Misadventures a plenty!

The main purpose of this blog is the joy of adventure, and more to that, the misadventures that result in the pursuit of said adventures. A few weeks ago, I accidentally found an intriguing place on Google maps near me, one that I still don't know how I found. I won't say a plan was formed to go there, but I texted the Google Maps info to a friend, and it became a goal. 

Sunday morning, he sent me a text to see what I was up to, and being that I literally had nothing planned, we agreed to go down to Memento Mori just to see what they had. We had also planned to hit a sports bar on the way back. That is easily more than enough plan, typically. 

A few hours later, timed to match Memento Mori's opening time, we headed south and arrived to find them closed for a week due to illness. To be fair, I later would check their Facebook page to find that about half an hour after the plan was hatched, they posted they would be taking the week off. Had we started everything off just a bit later... 

While disappointed, what we could see through the window was interesting. (And also weird.) I think I saw a pufferfish hanging from the ceiling, various taxidermy (including a giraffe my friend might just be obsessed with now), and various other random things. Do I need a straight jacket? No, but they looked to have a selection. There was at least one musical instrument with a broom handle in them. I don't know how to actually verbalize much of what I saw through the large windows. We agreed that this would need another attempt, and headed a few miles north to hit a comic book store. 

Now, we know how the day was playing out. This time, we did the smart thing and called the comic book store before we drove to it to make sure it was open. GPS took me right there, and I knew the area that it was in. I pulled into the parking lot... and no store. We discovered it was down some stairs in a hidden back area in the back of the strip mall, and the parking lot did not make a full loop. We almost made it to the store on foot when we became distracted by a cat cafe. The confusion of what was in front of us only served to lure us in. 

Kitty Brew was not what I expected. I have been to a few cat and dog adoption places where they stick you in a small room with an animal, and you get to know an animal. This was quite different. This was more like an aviary at the zoo, cats all over, and you are in their world. The cat side of things charges an eleven-dollar hourly fee to chill out and play with the various cats en masse. It is a reasonable amount, since that helps care for the cats and covers the rent. There was a little irony, in that many of the cats come from a rescue about 15 minutes from my friend's house, which was an hour north of Kitty Brew. We don't really carry cash, but they let us take a quick look. I think my friend gave them $5, and we went to the coffee shop next door.  (Note: They have a live feed! You can also check their donation wish list with Amazon.)

The coffee shop is actually the same place, with tables next to large windows in the wall so you can drink and look at the cats running around. Aside from drinks, they had cookies as well as a small gift shop. I probably would have gotten a hot chocolate if we weren't on our way to a comic book store.

A few doors down had us at Nostalgia Ink. My friend hesitated at first when we looked it up, thinking it was a tattoo parlor. There is some irony here as the comic book store was next door to Every Body Tattoo. It was a decent enough comic shop, though I am not as into comics as I used to be. My friend found a few he was looking for, and we headed back to the car, where I was almost blocked in by an idiot who parked in a no-parking area behind me. It took a few tries, but I was able to back out of the lot, and we continued on our way. 

Being hungry, we headed south a few exits to Union Centre, forgetting that the local NFL team playing in the last game before the Super Bowl. This really caused logistical issues with the parking of the local sports bars. I was really looking forward to some really hot wings, and Twin Peak's listed Pineapple Habanero sounded like it would be good. Parking was pretty much overfilled at all of the restaurants, meaning we would need to go somewhere a bit farther away.  

Thankfully, it gave me a chance to stop at Duluth Trading Co which I have wanted to do for a while. I didn't know what to expect, but it was kind of like a cross between a hunting store and a meme. They were big on underwear. They did have some interesting outdoor gear, including the silicone cups similar to the ones I picked up in Madison a few weeks ago. I picked up a new safety razor since my old one has some issues now. It wasn't a bad price, and my friend ended up paying for it. (He also made sure to get the largest bag they had. I think it was twice the size of the paper bags at Kroger!)

With the entirety of the planned trip now voided and plenty of time left in the day, we headed over to Jungle Jims. I actually took random roads and didn't bother with my GPS for this. I actually ended up about a mile up the street from there, unsure if I was actually in Fairfield or Hamilton. (My friend asked, and I've made the drive up route 4 between them a few times. I still knew which direction to turn.) 

