You know its a great adventure when the cops show up

 A friend and I went camping this week in an attempt to catch the meteor shower, and we had two of our kids along. Camping is usually an adventure, though this was the first time in two years I have been camping. I loaded up my hybrid, and after a quick meet at Walmart to split a bag of ice, we began the 2+ hour drive to Hocking Hills.

I was happy with the drive, averaging 50 mpg with the car loaded. But the real err of adventure began as I came out of the roundabout near Logan, Ohio. My cell service went dead. I had the route already in the phone's memory, but I was cut off from civilization. I got to the State Park just a few minutes after my friend, and we soon began to get set up. Having chosen an electric site in case we needed to charge devices, we setup on opposite sides of the parking space, with a canopy put up between the cars. My friend promptly set up a pedestal fan using the electric, while the kids just played on the Nintendo switch my friend's son brought along. (I brought a battery-powered fan, so it's all fair...)

We left the kids and scoped out the John Glenn Astronomy park where we saw signs about needing passes, though we missed seeing that online before the trip. (And no cell service there...) but it was daytime and deserted. 

"10" Ten what?

We headed back into town (and cell service) and grabbed Taco Bell for Taco Tuesday, and returned to camp. With still some time to kill, we hiked down to Rose Lake in the park.

Maybe the view was better further down the trail...

We got back to camp as it got dark, and headed back to John Glenn, where we were turned away for not having a parking pass. We were annoyed since neither of us had seen anything about passes online, and we headed back towards the camp. Well, we turned a bit too early, and ended up in the parking lot for Old Man's Cave. Being empty and dark, we decide to watch from there. Camera out, blanket for the kids to sit on, and we started taking pictures.

I don't think I have ever seen so many stars.

For me, it was the first time I ever really got to see the Milky Way. I've seen pictures, but I always thought they were doctored or something. To actually see it though...  We were there a few minutes when a guy with a telescope showed up, and it was a fun impromptu thing.

After about two hours, the cops showed up. Well, a Park Ranger, but he had red and blue lights and was using them. We had missed a sign about the parking lot being closed at night, so we got kicked out of the parking lot. We got some pictures and saw some meteors, so mission accomplished I guess.

We made another attempt to get into John Glenn, and were successful this time. Comparatively, the view sucked. We hung out a few minutes and went back to camp.

We were up sort of early and began to break camp. We were there primarily for astronomy, and I feel like I missed a lot there. I'll have to head back for a few more days next time, there is a lot more there to see.

Like this thing that crawled onto my shirt.

My first vacation

I grew up in a house that liked to travel. Not usually far, but still, we traveled. As I got older, it changed from a few trips further east into visiting my sister in college in Chicago. Still, traveling became ingrained in who I am.

 The first trip I remember was to Myrtle Beach. My family loaded into my grandparents' van and the six of us drove from Ohio to Myrtle Beach just after Christmas in 1986. We stayed in a hotel penthouse my two uncles and my only cousin met up with us. I don't remember much about the penthouse, though it must have been the nicest hotel room I ever stayed in, considering that there were three kids and six adults there. As a six year old, it was a great trip. My cousin taught me to play the card game War, and I got a little rubber dinosaur from eating at Pop-Eyes, which I played with while riding in the back of the van. I'm pretty sure I lost that dinosaur about a day later. It was my first real vacation, what little I remember of it.

Adventure was a real theme to that trip though. While I don't really remember a lot from that trip, and most of those memories could also have been made at home, there was some excitement.  We woke up on New Years' Day to a large storm. To a first grader from Ohio, it seemed like a hurricane. Really, it was just a major winter storm with gale-force winds meeting with a high tide and a few feet of storm surge. It was far different than any storm I had ever seen, and with large picture windows, it was a sight to behold. We saw a police car get pushed by the high water in front of the hotel. A day or so after the storm, we returned home.

The adventure didn't quite stop with the ride home though. The pool at the hotel had a water slide, and I loved that thing. That love was not returned however, and from getting water in my ear, I managed to get a nasty ear infection. It was gross and it managed to spread to my nose before I made it to a doctor. I missed at least a day of school though, and I am wondering in hindsight if that has been a cause to my typical sinus infection that recurs every so often on that side of my head.

That was the only vacation my grandparents had with all of their children and grandchildren together. A few years later my grandparents moved from Ohio to South Carolina, My uncles are both now in Florida, and my cousin is in Connecticut. My sister left for college in Chicago, and my parents divorced with my dad eventually moving near my grandparents in South Carolina. I eventually headed to college in Michigan, before returning to Ohio. In so many ways, this was my first taste of travel, and it set a high bar, even if I can't remember most of it. Since then I have been to around twelve states and four foreign countries. I've driven to New Orleans and Orlando. Had Covid not hit the US this year, I probably would have made my second drive to Busch Garden Williamsburg.

Covid has really scaled back adventuring in many ways, but adventures are still out there to be had. Granted, since Covid has come into play, I have still been lucky enough to make it to two amusement parks, and even got my first photograph of a comet, Neowise. I really am looking forward to the Renaissance Festival this year, though I now wish I had bought that plague mask in New Orleans when I had the chance.

If comets are bad omens, Neowise is really late to the party.