Road Trip: Ohio. Again...
Day 13: Sunday, April 23, 2023 - Columbus, OH, and Stoystown, PA
Day's statistics:
Weather: upper 70s
Steps: Steve 5,948; Linda 3,328
Travel: 276 miles
We had light snacks for breakfast - namely, I had a protein bar and Linda had a bagel.
Today was the last day of Mind Games. And also the games giveaway. While the next year's location is usually announced,
this year it wasn't for some reason.
The five games that won the Mensa Select seal were: Akropolis, Trekking Through History, Mille Fiori, Boop., and Gartenbeau.
I happened to have played all five games, but only judged three of them (the first three above). I even selected them as winners,
and if I was able to judge the last one I would have selected that one too.
Before the games giveaway, I made a list of the games I wanted should I have the opportunity to select them. Four of my first five
selections were all Mensa Select winners.
I was seated by about 9:30, and the closing ceremony began at 10:00ish. I was sitting near a woman from Alaska names Sara who told
me a lot about... Alaska. It was very informative, actually
First were the announcements, local groups touting their Regional Gatherings, and then the Mensa Select winners announced. After
that, the games giveaway began. I was on page six - of eight - and therefore, no chance that I was going to get my top picks. My
eighth choice was one that I got - Fuse Countdown, a cooperative dice and card game. Because I was so far down, when they came back
up the list, I was able to get a second game - Chalk-a-Word, a word spelling game.
Shortly afterward, time to go. I returned to the room, and Linda and I checked out and made our way to the car with our luggage.
Our next destination was the capital for our selfie. Since it was literally on the way to where we were going for lunch, it was
no big deal - and no, we are NOT going out of our way to get selfie's at any captials that we didn't already get one.
The round top building in the back right is the capitol.
We had to continue to drive through the city to get to the restaurant.
Another mile and a half down the road was our destination: Schmidt's Sausage Haus.
It was just before 1:00 on a Sunday afternoon - so it was peak Sunday dinner time. We were told we had a half-hour wait.
Bummer. But OK.
While Linda went in to make the reservation, I held our spot on line. Looking through the foyer window, I saw this sign:
I told the people across the foyer about the sign, then asked them "Does that mean they will seat incomplete parties, they just won't
be happy about it?"
Ha ha ha. Anyway... their yummy desserts were on display.
All their different flavors of cream puffs. We did wind up getting one to go for our dinner snack.
After 22 minutes we were seated. The placemat with some restaurant info.
We reviewed the menu and by 1:15 we placed our order.
Some of the clientele and inside the restaurant.
Last time we visited, in 2019, we enjoyed a self-serve
buffet. When the pandemic hit, they closed their self-serve buffet. However, now they have an "endless sausage platter" which one
of us enjoyed. The other of us enjoyed a more reasonable lunch.
Linda had the mama reubn with a side of German potato salad and a pickle spear.
I had the Old World Sausage Sampler (with endless sausage), with sauerkraut, a roll, and sides of German potato salad, and applesauce.
The additional sausages are JUST the links - four or five - on a small plate. I had two more plates of sausage that included
four on the first, anf five ont he second. While I was going to say they provide one portion of each of the flavors, I can't
say and don't know why I got five of them (obviously one was two portions, but I wasn't really keeping track that closely).
When we were done, we asked for a jar of the mustard they had at the table - it was actually pretty good - and a cream puff to go.
We were headed to our hotel in Somerset, PA. We had a little more than a three and a half hour drive ahead of us.
Somerset is about 10 miles away from Stoystown, and Stoystown is the town where one of the planes crashed on 9/11.
Somerset is also the midway point between Columbus and Philly. The primary reason we were staying there was because airfair
from Columbus to Philly was $500 for two. Another day car rental and one more night hotel was only $200. So we saved $300
driving for one more day. Linda just had to work on Tuesday and Wednesday instead of Monday and Tuesday.
Anyway, back to our drive. Once again the low-fuel light was illuminated. We stopped at a random station at an exit -
it was pretty much right at the top of the exit ramp- filled up, and got right back on the highway.
When driving on i70, there is a less-than-twenty mile stretch of highway that passes through West Virginia.
We spontaneously decided to drive through Wheeling, West Virginia. We pretty much only know it from the reference in that
Billy Joel song The Ballad of Billy the Kid.
There was a LOT of construction going on.
We were not in Wheeling long - just a couple minutes. We exited, drove down a street, turned left,
turned left, drove up a street and got right back on the highway.
Not far down the highway we passed yet another state line.
We saw some of the mountains of western PA.
Our original plan was to go to the hotel. We decided, on the way, based on the time, that we could go to the Tower of Voices tonight,
rather than in the morning. The two biggest reasons for this were A) in the morning the Tower would actually be a little out of the way
and tomorrow was going to be a long day, and 2) we had already visited the Tower and memorial four years ago and our goal was to see and
hopefully hear the now-completed Tower chimes, and record it (the last visit's recording was way too windy to hear).
We drove the ten miles up the road to the memorial.
The Tower is comprised of 40 chimes, in varying lengths from five to ten feet long, representing the 40 passengers and crewmembers that
lost their lives in the crash.
We parked the car and walked over to the Tower. It was breezy and rather chilly too.
Some rays of sun shown through the clouds.
There was a fence erected around the tower now so a shot straight up was no longer possible. This was the best I could do.
The windcatchers are fabricacted to look like airplane wing flaps.
While we waited for the chimes to chime, another couple pulled into the parking lot. They walked over to the Tower and looked.
After a couple minutes we started talking to them. Earlier this day they were at Gettysburg - where we'll be tomorrow, and they
were heading home to Columbus, Ohio - where we just were.
After waiting probably about fifteen to twenty minutes, we finally gave up - the chimes barely made a sound - and decided to return
to the car to get warm. I said to Linda "If the chimes start chiming when we get to the car, by the time I run all the way back to
the tower, they'll stop." Sure enough, as soon as we got to the car... the chimes starting chiming. We stood there outside the car
for a moment and, sure enough, they stopped. They didn't ring long enough to capture anything. But we did try.
We got into the car and headed toward the hotel back in Somerset.
We came across a random wine store and stopped. We walked in and found a bottle of something to have with our cream puff.
Next door was a supermarket. We stopped in to use the facilities.
On the way to the hotel, we passed Jackson the Elephant.
We found the hotel, and I went in to check in.
I returned to the car, drove around to the other side of the building, and parked. We took our luggage and snack to our room.
After settling in, we enjoyed our cream puff from Schmidt's that we shared 60/40, and the bottle of wine.
We finished relaxing, washed up, and went to sleep.
Tomorrow is our last day.