A few days ago, Tammy and I got home from our 3rd annual Road Trip. I look forward to these trips all year because I love their totally unplanned style. We did have 1 goal this time- that was to get to Memphis. But when we left the house, neither one of us was willing to bet that we’d actually get there.
Turns out we did….eventually! But those pics will be in Part 2. This is the Ohio section of the trip, where we unexpectedly spent several days.
If you’re like me and enjoy hearing every detail – this post is for you. My friends call it giving “The Todd Version”.
Monday, June 9- Drive
Tammy is a teacher and needed to complete one last in-service day before getting out for the summer. As soon as she got home that day, we packed the car (1 bag each, a shared toiletry bag and a trumpet) and hit the road about 4pm. We headed west across Pennsylvania, getting all the way through and into that little sliver of West Virginia that borders PA on its southwestern side. We got a hotel right beside a giant fireworks superstore. I couldn’t help imagining what it would be like if the place caught fire- it would have been quite a show! BTW- there’s a reason I packed a trumpet-stay tuned until the end of Part 2….
Tuesday, June 10- Columbus Zoo & German Village
We started out across Ohio, not knowing how far we wanted to drive that day. We were thinking to pass through Cincinnati just because we had never been there before. But the weather was really nice and Tam suggested we go to the Columbus Zoo, which we were approaching. I had heard the place was excellent and it was! They have several exhibits where you can walk in amongst the animals, the habitats are spacious and modern, and there are signs everywhere thanking the people of Columbus for consistently voting to support and fund their zoo. They also have a waterpark and a small amusement park next door (which we didn’t go to).
Pictures don’t do it justice, but the best part of the zoo was the African exhibit, where they recreated a savannah with many different animals on display at once, separated from each other by hidden barriers. The area was too big for me to capture the lioness, zebras, gazelle and giraffes in one shot-but it was very cool to see! The seal exhibit was another favorite because you could walk under it and get face to face with them. We spent all day at the zoo, got dinner at a nearby Greek cafe, and headed into the city of Columbus, just to drive around a bit and see what the place looked like. The part we liked best was a beautiful, old area called German Village.
Eventually we hit the highway toward Cincinnati. We had decided that if we did actually get near there, we would stop at the National Sign Museum. We found it on an internet search for fun things to do in Cincinnati, just in case we ended up passing through. I love stuff like that- so we thought that would be our next destination.
But….driving just outside Cincy at about 10pm, we saw fireworks in the sky and realized we were passing by King’s Island Amusement Park! I had always wanted to go there, but had completely forgotten that we would be nearby. Gen Xers like me might remember that the Brady Bunch filmed a famous episode at that park. Roller coaster fans (also like me) might know King’s Island as the home of several legendary coasters including The Beast (longest wooden coaster in the country). I couldn’t believe I almost blew my chance to go! We booked a nearby hotel for the night and went the next day.
Tuesday, June 11- King’s Island Amusement Park
It’s really hard to take good pics of an amusement park but this place was everything it was cracked up to be! It’s really pretty, with loads of trees, a decent amount of green space, wide shady areas for people to just hang out/rest/recover, and plenty of things to do. And of course- the coasters are awesome! The highlight of the day was riding the legendary Beast at night. The train speeds through a wooded area so it was totally dark during the ride and totally unpredictable. 🤩
The unexpected “attraction” at King’s Island was the cicada’s. They were everywhere!! You could see them flying around all day long and they landed on each of us at least a dozen times throughout the day. As we flew into the home stretch on a coaster called The Racer, I saw a cicada coming at us head on. He passed right in between the two riders in the front seats, then did the same for the second row. I was sure he was going to splat right into my face in the third row, but I guess that sad experience went to somebody farther back…😅 Some people screamed and ran away from the bugs, but this girl made my day when I found this video a few days later.
King’s Island was a total 10/10; definitely go if you get the chance!
Wednesday, June 12- American Sign Museum, Drug Fiasco, & Beer Tunnels
There are certain places that just stand out as being excellent road trip attractions; things you might not set out to see, but when you’re nearby, you can’t resist them. The American Sign Museum was one of those places for us.
If you think signs are boring- you’re missing the art, science and history that makes them. I may do a separate post just on this place, so I’ll hold off on dumping all the pics and stories here. But we had a good time!