It was the first time I've been in there since the newest remodel was complete, and that made part of it disorientating. We were met with a person guessing ages and weight, like at a carnival, so I came away with one of the weird moving steel fidget things. They probably have a name, but there were in a bulk container, and not labeled. Free is free though. We actually headed out the second entrance, because I knew a Wings and Rings was over there, and we were still hungry. Instead, we found an open CiCi's. 

To me, CiCi's is a great place where I eat far too much. We first experienced it around the time my oldest son was born, after we had moved to West Chester. He would eat olives off our plates, and chewed the crust while he was teething. When we had his first birthday, I picked up an entire brownie thing for the party. Sadly, many of the locations closed, including the ones we always went to. So for that day, pizza was beating wings. We ate more than we should have and watched the first quarter of the game. It wasn't looking good for the Bengals as we left, and went back into Jungle Jim's. 

For me, Jungle Jim's is sort of a normal place for me. We used to do a lot of grocery shopping there when we were local, and we got used to navigating the impulse buys to get some great deals. My friend, however, had only been to the banquet center, and never experienced the full scale of the place. 

We were not there long, and as we left, my friend thought that just maybe we could hit one more comic book store before heading out of town. With five minutes until closing, he called up Queen City Comics and got them to agree to stay open long enough for us to stop in. For whatever reason, it actually worked. I don't know how many comic books he bought, but it was a fair number, and I picked up a few things as well. It was ironic, but looking back this was a key stop for the day. While not in itself a key event, it delayed us by about 15 minutes.

We were about 2/3rds of the way to his house when heard the Bengals had gotten the game a bit closer,  so I turned on the radio, which just happened to be the game. We listened to it go to overtime, and just three stoplights from my friend's house, the game was over. We were just minutes from his house and had we not stopped at that last store we would have missed the end of that game. I'm not a Bengals fan. I'm not even really a football fan. But you don't have to be a fan to appreciate how that game ended. They beat a lot of odds that night, so as the Super Bowl draws near, I'll be able to see a local team playing for the first time since I was so young that I really, really didn't care. And this time, I'll not care a healthy amount less.

Madison IN

Just outside of the state park was the small town of Madison, Indiana. With about 12,000 people, separated into two main areas, I'd say tourism might be their big business. With what seemed like a dozen places with Red in the name, and a few other random places, the tourist area was our main hangout beyond Clifty Falls. 

We started in a parking lot near the middle of town, between the town and a river. Ironically, the first place we stopped at was a bike shop. Fizz'z bike shop was practically a hole in the wall, but hey. so are most of the great bike shops. I know deep down, I was hoping for a Montague, something I have been trying to chase down since the day my dad died. (Back in August 2003, the day before the great Midwest Blackout. I discovered my bike had been stolen between finding out my dad died, and the power going out. It was not a great couple of days.) The bike shop didn't have any Montagues, but they did have a tandem with riser bars. It was very tempting, and I really could have bought it if I really wanted to. But while it was a good price, my new car had zero chance of getting that thing back home. Maybe if I had a roof rack? Then again, the shop's internet was down that day, and with it, the credit card machine. So... Onward we went.

Up next was Gifts That Last which was very much a new age store. It has been years since I've been inside a place like that, it would have to have been when I was an Undergrad. Not even Crazy Wisdom in A2 compares in many ways. There were some neat things there, crystals, terra cotta warriors, large geodes, and so on. It brought back a lot of memories from when I was in high school, back when I had a nice rock collection.

We proceeded to Madison Made, which was pretty much a laid-back shop that seemed to be there to cater to tourists. We got some cups there but didn't really feel a draw to any of the shirts. (If we went back a second time, maybe.) 

We then stopped at Red Roaster, which was part of the whole Red places. (We had planned to get a pizza from the Red Pepperoni, which was across the street from the Red Pepper, but didn't get around to it.) I got hot tea, and it practically burned my fingers through the cup. And by that, I mean I had to wait almost half an hour to even begin drinking it. I like hot tea and coffee, really, but there are limits to just how hot it needs to be. Their tea was way too hot. It would actually cause us to have to double back for McWhiggins, since I couldn't take my drink inside. 

