Ohio and Minneapolis Trips
It's been almost two months since I've updated. Too long, especially when I took two trips. The first was another trip to Ohio, this time staying with Paul B. instead of allenjamesblack. The second was to Minneapolis to see deepfreeze2k. It doesn't have anything fancy like the 3DS cam that simonbob used for his posts on this year's Starmen.net Convention, but I'm hoping you'll enjoy the descriptions I give. This entry covers the Ohio trip, and the next will cover the Minneapolis trip.
There were only two real events on the drive there, as I took the conventional U.S. 61/I-80/I-74-I-70 route, though I stayed on 80 longer than I have in the past to bypass the Quad Cities rather than go through them as the bridge that was under construction last year is now finished. The first was that I found a decent family restaurant in Peoria, Illinois, a place I hadn't stopped at before even though Logan, one of my long-time friends, now lives there. Anyway, the restaurant was Louie's Sterling Family Restaurant and I believe it was off exit 80. The second event is that I decided to avoid the clusterfuck known as I-465 around Indianapolis by just continuing off where I-74 would go if it wasn't exiting off to I-465, which is Crawfordsville Road, then headed on to 18th Street, then Martin Luther King Jr. Street, which hooks up with I-65, and I-70 is less than a mile way from that in downtown Indianapolis. Much better than getting caught up in the construction that constantly plagues I-465. I also did it as one of my "F Us" to the Indiana DOT, which routes U.S. routes on bypasses all the time, and I-465 carries a lot of them, including U.S. 52 which I was on last year on this same trip as it goes all the way to Dubuque and beyond. I hate that practice and I wish they'd stop it. But I digress. I didn't get to Paul's until shortly before 1:30 in the morning Eastern. As he was already asleep and had to work that morning all I did was set up my cot and go to sleep.
Paul and I did get to talk briefly the next day before he went to work. After he did I took a shower, got dressed, went online for a bit, then called Joe. We decided that I'd pick him up instead of meeting somewhere in Columbus. After an hour and a half drive I made it to Joe's house north of Columbus. I picked him up, but not before getting to head inside, talk to his mother, and pet his sister's adorable and lovable cat named Buttons. After he got ready we headed to Polaris Fashion Place, where we'd spend the afternoon. We ate, but oddly enough didn't play games at, Dave & Buster's, went driving for a bit, then headed to the movie theater to see "Super 8," That movie was better than I thought it would be, though it's not by any means the greatest movie I've ever seen. It was a pretty good movie to spend the afternoon watching.
After the movie I took Joe home as I was concerned about getting back to Paul's before Eric (warof1812) and Ashley (meganegaki) showed up. I ended up taking an alternate route that I thought would be faster but wasn't, and got a call from Paul on the way saying that he was delayed at work. It was after 9 by the time I got to Paul's, and Eric & Ashley had beaten me there. As no one had had dinner except for Eric & Ashley and and they wanted something light, we ended up going to Taco Bell for dinner, and then to a ice cream stand that must be Paul's favorite because we were there last year as well, sans Ashely.. In any case, after downing our ice cream and talking about the many words and phrases for a certain female body part, we headed back to Paul's. I don't remember what we watched, if anything, but it was most likely episodes of "The Super Mario Bros. Super Show" on Netflix. In any case, I ended up going to bed after everyone else, at about 1.
Friday we spent mostly in Cincinnati. Paul had the day off, and I don't know if he took it off or if it had been given to him for another reason. In any case we got off to a late start, the lateness helped in part by watching more TV shows on Paul's Netfix account. We were off to Cincinnati by 1, though we really spent some time in between Cincinnati and Dayton before heading down to the Ohio River. Our first stop was IKEA, which neither Ashely nor myself had ever been to, so it was new to us. While looking at the furniture, particularly the fully-furnished rooms, I couldn't help but notice how Eric and Ashley really did look and act like a married couple looking for furniture for their first home. I think we spent a good 2-3 hours in there, mostly on the showroom floor as there wasn't much on the actual flat-packed furniture floor.
After IKEA we headed across the Ohio River to Newark, Kentucky. Here only Ashley hadn't been to anything we went to before, minus the bar and restaurant we ended up at. After finding a parking spot in the underground ramp, we headed to the levy and on the "Purple People Bridge," formerly a combination road/rail bridge that used to carry U.S. Route 23 before the Interstates were built. I didn't take nearly as many pictures there as I did last year, though the DirecTV blimp flying over the baseball stadium in Cincinnati was something I hadn't taken pictures of before, and I took advantage of its presence. We also didn't cross the bridge completely like we had last year, and I'm not sure why.
