Day Tripper: Ohio

Panoramic view from my seat

Now, spending an entire day or two in Ohio, isn't exactly what I'd consider the ideal get-away, but it was still an opportunity to experience something new.  The original plan, was to drive to Cincinnati and go to the Bengals tackle football game and then jump over to Columbus to see my cousin, stay at a hotel for the night and go to the highly touted Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.

I originally came up with the idea to travel to different stadiums when I was writing my entry about my trip with my father to Toronto.  I decided to start with Cincinnati because of it's relatively short drive and had decided against Indianapolis because I wanted to experience an outdoor football game.  I wanted to experience the elements, not be pampered and sheltered like I am when I visit Ford Field.  But I still had to find tickets.  I found one a few rows back in the corner of the endzone and when my order processed, I had no choice but to go to the game.

I knew that in order to make it on time (Google Maps told me that it would be about a 4.5 hour drive), I would have to leave very early.  Now, I'm not the smartest man alive and decided to hang out with other family members the night before to watch the Tigers game, which, by the end of it, allowed me a little more than 4 hours of sleep.  So I set my alarm and miraculously woke up on time at 4:30 a.m. to begin my journey.

After I got ready and got gas and driving fuel (commonly known as Mountain Dew), I jumped on I-75.  And by "jumped", I mean "merged with ease since no one else was dumb enough to be up that early on a Sunday".

During our yearly vacations, I had grown used to having my favorite station (90's on 9) at my disposal, but since I don't have satellite radio, I was stuck with local stations.  I ended up sticking to NPR to keep my brain busy while I stared aimlessly out at the empty vastness of the expressway.  Once the sun started waking up, I got a renewed energy, which might have been helped by the Mountain Dew I'd been drinking, but I started getting more excited as I passed endless fields of corn.

Cincinnati Sky-Line from outside the stadium

As I got closer, I waited until I was about 15 miles out to stop at a Target to buy some Bengals gear so I could blend in with the home crowd.  Originally I thought about wearing a Lions sweatshirt, but thought that would be kind of a dick move, plus it would just confuse people.  So I got a hoodie at Target put it on and then finished the final leg of the journey.  I could have used Paul's navigational skills because I ended up missing my exit to the stadium so I had to turn around.

I've never really been tailgating before but Paul Brown Stadium has a whole parking lot underneath the stadium where people were playing corn-hole and barbecuing.  There was also a party going on around the main gates of the stadium with beer and more cooking and live music.  It was awesome.  And no, 10:30 in the morning is not too early to start drinking.  I was asking around for where will-call was, to pick up my ticket, and ended up talking to an older couple that were season ticket holders.  We ended up talking about the baseball playoffs though, since I was wearing my Tigers hat and the Reds are in the playoffs as well.

this thing was just as amazing as it looks

By the time I finished my beer and picked up my ticket, they opened the gates.  I didn't want to find my seat right away, which ended up being on the other side of the stadium anyway, because I wanted to get a feel for the stadium as a whole.  It was a very clean venue and very open, but for the most part looked just like any other stadium with their food kiosks with over-priced beer and snacks.  I was very tempted by the pizza, but while doing my research (seriously Wikipedia has everything) I saw that a specialty at Paul Brown Stadium is a foot-long hot dog that comes with a mixture of onions and peppers on it, so I purchased one of them and sauntered over to my seat.

I ended up talking college football with some random black guy as the seats started filling up, bringing a young couple to the seats right next to me.  I always begin as the shy guy, but as the game progressed, eventually we started talking and cheering together.  I was a little bit louder and more enthusiastic than the others in our section, which ended up being the entertainment for the people in our little cluster of seats.  There was the pregnant chick behind us that told me she loved me, her attractive friend, Nick and Megan next to me, and then the 40 year old guy and his attractive 20 year old girlfriend in front of us, that spent a good portion of the game making out.  But for the most part I hit it off best with Nick and Megan, who were both my age and just started dating.  We just had a great time yelling at the Miami Dolphins, making fun of each other and taking smoke breaks together.  It was one of those instances where I could try to describe how awesome it was, but my words wouldn't do it justice.

Eventually the game came to an end and we all exchanged pleasantries, they wished me a safe trip back to Detroit and we all filed out of the stadium to our cars.  When I got to mine, I texted my cousin to let her know that I was heading up to Columbus and that if she still wanted to hang out for a little bit I would be there around 7.  I didn't hear anything back from her right away as I listened to the local sports station recap the game I just experienced.  Two hours and plenty of Mountain Dew later, I got off at the Columbus exit right at 7, which I was pretty proud of since I'm rarely on time.  I drove around for a little bit as I awaited confirmation from my cousin, which came 20 minutes later, alerting me that she was sick and requesting a rain-check, which I agreed to.

I still could have stayed at a hotel and checked off the Columbus Zoo from my list, but I had such an amazing time at the game, I still considered it a very successful trip.  Plus I'll be returning to Columbus in the near future and can visit the zoo then.  Like we've said before, it's good to have ideas for your next trip started before your current one ends.

And so, I took the drive I had just completed 12 hours earlier in the opposite direction back to the great state of Michigan having gained a little bit of respect for the state of Ohio and looking forward to my return trip.