2003 Q1 Random Vacation
(40°25.409' N, 83°21.293' W - Richwood, Ohio, USA)

Day 5: 17 Feb 2003 (Monday)

00:00 UTC - 01:00 UTC (On the Computer)

Started out my Monday by continuing to work on the vacation website.  Until I got hungry.  Then I decided to head out and get food.

01:00 UTC - 03:00 UTC (Mexican Food)

So, I headed out trudging in the snow toward the place where Chad and I had eaten the day before.  On the way there was a big imposing municipal type building.

And then seconds later, I was headed back down the main strip of the town.

The place we had gone before though was closed.  Oops.  But right next door was a Mexican place, so I came in out of the cold into the nice warm restaurant.

I ordered some combo special.  When I got it, my first thought was "Oh my god, this is huge!!!!".  It was much bigger than the usual combos I'd had other places in the past.

I wasn't able to finish it, but I ate most of it.  And then I waddled out of the restaurant to head back to the B&B.

Back outside, the snow was still coming down pretty hard.

I walked my way through the wind and cold back to the B&B, then settled in the bedroom for the evening.

03:00 UTC - 08:00 UTC (Computer Work)

And I of course opened up the computer and started working on a few things.  I worked on the website some and I answered some email.  But I also did the counting and announcement of the my monthly top ten email contest for January.  This was important, because as a side effect of the counting of the monthly top ten, this also updated the annual top twenty list, which was the list of people who would get postcards from the trip this time around.

08:00 UTC - 12:00 UTC (Sleep)

And then I was tired, and fell asleep.

12:00 UTC - 13:00 UTC (Arise)

I got up early in the morning, after only four hours of sleep, because I had big plans for the day.  Basically, I was going to find the local Saturn dealership and have them look at the taillight on the car and give me an estimate.  If it was cheap enough, I would just suck it up and pay for it myself.  If, on the other hand, it looked expensive, I would suck it up the other way and call my insurance company and report this issue, before my insurance ran out the next day at 05:00 UTC.  So I got up and got ready to go find the dealership.

13:00 UTC - 18:00 UTC (Allstate, Breakfast, Postcards, Allstate and Web)

Then I looked outside.

The Broderick House was still in a winter wonderland.

Plus, the TV was still talking about closings and road warnings and such.  It really didn't look that bad in Marysville, but I thought I should check.  I called the Saturn dealership.  The service part of the dealership was closed because of snow.  Drat.  There goes that plan.

Well, nothing to do but go ahead and make the claim on my insurance.  It was probably the smart thing to do anyway.  I logged into Allstate's website to determine the right place to call, but discovered I could make the claim directly online.

So I spent the next half hour or so filling out the online claim forms and submitting it.  They said a representative would call me within a couple hours.

So, I went down and had breakfast.

After breakfast, I grabbed a bunch of postcards from Broderick House that they had out for that purpose (free!) and went upstairs and started writing postcards to the various folks who were on that year top twenty list.  I got a few postcards done, then Allstate called my cell.

They asked a few additional questions, then said that given the weather and the large number of people who had similarly smashed up their cars, tehy couldn't get an inspector to come out to where I was for several days.  I didn't have several days I explained, I needed to get back to New Jersey.  They said they could get me an appointment at a drive-in inspection center in Columbus if I could do that.  The earliest appointment was the next day in the afternoon.  I said OK to that.  Sounded fine.  That would be the plan.

So, with all that settled, I worked on the website a bit.

Along the way, I gave Chad a call, and worked out that I would head down and visit his place and go see the Air Force Museum in Dayton in the afternoon.  There were still "stay home if you can" warnings, but no longer "we will arrest you if you are on the street" warnings.  So I figured I could go.

18:00 UTC - 20:00 UTC (Travel to Chad's)

So I headed off toward Chad's.  At first, the roads were still a bit snow covered (and the world was tilted apperantly)...

But as I kept going, the roads were better and mostly just wet, but quite clear.

And by the time I got to the interstates, the roads were completely clear and dry and normal.

I did see a couple accidents where people had run off the road, but they must have just been regular accidents.  The roads were fine.

In any case, a few minutes later, I was at Chad's apartment.

I called Chad and let him know I was there, and he poked his head out.

Chad then showed me around his spacious apartment...

And he showed me the poker game I missed the previous day...

And Chad was sure to point out his love nest...

20:00 UTC - 22:00 UTC (Air Force Museum)

Chad was pissed at me for taking so long to get to his place.  I should have left a couple hours earlier, we wouldn't have enough time at the air force museum, etc.  So wer got underway pretty quick.  Chad drove.

And so we arrived at the Air Force Museum.

Of course, right up front, they were already showing some missles...

Once inside, they had a bunch of old planes...

And they had new planes...

And they had nuclear bombs...

\

And they had spy planes...

And you could look right in the engines!

And they even had a Trabant next to a piece of the Berlin Wall!

And a big statue of Icarus melting his wings on the sun...

Finally, we went to see the IMAX movie...

T^he IMAX movie was about the space station.  Increadibly big and clear images.  Looked much more real than it ever did on TV.  Very neat place.  When can I go again?

And then, we were done with the museum.

22:00 UTC - 00:00 UTC (Sound and Food)

So Chad took us back to his apartment quickly.  He wanted to show me his sound system.  So he played the initial battle sequence from Sving Private Ryan at high volume.  It sounded good I guess.

Then we went to eat at Max & Ermas.  I had the usual burger or whatever.

Then back at Chad's place again.  Chad was trying to convinve me to stay and watcht eh finale of Joe Millionare.  I was lukewarm to this notion, having not watched any of the rest of it.  But was willing to consider it.  But there was some time left for that.

In the mean time, Chad looked at the part of the vacation website that was already on the web.

And Day 5 was over!

2003 Q1 Random Vacation
(40°25.409' N, 83°21.293' W - Richwood, Ohio, USA)

Samuel Minter abulsme@abulsme.com http://www.abulsme.com/