We spent some time looking for a place to eat, and after waling around the levy and its shopping pavilions, settled on a large bar and grill. It had a large patio overlooking the river and, by extension, the ballpark. The game, which was on every TV in the bar, was the Cincinnati Reds versus the Atlanta Braves. We heard the fireworks when Cincinnati hit a homerun, but ultimately the Braves won, leading to a lot of disappointed people in the bar. After the game someone changed to a softball game on ESPN2, and I actually enjoyed watching that more. The food itself was okay, but nothing to write home about. We ended up heading back to Beavercreek and Paul's place after eating as Eric couldn't take any more of the fireworks, which despite the loss by Cincinnati someone had decided to set off all at once anyway after the game was over, and Eric having had ear surgery made his ears quite sensitive to noise, something I myself went though back in April of 2002. Again, I don't really remember what we did at Paul's, though I'm pretty sure it involved Netflix once again.
Saturday was our last full day together, and it was the only one that we spent completely in the Dayton area. We didn't get as late of a start this time as we all knew this was our last full day together. We spent most of our time in a dairy farm which had its own ice cream store and miniature golf courses outside of Spring Creek. We went to the ice cream store first, where we got ice cream that was homemade right on the farm, and ate it outside. After that it was the miniature golf course. We did notice it was getting cloudy, and there was even a little rain while we were eating our ice cream, but things got interesting on the second hole when the downpour started. It caught us all off-guard, but we tried to play through anyway. The rain got harder until we decided that it was too hard for us to play through on the sixth hole. By then we were already soaked and Eric and I had been running under trees for cover even though the effort was futile. We went back to the small store where we'd gotten our clubs and balls and waited the storm out while watching the TV there, which was on a digital subchannel highlighting the weather. The storm that hit the farm was strong but isolated, and we decided to wait it out. After the rain let up we went back and played through. The rain had added water hazards to the course, and in some cases the water was deep enough that the balls couldn't go into the hole, but rather floated above it. At that point we decided that if the ball dipped above the hole it was as good as if it had gone in without the water. The water on the course had made playing it more interesting than it would have otherwise, and I for one was disappointed that they got rid of it on the last two courses by the time we got there.
As we were not in any condition to do anything else, we headed back to Paul's, with Eric and Ashley having taken off their shirts in an effort to dry off, and me doing something I don't normally do: have all the windows down and the sunroof open on a highway. We really wanted to dry off, though, so I thought it was acceptable given the circumstances. We changed clothes once we got back to Paul's, then ended up doing something which is becoming a tradition on my Ohio trips: dinner at the Spaghetti Warehouse, this time in Dayton, which would be my second visit to the one in Dayton and my third overall. It was a good choice, as usual.
After dinner we first headed to Paul's parents' house as he had relatives in town that he wanted to see before he left the next day and also to give them an idea of who I was so they wouldn't be surprised when I dropped off the keys after Paul left. Paul's parents gave us cupcakes while his sister and her husband talked about what was going on in their world. We stayed for about an hour.
We then headed back to Paul's and played the Nintendo edition of Monopoly that I'd brought. We did have some arguments over some of the rules as Monopoly is the type of game where people get so used to playing using house rules that many people don't know what the official rules are for some aspects of the game. In any case I was the first to lose so I played Grand Theft Auto IV on Paul's XBox while Paul, Eric, and Ashley finished the game. GTA IV didn't have the charm it held at the 2010 Starmen.net Convention, probably because I couldn't activate the cheat that made it so fun back then: exploding punches and kicks, where if you punch someone it's as if they were hit by a small explosion, complete with sound effects and a ball of fire. I ended up playing until everyone else was ready to go to sleep.
Sunday was our last day. Eric and Ashley left early: around 8. Paul left for this year's Starmen.net Convention at around 10 and entrusted me to drop off the apartment keys at his parents' house. He also gave me the name of a good restaurant where I could get some brunch. After packing all my stuff in the car I headed to his parents' house to drop off the keys, then headed to the First Watch Cafe in Fairborn. Paul didn't steer me wrong, as I had a very good meal there.
