A Field Trip to Scenic... Ohio

Hey kids.

Reynolds and I usually are paired up together for these Cedar Point trips.

We've discussed this multiple times over the course of the last decade or so, but every year towards the end of May, as our 8th graders are about to graduate from middle school, the 8th grade staff shuttles about four or five charter buses full of teenagers down to (ugh) Ohio for their culminating field trip: Cedar Point.

After a few hours on the road, entering the crappiest state in the Union. 

Last year, the weather was absolute dog shit for this trip - 40mph wind gusts, pounding rain, 50-degree temps, etc. - and we only had four charter busses to take down there 'cause our students last year were arguably the worst-behaved I've had in over a decade. That was, hands down, the shittiest Cedar Point outing I've ever had, so I was really hoping that this year would be a return-to-form for all of us (God knows it couldn't be worse.) Fortunately, we were blessed this year with probably the best group of students I've ever taught, and, as such, we had five busses worth of kids with us for this year's venture (discipline determines eligibility for these trips, so if a student gets in trouble too much through the school year they can't go.)

We got our kids through security and into the park around 11am Tuesday.

In case you're stumbling upon this blog for the first time and have no idea what I'm talking about, our school has offered a two-day package - including free shuttling via charter bus, a night in Cedar Point's beach side resort, The Breakers, a complimentary breakfast, and two full days in the park for like $200. It's a pretty sweet deal, made even better by the fact that the kids can choose their own roommates for the trip (four or five to a room, with one floor in the hotel assigned for girls and the floor above for the boys), and kids are turned loose as soon as we enter the park - there's no having to hang around a chaperone throughout the day.

The Carousel, where we'd meet our kids at the end of each day at 7pm.

Now, Yours Truly hates roller coasters, so I don't do a whole hell of a lot on these trips. I'll walk around with other teachers, and usually wait at a table or a bench with the other cowards while our colleagues ride some of the more intense rides - Millennium Force, Valravn, Steel Vengeance, and the new Siren's Curse. On a good year, this provides ample opportunity for bronzing, which I thoroughly enjoy in my summer months, and if I'm the sole person sitting out I usually lose myself in a book. The fact I'm getting paid for doing this sorta thing is insane.

This year, our weather was great, but not awesome (for me, at least.) It was high-70s, but mostly overcast. The other staff members couldn't stop gushing how perfect it was, but I, personally, would have preferred full sun (I love me some sun.) The only other thing that kinda sucked this year was that the trip was bumped back until after Memorial Day Weekend - usually it takes place beforehand. The rationale behind this move was that there's too much free time in the week leading up to 8th Grade Graduation (5/28 this year) - nobody's teaching anymore so you have a few days of, basically, just babysitting teenagers and keeping them off their phones. This year, they pushed the trip back to after the long weekend, so after getting back to Saginaw around 9pm on Wednesday - and, for me, I didn't get home in Midland until about 10pm, then needed some decompress time before I could go to bed - I had to wake up bright and early around 5:30am for work, and the graduation itself. Everyone was dragging ass that day, lemme tell ya.

Still, minor gripes, I guess. This year was leaps and bounds better than last year, and if sun and a few hours of sleep lost are the only drawbacks, I can definitely live with that.

So here you go, folks - another tour of duty in The Butthole of America (Ohio.) Enjoy. . .

After dropping off student medications to one of the park's First Aid Stations, a group of us teachers veered over to this ride 'cause the park app said the wait was only a half an hour long. I got this pic of Vieau (the Science teacher on my team, 8-3), Biskup (my building principal in 8th grade), Benkert (8-1 Math), Priem (8-2 ELA) and Kenny (8-1 Science), who were all gung-ho to go on it. Unforunately, the wait time hadn't been updated, and the real wait time was closer to an hour and a half, so they decided to skip it for the time being.

