Remember last month when I thought I was screwed having bought a ticket online to this well-known theme park but went there and found out it wasn't open on weekdays?
Well I decided to use that ticket after all and to keep costs low, I went up to Ohio just for the day! Not an overnight one day but a morning to evening one day!
Yup. Got up at 4:00 am, had a cup of coffee or two, popped a phen with my other meds, of course...I'd need the energy...drove to OIA at 5:30, hopped on my plane at 7:00, no bags whatsoever, landed at CVG (Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport) an hour and 45 minutes later. Took the Thrifty shuttle to the rental car place, got in my rented Ford Fiesta and drove to Kings Island about 25 miles away.
Oh, but I was hungry so I stopped at McD's but while in drive thru I noticed a White Castle next door so I grabbed my McD's breakfast sandwiches but went right over to White Castle, ordered 6 cheeseburgers and ate them instead. (We don't have White Castles in Florida and I've had the supermarket freezer ones but never fresh from one of their restaurants.) Well, I ate 4 of them 'cause they are quite filling for litlle slider burgers. They taste great. A lot like the Krystal's we have here in Florida but no mustard and it seems more onions.
Here's where my plan started unraveling though. I'd planned on spending about 5 hours riding as many roller coasters I could 1.) tolerate and 2.) could fit on. Two things working against me. I was still nursing a hangover from last night and after the burgers I was feeling really sluggish and wiped out. I mean, I was greying out with fatigue much the same as I was last week during our golf match.
The park is quite stretched out, not quite as large as it looked in Google Streetview, but for me, large enough. There was a lot of walking. Including from the far edge of the parking lot. No trams to pick you up like at Disney!
And, like the last time I was up in Ohio, it was scorching hot! Phen really makes me sensitive to the heat.
So I stayed only about 3 hours, mostly moving from one shaded bench to another, people watching and such. I was able to ride one roller coaster, a woody called Mystic Timbers. Thanks to the teen aged ride op for managing to just barely squeeze me into the seat and smash that lap bar into my fat thighs so it could get one click. Otherwise it would have been a sad Walk of Shame for me. And I bet this park wouldn't cram a bunch of fast passes in my hand as a consolation like Universal.
I'd read online before I left for this trip that the coaster I went on was one of the roomiest. So, figuring I wouldn't fit at all on anything else I gave up. Plus I was being a wimp. My mood was very negative and gloomy and I couldn't shake it, even after a couple of draft Yuenglings.
I drove back to the rental place by 3:30 pm, and sat in the airport terminal for a couple hours trying to stay awake.
Plane was delayed (is Frontier ever on-time?) so flew out at 7:30 pm getting back to Orlando by 9:15 or so. Not wanting to mess with 436 traffic I took the 417 and spent a few dollars on tolls.
Home by 10:00. About 1600 miles in 17 hours.
And I'm so freakin' exhausted, I feel like I walked all of them!