After eating I headed to Thornville, where Eric lives and Ashely was also, continuing here month-long stay with Eric. We didn't stay at Eric's house for long, though. After finding a suitable place to park my car (I'm glad Eric's parents had put in that carport) and hanging out in Eric's room for a bit, where I also got to meeting his three cats, we headed out of town in Eric's car as Thornville is pretty small and doesn't have much to do. Our first stop was in Jacksontown at a bakery outlet featuring a lot of food that I can't have due to me being pre-diabetic. I was also tired. Eric and Ashely ended up buying something, but I don't remember what. After that stop it was off to Newark. Our main event was more miniature golf, though we didn't have the rain that we had the day before. Instead it was hot and muggy like all the other days had been, and there wasn't as much shade there as there had been at the dairy farm. I was the designated scorekeeper but somehow we all ended up trading off that duty. I think Eric won but I'm not sure.
After that we headed to the mall in Newark, and it was here that I learned about Ashley's legendary skills at a machine similar to a claw machine but involving scissors and prizes on strings. She had built up quite a racket winning Mr. Saturn plushies from these machines in Japan and then selling them to North Americans, and this mall had the same exact machine, except the prizes were more valuable, with an iPad as the grand prize. It had been a year since Ashley had been to Japan, and her skills were apparently rusty. Either that or the machine was rigged. Either way, the result was the same: she went through $20 with nothing to show for it at the end. Each attempt cost $1. She was very close on each attempt, but was always either just a little too far back or just a little off to the side for the scissors to cut the string. She went for the iPad every time. While she was trying and I watched, Eric wandered the mall, which was actually close to closing.
After the mall we went to Tim Horton's as we'd talked about getting donuts there before. Throwing my health to the wind I did get two donuts for myself among the dozen that we got. I also got a fruit smoothie. I don't' think Eric or Ashley got any drinks there.
We headed back to Eric's house after that. I spent time with Eric's cats, though not all at once. There was Sissy, a moody female with a true tabby coat with red and black fur, Mittens, a male with a mackerel gray tabby and white coat and five fingers on each paw, and Bobbie, a sweet female black cat. Both Mittens and Bobby were very friendly. Sissy was when she wanted to be but would rather play. I spent the most time with Bobby, as later on I put her in my lap and pet her and she didn't want to leave after that, but rather started purring away. I don't care what that stupid superstition says about black cats; the black cats to me have always been the friendliest, sweetest cats.
We ended up making dinner, which was a really tasty Japanese chicken dish that Ashley had picked up during her time there. Making it was actually kind of fun, and reminded me of the communal dinners at the Starmen.net conventions. Eric's parents did not partake, having already cooked themselves some ribs.
After dinner, which included the two donuts I'd gotten from Tim Horton's for dessert, we headed upstairs to Eric's room. After talking and me petting Bobbie while she purred on my lap we decided to play Fluxx. Ashley managed to do so while also putting on her Radio PSI show at the same time by having a set playlist and not taking many requests. As for Fluxx, Ashley loved the game and its changing rules, but Eric didn't. We ended up playing three games. After that I decided it was time to go, as I knew I had a long drive ahead of me. We said our goodbyes and then I left.
For the drive back to Dubuque I decided to take a route similar to the one I took back in March when I stayed at Joe's, the main difference being that since I started farther south I took U.S. Route 33 from northwest of Columbus to Ohio 117 and then Ohio 309 to hook up with U.S. 30. In retrospect I should have stayed on U.S. 33 all the way into Fort Wayne, Indiana as I probably would have gone through less small towns that way, and definitely avoided the mid-size town of Lima, which going through ate up quite a bit of time. One thing I'm glad that Ohio has that I wish Iowa had (and I may have mentioned this before) is rest areas on its expressways/freeways that are U.S. routes. I took advantage of the one just northwest of Columbus on U.S. 33 as I was feeling pretty tired and knew I wouldn't encounter another one in Indiana, though there was one further on U.S. 33 in Ohio and the one near the Indiana border on U.S. 30. After that rest area and getting gas in Marysville I didn't stop again until I made it to the Des Planes Oasis on the Jane Addams (Northwest) Tollway near Chicago. That's where I bit the bullet and ate at the McDonald's there, but didn't get gas as I didn't need it yet and I didn't want to pay the high tollway oasis prices for it. Instead I got gas on U.S. 20 near Winnebago, Illinois. It was after 8 by the time I made it home and the total drive was over 9 hours. Taking the extra distance into account it took about as much time as the I-70/I-74/I-80/U.S. 61 route did.
