As angry as I was about Cincinnati and the missed meet, I knew I had to make something of it and give the reeking armpit of the United States a second chance. This time, with my friend actually in the area, and still having a list of places from the meet just a month ago, I thought maybe we’d be able to follow in their footsteps and at least get to see the same places, even if not actually at the meet. The reality was something entirely different though – one place after another that seemed to be promising was actually either well above my level, or well leveled and suddenly a pile of rubble. After lunch we FINALLY had one success, in a paper mill about half an hour out of Cincinnati.
Stay away from the brown acid!
It’s kind of unusual for there to be any of the finished product left in an abandoned factory. But this seems to be it, a giant roll of moldy cardstock or package stock ready to be sent off to the print shop
I found your car… and you thought I didn’t know where this would be? #VCXP3X
Unfortunately, this would be about all the success we’d have on this trip. Our next stop was a grain elevator that was a lot more intact last month when the meet was here… Like this, which used to be the stairway to the top.
Or this ladder, which was a disaster waiting to happen, about a second after I took this picture, the ice shattered.
This place just didn’t want to let me in, but yes, Jason, I know where this is too!
And this, with its fresh set of boards.
Our night explores were similarly dismal, as winter dumped its mixed bag onto us and we couldn’t get into Huedepohl (despite quite a bit of effort and some help from my friend, who can easily climb a fence), or the Bavarian Brewery (which would have required an incredibly sketchy 25 foot climb up a drain pipe). We couldn’t even get into any of the caves in Lexington, wandering around aimlessly for one and finding the other, full of water and treacherous ice.
So we got some beer and acid and wandered off into the woods, and forgot about the scene and the bullshit and humanity for a while, and everything was better.
We woke up much too late Sunday morning, just an hour before I had to be on a bus out of Cincinnati, as the trip took a turn toward the Amazing Race. We ran out of gas on the 71 somewhere in Kentucky, and managed to reach a gas station on momentum and fumes, and when we finally found our way to the station, I made it onto the bus by about 15 seconds! So maybe I have some exploring luck left…
Just after I left Cincinnati, the bus stopped at a truckstop with a Skyline Chili right next to it. The Internet is right. Cincinnati “chili”, shitpuke in a bowl, on top of spaghetti, truly is worse than getting hit by a car, for certain cars and certain bowls of “chili”. Let this be your warning. AVOID AVOID AVOID. 0/10 will not try again.