More Cincinnati Photos… and an Injury Update

My trip to Cincinnati was short – I was only in town for approximately 24 hours. The biggest highlight, of course, was the race (which you can read about here), but I made the most of the rest of my visit, too. Starting with… the American Sign Museum!

This place is awesome.

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Too Many Photos From My Weekend in Northern Ohio (Including a HUGE Race Milestone)

I know that this post is supposed to be about my weekend trip to Ohio, but my adventures actually start in Michigan, on Friday evening, when I saw a childhood friend I hadn’t seen in almost thirty years.

That’s Shay. He lived down the street for one year when we were in middle school, and we became good friends. Then he had the nerve to move to Florida, that jerk! Anyway. We reconnected

Follow the Footsteps (Tunnel to Towers Cleveland Tower Climb Race Recap)

I want to introduce you to a firefighter named Thomas Schoales. He’s 27, and nicknamed “Golden Boy” because of his constant wide smile.

He’s part of a family of first responders – his father and two brothers all worked as firefighters or police officers. One day, he responded to an emergency situation 10 blocks from his firehouse, and ran into a building to help. Shortly after that, the building collapsed – 500,000 tons of steel, concrete, and glass crashing to the ground. Thomas was one of fourteen men from Engine 4 in lower Manhattan (and one of 343 total firefighters) that died on September 11, 2001. His body would not be found in the wreckage until over four months later.

On Sunday, I had the honor and privilege of clipping that photograph of Thomas “Golden Boy” Schoales to my collar and carrying him with me while I competed in the Tunnel to Towers Cleveland Tower Climb.

Cedar Point Checklist

It’s quite likely that by the time you read this, I’ll be at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, riding roller coasters and having a grand ol’ time.  It’s also possible that I’ll be at the park, but not riding anything, because as of right now, there’s a 50% chance of rain.  Keep your fingers and toes crossed for us!

As I write this, it’s just before bedtime on Friday night, and I gotta make sure I have everything I need for tomorrow.  So let’s go through the checklist:

1) Tickets.  I bought these for my sister Laura and me ahead of time at Meijer:

2) Maps.  There are two ways to Cedar Point.  One involves the Ohio Turnpike, and the other is on Ohio State Route 2.  The 2 is a more direct route, but the speed limit is slower.  The turnpike is faster, but it’s also a little further out of the way.  I printed out maps for both routes.  We’ll figure out which one we’ll take tomorrow:

3) Cedar Point Park Map.  We’ll get one of these at the park, but I printed one out and marked all the coasters, as well as non-coaster rides of interest, so that we could plan a strategy and figure out an ideal coaster-riding order:

4) Food.  The park is open from noon-10pm tomorrow, which means that we’ll be able to bring lunch with us, and eat it before we enter.  We’ll save some cash that way, and we’ll also guarantee that our lunch is healthy.

My sister Laura is avoiding processed foods, so I went shopping earlier today and put together an all-natural, processed-food-free lunch for all four of us (besides Laura and me, my friends Molly and Dan are coming along too!).  Here’s what we’re bringing:

Produce!

Vegetables: carrots, celery, cherry tomatoes, yellow squash, zucchini, cucumber, yellow pepper, red pepper.  Fruit:  pineapple, strawberries, blueberries, grapes.

Protein Sources!

On top is a black bean dip.  In the middle is a spinach hummus.  On the bottom are individual serving sizes of cottage cheese.

More Produce and Protein!

I’ll be honest: I just forgot about this stuff, or else I would have incorporated it into the above photos.  It’s low-sodium beef jerky and bananas.

Produce and Protein Combined!

I bought the ingredients, and Laura assembled these – they’re turkey lettuce roll-ups.  That’s turkey breast slices, sunflower greens, and a little Cajun mayo rolled up in leaf lettuce.

5) Miscellaneous.  I borrowed a raincoat from my dad, in case of inclement weather, and will bring along chapstick, gum, my camera, my sunglasses.  And the most important article of clothing:

GOOD SHOES.  There’s going to be a lot of walking at Cedar Point – hours and hours of it – and I want supportive, comfortable footwear.

Possible crappy weather aside, I’m ecstatic to go back to Cedar Point!  Since I likely won’t be getting home until very very late on Saturday, and since I’ll undoubtedly be exhausted, I probably won’t be able to post together my Cedar Point blog until Monday morning.  Look for it then!

Keep it up, David!