That's the Ohio trip. My next entry will be about this year's Minneapolis trip, which took place a week later. I had fun once again there, and it was great seeing Paul, Joe, Eric, and Ashley once again. Here's hoping we have another one.
There were only two real events on the drive there, as I took the conventional U.S. 61/I-80/I-74-I-70 route, though I stayed on 80 longer than I have in the past to bypass the Quad Cities rather than go through them as the bridge that was under construction last year is now finished. The first was that I found a decent family restaurant in Peoria, Illinois, a place I hadn't stopped at before even though Logan, one of my long-time friends, now lives there. Anyway, the restaurant was Louie's Sterling Family Restaurant and I believe it was off exit 80. The second event is that I decided to avoid the clusterfuck known as I-465 around Indianapolis by just continuing off where I-74 would go if it wasn't exiting off to I-465, which is Crawfordsville Road, then headed on to 18th Street, then Martin Luther King Jr. Street, which hooks up with I-65, and I-70 is less than a mile way from that in downtown Indianapolis. Much better than getting caught up in the construction that constantly plagues I-465. I also did it as one of my "F Us" to the Indiana DOT, which routes U.S. routes on bypasses all the time, and I-465 carries a lot of them, including U.S. 52 which I was on last year on this same trip as it goes all the way to Dubuque and beyond. I hate that practice and I wish they'd stop it. But I digress. I didn't get to Paul's until shortly before 1:30 in the morning Eastern. As he was already asleep and had to work that morning all I did was set up my cot and go to sleep.
Paul and I did get to talk briefly the next day before he went to work. After he did I took a shower, got dressed, went online for a bit, then called Joe. We decided that I'd pick him up instead of meeting somewhere in Columbus. After an hour and a half drive I made it to Joe's house north of Columbus. I picked him up, but not before getting to head inside, talk to his mother, and pet his sister's adorable and lovable cat named Buttons. After he got ready we headed to Polaris Fashion Place, where we'd spend the afternoon. We ate, but oddly enough didn't play games at, Dave & Buster's, went driving for a bit, then headed to the movie theater to see "Super 8," That movie was better than I thought it would be, though it's not by any means the greatest movie I've ever seen. It was a pretty good movie to spend the afternoon watching.
After the movie I took Joe home as I was concerned about getting back to Paul's before Eric (warof1812) and Ashley (meganegaki) showed up. I ended up taking an alternate route that I thought would be faster but wasn't, and got a call from Paul on the way saying that he was delayed at work. It was after 9 by the time I got to Paul's, and Eric & Ashley had beaten me there. As no one had had dinner except for Eric & Ashley and and they wanted something light, we ended up going to Taco Bell for dinner, and then to a ice cream stand that must be Paul's favorite because we were there last year as well, sans Ashely.. In any case, after downing our ice cream and talking about the many words and phrases for a certain female body part, we headed back to Paul's. I don't remember what we watched, if anything, but it was most likely episodes of "The Super Mario Bros. Super Show" on Netflix. In any case, I ended up going to bed after everyone else, at about 1.
Friday we spent mostly in Cincinnati. Paul had the day off, and I don't know if he took it off or if it had been given to him for another reason. In any case we got off to a late start, the lateness helped in part by watching more TV shows on Paul's Netfix account. We were off to Cincinnati by 1, though we really spent some time in between Cincinnati and Dayton before heading down to the Ohio River. Our first stop was IKEA, which neither Ashely nor myself had ever been to, so it was new to us. While looking at the furniture, particularly the fully-furnished rooms, I couldn't help but notice how Eric and Ashley really did look and act like a married couple looking for furniture for their first home. I think we spent a good 2-3 hours in there, mostly on the showroom floor as there wasn't much on the actual flat-packed furniture floor.
After IKEA we headed across the Ohio River to Newark, Kentucky. Here only Ashley hadn't been to anything we went to before, minus the bar and restaurant we ended up at. After finding a parking spot in the underground ramp, we headed to the levy and on the "Purple People Bridge," formerly a combination road/rail bridge that used to carry U.S. Route 23 before the Interstates were built. I didn't take nearly as many pictures there as I did last year, though the DirecTV blimp flying over the baseball stadium in Cincinnati was something I hadn't taken pictures of before, and I took advantage of its presence. We also didn't cross the bridge completely like we had last year, and I'm not sure why.
