Rides, Food & Sleep

No one should ever wake up at 4:15 A.M. for anything. It’s just not right. The real problem with waking up that early is you have to be in bed by 10:00 P.M. if you want a decent amount of sleep at all. We hadn’t been in bed before midnight our entire trip until Monday night, which found us turning out the lights at 8:30 P.M. Except there was one problem with that – the much anticipated Jon & Kate Plus 8 announcement started at 9:00, and the show is an hour long. After the drama-filled episode, we jumped back in to bed at 10:00 and luckily were both asleep by 10:30 P.M. Even with 5.5 hours of sleep, 4:00 A.M. came reallllllllly early. We were up bright and early for a day trip to Cedar Point, OH home to some of the fastest and tallest roller coasters in the world. Now we all know my thrill-seeking bone tops out at about 65 mph on the interstate. Before this amusement park trip, I thought I knew Rachel fairly well. One thing escaped me though: she has a death wish. Well, death wish is up for interpretation, but anytime someone wants to get on a ride that takes you 310 feet in the air and propels you straight toward the ground at 93 mph…yeah, that’s what I call a death wish. Rachel and some of my other family members however, call it a fun afternoon. For the most part, Rachel is usually somewhat timid and level-headed. But for 12 hours she became someone I didn’t know existed. Flips, loops, corkscrews, ups & downs, drops…she did them all. She lays claim to a title I will never possess – professional thrill-seeker. And she can keep it, because now I can say to everyone that SHE is the crazy one in this relationship. I did do one ride though, and lemme tell ya, those bumper cars are pretty insane. I mean, the possibility of some horrible whiplash was right around every turn, and those 7 year olds drive a mean bumper car. Oh yeah, and there was the water ride that everyone in our family rode (all 9 of us) with the expectation of getting a little splash or two. Twenty seconds into the ride however, we found out that a “little splash” was going to turn in to a full fledged pool party. It was a hot day so we thought a little water might feel good. But when we stepped into the raft and saw 3 inches of water covering the floor, we all knew right then that this may be a little more than we had bargained for. You may have well just thrown 8 of the 9 of us into a lake because as we stepped off of the ride, only 1 of us had a spot of dry clothing on us. The rest of us were literally 100% drenched. Seriously, from head to toe, sopping, dripping, wet. As you can see from the picture, we were a little upset. (Okay, that was a completely posed picture, we weren’t really upset but it made for a good photo-op). We left the park at 11:00 P.M., each of us ready to get off of our feet and into bed. The drive ahead of us was 3 hours long and with a stop or two we didn’t get home until 2:30 A.M. After some quick showers, we finally shut off the lights at about 3:15 A.M., nearly a 24 hour adventure. But we walked away with some good stories, very minimal sunburns, and some pictures of Rachel’s crazy ride face.

For the most part, our Indiana time has been spent recuperating from our multi-city adventure. The walking alone that we have done has left our feet and legs wanting to shoot us, so we knew that 5 days out of the car and some time with Josh’s family would be a welcomed break. One of the nicest things during our Indiana stay has been home cooked meals, and no check out times. There has however, been some riveting Gin Rummy games. So far, we’ve been able to avoid the infamous Indiana summer storms that bring lightning, rain, and tornado warnings. Hopefully, unlike our drive to Indiana, we’ll manage to miss 30 minutes downpours that leave an inch of water on the roads and a scaredy-cat like me complaining to Rachel about how bad driving in the rain is. We feel lucky to have missed some tragic events, such as tornado touchdowns in Ohio, the D.C. Metro crash, and the Holocaust Museum shooting. God has truly kept His hand on us this entire time, for which we are very grateful. Tomorrow we start the last leg of our trip, which will take us through the Windy City, a small town called Fairmont, Minnesota, through Rapid City, South Dakota and the Mount Rushmore Monument, and even smaller town called Dillon, Montana and finally back to Boise. This has all gone so fast and neither of us can believe we are on the final stretch. Thanks to everybody for continuing with the reading of our blog, and hopefully the last week of our trip won’t disappoint. We appreciate the reads, the comments, and the prayers, and we’ll see you all very soon! More to come…
From the Road Less Traveled,
Josh & Rachel

If you want to see some of the coasters up close, visit www.cedarpoint.com and you can even have a first-perspective from the rides. Check out this one, voted one of the top 10 coasters in the world every year since 2000: (this is the one that we mentioned)http://www.cedarpoint.com/public/park/rides/coasters/millennium_force/index.cfm

Indiana Highlights: lightning bugs, a buddy to ride on the coasters with (thanks Baylee!), sunscreen, good walking shoes, no check out times, home cooked meals, card games, family time, wireless internet (for free!), change of plans for the ride home.