Double Rainbow

Double Rainbow all the way across the sky!

Just chillin above Sharonville. And the brightest one was a full out one too. End to end all the colors. Gorgeous!

Anyone else see it?

My Brief TV Stardom

About a month ago, before the amusement parks were fully opened to the public, I took a Friday off of work, piled in a friends mini van and took off for Santa Claus, Indiana way too early in the morning on a day off. Why you ask? Because we were a crazy enough bunch to get our little “coaster family” chosen to be extra’s on the Travel Channel show Bert the Conqueror!

Bert and Dan Koch, HolidayWorld President, before being sent off on the Voyage. Photo courtesy of Travel Channel.

Bert Kreischer, is a comedian and Host of his own show, in which he Conquers his fears by doing different, crazy stunts. On a sunny, yet still sort of chilly spring weekend, he traveled to Holiday World in Santa Clause, Indiana to conquer The Voyage roller coaster, as well as Wildebeest, the water coaster. And myself along with a bunch of fellow coaster enthusiast friends, were there to cheer him on.

Our crazy group with Pat Koch of HolidayWorld, early in the morning in front of Voyage

We were told right off the bat, and for the few weeks heading up to it, that there would be waiting, as everything is dependent on the camera crew and getting their shots. They told us to bring all sorts of stuff! I smartly brought along a blanket I was crocheting and already that morning, an hour after being let into the park… we were still waiting.

Bert going over some specifics with Pat... or just flirting with her

Finally it was time to load up some trains! And wait in those said trains…. more photo ops!!

Notice the camera guy in the background checking feeds and odds and ends and whatsits while we waited.

Part of group chillin in the back seat... which seat do i take?? (sorry >.< )

I really wish this came out better but thats Bert and Dan Koch (from at top) on their ride, notice the camera mounted in the front seat.)

 After only one ride for everyone (almost a few people still hadn’t gotten a ride) it was time to break for lunch. HolidayWorld was awesome and provided a great spread of pizza and desserts for all of us “working hard”. They were very gracious hosts! Free food free Voyage rides, free hanging out with Bert, and a free ticket to come back and enjoy the park when it was actually open to the public! This is part of the reason I love this place.

After lunch it was time for a little Q & A and meet and greet with Bert! For the record, if you’ve never seen is stand up comedy show, go see it! He’s hilarious and a real down to earth person. What you see on the show is pretty much him (well actually its a little more tamer family friendly version) But he really is a great guy!

Me and Steph with Bert. (She's madly in love with him btw)

Coaster Family shot with Bert!!!

He was great and really took the time to talk to everyone there and get pictures with whoever wanted them. Much to the exasperation of the production manager who would have to tear him away from time to time. To let everyone’s stomachs settle before more rounds on Voyage, they did the interviews next. A few of our friends were interviewed while the rest of us were to inconspicuously walk through the background once or twice to make the park seem open even though it wasn’t.

butt cheeks were shakin!” (Sorry Brad I had to) Notice the crowd on and off camera.”]

Brad being interviewed, even though he "was so nervous [his

Dave's crew being interviewed. Unfortunately they didn't make it on air either for either 1. knowing just too much about the coaster or 2. The little girls that were being annoying in the background and staring directly at the camera even though they were told to ignore them *sigh*

Finally it was time to ride again. Only this time with no camera on board, and no Bert This was more waiting as after every train or 2 the cherry picker back in the woods would have to move to a new position to get all those awesome shots and angles of the coaster. This is also when Bert did some talking about the coaster, and talked with the Koch’s.

Me and my "coaster boyfriend" gearing up for an intense front seat ride! Winning!

Awesome shot of us headed back for the station fly-by

Me and Steph and the gang ready for ride 3, or 4, or 6. We kinda lost count

Just minutes after the above pic was taken we whooshed by Bert. Photo credit of HolidayWorlds HoliBlog.

All in all it was a great way to spend the day with great friends doing what we love! If you caught the show last night, yes most of the shots with us were cut (booo ) but its to be expected. But the bonus is is that if he comes around again to shoot another time I’ll be able to do it since i really didn’t get any camera time!

