July 14-Raleigh Hills to Sandusky, Ohio

Up early to pack, coffee,  Dennis' great oatmeal and some hard so-longs, never goodbyes. K & I both felt a true sadness at not having more time, but a true joy at having the time.  Thanks to my family for truly being our family.

Down I-75 and back to my roots, Buckeyes--where it is the norm, not the odd sighting, to see Indians, Browns and Ohio State T-shirts.  Rolling fields filled with hip high corn, beans and various unidentified veggies.  City names passing by, Toledo, Bucyrus, Tiffin....,names from the past with memories long forgotten but none the less, part of me.

We got to Cedar Point at 11:10, exactly 3 hours after leaving Detroit.  I was impressed as Dennis told me it would take 3 hours.  Parking  - $10.00, entrance fee - $92.00, 2 hot dogs and 2 small diet cokes - $17.00, going on the Millenium  Roller Coaster where the laws of gravity are defied,  teeth rattle, loose change and pocket debris lost in 360's,where grown men weep like little girls, where butts pucker and bladders can empty - priceless.

We really had a great time except the fact of waiting anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour and 15 minutes to get on a ride.  We did recharge our resources with chocolate (me) and strawberry (K) milkshakes.  We took a path less traveled and walked along the beach and walked through the historic "Breakers" hotel whose walls were covered with black and white photo's of times gone by - reminded me of "The Shining" but Jack Nicholson was no where to be found.

Lake Erie

The famous Breakers Hotel

A view up into the rotunda

It was going on 5:00 and we were pretty done with the old, "Up & down" so we headed out to discover Sandusky.  We checked in to the Comfort Inn and then went out for Italian at "Danny's" which was actually very good.  One negative we have found so far is that Ohio's idea of a good beer falls somewhere between Bud and Miller.  K is jonesing for a Porter or stout.  We will need to seek counseling to help her through this.

We then went back to the old Comfort Inn for a Moonlight swim.  The moon was hidden by tree's, the pool was filled with aggressive children who came from the Demon Seed, the hottub was so dirty that I can actually report that opaque would be the best description.  We went back to our room for a shower and tried to remove any toxic elements.  The shouts, screams, music(?) and cry's of anguish continued to around 2:00 when my sense of outrage crumbled and I fell into an exhausted sleep with two pillows over my head.