may 17, 2026

i guess folks love their shredded cheese in cincinnati

For breakfast my brother picked a place that serves Goetta, a meat and grain mush that mixes ground meat and oats to make meat last longer by mixing it in with other stuff. Here we have it mixed in with cheese an an omelette, and in the details you can see the oats in the meat mix. The texture is interesting as you have the soft meat but the firm oats together. Worth a try for being historical to Cincinnati but I think we can pass on eating it again,

Our destination for the day is the American Sign Museum, dedicated to preserving signs! It goes through the history of signs and letterings and transitioning from sticking ordinary lightbulbs to make signs pop out and then movving to bending neon lights to add color to it. Most of it focuses on the periods from the 1930s-1960s, before conventional plastic signs starting taking over. A fun visit for sure.

Back to Kings Island to finish the rides we missed.

I have no idea what Barqs Red Creme Soda was a thing. It’s somewhat similar to Big Red, but with less emphasis on vanilla flavor. It’s alright.

Some beef dish for lunch. The name eludes me right now… I feel like this is more chili than Skyline Chili, honestly. It has peas and carrots and shit and not just meat and sauce.

My brother was noting how there are extremely few Asians in the area. While eating here we noted a real nihonjin family next to us visiting. How the hell can they afford travelling to America given the shit exchange rate…? Anyway hope they have fun!

Blue ice cream is a hot item here. There’s some history to do with it that I’m not sure of.

Here’s pizza from LaRosa’s Pizzeria. It’s supposed to be controversial due to the sauce being sweet, making it an acquired taste for locals, but we ate it and it was… normal pizza? Maybe we have to eat at an actual restaurant or something instead.

Some magnets to put up on my desk wall at work.

Now to order the rides by my preference. Probably not too much detail since you could go watch youtube about it or something.

#1: Orion. I didn’t like my first ride on it as it felt flat, but after additional rides it has great speed and floater air time. Sitting in the front is the best as you can feel the wind against your face as you pass through the course, something you can’t experience in any other row.

#2: Mystic Timbers. This is didn’t know a wooden coaster could have this much airtime, I initially didn’t like the lack of verticalityi n terms of overall up and down movement on the track, but I think it doesn’t need that with how much it lateral forces the quick bends have.

#3: The Beast. I think most of the ride is just ok-good, but the final double helix is what sets this apart from any other roller coaster. Do it in the dark and it’s just the howl of the coaster passing through and everyone screaming echoing off the walls while you’re thrown into the walls of the seat. Amazing!

#4: Diamondback. As a B&M Hyper in a park with a B&M Giga (the other two parks being Canada’s Wonderland and Carowinds), it can’t help but feel overshadowed now. It’s still a good coaster with more floater airtime than Orion (not necessarily better, just more).

#5: Banshee. I was just thinking this would be any old B&M invert, but since this one is relatively more modern it seems they’ve made the elements larger and more drawn out. With the elements being larger you spend more time on them such that you actually stay upside down or spinning through a roll for longer.

#6: The Racer. An original to the park duelling wooden coaster that has gotten some upgrades since it initially opened. Has surprisingly good speed and airtime hills for an old coaster, and seeing the other car whizz by to start and finish is always fun.

#7: The Bat. A Vekoma suspended coaster. I think it’s better then Ninja at Six Flags Magic Mountain, but I road that probably some time in 2018-2019, so I don’t remember it much. The way these things swing side to side is certainly unique.

#8: Invertigo. I never got to ride the one at California’s Great America as I was too young when I first went. It’s more smooth than a conventional boomerang and more intense as you get whipped through the vertical loop on the outside, rather than the inside.

#9: Flight of Fear. I much prefer Six Flags Fiesta Texas’s spaghetti bowl Poltergeist instead. While it’s cool in the dark, the train being jerky and the mid course break run kinda sours the ride.

#10: Snoopy’s Soapbox Express. A boomerang for kids! Actually has a decent amount of force, so not actually sure how appropriate this is for kids.

#11: Adventure Express. I’m not sold on the theming and it’s quite rough. Sorry!

#12: Queen City Stunt Coaster. There’s no effects. It’s… a roller coaster.

#13: Woodstock Express. It’s for kids.

#14: Woodstock’s Air Rail. It’s for kids.

i always message a friend who used to work at kroger anything kroger related. i wonder if he’s sick of it

Stopped by a kroger for fun. It’s always funny to see something sourced from California being put in a positive light when out of town. Last time I went to Toronto I saw a lot of billboards for LOCALLY CANADIAN GROWN produce. To me it’s like… does that mean it’s good or bad? Also it seems Red Creme Soda is actually a thing… and we were curious about the Graeter’s Skyline Chili ice cream flavor.

unfortunately, i did not start or witness a fight

A quick bite at Waffle House. It’s always been a piece of lore to me for all the fights that get recorded there or the use of the Waffle House Index for disaster preparedness. I’d probably summarize it as a no frills Denny’s – breakfast items, some items if you’re not in the mood for dinner. It’s a good and cheap place if you’re hungry at some odd hour of the night. We’ll see how the cold brew is tomorrow morning!