The Adventures of Our Suitcase

Our suitcase had quite the adventure when we went on our Disney cruise last month. If you don't know, when staying at a Disney resort they send you a ribbon in the mail to attach to your suitcase so you don't have to worry about picking it up at baggage claim in the airport. We checked our suitcase at the Columbus airport at 11:30am Wednesday morning (our flight was at 1:30pm). We didn’t see it again until two minutes after we entered our room at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge resort around 5:00pm. We had to wake up at 7:30am on Thursday because they picked up our suitcase at 8am to take to the cruise ship. The bus didn’t come to pick us up until 11:45am. We didn’t see our suitcase again until it appeared outside our stateroom on the boat at 5:00pm. We were a little bit worried because for this drop off because we had already set sail and still had not gotten our bag and it seemed as if every other room in our hallway had gotten theirs already. But the largest amount of time we would go without seeing our luggage was yet to come. We were informed we had to have our bag packed, tagged, and outside of our stateroom by 10:30pm on Saturday night. Our flight didn’t leave until 12:30 Sunday afternoon. We didn’t lay eyes on our suitcase again until standing at the baggage claim in Columbus at 5:30pm on Sunday night!

On one hand, it’s nice not to have to carry the suitcase everyone but on the other it is almost more stressful wondering if the bag is going to make it to the correct destination on time - there is almost no room for error in this system!

Disney Cruise Montage Video

We went on a cruise ot the Bahamas aboard the Disney Dream last week. Below is the video montage I put together. Would love to hear what you think about it!

Disney World Trip Recap

The wife and I went to Disney World for a long (though much too short) weekend the week after Thanksgiving. I wrote a bunch of review posts on my various blogs so I figured I would post a link to each here.

• New Fantasyland Review
• Kilimanjaro Safaris Review
• Port Orleans Riverside Resort Review
• Walt Disney World Holiday Celebrations
• Animal Kingdom Pictures

In addition I also created two short videos I think are worth watching, embedded below:

If you’re one of those adults who think you’re “too big” or “too old” to visit Disney then you’re really missing out.

California Coast Video Montage

I finally got around to finishing up my short montage video from our July vacation to the San Francisco Bay area. The footage starts off with some shots of us passing under the Golden State Bridge while heading twenty four miles out into the ocean to look for blue whales (we spotted two but didn’t get any pictures). The rest is mostly shore shots from Point Reyes National Seashore, including some endangered elephant seals fighting. And that is the theme song of the Uncharted video game series if you were wondering.

Content Creation

I've been a content creation machine this week. I created a ton of content for my blogs and websites since coming back from a week of vacation in California. In the past week I have updated multiple websites, wrote numerous blog posts, conducted an interview, published over 100 vacation pictures to Facebook, and am editing three video segments from the trip. I thought I would use a post here to summarize all my recent content creation with links to all. Ok, here it goes. 


Blogs

I recently interviewed a zoo interpreter and photographer. I wrote up a review of the Monterey Bay Aquarium and uploaded a video of it to YouTube. I added an 2012 NFL helmet schedule to my Excel Spreadsheets Help blog downloads page. I explained part of the process of writing my roller coaster design book on Amusement Authority.


Mini-sites

I recently started a new online money making experiment which I’ve decided to share with you today. I’ve built four mini-sites to test out my idea to see how it works. People are always going for release dates for movies, book, and video games. If you can get traffic you can make money online. Thus, I have created a few sites based on possible future sequels for some of my favorite movies and video games. Looking for the Uncharted 4 release date? How about the Avengers 2 release date? Modern Warfare 4 release date. RollerCoaster Tycoon 4 release date.


Web Properties

I updated my recreational therapy exam site with a few new pages of great content.
My Apartment Search Spreadsheet website is up and running. My CATIA Macros tutorial site is humming along quite nicely.

Emails

I got some interesting email this week, from looking for quotes for a magazine to a casting call for a Food Network show, it's been quite the interesting week.

Muir Woods National Monument Review

Muir Woods National Monument contains a magnificent redwood forest near San Francisco. If you've been following my blog or Twitter lately you know I've been on the west coast the past couple of days. The next several posts will entail our adventures and experiences starting with Muir Woods. Included within are some of my Muir Woods pictures. But first, some background information on the California redwoods.

Where is the redwood forest located? There are two species of redwood trees in California: coastal redwoods and giant sequoias. The giant redwood trees are found along the coast of California while sequoias are only found in a few remote regions of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Redwoods can grow to a height of 379 feet, diameter of 22 feet, bark 12 inches thick, and an age of 2000 years (while sequoias in comparison grow to 311 feet, 40 feet in diameter, 31 inch thick bark, and 3,200 years of age)!