We did manage to slow mo the show after we watched it to really zero in on us, and those pictures of a paused tv are as follows. So if you DVR’ed it you’ll know what to look for The awesome thing is most of the bright pink you see on the coaster shots are all of me and my friend Steph

3rd seat the blur of pink and red

3rd seat the blur of pink and red

I'm easy in this one. I'm in between the guys in red

Close up of the previous pic.

Another quick shot of us all.

Here's one I missed that I guess they showed at the begining. This area got a lot of face time, but they always managed to cut me out of it

I think one of my favorite parts of the whole show last night was when Bert came back and was talking about a bug hitting him in the face. I’m not kidding you this went on for 20 minutes in the station. We were all cracking up and rolling on the floor.The best part? They actually found that part on video and pointed it out!!

"a BUG it my FACE!!" lol

Which leads to this shot that I'm also in the back of

Close up of previous

So that was my very brief stint at stardom. Sure I wasn’t on for more than say 20 seconds total. Was it worth it? Totally! I got to lap one of my favorite coasters, with some of my best friends, get out of work, mingle with celebrities, and enjoy part of one of the best amusement parks ever! Seriously, if you’ve never gone to HolidayWorld, get there! Its only like a 3-4 hour drive, free parking, free sunscreen, free drinks, and the nicest awesomest people will you ever encounter!

Happy 2011!

Ok So I took my own little vacation after the holidays. My apologies…

There now that the BS is out of the way Happy 2011, not oh11 (or 011) as the car dealership commercials around here say, and it drives me crazy and makes me scream at the announcer on the radio in my car while other drivers give me that straight up WTF look…

I spent the new year down in Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge Tennessee like normal, and had a great time, again like normal. I actually got to try out a few new places along with stopping at my favorites

Of course, the wineries were our first stop on New Years Eve. to stock up on 4 bottles each, yum. And randomly running into a family from back home home who’s kids I used to babysit for… I hate my tiny world sometimes lol. Then to drop some people off at the hotel while some of us went to The Incredible Christmas Place (it’s actual name) and this place is huge and awesome and has a halloween village set up in one corner of its mini Christmas villages!! <3

Fra...gi...le...

 

But it was a short trip as our hotel fails majorly, and didn’t have our rooms ready at 5PM and then somehow screwed the lock up on the other room so that the key wouldn’t go in and yeah… This place failed hard. I think we’re going to go back to driving through town to stay in a cabin next year. But we finally got all issues resolved, had a “fashion show” amongst us girls to figure out what to wear, and then headed across the parking lot for the gala

The gangs all here and lookin hot!

Ricochet opened up the night. And yes those are marching drums and a trombone and trumpet being simultaneously played with said drums

Me, Ingy and the Boy are all a little 4sq obsessed, so we were rockin the NYE badges

Then it was time for Little Texas! yay!

And then Midnight fell upon the crowd... as long as tons of balloons!

Yeah... we're all pretty awesome

And it was a wonderful event full of food and drinks, and more food, and more drinks, and then drinks, and… well you get the idea

pretty amethyst

 

 

The next day we decided to hit up the sites a little bit. We went to the mine your own gem stone places, as I’ve never gone, and again kinda fun. Me and Cardinal even got rings made from stones we found!

 

Then it was off to score us some deals at the outlet mall down the street. Always crazy, but got some good deals woot! And we wrapped up the evening with a trip into Gatlinburg.

We actually walked pretty much the whole darned strip this time. Of course having to make a stop in the Village area. Then it was off to find what crap shoot tourist trap we wanted to do, that is after stopping outside of or in almost every candy store…. We finally settled on Ripley’s Mirror Maze. And I can honestly say it wasn’t too bad! We were pretty much stuck in there for a good while actually slightly lost. Kudos Ripley’s… something decent out of you.  But… boo on you State of Tenneesse for not allowing the moonshine distillery to sell their moonshine on New Years Day. Someone explain that rule to me? I mean I kinda get the whole not on Sundays thing, but this was Saturday! Fie on you.. Fie…

It was surprisingly not horrible!!

