This was a quick month. With the Kings Island trip moved up from July 21-23 to June 30- July 3, that left open a free weekend for July 21-23.
So we took a road trip to Carowinds. Learning from Plonker’s night driving skills I took an extra day off of work so that we could travel during daylight hours. But with us being Fujupz, we left at Fujupz 9am, which is generally considered “sometime before noon”. I think we hit the road about 10:30 or 11, which is actually pretty good based on our standards. I was later told by my dad that when he was in the military you make sure to be strictly punctual as to not have a superior officer screaming in your face. Lucky for us neither of us were in the military, and we didn’t have any hardcore schedule to follow outside of “Reach Charlotte, NC some time today” and “Once there find BBQ”.
A concern about the trip was our weight loss regime, as mentioned in “Can’t we just have ideas magically come to fruition?” of losing 2# every week until goal with a $20 fine imposed of missed goals. I had made my goal for the Monday before the trip, but had gained some back in the mean time. This is a normal occurrence where I tend to hit goal on Friday or Saturday, have a cheat day, and hit the next goal the following Friday or Saturday. This time we were leaving Thursday morning and I was about a pound away from goal. I was hoping that walking around in 95 degree here for 10 miles per day for 2 days would let me drop the weight pretty quickly.
Day 1 was Thursday: a travel day. As said we left at Fujupz 9 and headed toward Charlotte. We learned from the Augusta trip a few years ago not to trust the GPS when heading that direction without studying the map as they tend to want us to travel due west for 2 hours before hitting 77 and heading south east. A few people that I talked to before leaving agreed that yeah, that’s they way you have to go. If you go any other way you’ll get caught up in DC traffic, which is no where near our route. We too 79 to 19 to 77. Which cuts off all the wasted time in Ohio, and is again, no where near DC. A recommended stop was to New River Gorge Bridge in West Virginia. West Virginia is apparently quite proud of their bridges because we found 2 on our little outing that were specifically mentioned at tourist destinations. We only went to the one. They had an upper and lower viewing deck, and another deck that was closed. And if you wanted to spend $75 you could walk under the bridge on a tour. We opted not to spend the extra money and took a couple pictures from the open viewing decks. We were unimpressed as we’ve both seen bridges before. Apparently the bridge is really high in the gorge, which must be the attraction, but from where we were able to see from we could barely see the gorge. Perhaps what the third viewing deck is open, or possibly winter it may be a better view.
The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful, especially for a Fujupz trip. Here Come the Mummies played nearly the entire 9 hours down. We stopped to get snacks where Plonker had sunflower seeds, and I got whoopie pies, Doritos, and later Bigfoot brand candies, which were like Swedish Fish but foot shaped and little different taste wise. My stomach was pretty full after that, but we hadn’t yet completed our missions.
We finally reached Charlotte around 8, I want to say and checked into our rooms. A trip anywhere is not complete until we hit up the local Walmart, so we regrouped at 8:30 for a Walmart run. I don’t remember what Plonker needed, but I got some insoles for my shoes. Those expensive ones from Dr. Scholls, where you stand on the computer thing and it tells you what to buy. I wanted to try something after having my feet blister from walking all around Cedar Point. They feel pretty good, but my shoes feel loose now, odd.
Next on to complete mission 2: BBQ. By this time is was almost 10 and things were starting to close. Luckily we found McKoys Smokehouse. Unable to decide what to get we both got the “Livin’ the Dream” dinners, which included 2 sides, some ribs, pulled pork, brisket, and chicken. Plonker ate all of his, amazingly I couldn’t. I’m going to blame the full bag of Doritos on the car ride. And sadly, I never did finish the leftovers, and also sadly that was the last of the BBQ in Charlotte that we ate.
The next morning was Carowinds. We again rode all of the coasters by early to mid afternoon. Also it was 95 degrees, so we opted for a break around 4. We were going to get something to eat, but after gorging the day before we, amazingly, decided against it. We found the Carolina Raptor Center and stopped in. They were closing in a half hour, with the walk taking about an hour so we postponed that until Saturday. Having killed some time we went back to the park.
The park overall was pretty dead. When asking other guests what the cause was they surmised it was the heat/because it was Friday. Saturday, they said, it would be HOURS of waiting in lines.
We closed out the park at 10 and hunted down some food, which ended up being Chili’s. Neither of use were still that hungry, Plonker getting the soup and salad and me getting the Turkey Sandwich. I also had cheesecake.
Saturday started with the stop Cafe South, which looked like a converted Bob Evan’s. And by converted I mean new menus and sign. The food was.. ok, I guess. It wasn’t anything special. Then off to the Raptor Center, which was neat. I like to see animals. Then back to the park to walk around all day in the 95 degree heat again. Our free drink passes really paid for themselves this trip if not already this season. We skipped food again, except for some Icee’s. It still wasn’t that busy considering it was a Saturday. We thought it must have been the heat. Closing out the park at 10 we went looking for food. This time it was Waffle House. Waffle House in the south, I must say, is better than the local Ohio Waffle House. I’m not saying it’s great… but it is better down there. I had a hashbrown bowl I think? Whatever they called it they gave me Plonkers hashbrowns, which he ordered with ham and jalapenos and gravy. I didn’t get the gravy. He didn’t get his hashbrowns. They made him his batch but didn’t give him his gravy. A long standing rule for us with food workers is don’t piss them off lest spit be added to your order, and having already having to correct an order once, he didn’t want to mention anything else. Alas he was gravyless.
Sunday was again travel day. We stopped for snacks and drinks a couple times. Otherwise nothing of note. We did stop at IKEA in Robinson, mainly for the meatballs, somewhat to look at furniture, but totally for the meatballs. I must say, they were good. There I also had my first Naked brand Strawberry Banana Smoothie, which I’ve found really fills me up, causing me to eat less during the day and letting me lose all the weight I gained on this trip.
The next planned trip will be our 2nd Annual Bike Trip to Cedar Point. We’ve been trying to cram in the miles as practice, making up for lost time that we haven’t ridden all season. We have been riding with 40# trailers with 40# of stuff, so when we do the actual trip hopefully that will have helped us with endurance.
Until next time..
