Chicago II: The Revenge – Day One

* As a site note, apparently you cannot click the save and continue editing button while using the GoSpell checking because it toasts your whole FREAKIN’ POST

Take two.

So after all the planning, packing, and sitting around in sunglasses and underwear, it was time to load the Pilot and see if this bad dog could chew a bone. The Soulliere family vacation had begun.

Sorry, too lazy right now to edit these correctly, enjoy none the less

Leg one of our trip takes us to Buffalo, IN (why haven’t you been to this mecca of the mid-west yet) and onto to Monticello to hang out at Indiana Beach. The saying goes that half the fun of getting there is the journey. Having traveled more than once, I can assure that this is most often not the case. To help make my traveling as pain free as possible I’m always printing off maps from Google to make sure I can find my way with the greatest of ease (I used to use FreeTip.com, but man, its Google right?). Lately though I am becoming increasingly disappointed with them (I’m as surprised as you are, I had not idea that I’d ever have anything bad to say against the Wal*Mart of the Internet). This leads me to my most recent mini-rant (honestly, did you think you’d get through a post without one – if I could just find someone to pay me to sit around all day and complain I’d totally have it made).

What happened to Google? Their directions used to be simple, concise and easy to use. Recently though I am getting 15 pages of directions to go 2 miles. Take a “slight left” (their words not mine) for .002 feet swerve right and continue on to Some New Ave turning left on Some Other New Ave Which is Really the Same Road as the First Ave and finally merge onto A Totally New Ave, Not. Whatever happened to take US 24 to US 39, turn right? It was even worse driving from Buffalo to Schaumburg, IL.

Google Maps aside, we did manage to find our way out of the drive way and head off down US 24. I have to confess that I was over joyed at what a pleasant drive US 24 was. It turns out that Indiana has some hills, trees and a beautiful country side. Toss in a few more pine trees and it was like we were driving through northern Michigan. Very light traffic, double lanes, and an eyeful of relaxation.

We did learn that Indiana is really the gateway to the world. No joke. Here we are zipping along the highway when suddenly we were confronted with a two huge signs spanning 4 lanes at this massive intersection. Peru turn left. Mexico turn right. Yeah, totally, who knew? I though Mexico would have been left from Indiana too, but it would appear that I was wrong. Needless to say, this got quite a few on going chuckles.

Speaking of on going chuckles, the day before Michelle and I were doing some channel surfing and came across an aged Eddie Money performing a concert in Detroit (in HD of all things). Eddie wasn’t looking so well (despite the fact that this was taped in 2004), with a stroke like grin he muddle through some of his lyrics (I couldn’t understand a thing he was saying and I was pretty sure I knew most of the songs) I mean it was worse than Ozzy (while the man cannot carry on a verbal conversation, he can still articulate all of his lyrics). So aside from forgetting 72% of his words, he’d randomly shout out “Michigan” every 3 minutes or so. To really make things interesting he would (mid-song) point out that he was coming back in August next year. He finished up his concert by handing a buxom blond in the front row his mic and walking away while she stood there looking completely lost (but hey, turns out she new as many of the words as he did). He did a few more “la, la’s”, shouted “Michigan” and then thanked everyone for what a great time he had. I would have totally been pissed if I had paid a dime for that show.

But one of the keys to enjoying life and making the most of things like Eddie money is taking those shared moments of absurdity and bring them back at a later point.

So in the middle of nowhere and the silence of the Peru / Mexico joking had ended, I shouted out “Michigan” (raising my hands above my head) and solicited an honest to God snort from my wife with a few tears tossed in (truuuuuue story). Life is good.

The miles passed, the laughter continued and we made our way onto Buffalo. I have to poke a little bit a my mom here, but in her giving her directions on how to get to her house, she went out of her way to mention several times that we had to make sure that we stayed on US 24 and didn’t accidentally go through Logans Port. The way she carried on was that someone how Logans Port was the ghetto of Indiana and it should be avoided at all cost (“You don’t want to drive through there…”). No offense is meant to the fine citizens of Logans Port, I’ve personally never visited your fine Port (along the Wabash – pronounced wab-ish, like silly wabbit, or at least that’s the way I did it the whole trip), but I am sure it’s a fine place to be.

All that having been said we made it safely to my parents house, enjoyed a lunch of pizza and tacos (I love grandparents – what do your boys like to eat – you know kids, they like pizza and tacos and that kind of stuff [Oh, TOTAL aside... driving down 83 North in Illinois and we passed a "Payless Taco" - two words you don't want to see together], so what do they get – both] and then headed back down the road to Indiana Beach.

The slogan goes, “Proving once again that there is more than corn in Indiana”. This is belied by the fact that you have to drive through 37 miles of corn to get there. That fact aside, I was very impressed with IB. I had no expectations, so as you might imagine, they were totally surpassed and the place was a lot of fun.

No stress, no to extremely short rides, nice breeze of the lake, it was wonderful. After the boys stopping to make thorough use of their cameras (pictures of signs, maps, each other and anything else they could find) we got our wrist bands and were off to the park.

