For the last couple months we had the plan of going to Kings Island in Mason, Ohio around the 20th of July. We purchased Cedar Fair Platinum Passes (and the unlimited drink pass) for the first time this year, which if you didn’t know lets you visit any Cedar Fair park for free. This gives us a reason to think of any excuse to visit a park any time even the slighted possibility pops up.
We had already visited Cedar Point over the Memorial Day weekend, 3 days in a row. That essentially “paid for” the passes, everything beyond that would be essentially free visits. Cedar Point is the closest park to our area now, since Geauga Lake/Six Flags Worlds of Adventure/Geauga Lake closed a few years, so it’s become our “go to” destination. Kings Island is the next closest. I, myself, have never been there and Plonker was there last when he was a kid. Plonker’s schedule was open around the 20th of July, so the plan was in motion.
By the end of June, Plonker’s schedule opened up at the beginning of July also. We have our Second Annual Bike Ride to Cedar Point coming up in August again, and since we’ve both gained weight, and haven’t actually ridden much this year the original plan was to do a couple 40 mile bike rides on Saturday and Monday with this newly acquired free time.
Ooooorrrrr…. we could go to King’s Island. This opens up the weekend of the 20th to be able to hit Carowinds, which, in hindsight, we should have done THIS weekend since we had more days available and it’s a farther drive. Plans are made. Leave Friday after work, or to be more precise, after Plonker’s date that he somehow made, spend Saturday, Sunday, and Monday at the park, drive the 5 hours back and be home in time to pick up Plonker’s son at noon on Tuesday.
Friday comes, and at work almost everyone leaves early. I stay, I’m maintenance and there’s always something I could be doing. There was no real point in leaving early since we couldn’t leave until after Plonker’s date anyway. So I stay my whole shift and then some and go home and wait. In the mean time a huge storm rolls through the area, and in fact it’s supposed to rain the entire weekend, with the exception of a possibly decent Sunday. We figure it’s worth the risk since we’re there for 3 days and we can still ride rides between storms. This night however the storm was bad enough that his car got stuck in the girl’s driveway. After about 1-1.5 hours Plonker got his car out with assistance.
At about Midnight Saturday morning we finally his the road. By this time the storm had stopped so the ride wasn’t too bad. Of course, we were both tired since had had both been up the whole day. About half way to Columbus we stopped for snacks and caffeine, threatening to destroy all the weight loss we’ve accomplished from our lasted weight loss scheme. But everyone knows calories don’t count on vacation, right?
About 3 am it was too much for Plonker and he needed some shut eye. He pulls over for a quick 20 minute nap in a convenience store parking lot. After his alarm goes off, he resets it. 20 minutes later it goes off and he shuts it off. I couldn’t sleep in his car’s seat so I end up just reading shit online and watching the people go in and out of the convenience store. Finally about 5 am I wake his ass up because I’m tired of sitting there and we take off. We’re about an hour and a half from arrival. Of course, during this leg of the trip I was nodding in and out of consciousness.
About 6:30 we arrive at the hotel, which we had reserved via Marriott Points for Friday-Monday. We didn’t arrive Friday so that through the night staff in disarray. Twenty-five minutes later I finally make it to my room for some sleep. Two hours of sleep, so we can get to the park early and ride everything because it’ll surely be jam packed with people, and lines take time.
We rode all the coasters by 2. It was not that busy. Busy enough I guess, but it wasn’t too bad. Wait times were possibly 20 minutes at the longest. We sensed an odd vibe at the place. There’s a certain energy at Cedar Point that we we’re really feeling here. The coasters we’re bad per se, but they weren’t causing excitement. But, we’re essentially dead inside, so I can’t solely blame the park or the rides.
We decided to get something to eat, but due to a lack of sit-down and have a waitress restaurants in this place (Cedar Point has a few) we left for the nearest TGI Friday’s. We came up with a new plan over food, since we finished the park in like 4 hours and we had 2.5 days left. Instead of 3 days at Kings Island we’d finish out the day there, stay the night in Mason, then drive the 4 hours to Sandusky, then finish the trip there. We also pushed the limits and exceeded, by a lot, our calorie intake with Endless Appetizers.
Canceling the rooms was no problem, however, finding new rooms in Sandusky that uses Marriott points was. It was the holiday weekend after all. Same with Hilton Points. I looked on various travel sites and found dirt cheap room at a hotel not too far from the park. I booked them on Choice Hotels website on my phone before leaving the next morning. But, before that happened we went back to Kings Island.
After food, then going back to the hotel to take care of canceling the room, we were back at it. We rode most of the coasters again, some a couple times. They tended to be more fun the second time around, possibly because we were just hangry the first time around. The park also seemed to be busier at this point, so wait times were longer. As it got darker the coasters that are set in the woods (the park is set against a forest) were more fun. I very much enjoyed those. Midnight came and the park closed, which they announce over a speaker: “The park and rides are now closed”. I find that a little odd since Cedar Point doesn’t explicitly tell you they’re closed, you just kind of know when the mass migration of people are headed toward the exits and all off the shops shut down, and rides close after the final rides finish.
Back at the hotel, Plonker states that we’ll do a 6 am departure for Sandusky. In the morning that turned into 7 am. We stopped at McDonald’s and with 2 sandwiches and 2 hashbrowns nearly destroyed the calorie goals for the day. About an hour in we stopped at Starbucks for caffeine, gas, and air for the slow leak on Plonker’s car. I announce that I was surprised that he wanted to leave at 6 am. I figured we wouldn’t actually leave until about 9 considering last year’s bike trip we constantly said we’d need to leave by 9, but never actually left the hotels until noon. That’s about when we realized there was communications disconnect. Also we didn’t actually get the gas.
