foot road trip to Cincinnati highly likely this summer
 

An old pal of mine is rehabing his childhood home and needs a man with a plan, despite only one functioning shoulder. (surgery this May) He asked me to come out there for July and maybe August. I'd bring the kids for part of it, his is a great neighborhood full of kids, and he has kids the same age as mine (give or take a year) and...
tickets to see the Reds!

This guy, we'll call him Reds Fan, is a second or third generation Reds fan whose dad would get season tickets every year to all the ball games, Reds Fan began coaching little league 15 years before he had kids of his own. The dude loves baseball and Cincinnati. He is an awesome tour guide who really knows how to create context for the visitor experience. He's also the guy who told me the Pete Rose Way highway being renamed Cooperstown Bypass joke. Skyline Chili, Graeter's ice cream, etc.

It'll be great to hang with him and earn a bit of $ for summer work as well as see the Reds with him.

The next two months are now going to drag.

My recommendation: at at Montgomery Inn and visit the train station

Sounds awesome! Although...

Hurk. Not worth it. But everything else!

You feel she'll let you take them out of state at that point?

Never been, but if I were passing through I'd check out the American Sign Museum. Then again, I'm pretty fond of neon.

only 5 hours south of us...

I you get a chance go to dayton for a day and do the Air force Museum , WELL worth it for you AND the Kiddlets !!!!!

....and it's free!

Cincinnati?

Bah. That doesn't help me. Come to Seattle!

Now, I've been a Reds fan back in the day, I wanted to BE Johnny Bench. Ceasar Cedeno, Joe Morgan, Pete Rose, etc. Let's not forget Sparky Anderson.

Aaaanyhow. I lived in Dayton for years, been back there since, and found it..... disappointing.

You and your fractions will have a grand ol time. :-)

Sounds like a good time. Wave on your way through.

The Redlegs are big around here, as you can guess. We have 8mm film footage (on VHS now) of The Big Red Machine...with the players you mentioned, BigV (don't know about Cedeno but also with Tony Perez, Dave Concepcion, and Cesar Geronimo.)

Graeters Ice Cream...they just started selling that at Kroger. Before that the only place I knew to get it was at the Country Club...sure some restaurants south of here carry it but those are the places I know.

There's also Newport Aquarium nearby. And Jungle Jim's International Market is a cool place. I'm a sucker for King's Island, basically having grown up there...we went there the first year it opened 'cause dad was a foreman on the road crew...and as a teenybopper my friends and I went there a lot!

I don't get there much these days but I love love love Cincinnati. It just has a vibe. (BigV, please don't mention Cincy and Dayton in the same post. Hear that giant sucking sound? That's Dayton...the nastiest city this side of the Pecos. ;) )

I hope you have a great trip. Oh, and they're right...the Air Force Museum is quite a place. It's south Dayton so not too far from Cincy. If you get up that way make sure you watch for The Artist Formerly Known as Big Butter Jesus (or Touchdown Jesus, though I think of Touchdown Jesus as being on the Notre Dame campus) off of I-75. I like to call him Jaunty Jesus now, he of the jaunty hip. Because this never gets less funny to me, I'll post pictures...

Jebus Revue:

Also, I would suggest you drive. That's a long road trip on foot.

Yeah, I was looking at Amtrak, planes, and cars and after starting an immense rant about Amtrak, I decided I would drive. My route choices are going to: drive across the north (90) down through Dayton into Cinci, then on the way back, taking the southern route 70 - 76 so I can pass through Philly and its environs.

I'd love to be able to meet up with as many dwellars IRL as possible on the trip.

Re: Skyline Chili.

When I first visited Reds Fan on his turf about 30 some years ago, he was showing me around the city and said, "If you are in Cincinnati, you have to try Skyline chili." So he took us to Skyline and explained all the permutations, one way, two way, etc. After eating there he asked me, "Well, what do you think?" I said to him, "I didn't think it was all that great."

He then says to me, and this is classic Reds Fan humor, "I never said it was any good, I only said you had to try it while you were in Cincinnati."

He did make it up to me by taking me to Graeters, after assuaging my fears that it was not another semantic lesson.