The next place we were able to stop was Fountain Alley Body Care. Somehow, we ended up buying a bar of soap. It smells nice, for what its worth, and we probably would go back for more I guess. We laughed about this a little since when we were in New Orleans there were two different stores handing out slivers of similar soaps. These slivers easily could have been mistaken for candy, and that would have been a horrible mistake to make. Full bars don't look like candy though, so yeah‽

We also stopped into Madison Buy Sell Trade which reminded me in some ways of the antique store one of my friends dad had years ago, but with a heavier lean towards modern things. I picked up a manga sampler from Yen press, who for some reason I had thought went out of business. I am so far behind on manga, though it is really expensive over the long term. 

By now, my tea was gone, and we could enter the maze that was McWhiggins. It was a strange mix of modern and vintage toys, and some really random toys that I honestly have no idea what era they came from. There were things I hadn't seen in years, and there were a lot of tempting things there. I'm honestly not sure how we got out of there without spending a bunch of money.

After this, we headed over to Lanthier Winery. It was actually the second one we stopped at, but the first one, Thomas Family Winery, was closed. No sign on the door, just closed. So, one thing that is interesting about Indiana compared to Ohio is that they are not required to charge for wine samples. Now, I do find that interesting, because there seems like there is a great imbalance between Ohio and Indiana in this. Indiana is free, and Ohio is like $1 for a sample. Maybe Ohio is going for profit. No idea, and trying to look it up just got me outdated and weird information. The law seems confusing on purpose. (Actually, I can follow it, but I can't explain it. Though I now understand why different places have different prices while still saying State Minimum pricing.)

After this, we headed back to the park. That evening, after a Walmart run, we stopped at Mad Love where they seem to have a thing for smash burgers. Honestly, until that night, I thought smash burgers were a trademark of the restaurant with that name, not a style. I think I had eaten too much, maybe it was the giant pretzel, but I struggled to finish that meal. I think this might have been among my favorite places in Madison that we stopped at for food, not that we stopped at a lot of places. Mad Love really reminded me of a mix of Hard Rock Cafe and the bar at the hotel we stayed at during our last trip to New Orleans. While I think there is a Hard Rock in Indiana, I really don't care to go to it. (We went on both trips to NOLA though.)

Madison was an interesting place, but I don't think the downtown would hold my interest for more than a day. A few of the places I would go back to, but I don't know if I would be able to make a true multi-day trip out of it. I hope to get back there when it is warmer to explore the park more, though I don't think it will be a priority. Maybe if I get back into camping this summer, I might camp there. I don't know. 

Clifty Falls

We arrived at the Clifty Falls State Park in Madison, Indiana about 12:30 AM on Saturday, for the three-day weekend. It was a dark drive, and one of the first real long drives of sorts in the new car. We got everything unloaded from the car into the hotel and were asleep rather quickly. It was really dark, we were tired, and all I knew what there was a giant pillar of smoke behind the hotel. (I looked it up, it was probably steam, the building being the powerplant for the area.)

A downside of getting there so late was that we didn't make it out for snacks on the way there. That is actually one of our big things for traveling, we get snacks and such once we know if there is a minifridge or not. We haven't gotten brave enough to try using Amazon grocery delivery yet, but hey. Our last two trips to Carmel had us a few blocks from Meijer. It was an easy drive there with the food, and across from a few restaurants. Both of our trips to New Orleans had us shopping at Rouses near the hotels. Ironically, Meijer in Carmel was closer than Rouses, but we didn't use a car in NOLA. Carrying a half case of water half of a mile to a hotel was not the best of plans...

We managed to eat at the buffet the first morning there, which I wasn't very happy with. The meat was cold, but I ate a lot. Enough that I hardly had room for dinner, for what that was worth. We did hit Walmart though, which would get us snacks and breakfast for the rest of the week. We got some exploring done, but not as much as we would like. A short hike on Saturday got us some great views of the town and the powerplant. I forgot my hiking sticks, which would have been great for the terrain.

To be fair, most trails that are near me are a lot flatter than Clifty Falls has. It had some great flat areas, but there were a lot more steep areas than I expected. I had planned a second hike originally, but I ended up skipping that when the snow started. I'm not sure if I had the right gear for that, and I wanted to use my camera. I don't know if that was the best decision, but I made it. 

On our last day there, while it wasn't showing, I struggled to decide between hiking and trying to trail run. I know there was a flat trail (according to the park) near the hotel, but I had some doubts, and with being trails and some fresh snow, I instead hiked back to the south entrance which was a long walk down a rather steep hill. Actually, the hike down wasn't bad. The walk back up the hill was the hard part. 