Annual tree at the Visitors Center

Later that night when it wasn’t quite time to go to bed, yet kinda late to go out, we decided to head out to Lazerport for some black light mini golf. Thanks to the lady also at the counter giving us a coupon for a free round for the whole group. Umm.. hell yes!

I'm watching Ry fail at golf O:) btw I kicked everyones butt

But after we left, we decided to check out the 12 Days of Christmas (in Christmas Lights) that Pigeon Forge puts in their median every year. At the end I realized only maybe one of my pics actually came out, and we should have shot a video, so we shot it going backwards (or is it actually forwards?)

The next day was followed by me and the boys trip up the mountain to see snow (like I need that being from Ohio… lol) But it’s entertaining to see kids from Florida and the such freak out over snow. That and the view is still awesome!

I’ll get some new years $h!* My Friends say up later this week. I promise. I’ll do it even sooner if I get some more subscribers That’s my new years goal. I mean half of you are reading it from facebook anyways.. soooo… why not just get it from your email <3

Sh!* my family says

I realized I missed a week in what I said was going to be weekly… but, there’s just so much stuff out there it’s hard to choose from! That and with the holidays I was stuck with my family… and well.. we all know how that goes.

So let me set the scene for this one a bit… We were on our way to Missouri to see my oldest little brother graduation from the National Guard and be a real soldier *cue awesomeness right?!* And by we I mean both parents the youngest brother my younger sister, and both of my grandma’s. We were fortunately in our own little room at a Culvers in goodness-only-knows-where Illinois maybe? I have no idea what really led up to it but it was something along the lines of us arguing about something stupid and then:

Mom: I’m sure I know how you feel…
Me: really?! You have NO idea!
Youngest brother: Dude!! You came out of her! She knows you better than anyone!
*cue the priceless looks on grandmas’ faces*

So proud of my Bubby being in the Army Corps of Engineers

———————————————————————–

Later the next week as I was driving back to the rents place, me and bf stopped in a Chik-fil-a in Dayton and noticed this headline screaming at us:

“Driver in Car Crash that Killed Mayor Dies in Shooting”
Granted no it’s not a funny story but the headline deserved a very strong wtf?!

$#!* my Boyfriend Says

So I’m in love with the show Sh*t My Dad Says, after loving excerpts that I read from the book. And after watching it last night I looked at my self and said “Self, You have friends that are just as wierd and cracked out as Shatner. And they’re all freaking hilarious!” and then my voices started argueing and anyways… I’ve decided to do a weekly weekendy $#!* my friends say post. Some of these may come from way back, but they were so good that of course I remember them! And some may come from college and our infamous quote wall we had senior year. And some of these will come from my boy who randomly spurts things out of his mouth without even realizing or thinking about them, which of course would probably not be quite as hilarious.

 

So without further ado I give you the first!

While on a roadtrip to Niagara Falls/Canada’s Wonderland theme park in Toronto, we’re driving into Canada late at night and in the middle of absofuckingnowhere. (note: never go up the thumb of Michigan and over the Bridge into Canada. Or at least fill up in Detroit. There is NOTHING).

2am (rough abridged version):
Me: Wow, So Canada looks exactly like BFE (BumF8ckEgypt aka middle of absofuckingnowhere for those not hip with rural slang) Ohio… Did we even cross the border?!

BF: I know right?! It’s like Canada’s the 51st State!

Me: Wait when did Canada become a state?!

BF: The same time Pluto became not a planet.
I think that line saddens me after I’m done laughing about it… but I’ve said screw it. When I have kids, they will know about Pluto and it’s awesomeness!! I will make them watch the Saved By the Bell Episode full of Screech’s MvemjSNUP! (omg my kinked hair and stretchy pants with scrunchy socks are showing). I still don’t feel all up to the whole not a planet thing. I mean who are we to cast Pluto aside like a one-night stand!

