and I can do them well enough to at least get by. But the sliding duck is crucial at certain levels, and my inability to make it work more than once in every 15-20 tries (it's probably actually worse than that) is getting me down.
The second fortress in world 6 is one of those crucial places that I've been working on lately. There's a spot in there that if you can't make it through, then even if you do continue on and make it to Boom-Boom's hall, it will be as small Mario, and since he's one of the more trickier ones in the game, he's tough to beat when you're small.
There were only a handful of video games that ever interested me, and my favorite was Super Mario Brothers 3. When I owned it about 15 years ago, I got to be pretty good at it. I never got bored with it even after beating it became somewhat routine. A few months ago, I discovered that it had been re-released for the Wii. I tried playing against my daughter when visiting her once and discovered that I couldn't complete even a single level in world 1. So naturally, I had to download it onto my own Wii to practice.
While working at it over the past few months, I'm slowly getting better, but it frustrates me that it's taking so long. Granted, I'm not spending hours and hours doing it, but I can't be getting THAT old, that my reflexes have become so slow.
The two things that give me the most trouble are the note boxes and the sliding duck. For the most part, the note boxes are not vital to the game and I can do them well enough to at least get by. But the sliding duck is crucial at certain levels, and my inability to make it work more than once in every 15-20 tries (it's probably actually worse than that) is getting me down.
The second fortress in world 6 is one of those crucial places that I've been working on lately. There's a spot in there that if you can't make it through, then even if you do continue on and make it to Boom-Boom's hall, it will be as small Mario, and since he's one of the more trickier ones in the game, he's tough to beat when you're small.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Fond Baseball Memory
One of my fondest memories is of when I was 8 years old and my uncle took be to an Indians' game against the Yankees. I had been to one game with my father the previous year when I was 7, but that was a day game and the only thing I remember about it was that the Indians won against, I think, the Tigers. Because memory is such a tricky thing, I tried to research the game to see how much of my memory is trustworthy. Turns out I had a few things wrong. I thought it was on September 8th on a Wednesday, but it was actually on September 9th on a Tuesday. I also thought Billy Martin was on the Indians and was actually the last batter in the game, but he didn't actually play for the Indians until the following season. And I thought the Indians scored 10 runs in the fifth, but it was only 8.
Those minor things aside, my basic memory was correct. It was a night game. I got to see Mickey Mantle hit a home run, and I remembered that the Indians catcher Russ Nixon hit two home runs in that game. The Indians were behind 2-1 when they came up in the bottom of the fifth. They proceeded to score 8 runs. They had the bases loaded with 2 outs and whoever the batter was (I thought it was Martin, but I guess it couldn't have been) had a 2-2 count when it started pouring rain and the umpires stopped play.
We sat for exactly one hour until the game was officially ended due to the rain. This caused me to believe that there was a rule that if a game was stopped for rain, they would wait one hour, and then call it. Funny the conclusions you draw from experience as a kid. The Indians won since they were the home team and were ahead in the bottom of the fifth.
It seems as I get older, memories such as that become more precious.
Those minor things aside, my basic memory was correct. It was a night game. I got to see Mickey Mantle hit a home run, and I remembered that the Indians catcher Russ Nixon hit two home runs in that game. The Indians were behind 2-1 when they came up in the bottom of the fifth. They proceeded to score 8 runs. They had the bases loaded with 2 outs and whoever the batter was (I thought it was Martin, but I guess it couldn't have been) had a 2-2 count when it started pouring rain and the umpires stopped play.
We sat for exactly one hour until the game was officially ended due to the rain. This caused me to believe that there was a rule that if a game was stopped for rain, they would wait one hour, and then call it. Funny the conclusions you draw from experience as a kid. The Indians won since they were the home team and were ahead in the bottom of the fifth.
It seems as I get older, memories such as that become more precious.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Less Than Perfect Ending
By the time Thursday rolled around, I think we were both just too tired. We went to Yorktown, which, like Jamestown, is divided into two parts. Yorktown Victory Center has a museum with artifacts from the time period of the battle, as well as a movie. They also have a re-creation of part of the camp so we could see the little tents with hay on the floors that the soldiers had to sleep in. There is also a working farm there in the style of the 18th century, so that was pretty interesting. The second part is part of the national park system and includes the actual battlefield, which still has the siege mounds from back then. There are also a lot of plaques around the place.