I don't know if I would want to stay at the inn again, at least not in winter. I didn't actually get around to seeing the waterfall the park is named for, but I also missed out on the railroad tunnel, which is closed until later in spring due to hibernating bats. I might need to make another trip out this way again, but I still have a lot of Ohio parks to catch up on. 

Halestorm / Evanescence

We finally made it to the concert on Jan 14th, which was rather lucky, as a snowstorm came in a few days later, canceling their Pennsylvania show. Since this was a bit worse for timing than the original December date, being after work instead of on a Sunday. Of course, this became a day I was up an extra hour early, for no good reason. Ironically, my wife's job shut down that day due to staffing issues, so she didn't have to go in. This actually made things a little easier, since we had a long weekend trip planned before the concert was rescheduled. I was really happy to have gotten my favorite coat back that same day we were to leave, but a cover for my car so luggage and such wouldn't be visible failed to show up as scheduled. (It was due to be in on Friday, but did not arrive in time.)

After I was done at work, I actually made great time getting back home to pick up my wife, got the car loaded, covered the gear with my Flying Pig blanket, and we headed south. We probably should have stopped for diner, but where is the fun in that?

We got a great spot in the parking garage next to the Heritage Bank Center for $20, and about the time the doors were set to open, we headed up. I probably should have had my coat on me for that, since we ended up standing outside in the dropping temperatures for a good 20 minutes, and I did not have my warmest kilt on. Or a jacket. I debated buying a hoodie from one of the merchandise scalpers that were walking around the lines, with handheld card readers for ease. It wound up that the shirts they were selling were not actually inside the area at all, there were no shirts other than the scalpers with both of the headlining bands listed. We actually were a bit disappointed in that.

Finally, as the line sort of moved a few feet, we found out that our floor seat tickets meant we were on the wrong side of the building. This meant a quick trip around the building, and after they checked our Covid status and ID, we were in the warmth of the building. We found the merchandise windows and looked over the gear. The shirts were easily double the price of the outdoor hawkers, at $40 each, and $70 for hoodies. Initially, we got a shirt for Evanescence and headed to our seats. It was a long way down, being on the floor, but it was not too bad.

I headed back up to get snacks, and I found a few different things. More than I could carry, and I knew that Garmin was going to give me my stair climbing goal that day. For the first trip, I got a Lilith Czar hoodie for myself, and two soft pretzels. The second trip up was for two drinks in Tiki cups. They were amusing, but it probably was a bit cold for frozen drinks. Not that I was going to let it stop me from getting a Tiki cup. I got back to our seats, and my wife mentioned a bag she saw someone else have from the vendors to hold stuff. Once more onto the breach, this time I ended up buying an overpriced Halestorm tote bag. (I would discover later that the hoodie has the ♀ sign on the hood. I wouldn't have bought it had I seen that. Wearing that with a kilt could send some mixed messages.)

Eventually, the show began, the opener being Lilith Czar. She did a few songs, and I had heard a bit of her stuff on Spotify before the original tour date was postponed. She did a few songs, then Halestorm got set up. We were more familiar with their music, We stood up for most of their songs, and noticed our feet were getting cold. Really cold. Once we were standing, and not in the temporary seating that they put on the floor, was realized that ice for the hockey rink was still on the floor, under the wooden floor they placed for the concert. And that ice was a lot colder when standing.

There was a short intermission that followed, as they rebuilt the stage, transforming it between the two headliners. It was rather impressive, and soon the show continued.

I wouldn't be able to say what my favorite part of the show was, they weren't my favorite artist per se, but I enjoyed the music. It was interesting the times the other headliner would come out and have both of them singing together, It was also interesting when the artist encouraged people to use the lights on their phones like previous generations used lighters. Thousands of cell phone flashlights lit the area surprisingly well.

Once it was over, we began what felt like a long drive to the hotel we had booked in Indiana. It was about the same drive time from the concert to the hotel as it would have been to go home, but I hate to say, we really wished we had more to eat than a soft pretzel.

Car Shopping and Wine

Replacing my car has been a goal for quite a while now. I've had issues with Kia, and after finally getting the radio replaced after two years, which was part of a separate shitshow, I was done with them. Almost done, actually. I gave them a second chance in November, with an upgraded version of my Niro they had set for delivery. After work, I stopped at the dealership the day it was delivered, and we began the process. However, the numbers all came back a lot higher than expected. I walked away from the dealership after two hours, finding out a few days later that they had raised the price of the car by $3000. They ran the credit checks without telling me about the drastic price change. They didn't care that I caught them, so I knew I was done with the local Kia dealer.