Leaving Valravn, the group split, with Vieau, Biskup and Kenney heading over to do Millennium Force while the rest of us walked over to nearby Iron Dragon, which only had a 15-minute wait. This is one of, like, four rides that I will do at this park, so I jumped in line for it. This ended up being the only ride I did this year, as every time we'd pass by the milder Cedar Creek Mine Ride (my favorite) the line was too long, and I wasn't feeling ambitious enough to do Blue Streak or Gatekeeper this year.

Some of my workers were getting hungry, as by this point it was getting near to lunch time, so we wandered off to find a spot for food.

Priem brought a long her sister (bottom left) this year to help chaperone the kids, and we were joined by Reynolds (the math teacher on my team), Albertson (top right, the special ed teacher on my team), and Catlin (bottom right, the curriculum specialist.) They settled on a restaurant outside of Steel Vengeance, way in the back of the park, and grabbed some food (I always bring a long a protein bar 'cause I don't eat a ton during the middle of the day.)

After lunch, we wandered back towards the middle of the park to see what wait times were somewhat manageable (this is Gemini in the background, and a few teachers went on that since the line time was, like, a half an hour.)

Next, some of them opted to go on this county fair-ish ride that looked absolutely nauseating. 

Once that was done, they hopped on this one, which just dropped people repeatedly, over and over and over again. That's a hard pass for me.

By the time they had gotten a few rides in, and we had rendezvoused with the other staff members, it was just about time for dinner, so we once again exited the park and wandered over to the marina restaurant (forget the name of it.)

Some cool yachts in this marina, that's for damn sure.

We ate here last year, and the food was pretty decent. Expensive, too, but Benkert - who organizes the trip every year - covers the staff's dinner with the Cedar Point fund she has established, so we all ordered whatever the hell we wanted, it was pretty awesome.

Kenny spotted a random muffin chilling on a window sill, so we had to get a pic of it.

Awaiting food.

After dinner, walking back towards the park's side entrance.

Famous Dave's, where we had our annual Day One dinners for the previous decade or so (I prefer this place, but it sadly closed.)

Back in the park, we had about an hour before we had to rally our students back up at the Carousel for extraction. We use the Remind app - a texting app that allows teachers and students to text each other without exchanging phone numbers, so it's all above board - to give kids instructions and updates, and by 7pm we had all nearly 300 8th graders assembled at the front of the park. From there, we divided them up into their five bus groups and escorted them back out into the parking lot and onto the awaiting charter buses.

To get to The Breakers - our lodging for the night - we had to drive around the backside of the park, looping around the peninsula the park is built up on.

Driving around Steel Vengeance.

Pulling into The Breakers. Reynolds got off to collect the many room numbers assigned to our bus (which was all boys this year - we switched from co-ed buses to gender-specific buses this year, and it's a total game-changer), while Yours Truly stayed back on the bus and watched the 50 kids we had with us.

Reynolds and I shared a room this year, but we'd have another teacher, Abbott (8-1's special ed teacher) joining us later on in the night - he had to drive down separately due to some family thing he had going on earlier in the day. Since I don't have a bad back and am somewhat slender in build, I volunteered to take the pull-out bed, shown here. God knows I've slept on worse, so I was pretty indifferent.

Obligatory hotel room pics, for your viewing pleasure. . .

After getting all the kids settled into their rooms, taping their doors shut (to make sure no one was opening their doors after being checked in, and with the Cedar Point Police patrolling the halls, the staff gathered in Benkert's room for a post-Day One meeting (as usual.)

We use this time to divy up the collected tip money for the bus drivers (we collect $1 per student to go towards this) so we had Benkert pose with it for future presentation purposes.

Following the brief meeting, some of us wandered down to the beach and hung out by the outdoor fire pits for an hour or so, just to hang out and decompress from the day.

Around 11-11:30pm, we decided to call it a night, and passed through this impressive lobby area back towards our respective hotel rooms.

The next morning, bright and early, we had a decent sunrise over the shittiest of Great Lakes, Lake Erie.

Like the day before, today started off beautiful and sunny before clouding over in the early afternoon.