We spent some time looking for a place to eat, and after waling around the levy and its shopping pavilions, settled on a large bar and grill. It had a large patio overlooking the river and, by extension, the ballpark. The game, which was on every TV in the bar, was the Cincinnati Reds versus the Atlanta Braves. We heard the fireworks when Cincinnati hit a homerun, but ultimately the Braves won, leading to a lot of disappointed people in the bar. After the game someone changed to a softball game on ESPN2, and I actually enjoyed watching that more. The food itself was okay, but nothing to write home about. We ended up heading back to Beavercreek and Paul's place after eating as Eric couldn't take any more of the fireworks, which despite the loss by Cincinnati someone had decided to set off all at once anyway after the game was over, and Eric having had ear surgery made his ears quite sensitive to noise, something I myself went though back in April of 2002. Again, I don't really remember what we did at Paul's, though I'm pretty sure it involved Netflix once again.
Saturday was our last full day together, and it was the only one that we spent completely in the Dayton area. We didn't get as late of a start this time as we all knew this was our last full day together. We spent most of our time in a dairy farm which had its own ice cream store and miniature golf courses outside of Spring Creek. We went to the ice cream store first, where we got ice cream that was homemade right on the farm, and ate it outside. After that it was the miniature golf course. We did notice it was getting cloudy, and there was even a little rain while we were eating our ice cream, but things got interesting on the second hole when the downpour started. It caught us all off-guard, but we tried to play through anyway. The rain got harder until we decided that it was too hard for us to play through on the sixth hole. By then we were already soaked and Eric and I had been running under trees for cover even though the effort was futile. We went back to the small store where we'd gotten our clubs and balls and waited the storm out while watching the TV there, which was on a digital subchannel highlighting the weather. The storm that hit the farm was strong but isolated, and we decided to wait it out. After the rain let up we went back and played through. The rain had added water hazards to the course, and in some cases the water was deep enough that the balls couldn't go into the hole, but rather floated above it. At that point we decided that if the ball dipped above the hole it was as good as if it had gone in without the water. The water on the course had made playing it more interesting than it would have otherwise, and I for one was disappointed that they got rid of it on the last two courses by the time we got there.
As we were not in any condition to do anything else, we headed back to Paul's, with Eric and Ashley having taken off their shirts in an effort to dry off, and me doing something I don't normally do: have all the windows down and the sunroof open on a highway. We really wanted to dry off, though, so I thought it was acceptable given the circumstances. We changed clothes once we got back to Paul's, then ended up doing something which is becoming a tradition on my Ohio trips: dinner at the Spaghetti Warehouse, this time in Dayton, which would be my second visit to the one in Dayton and my third overall. It was a good choice, as usual.
After dinner we first headed to Paul's parents' house as he had relatives in town that he wanted to see before he left the next day and also to give them an idea of who I was so they wouldn't be surprised when I dropped off the keys after Paul left. Paul's parents gave us cupcakes while his sister and her husband talked about what was going on in their world. We stayed for about an hour.
We then headed back to Paul's and played the Nintendo edition of Monopoly that I'd brought. We did have some arguments over some of the rules as Monopoly is the type of game where people get so used to playing using house rules that many people don't know what the official rules are for some aspects of the game. In any case I was the first to lose so I played Grand Theft Auto IV on Paul's XBox while Paul, Eric, and Ashley finished the game. GTA IV didn't have the charm it held at the 2010 Starmen.net Convention, probably because I couldn't activate the cheat that made it so fun back then: exploding punches and kicks, where if you punch someone it's as if they were hit by a small explosion, complete with sound effects and a ball of fire. I ended up playing until everyone else was ready to go to sleep.
Sunday was our last day. Eric and Ashley left early: around 8. Paul left for this year's Starmen.net Convention at around 10 and entrusted me to drop off the apartment keys at his parents' house. He also gave me the name of a good restaurant where I could get some brunch. After packing all my stuff in the car I headed to his parents' house to drop off the keys, then headed to the First Watch Cafe in Fairborn. Paul didn't steer me wrong, as I had a very good meal there.