Then, just as the year came to an end, I saw two Nissan Kicks listed in Indiana, about an hour away. It was funny, because they had two that appeared identical, but was about a $500 difference in price. I finally figured out why, and it was because one of the models lacked a spoiler. A quick check with Saris showed me that my old Bones rack that I hadn't been able to use since I traded in my Blazer about 4 years ago was able to be used on the Kicks, but only without the spoiler. The lack of a spoiler was a huge benefit, so my wife and I got in the Kia, and headed to Indiana. 

The dealership happened to be part of the same company that sold us the Kia in the first place, which had been great to deal with, but they were two hours away. It helped a bit with trade-in, getting a better offer than the local Kia dealer made, and we were offered lower payments and a lower interest rate. We even were able to use the refund of the Gap coverage as a down payment. I did take a hit on fuel economy, but it is a much nicer ride. It doesn't center in the lane, but it has better safety features and a remote starter. It reminds me a lot of the Jeep Renegade I used to have, which I don't miss nearly as much now. 

Since we had the day largely filled, with going to look at the car, and with the previous experience of the process not working out, we planned to hit a winery or two on the way home. Time-wise though, we only had time for one, and we went with the Olde Schoolhouse Vineyard and Winery near Eaton, OH. Somewhat obviously, it was an old one-room schoolhouse converted into a winery. I got a cider flite, and my wife got a wine flight. There were some really good ciders in the flite, and my wife took interest in one seasonal wine that tasted like cotton candy.  (It was called Circ Ass, but I couldn't find it on the website.) We brought a bottle home, and I think she would have been happy had we picked up two bottles instead. 

An interesting thing is that the winery is part of the Darke County Whiskey, Wine, & Ale Trail, which I found amusing since it is actually in Preble County. I think another one of the locations is in Miami County, for what that is worth.  Aside from The Winery at Versailles, we haven't been to any of them before. (We have had products from a few of the others though.) We will need to stop in Versailles sometime and get the booklet we got stamped. I don't know which location will actually be next, but the Olde Schoolhouse was a nice surprise. 

Postponed Concert

It has been a long 4 months, the job hunt had a few ups and downs, but nothing permanent yet. I fell behind in the blog, again, and with so many things. In early December, we were supposed to go to the Evanenscense / Halestorm concert in Cincy, but it got canceled at the last minute. (Actually, about an hour before we were to leave. Close enough. The official email was less than 90 minutes before the doors were set to open.) Now, I already paid $235 for the night at the hotel, and it was too late to cancel, so off to Cincinnati we went. 

We arrived about when we had expected, and checked into the AC Hotel. I know I may have paid a bit extra for a river view, but it was more of Moerlein Lager House. I mean, sure, we were a few stories over it, but that was the main thing it felt like we could see from the hotel room.

We went for a quick walk around the stadiums, curious how many people missed the memo. There were a few, though what really caught our attention was a group that came from the parking lot, with signs and wigs and so on, who were upset that it was canceled. They stated they drove two hours just to be sure because they didn't really believe it when they got the email. 

We doubled back to Moerlein Lager House for dinner, which was nice since we never got to go there during the Flying Pig. It was pretty good, and it wasn't too crowded. Though, to be fair, there was a home Bengals game, just a few hundred yards away. 

We then made our way up to another interesting place down in the Banks district, titled rather logically as Fishbowl at the Banks. We sat inside for a few minutes before making our way to an igloo they had outside. We had that space to ourselves for a while, before two women joined us, carrying four jello-shots in syringes. They were also there for the postponed concert, and they handed both of us one of the jello shots. (We looked, but even with the Fishbowl logo on them, we didn't see them on the menu. They were good though.)

After some time in the igloo, we headed back to the hotel. It was a shame that we both had to work the next day, but that was part of why we had the hotel in the first place. I was still a little groggy on my way back to work, but having to drop my wife off at work on the way meant an early start for me. 

Mini: Surprise Art (Video)

Due to how chaotic things are this week, I don't know if I will have a post for this weekend. But, I might. I didn't quite get a queue going like I had hoped. I did happen upon something odd between interviews though, and it isn't enough for a real post, but sometimes the blog needs to remember that err is part of the name.