20 hours of driving and a day and a half later, I’ve concluded that this is definitely the first, and last time, I’ll ever set foot on that island.
The trip started on Thursday afternoon after I got out of work. We were driving only as far as Danville, PA where I booked a room for the night to continue in the morning. We made fairly good time, even for 4.5 hours with one stop for gas and another at the Red Robin in Wilkes-Barre, PA. I tried this bison burger they had on the menu there and it was fairly interesting. I don’t think our local RR has it. We got to the hotel around 9pm, checked in and watched Good Eats on Food Network until we went to sleep.
Friday morning we embarked again at around 7am and made a stop down the highway at a Perkins in Lamar, PA for breakfast. The best thing to compare Perkins to is probably Denny’s (same company I think?) but much nicer and much tastier, we both had a Farmer’s Omelet with toast, I got hash browns and she got the breakfast potatoes. Just enough food to not feel like death and not still be hungry, quite the enjoyable breakfast.
The remainder of the car trip went fairly well, aside from the constant road construction on I-80. We made one gas stop at a Sheetz in PA and lunch at a McDonalds on the Ohio Turnpike. Sheetz is sort of like whatever your regional equivalent gas station with mini-mart, Cumberland Farms, WaWa, Xtra-Mart, etc. except much like WaWa (so I’ve heard) they have a full-service deli and sandwhich shop inside that makes a variety of food to order, 24 hours a day. We’ll revisit this later on the trip home.
We arrived at the ferry around 3:30 and parked and boarded. The ride across to the island was about 20 minutes, not much to look at besides water and a couple of random small islands along the way. Erie is not the first Great Lake I’ve been to, I’ve actually seen all of them I believe at some point or another, but I’ve swam in and spend the most time around Lake Michigan as that is around where my mother’s family lives in Indiana and the spot of several scout trips from my Terre Haute unit. Once off the boat on the island my mother picked us up in a golf cart and drove us to the cottage we would be staying at for two nights.
Once situated we joined the rest of my family and mother’s friends at Mr. Ed’s Bar down in the “downtown” of Put-in-Bay, which pretty much consists of a strip of bars and restaurants along with several shops. A park divides the main strip from the road further down where the docks are with boats of all sorts and a few more shops. Mr. Ed’s is the staging arena for the party as the owner donates his facility and services to the group every year for their event. Right after we arrived my aunt and uncle also arrived, so the golf cart got use in bringing people to the cottages. The rest of the night was pretty much my family and her friends drinking and listening to the live entertainment, which were pretty much bands that played Jimmy Buffet-type fare. Myself, Ashlynn, and my grandparents being fairly tired decided to pretty much call it a night and relax at the cottage until we went to sleep. Now, it is worth noting that the cottages we were at a group of cottages that are rented during the season to people who come to the island, so nearly every cottage had mostly college-age kids outside drinking and partying, rolling each other around in coolers. Apparently the night before, one man banged on the cottage my grandfather was in insisting it was his at 230 in the morning. My grandfather of course talked to the guys the next day and it did not happen afterwards, though they were leering at my girlfriend when we passed by once.
Saturday morning we were up again around 6 as my mother’s wedding was at 10:19. Apparently though, they had asked Mr. Ed to open his bar in the morning so they can do bloody marys in the morning before the event, but he forgot to open up. We ended up in the only open bar at 9am in the morning on the island, Frosty’s. Now, if you’re following this correctly, 9am, bloody marys. Really? I knew there was a reason I didn’t drink.
After some photos of Ashlynn and I and everyone all together, the ceremony took place. It was short and sweet, enough said. After some talking and photos and what not, we made our way back to Mr Ed’s for lunch. Since Mr. Ed forgot about us this morning, the wedding party got first dibs on the lunch served, which was steak or chicken, and potatoes and green bean casserole. Food was okay, but was still hungry. We went back to let Ashlynn change into better walking clothes and the two of us walked around the island and looked around, she bought a few things for her friends and we bought a couple things from Del Sol to get these free bags. Everything at Del Sol changes in the sun, it’s pretty cool.
We walked down to the “Boardwalk” which was a collection of shops and eats on the water. There we tried some lobster bisque soup in a sourdough bread bowl, which was delicious. It was hot and sunny off and on throughout the day, so by now we were sweating and burning, we went to the store to grab a couple things and called the taxi to bring us back to the cottage. The taxi is a man by the name of “Coconut Tim Pomps” who gave his number to everyone who was there for the event to call if they needed a ride, as he works for one of the many local van taxis on the island that shuttle people. While you can bring cars over onto the island, there is little parking downtown and the general traffic on the island are golf carts and van taxis.