Some of the closest redwoods to San Francisco are found at Muir Woods National Monument in Mill Valley, California. This 104 year old park, named after John Muir, is located 12 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge. There are over six miles of Muir Woods hiking trails amoung the humungous trees. If you plan on visiting Muir Woods National Monument here are a few of my personal tips for a better and more enjoyable visit:

If you do decide to visit I recommend getting to the park early, as soon as it opens. The Muir Woods parking lots are tiny and fill up very quickly. If you don't get a parking spot you may park along the side of the road leading into the park but we warned you may have to walk a mile or even two (seriously) just to get to the front entrance!

There is an entrance fee to for the Marin Muir Woods trails (parking is free) but it was only $7 a person. Remember, there aren't many places where you can see these rare and wonderful trees.

The Muir Woods weather is quite cool so bring a jacket. Even though it might be nice and toasty while in the parking lots, the park is a dense forest where little sunlight reaches all the way to the forest floor making the air very cold. Dress appropriately.

The Muir Woods address is Mill Valley, CA 94941. The national park doesn't have an actual street address but was already listed in attractions on my Garmin Nuvi GPS navigator.

More updates from California coming soon!

June Updates

A couple of quick updates from my blogosphere this past weekend.

I created a 2012 NBA Mock Draft spreadsheet and uploaded it to my Excel Spreadsheets Help blog. Check it out and download the mock draft creator for free from my Google docs site.

I posted an in-depth article about the Snow White's Scary Adventure ride which was recently retired from Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom. I found a good video of the ride and an over rendering of the layout.

We went to the Columbus Zoo this morning to check out the new exhibit. Embedded below is my video of Stingray Bay.

Ricketts Glen: A Hidden Gem

My wife and I went on a driving tour around Pennsylvania this past weekend. One of the highlights was our stop at Ricketts Glen State Park (commonly misspelled as Rickets Glen). This scenic state park is located in northern PA, past the town of Benton. The Ricketts Glen state park address is: 695 State Route 487 Benton, PA 17814 (30 miles North of Bloomsburg) if you’re interested. The main reason for going is to see the twenty plus named waterfalls found inside of the park. We ended up hiking over seven miles on the Falls trail.

The tallest waterfall in the park, at nearly 100 feet, is Ganoga falls, which is pictured below. Although it was a hot summer day the cool breeze and mist radiating from the waterfalls combined with the shade created by the old growth forest kept the temperatures on the trail down and tolerable. Many hikers even took the opportunity to cool off by jumping in the river. For more pictures check out my Ricketts Glen slideshow video embedded below.

Ganoga Falls

There is a proper lake in the middle of the park which can be used for swimming or boating. Ricketts Glenn camping is offered as well as a number of cabins for rent on the grounds of the park itself. If you’re lucky you might even run into some of the local wildlife which inhabits Ricketts Glen state park. Notable species include black bear, river otter, bobcat, white-tailed deer, porcupine, turkey, and more! For more animal and wildlife pictures visit my Zoo Tails blog.

Pictured below is the 2012 Rickets Glen State Park map and Falls trail map.

Our original plans called for us to visit Worlds End state park too but it is even more north than Ricketts Glen. After hiking and climbing over seven miles we were pretty exhausted and decided to head right to our hotel outside of Bloomsburg. This turned out to be a great decision because shortly after checking in a giant thunderstorm rolled through the area with frightening lightning that knocked out the power at the hotel several times. Oh well, now we just have an excuse to go back sometime soon!

I'm published - again!

I've recently published my second book and my first fictional story, entitled Nike's Chinese New Year.

Are you looking for information about the Chinese New Year festival? Do you want to know more about Chinese culture and traditions? Well, there is a new book out that might be exactly what you’re looking for! This is a special treat for those with a curiosity in China who enjoy erupting in laughter. Some educational topics about China woven into the story include: traffic in China, communism vs. capitalism, food and cuisine, customs, holiday celebrations, fireworks, prostitution, tigers, and more. Learn about exotic locations such as Suzhou, Harbin, and Beijing. Other themes found in the book are coming of age, how to make a life altering decision, relationships, and much more! 

Here are a few excerpts from Nike's Chinese New Year:

               While most citizens of the United States were exchanging flowers, candy, and cards for Valentine’s Day, the Chinese were busy celebrating their most important traditional holiday. The Spring Festival began on the first day of the first lunar month and was otherwise known as the Chinese New Year...In fact, I’m told the Chinese New Year is the world’s largest human migration as millions of Chinese workers travel home to their families. Eric even claimed that trains are so overcrowded people wear diapers for their multi-hour long journeys home. 