In both places, we more or less sleepwalked through it. It would be something that I would have to do again sometime if I wanted to really get anything out of it.
The real problems came on Friday, when we tried to come home. There was some kind of accident on I-64 that came into play shortly after we left that left us mostly sitting for nearly two hours. Along with a few other things that caused problems, particularly at a service plaza in Pennsylvania, where they didn't have a Cinnabon place like we expected (this made Kim cranky because she had sort of promised Kelly) and problems with the gas pump where no attendant is on duty, which made me have to go find someone (this made me cranky), I then drove straight home without stopping to eat, which made both of us crankier.
I promise, though, that it will not ruin the memory of a good vacation.
In both places, we more or less sleepwalked through it. It would be something that I would have to do again sometime if I wanted to really get anything out of it.
The real problems came on Friday, when we tried to come home. There was some kind of accident on I-64 that came into play shortly after we left that left us mostly sitting for nearly two hours. Along with a few other things that caused problems, particularly at a service plaza in Pennsylvania, where they didn't have a Cinnabon place like we expected (this made Kim cranky because she had sort of promised Kelly) and problems with the gas pump where no attendant is on duty, which made me have to go find someone (this made me cranky), I then drove straight home without stopping to eat, which made both of us crankier.
I promise, though, that it will not ruin the memory of a good vacation.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Williamsburg Part II
Tuesday and Wednesday we spent walking around Colonial Williamsburg. It was the capital of Virginia during colonial times. The re-created village is built on the ruins of the original town, so it's pretty authentic. The visitor's center is about half a mile away where you park and take a shuttle bus (or walk) around the village. Many of the places to visit are shops where people in costume do make things like shoes, clothing, and newspapers, the same way they were made back then. Additionally, there are actors in the streets that act out the parts of various characters that lived back then, as well as stage performances at different places. My favorite was of Lafayette giving a speech outside the governor's palace of the "recent" arrival of General Washington's troops to prepare for the battle of Yorktown. He was really entertaining.
At the other end of town there was a performance outside the old Capitol Building where the Declaration of Independence was read from the balcony, aided by other characters standing in front of the building. Characters scattered through the crowd would shout "Huzzah" at appropriate times, and it was just so easy to picture the real thing.
If was very tiring spending two days walking throughout the village visiting the shops and stores. It's not a really huge area, maybe a mile from one end to the other, and less than half a mile wide. But some of the museums are rather large, and I'm not as young as I used to be.
But really, the only negative experience I had was looking at price tags of things that were for sale. I know and fully expect to pay high prices at tourist traps, but I don't think I've ever been anywhere with prices as high as these. A simple hand-made girls shawl is $150, and a ceramic cup goes for $40. Even a boys size tri-cornered hat was $25. Fortunately, I'm not easily swayed.
All in all, it's been a great visit. My only regret is not realizing how much there is to do here. I thought visiting the triangle would be a part of our vacation in between doing other things at the resort. Instead it has sort of become the vacation. Maybe we should just plan on coming back again someday.
At the other end of town there was a performance outside the old Capitol Building where the Declaration of Independence was read from the balcony, aided by other characters standing in front of the building. Characters scattered through the crowd would shout "Huzzah" at appropriate times, and it was just so easy to picture the real thing.
If was very tiring spending two days walking throughout the village visiting the shops and stores. It's not a really huge area, maybe a mile from one end to the other, and less than half a mile wide. But some of the museums are rather large, and I'm not as young as I used to be.
But really, the only negative experience I had was looking at price tags of things that were for sale. I know and fully expect to pay high prices at tourist traps, but I don't think I've ever been anywhere with prices as high as these. A simple hand-made girls shawl is $150, and a ceramic cup goes for $40. Even a boys size tri-cornered hat was $25. Fortunately, I'm not easily swayed.
All in all, it's been a great visit. My only regret is not realizing how much there is to do here. I thought visiting the triangle would be a part of our vacation in between doing other things at the resort. Instead it has sort of become the vacation. Maybe we should just plan on coming back again someday.
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