The first ride that caught the boys attention was the Sea Dragon (or the Viking Ride as Dafyd calls it). The ran right up the ramp and headed to the ends to sit down and Michelle and I sat in front of them and we took off. Now for those of you who’ve never been on the Sea Drago aka Viking Ride, it’s basically a large ship that swings like a pendulum from bow to stern getting higher each time. Laughter EXPLODED from the back as Dafyd was having the time of his life.

Jace on the other hand was curled into the smallest space he could find eyes shut and knuckles white and a look of having eaten spoiled 100 year old egg on his face.

Dafyd: “That was the BEST RIDE ever”
Jace: “I hated that ride. It was horrible. The next time I ride on it, I’m going to ride in the middle.”

This turned out to be the most popular ride of the day as we road on it more than half a dozen times (several of them in a row, and we even managed to drag Grandpa Bob onto it a couple of times).

From there we made our ways to one of the greatest rides ever invented for a kid – the antique cars.

Jace (who was very serious in his responsibilities) got to play driver to Grandma & Grandpa and Dafyd bouncing from side to side got to take Michelle and I around. They both did awesome, Dafyd showing a lot of wisdom an maturity as he made some excellent decisions once the cars got a little backed up. A lot of fun was had by all.

Next we caught the Viking Ride again and then made our way over to the Shafer Queen for a river boat ride down to the dam and back. The boys had a great time. Jace and I finished the ride up top (which provided to be hotter, but a lot quieter). Nature called, we answered and the boys caught site of Hurricane.

The Hoosier Hurricane is the large wooden roller coaster there at the park. So again, we loaded up in the back (Michelle riding with thrill seaker Dafyd and me taking the very back with Jace to ensure that he felt safer on this ride) and took off. Have I mentioned how much I hate wooden roller coasters? Yeah, I forgot too, but this certainly reminded me. Nothing like having your body jarred around violently for two minutes over rough passage. Give me smooth steel any day of the week. Internal bleeding and $20 on drinks aside, we moved on.

Jace caught sight of the bumper cars and had to go on them. For some reason, Dafyd wasn’t thrilled with the idea so Michelle (who’s a car nut in any fashion) decided to take one for Team Soulliere and join Jace in line. Out of all the rides, this one was the only one that didn’t go so well. Jace had a hard time figuring out the mechanics of the car once it got hit and stuck and spent almost his entire ride in the corner. Michelle seemed to have a good kid taking out small children, but Jace called “no joy”.

Viking Ride (again)
Jace: “Well I didn’t die, but I think I almost passed out.”

It was time for a short break so Grandma & Grandpa & Michelle caught some shade while the boys and I headed over to the Scrambler. Having explained the physics of centripical force to Jace, he dided to take the inside of the cart while I took the outside.

Slamming ensued.

Jace tossed his hands out shouting, “I’m letting myself go” (slam into dad) “look at me, I’m not holding on” (slam into dad) (repeat).

Dafyd continued to grin ear to ear every time we caught sight of him and a smilely time was had by all.

The boys decided it was time for them to head off and try something on their own took a ride on the Paratrooper (I love universally recognized carnival ride names) and had such a good time, they decided that Dad should ride on it with them again (and so he did).

Right next to the Viking Ride (which I believe we rode again) was Frankenstine’s Haunted House. Both the boys decided that they simply had to go on it (so another $5 later off they went). I sat outside and waited…. and waited…. and waited. After about 5 minutes I saw Jace come streaking out, running right past me and over to base camp. No Dafyd. So I waited… and waited… Finally I saw Dafyd emerge from the exit and asked him what was up.

Dafyd: “I lost Jace. I think he’s dead. Dad, I was totally freaking out in there.”
Jace: “I saw a sign that said, ‘Chicken Exit’ so I took it.”

Toss in the “Swings”, a ride on the “Double Drop” another Viking Ride and we were almost done.

The last ride of the day for us was to pile the whole family into the “Rocky Rapids” log ride. I bought the picture and will scan it for your enjoyment as well as ours.

An awesome time was had by all, and it was certainly well worth the drive there.

Yet our day didn’t quite end there. A trip to Burger King for dinner (Grandma decided that it was most likely easier to do that than cook burgers – which after having made pizza and tocos, I totally agreed) and we were back in Buffalo.

Grandpa Bob gave us a tour of the church where he preaches an Jace gave us an example of how you preach with an “Iron Fist” – I guess I’m going to have to better check where Kara takes them to church on Sunday mornings (I kid, I kid).

We ended the day with Cinema Soulliere as I busted out some of my traveling technology to share in a family movie. Out came the MacBook, the projector and a pair of firewire powered speakers (which had awesome sound) and we enjoyed an evening of watching “Evan Almighty” which turned out to be a really good movie. I liked it a lot, and Grandma & Grandpa seemed to have a good time.

As I closed out the thoughts of the day in my head I realized that for the first time in many days I was relaxed and content as the echos of laughter still bounced around in my brain. It was a great first day and the boys did awesome (and Dad did a pretty good job too if I might say so myself).

* Pictures to come as I crop and post them.