Day Eleven, Chicago, IL to Dalton, GA

June 5, 2006

Lots and Lots and Lots and Lots and Lots of driving to do.

So ...let's break it up by stopping at amusement parks!

We headed out early, early, early on Monday morning--we hit the road by 7 with quite a ways to go. Dawn drove us through the outskirts of Chicago, then we headed South toward Indianapolis.

Our first stop was right outside of Indy. Stupid time zones. I have no idea what time it is most of the time in Indiana. Suddenly, it was Eastern time again. I anticipated being able to get a sausage biscuit and a cup of coffee at any McDonalds. Instead, at what I think is 9:30, the menu at McDonalds stops and changes right before my eyes. Arrgggh! Yet another reason never to eat there anymore.


So instead of McDonald's, I settle for a pretty good cup of gas station coffee and a snack cake, Little Debbie style.


We drive on, hit Indianapolis where I have to play the song!

"Can't go west, can't go east
I'm stuck in Indianapolis with a fuel pump that's deceased
Ten days on the road now I'm four hours from my home town
Is this hell or Indianapolis with no way to get around"

You can only really go North and South on Indianapolis's perimeter, which adds deliciously to the punniness of the chorus. Thanks to Dawn for that bit of info.

Just inside of Indy, my mom called, and my dad was in the hospital. Later that day, he an an appendectomy. I was so far away, I couldn't do anything, and I thought, well, dad would want us to have fun sooo. . .


From Indianapolis, it didn't seem all that far to Louisvlle, KY where we stopped first at Arby's for a sandwhich--the slowest Arby's on earth mind you and then to Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom. I caught up with Mom on the phone while we were having lunch and things were slightly scary with dad, but overall ok.


We rode Chang, which is kind of a bigger, better Georgia Scorcher--but not by much. We rode "Greezed Lightnin" one of the rare, remaining Shwarzkopf rides (along with the Mindbender at SFOG, one of my favorites)--You get launched into a loop, then up at an angle, then back down and through the loop, back through the station, up another length of angled track and then back to the station--very fun, but apparently they slow it down too much now when it goes back through the station. They had a crappy wanna be Batman ride that just beat me, we half expected stuff to come flying off it at any time. We then rode their two wooden coasters, Twisted twins---neat because you can ride it in two different directions, and Thunder Run, a good, solid ride.

So whee! How spontaneous are we? With season passes and $5 parking, it was a good way to pass some time and stretch our legs.

We drove on. And on. Then we started to see signs for Bowling Green and our interest was peaked.

Bowling Green is home to Beech Bend Amusments. We thought we would stop there on the way up, but talked ourselves out of it. We were glad that we did, because when we arrived, we learned that their new roller coaster was shut down that day because it had been hit by lightning.

Beech Bend is mostly a very every day kind of park, not too different than a county fair. You have to ride through a good stretch of rural farmland to get to it...They have a mouse ride, a beat up county fair style steel coaster with a loop (rare apparently)...and a few other rides....

BUT

They went out and spent several million dollars on the Kentucky Rumbler....

We arrived at the park, nestled gently in central time, with about an hour left to ride. Dawn insisted that we ride the steel coaster, but she at least waited to do that second. The rumbler was a damn fine ride, we can to equate it to a "mini thunderhead," with some of the same good qualities and sensations as the DollyWood ride, but still not nearly quite so good.

The steel coaster beat me up a bit, the cars were tiny and the loop, given its tightness, was just punishing.

We then went back for several more rides on the Kentucky Rumbler and we enjoyed it a bunch.

We headed out with a few minutes to spare just before closing but...

We had to go back. Dawn had forgotten about their mouse ride and insisted that we catch it. We did, it was mildly fun and sort of spinny.

Driving mode. Big time.

Just outside of Bowling Green, we saw...not the world's biggest, the world's best, or the 2nd largest or whatever flea market...we saw what is 'the World's Most Awesome Flea Market.' yay!
We hit Tennessee just as darkness was closing in around 8...lightning flashed and bounced across the rolling hills, but we avoided the storm. We hit Nashville, and shortly after, stopped for dinner at a Waffle House. We needed the nourishment and coffee fix at this point and we enjoyed our meal, shuffled over to a gas station and fueled up, and headed back to the road.

The stretch between Nashville and Chattanooga is daunting at night--hilly and curvy, even on the interstate. We got through that and then into Northern Georgia for about 10 miles, then back out--so close, yet still so far...we hit Chattanooga about 10:30. Then we hit a wall at Dalton and just couldn't make it on in to Cedartown. We stayed at a very creepy Best Western, but the bed was comfortable enough.

So, in one day we drove around 700 miles, hit two amusment parks, my dad survived his appendix removal, and we got back almost...home.