Once we had checked all of the student groups out of their rooms and loaded up all their overnight stuff back on to their charter buses and taken attendance, we walked them in groups over to the TGI Friday's that's located inside the resort for their complimentary breakfasts. I didn't include any pics from this part of the morning 'cause there were students in the pics and, you know, FERPA and all that. Following breakfast, we walked along the backside of the resort towards the side entrance to the park, where our kids would be given Early Access (about an hour) to the attractions.

This walkway passes right in front of the beach, which I would have much rather been spending my time at.

The area where we were hanging out in the night before.

Once again starting off a day in the park with dropping off the student medication to a First Aid Station.

If only it'd stay like this throughout the entirety of the day. . .

Catlin, Albertson and Abbott deciding in which direction to go.

Siren's Curse, in the background there, rotates and suspends riders facing straight down before launching them down an imposing drop. Safe to say I did not go on this ride.

A while later, we spotted a park ambulance parked out in front of Iron Dragon, where some tourist had blood all over his face (if you zoom in, he's standing off to the left.) No idea what happened, but it definitely didn't look pretty.

The group of teachers I rolled around with today opted to venture into Frontier Land (or whatever it's called) first this morning.

Albertson, Benkert, and the Priems.

Back at the school, a lady who runs the Student Announcements emailed us asking for pics from the trip so far that she could throw in the announcements. Being an asshole, I took a pic of a random horse nearby and sent that to her (she was hoping for pics of kids on rides and crap, but I sincerely hope she enjoyed this random horse.)

Passing on through Ole Timey Ville.

3/5 of 8-3, in the Stocks.

That cannon is not defensively positioned in the slightest - I doubt this fort could repel a serious assault.

For as often as I've walked past these old buildings, I don't think I've ever actually walked into any of them.

Come to think of it, I don't think a lot of these places were even open. Maybe they open later on in the day, or later on in the season, who knows.

Some mill or some shit.

While some of our colleagues went off to ride the Maverick coaster, Reynolds and I and a couple others hung out at this picnic table for about an hour. A family of geese passed by and the dad goose was not digging Steve at all. Probably 'cause it's racist.

Another view of Siren's Curse, about to ruin a whole bunch of folks' day. . .

While waiting for a train ride (we went on, like, four of them today, just running the clock out 'cause no one was really feeling all that 'ridey' today), we spotted the new Millennium Force Lounge, which had plush couches and big TVs you could enjoy. Sadly, this was a VIP perk and we couldn't get into this place without paying more for it, and none of us wanted to do that. If it had been free, I would have set up shop there for like two, straight days.

The train pulling into the station.

Entering Skeletown, U.S.A. Hokey skeletons? Sign my ass up.

I've seen Halloween displays in folks' front yards in Midland more impressive than this.

You know the meth problem in this town in out of control - it looks like Temple, MI.

Building's on fire, make sure you spray the neighboring trees really good, guys. Jesus H. Christ.

On our second lap around the park on the train (or maybe the third, who knows), we passed by the Millennium Force ride and saw - to our horror - that the cars were STUCK. A few hundred feet up the initial climb to the summit, stuck nearly vertical. It must have been absolutely terrifying for those people, I would have been crapping my pants.

This is the thing of nightmares. I have no idea how long those people were stuck like this, or how you even get up that high to free people stuck like that.

After a few train rides, we wandered around the the park for awhile, and eventually ran into a couple kids who asked Abbott and Reynolds to play some carnie game with them (the more people played, the better the prizes you could win. . . or something like that.) They were a couple of our students, so they obliged.

Around 4pm, the staff reconvened at the Starbucks near the front entrance, awaiting the 5pm rally time at the Carousel with our students. Folks were ready to head out way earlier than in previous years, probably due to the fact that we all had to be up at the ass-crack of dawn the next day for graduation. 

After extracting all the students from the park and loading them back up on their respective busses for the three and half hour drive back to Saginaw, it was time to bid adieu to Cedar Point once again. Another trip in the books, be sure to check out next year's installment in late May (thereabouts.)

- Brian