About 2 hours or so from Sandusky, a little north of Columbus, we stop for actual gas this time. Plonker says he hopes he can make it. I offer to drive. Now, I have never driven Plonker’s car. It’s also a lot newer than my car as a 2015 Volkswagon Passat. It has all kinds of bells and whistles than I don’t even know about. My car is a 1993 Mercedes 190E. It was never top of the line Mercedes even in it’s prime, and is fairly basic. I’m not used to his car is what I’m saying.
After an hour and a half or so of driving Plonker’s car, all the while trying desperately to stay focused on the road I see a state trooping on the shoulder of the road. “I wonder why he pulled over like that” I say to myself as the blue lights turn on and he makes a U turn behind me. “SHIT!” I say as I punch Plonker in the arm to wake him from his nap. “COP!” I say.
Trooper comes up and asks where we’re coming from, where we’re going, license, registration, insurance and all that. I’m like oh this is his car, i’m not used to it, not sure if that matters for anything. “You didn’t steal it, did you?” was his question. “No”, I say as I figured a joke about roofies probably wouldn’t sit well. I was stopped on doing 69 in a 55 zone. He goes to write a ticket. Plonker realizes he never registered his car officially after buying out his lease, but amazingly it come up. After getting my $120 ticket I realized that my license still has my old address on it.
After the incident Plonker then shows me how to show the speed in a more convenient location, and how to turn on the cruise control, because holy hell his gas pedal is touchy.
We soon arrive at Cedar Point without incident, and overall it was a good day. Ate at Melt Bar and Grilled (further blowing the calorie limit out of the water) and found our Plonker still needs to lose some weight to fit in a few rides. The Maverick was the last ride of the night, but at the final stop I burped up some stomach acid than burning the back of my throat. It was pretty uncomfortable.
After leaving the park, we head for the hotel that I booked that morning. The indian guy looked confused and I gave the reservation information. Apparently I booked it for the 23rd-24th instead of the 2nd-3rd. His explanation being that maybe I typed in the wrong date. My counter was that I didn’t TYPE any date since you select from a pop up calendar. In any case he didn’t have any rooms for the night. A foreign couple offered us their room because their friends offered them a place to stay. The girl said they paid $38, her boyfriend said $78, so perhaps they were trying to rip us off. There was only one room however, with only 1 bed, and we don’t swing that way. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
After a trip to Walmart, a calling of all the area hotels commenced. Most were booked. The Indian guy at the HoJo said he did have rooms, though it was hard to understand him. We assumed he misinterpreted it as 1 room/2 beds. In person he also said he had them, but sent someone out to check the one room. we were there about 45 minutes waiting and in the interim Plonker called more hotels. Cedar Point Express hotel said they had 2 rooms, but couldn’t hold them over the phone. So we jump in to go, as we’re leaving the indian runs out the door and says the rooms are ready. Figuring it’ll be cheaper we decide to go with it. After another half hour or so we have our key cards.
I initally couldn’t get my door open. Insert card, pull out, turn handle, no go. Put in card, turn handle, no go. Read card instructions, insert card, pull out, turn handle, no go. Put pressure on card against the reader… got a green light, no open. Not wanting to walk all the way to the lobby I gave it one more go and shouldered the door after getting the green light. Finally got in. Worried about getting out again I turned the dead bolt, after which I spent 10 minutes figuring out how to get it back in so I could shut the door. A little leery about the whole thing I decided to use the chain lock also, however the chain wouldn’t engage in the latch. And that’s how I left it.
Plonker didn’t have nearly has many issues. He did, however, find a pair of panties under the mattress while looking for bedbugs. Then went to Taco Bell, spent $25 on food, but only ate 1/2 a taco. I’m guessing he was too distracted by the panties. He said he wasn’t, but we’ll see who will be laughing when he inevitably has to explain to the doctor how he got the Herp in Sandusky.
The next morning we slept in. Me until 9:30, Plonker til 10:30. We checkout and head to the park for day 3 at an amusement park. It was very busy as the day before the a holiday. Overall, an average day, ate at TGI Friday’s again, this time for ribs. I kept dropping bones on myself as I tend to eat like a 7 year old. Throughout the day my throat got worse and worse, until I was getting congested. Then my nose was running. Now I’m at the point I can’t breath and have a horrible headache. We ate at Toft’s Ice Cream in the park, which is more expensive, has less selection, and smaller servings than it’s normal counterpart, but that’s to be expected.
We again closed out the park and this time headed home. Beat from 40 hours of walking through amusement parks and driving 8 hours on 12 hours of sleep in 3 days.
Less than an hour in, Plonker was too tired to drive and stopped for a nap behind a convenience store. After about 15 minutes a cop pulled in and headed toward us, at which point I said “COP!”, waking Plonker. He actually didn’t stop, but it was enough to wake Plonker up, and back on the road we went. Until about 2 am, and he pulled in the rest area for a 20 minute nap. Again I couldn’t sleep in his car. His alarm goes off. He resets. It goes off. He turns it off. He woke up about 4 times looked around and went back to sleep during the 3 hours we were parked there. Luckily he decided to hit the road, in the nick of time, as I was about to smother him to silence the snoring. Of course, in that last hour on the road I kept nodding in and out.
And thus ends another successful Fujupz trip, with another schedule in less than three weeks.
Amazingly in the end, I lost 4# from my last weigh in date and Plonker only gained .1#. See, calories don’t count on vacation.