After eating I headed to Thornville, where Eric lives and Ashely was also, continuing here month-long stay with Eric. We didn't stay at Eric's house for long, though. After finding a suitable place to park my car (I'm glad Eric's parents had put in that carport) and hanging out in Eric's room for a bit, where I also got to meeting his three cats, we headed out of town in Eric's car as Thornville is pretty small and doesn't have much to do. Our first stop was in Jacksontown at a bakery outlet featuring a lot of food that I can't have due to me being pre-diabetic. I was also tired. Eric and Ashely ended up buying something, but I don't remember what. After that stop it was off to Newark. Our main event was more miniature golf, though we didn't have the rain that we had the day before. Instead it was hot and muggy like all the other days had been, and there wasn't as much shade there as there had been at the dairy farm. I was the designated scorekeeper but somehow we all ended up trading off that duty. I think Eric won but I'm not sure.
After that we headed to the mall in Newark, and it was here that I learned about Ashley's legendary skills at a machine similar to a claw machine but involving scissors and prizes on strings. She had built up quite a racket winning Mr. Saturn plushies from these machines in Japan and then selling them to North Americans, and this mall had the same exact machine, except the prizes were more valuable, with an iPad as the grand prize. It had been a year since Ashley had been to Japan, and her skills were apparently rusty. Either that or the machine was rigged. Either way, the result was the same: she went through $20 with nothing to show for it at the end. Each attempt cost $1. She was very close on each attempt, but was always either just a little too far back or just a little off to the side for the scissors to cut the string. She went for the iPad every time. While she was trying and I watched, Eric wandered the mall, which was actually close to closing.
After the mall we went to Tim Horton's as we'd talked about getting donuts there before. Throwing my health to the wind I did get two donuts for myself among the dozen that we got. I also got a fruit smoothie. I don't' think Eric or Ashley got any drinks there.
We headed back to Eric's house after that. I spent time with Eric's cats, though not all at once. There was Sissy, a moody female with a true tabby coat with red and black fur, Mittens, a male with a mackerel gray tabby and white coat and five fingers on each paw, and Bobbie, a sweet female black cat. Both Mittens and Bobby were very friendly. Sissy was when she wanted to be but would rather play. I spent the most time with Bobby, as later on I put her in my lap and pet her and she didn't want to leave after that, but rather started purring away. I don't care what that stupid superstition says about black cats; the black cats to me have always been the friendliest, sweetest cats.
We ended up making dinner, which was a really tasty Japanese chicken dish that Ashley had picked up during her time there. Making it was actually kind of fun, and reminded me of the communal dinners at the Starmen.net conventions. Eric's parents did not partake, having already cooked themselves some ribs.
After dinner, which included the two donuts I'd gotten from Tim Horton's for dessert, we headed upstairs to Eric's room. After talking and me petting Bobbie while she purred on my lap we decided to play Fluxx. Ashley managed to do so while also putting on her Radio PSI show at the same time by having a set playlist and not taking many requests. As for Fluxx, Ashley loved the game and its changing rules, but Eric didn't. We ended up playing three games. After that I decided it was time to go, as I knew I had a long drive ahead of me. We said our goodbyes and then I left.
For the drive back to Dubuque I decided to take a route similar to the one I took back in March when I stayed at Joe's, the main difference being that since I started farther south I took U.S. Route 33 from northwest of Columbus to Ohio 117 and then Ohio 309 to hook up with U.S. 30. In retrospect I should have stayed on U.S. 33 all the way into Fort Wayne, Indiana as I probably would have gone through less small towns that way, and definitely avoided the mid-size town of Lima, which going through ate up quite a bit of time. One thing I'm glad that Ohio has that I wish Iowa had (and I may have mentioned this before) is rest areas on its expressways/freeways that are U.S. routes. I took advantage of the one just northwest of Columbus on U.S. 33 as I was feeling pretty tired and knew I wouldn't encounter another one in Indiana, though there was one further on U.S. 33 in Ohio and the one near the Indiana border on U.S. 30. After that rest area and getting gas in Marysville I didn't stop again until I made it to the Des Planes Oasis on the Jane Addams (Northwest) Tollway near Chicago. That's where I bit the bullet and ate at the McDonald's there, but didn't get gas as I didn't need it yet and I didn't want to pay the high tollway oasis prices for it. Instead I got gas on U.S. 20 near Winnebago, Illinois. It was after 8 by the time I made it home and the total drive was over 9 hours. Taking the extra distance into account it took about as much time as the I-70/I-74/I-80/U.S. 61 route did.
That's the Ohio trip. My next entry will be about this year's Minneapolis trip, which took place a week later. I had fun once again there, and it was great seeing Paul, Joe, Eric, and Ashley once again. Here's hoping we have another one.