The next stop on my cross-country tour was Columbus, Ohio – home of the Buckeyes, and other useless nuts:
Case in point.
I actually came to Columbus to see this guy – Wes – a good buddy of mine from my BayCare days. Wes is a great guy who just got a job in Columbus last October, and he was kind enough to show me around the city while I was in town.
We didn’t have a formal schedule, but there was plenty going on around Columbus, so we decided to just wing it:
Our first stop was the local County Fair. We didn’t know what to expect, and we quickly learned a valuable lesson: Don’t go to the County Fair.
Or more specifically, don’t go before noon – possibly later. Nothing was open. No rides. No food. Well, there might have been an ice cream stand open, but it was 10 in the morning!
There was some activity in the barn, and what looked like preliminaries for the horse show, but it was pretty muted. I’m fairly certain that beyond the animal handlers and their supporters, we were the only people there. Why were the gates open? I have no idea. But we did see a really huge rabbit (it looked like a small dog) and a really tall horse (you had to reach over your head to pull up and mount it):
This thing must have weighed 20 pounds, if not more.
There’s a person standing directly next to this horse that you can’t see because it’s so tall.
And now you’ve seen them. So there you go.
Anyway, we decided to head somewhere else, and fortunately, our next choice was a definite winner. We had been seeing classic cars on the road all morning, and decided to see if there was a car show around town.
Boy was there ever – the largest in the world. It’s called GoodGuys, and apparently, Columbus is the place to be every year for classic cars. They had classics and racers from every era of automobiles, and some of the cars were simply unbelievable:
Some of the cars were original, some were rebuilt, and some were heavily modified, like the old sedan above. One of my favorites was this beauty:
Notice the fantastic orange and blue color scheme.
We had a great time walking around, just soaking in the cars, and enjoying some absolutely stellar root beer from a local producer:
Smooth, cool, and delicious.
There were some really unique cars, too – ones I hadn’t seen before:
The Sharknose
And these two powerhouses:
The Bumper Racer – it actually works. The guy built it for his kid.
This was just great. You can’t really see it, but the gas can on the back is a Budweiser Keg.
It was quite a show, even for people who don’t build their own classic cars!
After wrapping up at GoodGuys, we headed out to the country to go shooting. Wes’ boss, Josh (it rhymes!), was kind enough to take us out to his shooting club, and we had a blast (no pun intended), trying out several different weapons on the range. Josh is a stickler for safety, which I appreciate, and wanted to instruct his son on proper shooting techniques. This led to one of the highlights of the day:
The range has numerous wooden stands that shooters can place at whatever distance they so choose, and then mount paper targets on them. Since we were using pistols, we only had the targets out about 10-15 feet. When it came time for his son’s turn, Josh wanted to show him how to use a shotgun first. So Josh brought out a 20 gauge (lower power and kick than a standard 12 gauge shotgun), and loaded a single shell. His son brought the gun to his shoulder, took aim, and…
…blew away the entire wooden stand. I mean, he demolished it. Just shattered it into a million pieces. While Wes and I started cracking up, the best line of the day was uttered: “OK…well… I think we’re done with the shotgun for now, ’cause now Daddy’s got to make the club a new stand.”
After we picked up the pieces, we headed to the rifle range and tried out a few of the rifles, including a little .22.
One shot…OK, maybe one more.
We actually all did pretty well. Josh was the best by far, but Wes and I didn’t do too shabby.
It was a pretty fun and action packed day overall.
Sunday was much more laid back, but still fun. We fist went to a new church that Wes was trying out, and enjoyed a pretty great sermon on how we internalize good and bad experiences in our lives.
Afterward, we were both feeling a little sunbaked from the day before, and decided to take it easy by going to a restaurant called the Thurman Cafe. Thurman’s (as it is known), was featured on Man vs. Food, so I was pretty excited to try it out. They’re famous for their ‘Thurman Burger’, and oh my, is it amazing…
The burger itself is a seasoned patty, loaded with ham, american cheese, mozzarella cheese, grilled onions, mushrooms, lettuce, tomato, mayo, and banana peppers. Wait – banana peppers? Yes. Don’t question it – it works. The meat was perfectly juicy, and the seasoning so delicious, you could eat it without any toppings at all. In fact, I did that because the burger was so big that it started to fall apart. They say it is 3/4 of a pound, but I wonder if they don’t mean it’s 3/4 pound after cooking. It was massive, and hands down, the best burger I’ve ever had.
Soooo delicious… click for the gif…
It was a bit of a wait (Thurman’s isn’t terribly large), but it was worth it. We pretty much spent the rest of the day in a delicious food stupor, recovering from the previous activities and the food.
It was a great day and the perfect capstone to an awesome experience in Columbus.
That wraps up this edition. Until next time, farewell from Ohio. See you in South Dakota!
Jon