At only $3 a ride it was pretty much our main mode of getting to and from the cottages, as they were at the other end of the island, and it’s a fairly large island by foot. He was an awesome guy, the fact we could call him anywhere for a lift and he was just a cheerful guy, we did kinda feel sorry for him, so many people on this island made his weekend pretty hellish.
That evening the whole family and crew had dinner at Hooligans, which mimicked the Irish pub experience. Food was good, got a fish sandwhich that was tasty. Afterwards we went back to Mr. Ed’s and watched some band play. While most of them drank and listened, I was watching the Cincinnati Reds cream the Kansas City Royals on TV. Being a Reds fan growing up, it was pretty nice to see them playing real well last night and having people at the bar cheer and scream when they scored runs. Out there, much like here where it is the Red Sox or the Yankees, it’s the Reds or the Indians. At some point someone decided we should go next door to the Beer Barrel Saloon where a band by the name of Mustang Sally was playing. Honestly, this was the best band I heard all weekend. They are a group of girls and one guy, doing vocals, guitars, violins, drums, and keyboards. Aside from the lead vocalist’s sassy personality, the music was excellent, mostly covers of popular country and rock songs along with several originals. We would have stayed for the entire set, but we needed to be up at 6am for the drive back, and my head hurt. There were so many people out Saturday night it wasn’t even funny, but the difference was at Mr. Ed’s it was mostly people my mother’s age, where at Beer Barrel, it was a lot of college-age kids. Go figure.
On the way home by taxi, these bugs called “Mayfly’s” were out on the island in full force, all over the windshield, the ground, the air, and everywhere. That shit was nuts, we had to fight to keep them out of the cottage and off the doors. They only live about 24 hours though, so once they stick to something, they pretty much die. Annoying.
Finally this morning, we woke up at 6am and got back to the ferry for the first ride out at 7am. After gas at a BP station along the way (yeah that’s right, BP, someone has to support their cleanup efforts in DOLLARUS) we were on the road around 7:30 for the 10-11 hour trek back. As to make good time, we minimized our stops to gas and quick-food, which brings us to Sheetz #2 where we grabbed MTO food for lunch. I got a pepperoni sub and fries and she got a steak sub, cheese fries, and we both had some of a pretzel. Seriously, gas station food should not be delicious, that is a motherfucking crime. They need one of those up here, or Cumberland needs to bring the concept up here. Driving through PA was fine up until I hit the storms that had passed over us the night before as I got closer to Scranton. The rain was pretty heavy in places and traffic started to bunch up as I got closer to 81. I finally got on to 84 and a 12-mile one-lane stretch of road construction essentially stopped the highway, because the on-ramps are stop signs to wait for traffic, and the road is full of trucks. I ended up taking a longer detour all the way around Milford, PA and getting back on 84 after the zone. I’m not sure if it was faster or slower since I couldn’t remember any of the cars and trucks I was on with before, but judging from when we got home, that diversion and breaks came to about an hour off projected arrival time, not bad at all.
I’ll be honest, aside from the wedding ceremony, I was not amused much by the premise of this place. I understand the draw to this island is to drink, socialize, and have fun, but I don’t drink, I am a lousy social introvert, and it was hard to have fun when it was hot, sticky, and burning with only so many places to duck inside for cover that wasn’t infested with people. Cost wise was really the biggest drain, aside from gas and food expenses going to and from, things on the island were not cheap either, although Hooligans was reasonably priced. Unless I picked up a vacation day to use, I lost a day’s pay and Ashlynn lost her weekend’s pay, which is 70% of her commission intake, so really we kinda pinched this one on a loss. Neither one of us were particularly impressed with the premise of place, even for someone like Ashlynn who could drink, socialize, and have fun. The problem is, which I think I illustrated with my comparison of the parties at Mr. Ed’s and Beer Barrel on Saturday night, is that we’re dealing with two completely different demographics of drunk people here, college kids and middle-age people. The only thing that links them is alcohol, everything else is simply awkward. I think if it was much cooler outside, I might’ve managed just a little bit better.
But, I came to participate in her ceremony, and despite long hours of driving and a not-so-much-fun experience on the island, I still enjoyed the time with the family and my mother and mostly the car trip with Ashlynn as it was her first time out west past Connecticut, so I enjoyed corrupting her with awesome midwest things like Perkins and Sheetz, though I would have liked to get in a Waffle House, Steak N’ Shake, Bob Evans, and many other places food and not food. But I am planning on going to my cousin’s graduation in 2012 and also visit West Carrollton and other parts of Ohio and Indiana in the future, so plenty of time for more awesome.
TL;DR: In case of middle-age crisis, drink more.