Traffic in China, the way I see it, is a free-for-all. There appear to be no road rules at all, and if you survive the day, you’ll do it all again the next day. The stoplights that they do have must only be for decoration. Taxi drivers drive in the middle of two lanes so they can swing into either one of them as needed. They don’t have roundabouts in China. Roundabouts only function if people follow the rules, hence they don't work here. A roundabout would only add to the chaos. According to my made-up insurance statistics, the most dangerous cars are green and driven by the Chinese.

            Every time I climb into a taxi in China the very first thing I do is fasten my seat belt, pull it as tight as I possibly can, and grab onto anything that feels or looks sturdy. Well, to my wonderful surprise, this particular cab didn’t have a working seat belt. I about had a mild heart attack. I was left with clutching onto the seat in front of me until my knuckles turned white, not daring to open my eyes until we were safely discarded at our destination. 

 

         I managed to swallow the first bite with difficulty.  As I felt it burning its way down my throat, my heart began to do flip flops in my ribcage.  The food hit my stomach like a glob of lava in a lava lamp. Eric watched me worriedly, perhaps concerned I might keel over from the trauma.  When I enthusiastically dug into a second bite, his mouth fell open in amazement.  “I am impressed,” he said.  “That is by far the most dog penis I have ever seen an American succeed in consuming.  Are you well?” 

I'm looking for someone to review my book on Amazon and to give me some feedback. I can possibly send you a free copy if you're interested.


Buy the paperback at the CreateSpace eStore here. 

Buy the ebook Kindle version here.

2011 Year in Review

So here's my obligatory blog post looking back at the year that was. A few of the highlights from the past year that come to mind first are:

• ASTM F24 committee meeting in New Orleans
• Winning Cedar Point's K'nex Build Off Competition
• Spending four weeks in Utah for work
• Visiting Dollywood for the first time (and staying in the amazing Dollywood Vacations Cabins)
• Quitting by job as CAD engineer I held for 2+ years and moving to a new city and starting a new job as an automotive supplier engineer
• Staying onsite at Universal Orlando for a few days in July
• Celebrating our one year wed-iversary by doing the Wildside Tour at The Wilds
• Publishing my first book (e-book that is, paperback coming soon).
  

Here's a list of some of the Cyclone Edition's Most Popular Posts from 2011:

• Vintage Lego Airport Shuttle Monorail #6399

• CATIA > PRO-ENGINEER

• More OSU Tweets

• Best "Osama is Dead!" Tweets

• Excel "Contains" Formula

• 2011 College Football Bowl Spreadsheet

• Best LeBron Tweets

Cleveland Metroparks Zoo - June 2011

Check out the quick video I put together from our trip to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo in June 2011. Then be sure to join our new Zoo Tails Facebook Fan page -I'd really appreciate it!

Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom 1979

Pigeon Forge Mill: Thirty years later

I was digging through a couple of my parent's old photo albums lately and came across some really great pictures (old zoo pics and old amusement park pictures). One that stood out the I wanted to share was of the Old Mill in Pigeon Forge. My wife and I just visited back in May and I found it very interesting to see a picture my parents took from almost the exact same location but thirty years earlier. Here are the before and after shots of the Old Mill taken in 1980 and 2011.

May 2011 Vacation Slideshow

Fourth Annual Coaster101 Photo Contest

Get out your cameras and dust off the lens – it’s time for our fourth annual photography contest! This year’s categories will remain the same from last year: original, edited, and humor. Prizes include a Coaster101 pack and Cheetah Hunt gear. Submissions will be accepted through July 8th, 2011. Voting will begin soon thereafter. Please read all of the rules first before entering. We look forward to seeing your submissions!

Click here for more information and a link to enter!

Cleveland Zoo Pictures

Lagoon Park April 2011

Smoky Mountain National Perk Video

What do you consider as visiting a state?

Not too long ago I posted the States I've Been to Map. I have an important question for my readers: does it count as visiting a state if you never leave the airport? I have a trip coming up soon where I have to change planes in Minneapolis, Minnesota, one of the few states I have not yet visited. Should I be allowed to mark that off on my map as a state I've been to? What do you think?

(If it does count then I was correct in guessing Texas or Minnesota would be next on my list).

Updated: States I've Been To

Just added another state to my travel history: Louisiana! That means I've only got 9 more to visit. Which one do you think I am least likely to go to? My guess: North Dakota. There are reasons to go to all of the other states but ND? The next one I am most likely to visit? I'd guess Texas or Minnesota. Also, I'd like to remind you that I've driven to every state from Ohio except for three: California, Mississippi, and Louisiana.


visited 41 states (82%)
Create your own visited map of The United States