By: Chuck Gleaosn
 Every
July, we host a BFC Freestyle weekend
at our place in Katy, Texas. This year, we
planned to host it at Dayna and Chad Lough's ski lake in Beaumont,
Texas. Unfortunately, heavy rains in Houston and Beaumont forced
us to cancel our trip. So while sitting in traffic waiting to get
home while it rained so hard I could hardly see the road, I brought up
the weather on my iPhone. I was looking at cities across the US to
see how the 4th of July was going to be weater-wise. I discovered
that my old stomping grounds of Cincinnati, Ohio was forecasted to have
beautiful sunny weather and 80 degrees. When I go home an hour
later, I asked the family if they'd like to go to Cincinnati and visit
my favorite amusement park (Kings Island). It was a unanimous vote
for YES!The trip was
contingent on Michele finding some cheap airline tickets, which I had no
doubt she would. Michele is a natural born travel agent.
Within 15 minutes, she had found and reserved 4 plane tickets, hotel,
rental car, and was packing her bags. Round trip for 4 people,
hotel, car, amusement park tickets, etc, all for under $900. So we had a
winner
Kathryn was ecstatic. She
loves to ride roller coasters with me and she was most excited knowing
she was now tall enough to ride ALL the rides. She also knows
Andre is a bit frightened of heights, so she started talking about how
she'd hold his hand to make him feel better. There's nothing like
seeing an eight year old talking smack to Andre.
Our plan had us flying out of
Houston late Friday evening July 2nd and returning mid morning July 5th.
We arrived late Friday and went straight to bed. We stayed at the
Omni Hotel in Covington, Ky, right across the river from downtown
Cincinnati. We woke up to a beautiful sunrise on the river.
Saturday was spent all day at Kings
Island. If you love riding coasters, this is a great park to
visit. The company that owns Cedar Point in Cleveland, also owns
Kings Island. They pride themselves on having the best thrill
rides in the world. We were not disappointed. If crazy
coasters aren't you're cup of tea, you can visit the huge water park
inside Kings Island. It's all part of the single admission price.
We enjoyed a full day of craziness
at the park and ended the day with some great La Rosas pizza and steak
hoagies. It doesn't get any better than that.
For the next morning (Sunday), we
had used BFC's Locate a Footer to find some barefooters in the area that
might be willing to pull us on a few runs. Scott Guilfoyle was the
first skier to return our calls and was excited to hear we were coming
to Cincinnati. I was amazed at how much he knew about BFC.
He knew more about the sight than I did. He had watched every
video, read every article, and new everyone on Team BFC. He was so
excited to hear Andre was coming with us that he postponed his family's
annual 4th of July trip to Kentucky just to come out and take us skiing.
We had a great time visiting with Scott and his wife Michele as we
barefooted down the Licking and Ohio Rivers early Sunday morning.
After several fun sets on the
water, we thanked Scott and Michele and were off to do some afternoon
exploring around Cincinnati. I grew up in Anderson Township so we
made our way over to Coney Island for a dip in the largest outdoor pool
you'll ever see, and then out to lunch at Skyline. The weather was
absolutely wonderful, 80 degrees and sunny. After Coney Island, we
stopped to see some friends, then made our way around town checking out
the beautiful sights in Cincinnati. If you visit Cincinnati, be
sure to check out the views from the top of Mount Adams. You can
see for miles.
Sunday evening ended with us back
at the hotel on the Ohio River watching the downtown fireworks display.
They shot the fireworks off on one of the bridges that crosses the Ohio
River. Thousands of people lined the shorelines to watch on both
sides of the river. After the show, we were off to bed. We
were scheduled to catch a Monday morning flight back to Houston.
We were back home in Katy, Texas by 2pm on Monday.
Click Here to see MORE Pictures
Click Here to watch a VIDEO of our Trip |
