Road Trip, Ohio

I've not spent any substantial time in Ohio since I was in high school. (No offense to Ohioans reading this, but those have just been the turnings of my life.) At that time (1979), I went to Cleveland to check out Case Western Reserve University. It got dropped off my school candidate list at least partly because it was, well, located in Cleveland, which was none too attractive at the time.

For this visit, I drove right through Cleveland. But I do understand that times are better now than then, and this was not intended as a slight on Cleveland. It was mainly due to the fact that I had to drive 700 miles that day, so a sightseeing stop there was not in the cards. I did get a small sampling of radio stations, though. The local NPR affiliate has quite a variety of foreign language programs unlike anything we get in the Boston area. I heard parts of German, Russian (or some other Slavic tongue), and Hungarian programs.

My destination for the night was East Harbor State Park, which is located between Port Clinton and Marblehead, Ohio. This part of Ohio, about midway between Toledo and Cleveland, is fairly rural, and, being on Lake Erie, features a heavily boating- and recreation-oriented atmosphere.

I arrived at about 6:15, and was stopped by a ranger well before the checkin area. It turns out they were having some sort of Halloween celebration this weekend (and next), and I couldn't drive to my campsite until 6:30, due to trick-or-treat-like activities.

Halloween on October 1st? Huh?

Apparently, this part of Ohio celebrates Halloween for the entire month, or something, since Cedar Point was also decked out in orange and black. Whatever happened to celebrating (or recognizing) days like this on just that day?

I eventually got my camp set up, had some dinner (leftovers from the European trip -- thanks Eric), and eventually got to bed (err, sleeping bag) around 9, mostly avoiding the hay ride and haunted house.

On Sunday I was up fairly early (gotta learn how to shut down that sun detector if I'm ever going to sleep really late), and went for a short drive around the Marblehead peninsula. It's got some nice views of Sandusky and Cedar Point, which I didn't photograph since I didn't have the camera along.

I drove into Sandusky itself, which was predictably sleepy at 9:30 on Sunday morning. Things were already getting going at Cedar Point, though. I was through the gates shortly after 10.

I rode a whole bunch of roller coasters. Really! Top Thrill Dragster was closed. My favorites were the Magnum XL-200, Raptor, and Mean Streak, each of which I rode several times. I also rode Millenium Force twice, but it didn't make the cut due to its long(ish) line (about 40 minutes).

I also ate plenty of bad-for-you fair food. Based on the food offerings at Cedar Point, it's no surprise Americans are getting fat. (I don't think there was a single salad on offer in the whole park.) At least I didn't need to make dinner...

On Monday morning I again arose early, and this time prepared myself to take some pictures of the sunrise. These were taken between 6:30 and 8 AM.

The first view.

The first view, overexposed. What a difference!