Things got a little messed up after the sign museum. Tam had a sinus infection and had an allergic reaction to the medicine the doctor had given her right before we left home. So she was calling from the road trying to get the doctor to give her another prescription which she could pick up where we were in Cincinnati. The problem is that The Queen City is a lot bigger than our little hometown of Lititz, and Tam and the doctors had a tough time figuring things out. So after going across the city to a pharmacy that ended up not having the prescription we were told they’d have, we had lunch at a micro brewery, went back to the other side of the city, and visited the neighborhood called Over-The -Rhine. The area is rich in history and includes the famous Findlay Market (at least the locals think it’s famous). The market is very unique and cool, but I’m spoiled because I grew up going to (and still visit) the oldest operating farmer’s market in the country-right in my home town!
We heard the Over-The -Rhine area was full of nice shops and was a great place to be. We found that to be mostly false. There were some nice boutique shops sprinkled along the main streets, but the area looked largely neglected, decaying, and had at least as many “sketchy” -looking places as nice spots. We continued walking around the downtown and found it to be rather uninteresting- sorry Cincy!
We ended up just killing a few hours walking around the city until it was time for something that turned out to be pretty cool….the beer tour.
Once upon a time, Cincinnati was the beer, brewing capital of the country. Back then (1890-mid 1900’s), brewers would store the beer in large underground tunnels until it aged enough to be sold. Since there were hundreds of breweries, there were a great many tunnels. They were constructed so soundly that they’re compared to the Roman aqueducts!
Sadly, the city lost track of where the tunnels are and most of them have been filled up with trash and construction debris. The ones that remain are typically discovered during construction of new buildings.
After checking out a few of the local breweries in the area, we decided to stay near Cincinnati one more night so we could visit the National Underground Railroad Freedom Museum.
Back we went to the same hotel we had checked out of earlier that day.
Thursday, June 15- National Underground Railroad Freedom Museum & Banana Ball!
The Underground Railroad Museum is right downtown, across the street from the baseball stadium. It’s a truly excellent museum.
It was very thorough and took basically the whole day to go through. The exhibits calling attention to modern day/current human trafficking were important too. They also had a virtual role playing game where you, as a slave, had to plan an escape- illustrating just how difficult and dangerous it was, not just for you, but for your whole family.
As you would expect, this was not a very “fun” museum, but it definitely is an important one, especially in today’s climate where some are trying to downplay this horrendous and inexcusable part of our country’s history (and present).
Our plan after the museum was to have a slightly early dinner, then head out of town toward Memphis. But as we sat by the giant first floor windows at A Taste of Belgium, eating a spicy variation on chicken and waffles, we were surprised to see family after family walk by us wearing yellow shirts and carrying baseball gloves. They were heading toward the stadium, which was 2 blocks away, but we knew the Reds were not in town that night. We did some quick research and found out that the Savannah Bananas were in town. We didn’t know who they were, but checked them out on TikTok and discovered that they are a trick baseball team-like the basketball’s Harlem Globetrotters. The videos looked so fun that we decided to get last minute, standing room tickets and go to the game! It was AWESOME!
We arranged another last minute hotel and stayed near Cincinnati for the last time-again!
Saturday, June 16- Driving….and Buc-ee’s
We had a long drive through Kentucky and Tennessee to Memphis and it took most of the day. We did get a chance to stop at Buc-ee’s, and I must admit, the place is pretty impressive. If I were to redo my Old Man Rants Convenience Store Rankings post, I would definitely have to put Buc-ee’s on top. They must have at least 50 gas pumps, huge bathrooms that are clean and able to handle high traffic, they make their own bakery items, beef jerky, BBQ and snacks. They have basically everything you could possibly need at a rest stop including clothes and gifts. The place is nuts!
We drove in to Memphis around 6pm, halfway through our vacation time and finally at the place we set out for to begin with. But that’s the spontaneous, haphazard, unplanned nature of the road trip that makes them so fun. It’s like when we used to go out to play as kids. We went out, did whatever we stumbled across to do, and came home later. These roadtrips are my way of reliving my childhood but as an adult! 😁
If you like this sort of thing- Part 2 Memphis is coming soon.
Five O'Clock Shadow 
Not that you’re lacking for anything to do, but if you are a fan of Botanical Gardens here’s one more thing to add to your agenda for future trips: Many botanical gardens are members of the American Horticultural Society network, Hershey and Lancaster’s Tanger Arboretum among them. If you are a member of any garden in that network, you can get in free to any other member garden across the country. There are hundreds of places on the list –
https://ahsgardening.org/ahs-garden-network/
Besides supporting your local garden, a few visits to other gardens in a year will pay for your membership.
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Nice! Thanks for the tip!
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Love the trip report! So fun to hear how you two are so good at seeing what’s on the way. And the note about the Underground Railway museum – not fun, but important? So good!
And the Savannah Bananas! So awesome!! Thanks for taking us along!
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Thanks for reading all that Wynne! 🙂
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