...sounds like something you'd rather not get stabbed with, doesn't it? Though at least the wound would be freshly scented. At any rate, the bug and I flew and drove to get to the amusement park, rode roller coasters for two entire days, and came back. I had various new experiences:

• First time at Cedar Point, and actually my first time in Ohio. We stayed in Hotel Breakers, which is right on the island about 5 minutes' walk from the amusement park entrance gate.


• First time going to a hibachi grill place! Loud but fun, with the chefs squirting stuff into people's mouths and having fun making fire. We had shrimp and salmon that came out really good.


• First time on a tilt roller coaster, Siren's Curse, which opened just three-ish weeks ago and may have been my favorite. So smooth and sinuous, with great music and gleaming new everything.


• First time going up over 400 feet on a roller coaster, Top Thrill 2, built last year and currently the tallest roller coaster in the world. My extremely honest notes on that one say: Throat hurts from screaming “oh fuck yes”, or maybe some other scream.

There was a bit of physical misery from heat and sun, and iterating on the best thing to wear. I'm pretty sure my dream outfit would consist of capri-length cargo leggings with zip pockets, and a quick-dry sun protective T-shirt with flutter sleeves (for lots of UPF on the shoulders, but ventilation for armpits). But I also did pretty well on the second day with long athletic shorts with no pockets, plus a small waist bag. Minor sunburn, despite running myself out of both the kinds of sunblock I bought. Sore feet each day.

But we rode roller coasters, which I love! We had twelve on our list, and managed to knock off nine of them the first day despite a) wasting most of our early-entry time and b) the park closing down the rides two hours early for rain. The next day we hopped right on the early entry, and used it to get onto the remaining coaster that had always had a huge line (Millenium Force). Listening to others in the line around us, we learned it was only running one of its three trains -- the yellow one, while blue sat on a side line and red lay in pieces somewhere under maintenance. I daydreamed then about having deep deep knowledge of the place, and all the coasters and their cars and the various modes of operation; knowing what a good day and a bad day look like for the park maintainers. And then we rode the yellow train.

That particular ride had a really good drop, and here's the funny part about coasters; the way the train is plummeting toward the ground, yeah, but as that happens there's also a lightness and floating that happens between the rider and the train. Once I'm feeling familiar with the overall sensation of coasters I actually like to relax during the drops and feel the float, before bracing myself for the curve at the bottom. Some coasters give a lot of this same float at the top of hills, where negative G is scary as hell to me but zero G feels cozy and floaty and loving. Some corkscrew rolls / heartline rolls do this too (and loops hardly ever do it, though I also love a good loop). And this is why I only hold on tight for the first big drop or two of the day -- after that, it just wastes a good floating opportunity.

Did I mention that coasters just make me HAPPY? In nearly all the photos from rides I look the same -- hunched forward, sunglasses in place, mouth open in a big smile. After a while we started calling it my "avid turtle" thing. It's a little dorky, and also pretty much the happiest I ever get to see myself... so we bought two of the pictures, and I have brought out my old "racing turtle" icon for this post too.

What else? We had good teamwork, staying in sync for food and bathroom breaks, taking time out when the bug had a back spasm early on the 2nd morning. I did take one ride without him -- Steel Vengeance, which sounds mean, but the line was short and it let me report on how rough the ride was so that he could decide about it. But aside from that hour or so, we were really well matched as park goers. We had food deals built into our tickets and, thus, ate fairly horribly for a couple of days. I even ate a bag of Cheetos, and was reminded how hyper-palatable junk food really can be (must try to forget again... but oh, that crunch). Even so, there were salads and fruit cups, and I don't know about the bug but I don't seem to have gained weight. I guess 13 hours of being outdoors and mostly on one's feet will burn some energy.

I did lots of people watching. It's not often I see so many people of all ages in small groups, being fairly unguarded. So I saw a whole lot of play-fighting among the young males of the species, and a lot of teenage girls getting used to having breasts to display. White girls in Lululemon running shorts or skorts, black girls in yoga pants and assertively false eyelashes. Kids wearing band/album T-shirts from way before they were born. Different accents. Lots of sports teams on T-shirts, but also some serious roller coaster afficionado gear (If it's not Intamin, I don't care). The dad with missing teeth saying to his teenage son, not too unkindly, that you can't be scared forever, it's just a roller coaster. Middle-aged folks like us, quieter, being able to see the young'uns and knowing we're essentially invisible to them. Ah, and we also watched birds -- the pretty ones turned out to be grackles.

It's good to be home with the cats again, typing this on my new monitor. We had minor delays in getting home, but nothing that still matters today. I'm grateful that all the driving of the rental car went smoothly, and that we were able to sync the entire trip with my squirrel's trip to the island he visits every year.