End of the Summer Road Trip Weekend

Ok so my weekend started a little early on Thursday. Now I haven’t been much of a partier since graduating college, so I have to check out Party in the Park and things of that nature on Weds/Thurs, but Oval Opus got back together for a charity event in Newport at JB Fins (on the deck between Hooters and Beer Seller) and I’ll admit that’s a pretty great place to catch a local concert! You’ve got the skyline in the background, you can get up close and personal with the band, there’s all sorts of seating all around the stage, and a bar right outside so you don’t have to miss a moment of the action. Beer prices are a little outrageous if you’re just buying a single beer (I’d recommend the bucket for 6 or more at $2 a piece). And as far as the girly froo-froo drinks go you’re out of luck on the Smirnoff’s or the Bacardi’s, but they do have mixers. On Thurs, they didn’t have a cover when we got there shortly after 9.

Oval Opus performing at JB Fins

Friday was a bit more of an adventure (if that’s even possible) Mind you I work up in the Evendale (Sharonville) Business Park, but I had been hearing nothing but amazing things about the food truck. So I decided I was going to have a lunchtime adventure, and suckered a co-worker into joining me. So a 20 minute drive (really with the whole merging around Hamilton on 75? Who thought that traffic pattern up?!) we grabbed a spot down Race and walked up the block to where Cafe de Wheels Twitter page said they would be. Not too much of a line, which was nice. I noticed Just Q’in next door. Hadn’t heard of them yet. No sign of them on foursquare or Yelp yet, so I might have to give it a try next time.

But from the reviews I decided to go with their signature Wheels Burger and fries. Jess went for the sweet potato fries. I don’t know what it is but those fries (or the seasoning?) is Heaven!! I don’t care for sweet potatoes in any form whatsoever. I don’t even care for the smell. But these were amazing! I’m also an adamant fries-with-ketchup eater only. I ate the whole cup full in the car on the way back. Not a single drop of ketchup they were that good! And the burger… that’s a whole nother scale. I’m a picky eater, but I am adventurous. I’ll try anything once. For instance I love seaweed salads. Not so much of a fan of buffalo burgers/summer sausage. But I’m pretty sure I could eat from Cafe de Wheels every other day (opposite of Skyline and Jimmy Johns of course) They load their toppings and its just amazing.

Later that night it was off to Loveland for Toot’s. Great little pub type feel, not far off of Applebee’s/TGIFriday’s. It’s laid back and offers bang for the buck. You definitely get your moneys worth of burgers and fries. They’ve got pretty good pickle chips as well.

Saturday brings along one of my favorite places to kill an afternoon. Caeser Creek Flea Market. In my opinion it’s a step above Trader’s World, just because simply, there’s not a thing you CAN”T find here. Yeah there’s a few of your typical “jink” booths, but for the most part, they’ve got a huge selection. Trader’s World isn’t quite as diverse IMO. The only questionable thing here is the shed at the beck of the parking lot… Those that have been, know. For those that don’t… well, I don’t know if any youngsters stumble on here. But it was good time with a cute new necklace, and some candles.

While we were in the area, and this is the best part of the whole weekend, we decided to hit Rod’s Capricorn Inn.

This is the only thing you'll see on the side of the road letting you know what's there

I frequent this place once a year during Homecoming with my Sorority, and it’s just not enough. This place is the epitome of hole-in-the-wall, grease pit, dive place. And it. is. A-MAZING. Rod is normally back in the kitchen cooking and singing to country music or oldies. He’s a little off pitch but never seems to care. The burgers are massive! As in I had to fold mine in half and it still stuck out the bun!

Notice the meat spilling over the ginormous pile of mushrooms

It's a task to wolf one of those down, but oh so worth it.

The sides are generous enough, the toppings are never endingly cascading out of the sandwich, and your drink still comes in a can with a glass of ice. It’s got plastic picnic table clothes. and the back room/party area has actual picnic tables with the same tablecloths over them. It’s just so quaint and out of the way and divey that it is worth the drive up 730 from Wilmington. I promise.