I slept pretty well last night actually, even though it remained a nice 88 degrees in there all night. I used a blue-ice pack as a pillow, and actually had a really comfortable sleep, more so even than usual. But while I’m awake at home, it’s damn hot. I know people have lived for years without air conditioning in places far hotter and more humid than Raleigh, but I’m not used to it. Guess I’m a spoiled princess of a man. A male Veruca Salt. Or Veruco.
The photos from the Ohio trip are up now, and you can get there from the main page of plutonyum.com because I have at long last put a link back up to them. Might as well get to. . .
The Ohio Recap.
Friday the 11th: We got on the road at a good hour. I was amazed at the fact that we left more or less on time, and that we didn’t overpack. The drive up was all right. Yes, there were five of us crammed in the Billymobile, but the weather cooperated with us; it was cool the whole way, especially in the upper regions of West Virginia. We made a stop at Pilot Mountain. I had been past it many times, but had never been on top of it. The Honda struggled up the mountain, and we had a look from the top. A good view, though hazy. It’s really weird how it’s so flat up there, and then Pilot Mountain just rises out of nowhere.
We continued on our way, and went up I-77. Through VA and through the tunnel into WV we went. The interstate curves a lot, and the road is boring, but the scenery is really nice. Until you get to Charleston, which looks like crap. The capitol has a gold dome, and everything else is rundown brick or concrete. North of Charleston the terrain gets flatter and the road less curvy, but it’s still the hills. We stopped in a suburb of Ripley at a Burger King that we’d gone to before. Chris spilled his fries by walking into the side of a booth, and Jim got freaked out by a guy who was wearing a “Mothman Search Team” hat. Apparently The Mothman Prophecies took place around that area of WV, and is an extremely scary movie. Jim saw the guy’s hat and wouldn’t shut up about it. I want to see that movie now, though I say that about a lot of movies and never see them. Eventually the guy with the hat finishied his meal and left the restaurant, and once Jim noticed, he started yelling about how the guy “just disappeared.”
About an hour later we got into Ohio, and the next 45 minutes were taken up by an event that should really only be told in person. Let’s just say it involved a middle finger, a Jesus sign, Jim yelling, road rage, and a weapon. It turned out okay, and in hindsight it was funny, but. . . drama. Welcome to Ohio.
Eventually we got to Cynthia’s unimpeded, and Justin and Melissa has actually beaten us there. They arrived back from their run and Melissa demanded Ruby Tuesday’s for dinner. All that way to go to a chain restaurant? We thought not. We found ourselves eating there, so I guess we were wrong. Melissa apparently has been subsisting on PB&J, grubs, and termites fished out of mounds with sticks, so the buffet was mighty tempting to her. Justin asked for sweet tea like some kind of rube and was met by the goateed waiter’s blank stare. Sweet. . . tea?
Afterwards we went to Wal*Mart sans Melissa to get provisions for the next day’s picnic. I was hoping for some cooperation from my compatriots, but as I complained at them at the time, it was like herding retarded cats around the Wal*Mart SuperCenter. Eventually enough food was found, and we left. Went home, watched some TV I think, and went to bed.
Saturday: A trip to Hocking Hills State Park was in order. We left after brekfasting on cinammon rolls and bacon. There was a lot of “Are we going the right way?” but we made it there okay. We called it hiking, but it was just a bunch of walking around on paths. Still, it was wonderful. A beautiful place. Basically it’s a canyon and cave system in the middle of Ohio. The caves aren’t the kind you see in Scooby-Doo, more like exaggerated overhangs, but the result is a cool, dark forest down out of the sunlight. The scenery was like nothing I had seen in my limited travels. We visited some waterfalls and the Devil’s Bathtub, then went back to eat our picinic. Out came the coolers, and Justin and I took the big one and started up the hill. He noticed, but I didn’t, that there was a family racing us up to the tables. I wondered why we were practically running with the cooler, but as we put our cooler down, so was a cooler put down at the other end of the set of 3 tables. This always makes me nervous, since the limited vocabulary of my friends results in a lot of words that parents don’t generally want their kids to hear. We did fine though. Nearly lost it when Melissa asked if the Soft Batch cookies belonged to anyone, and upon hearing they were to be shared, promptly opened the bag and ate a third of the cookies at once. It’s as if she hadn’t seen Soft Batch in months. . . hmm. Maybe it does make sense after all. It actually wasn’t a big deal. I think the main subject was the chipotle mayo that Cynthia had, which Justin insisted was called CHAH-potle.
Towards the end of the meal, Cynthia and Mandy went off to the bathroom at the building about 200 yards from the picnic. They got out of sight, and then the raindrops started. Quickly we packed up. More and more rain. The drops were as big as your head, assuming you have some sort of disease that causes your head to swell to the size of a watermelon. Down the hill we ran, and down came the rain, and we can not get into the cars! Cynthia has got the keys to both vehicles. She was now out of the bathroom and was running to the car, so I Carl Lewised it to her and grabbed the keys, then ran back and unlocked her Explorer. We all jumped into one car or another (Melissa unlocked her car too). We all got somewhat wet, but were able to at least sit under cover for the ten minutes or so that the thunderstorm lasted.
Back out we went to enjoy the scenery some more, along with some other waterfalls and Old Man’s Cave, which is just huge. The truncated story of the old man is that he lived in that area, and made a home in the caves, and one day the local Indians went to check on him, and it turned out that he had been breaking up some ice with his gun when he accidentally shot himself. They buried him in the cave, so the story goes. He did have a pretty nice place.
We went on to the waterfalls, which are nice to look at. If you’re a local redneck, apparently it’s a nice swimming hole as well. We saw one woman wearing a one-piece bathing suit and boots, smoking a cigarette, going for a swim. Mandy and Melissa went for a wade, and then it started raining again, so we headed out. Back up the rocks, up some stairs and near to the entrance, when another thunderstorm came up. Luckily we were in a really cool spot to watch, as we were at least 80 feet off the ground or so and were under a sizeable overhang. I kept taking pictures with my flash and unintentionally scaring the nearby old-timers. After a while, water came out of the tunnel-stairs and made a little stream in front of us, which we of course had to divert. After a while, up the stairs and to the ranger building we went again. That’s where I saw the WORST TAXIDERMY EVER. Then we went home.
Went to Lam’s Garden for dinner, where we were all served waaay too much food. It was good though, and we went home full.
I’ll finish this later. . .
Almost time to go home. I wish for A/C. Don’t care how. I want it now. Down the “bad egg” chute I go.
Tags: General Thoughts by Tony
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. Justin did not show up, but that was unsurprising. I went to bed. 
