River Daze

Hi Internet.

Inside the massive Beer Tent, sponsored by Midland's Rotary Club.

So I've mentioned River Days before a time or two. It's Midland's annual, weekend-long summertime bash, centered around the Tridge downtown, where they light off dozens and dozens of hot air balloons into the sky. Tons of food trucks, lots of live music, vendors, arts and crafts, merch galore, and thousands upon thousands of people.

Kinda like summer's weekly Tunes By the Tridge, only on steroids.

(And featuring hot air balloons.)

We've made an appearance here for years - sometimes for only one night, sometimes all the nights - and it's always a good time. Following the initial lighting of the balloons, for the next couple days you can spot balloons drifting around Midland, often times flying right over folks' houses and scaring the crap out of people (one year one actually crashed onto our street , back in 2018 if you'll remember.) We went for a walk with the Johnsons the day after the initial lighting, and they were everywhere (as you'll soon see in the pics below.)

So yeah, another entertaining 48-hour period around these parts. Check it out. . . 

Us and the Johnsons had to park way down at First United Methodist, which was a bit of a hike but all the lots and side streets closer than that were already taken (the whole city had more or less come out for this.) When we reached the park by the Tridge, we purchased our drink/meal tickets and set up shop in the Rotary tent. Kris' friend, Kim, and her daughter, Makayla, ended up meeting us down there, and after everyone had finished their burgers all the womenfolk wandered off to check out some of the local vendors and crap.

Erik, Mitch and I hung back in the beer tent and watched as balloons slowly took off into the sky.

Mitch attempts to crouch like a Slav (heels down, unlike how we Westerners crouch, with our heels up.)

After a few beers, the three of us walked around a bit to check out what else was set up down there.

Not much cool stuff to check out unless you were a little kid (they had henna tattoos and face painting and crap), or else were jonesing for a food truck.

They usually have a lot of carnival-ish attractions set up for River Days, which our kids used to get into but not so much anymore.

We then made the mistake of walking over the Tridge to see the balloons up close, over by the dog parks. None of them were firing up at the time, and there wasn't much to do over there, so we decided to head back the way we came. Unfortunately there was a frickin' line of folks trying to get back over as well, and the crowd was backed up for hundreds of yards - I've never seen anything like that before. It was all thanks to a bunch of dumbasses stopping to take pictures in the middle of the throngs, holding everyone up.

Seriously took us like twenty minutes to cross back over that damn bridge. . . 

Alayna, Abby, Ella, and a few other kids were walking around downtown as well. They didn't want to acknowledge our presence, 'cause teenagers.

Kim and Makayla, showing off their new ink.

Back by the beer tent, Erik and I hit up the line of porta-potties, which was in front of some nearby live music.

Forget who this band was, but they were not one of the coolest bands I've seen this summer.

Kris, Courtney, Kim and Makayla ended up crossing back over the Tridge at the correct time, and were able to catch some balloons firing up.

Crowds watching the balloons, um, inflating. . .

I assume they're glowing 'cause of the fire. . . ?

Around 9pm we headed up to Main Street for the evening's main band - Stone Street Revival.

This was by far the best cover band I've heard this summer - definitely a few clicks above the usual Tunes by the Tridge acts. Thousands of people crowded throughout the Commons to check them out, I've never seen the downtown area so packed.

Lots of 70s funk, rock, and even Yacht Rock (which, as you know, I'm a huge fan of.)

The next day, in the evening, us and the Johnsons went out for our usual hours-long walk around the Chestnut Hill neighborhood, and there were balloons floating around EVERYWHERE.

It was almost like some of them were trying to find a spot to land, 'cause they kept hovering right over the tree tops. As we were walking back in front of Chestnut Hill Elementary (the girls' alma mater), there were a bunch of trucks and cars passing us trying to follow the balloons.

Vehicles in hot pursuit. Including the Batmobile.

Courtney and Kris, straining to keep an eye on one of the balloons.

I think this one was attempting to land in Plymouth Park - that's the only open space around there that accommodate a balloon I think.

Doesn't take much to excite these ladies. . . 

- Brian

Back to the 'Point

 Hi gang.

For the first time in over two years - since, oh, before Covid completely flipped the world upside-down - our school once again took our graduating class of 8th graders on an overnight, two-day trip down to Cedar Point.

I, for one, always love this trip because it's two days of walking around in the sun with other teachers, not working, and the only kids you have to worry about are the somewhat-decent students, since the major behavior problems lose the privilege to go if they get in trouble too many times.  At the end of the year, when all the teaching is just about wrapped up and you're just running out the clock until summer kicks off, this is just the sort of thing you want to fill your time.

Leaving bright and early around 7am on Thursday, we set off for our 4 1/2 hour trip down to the butthole of the country, Ohio. . . check it out. . .

We are pilgrims in an unholy land. . .

Just like in Disney, remember where you park, kids.

As always, the first stop on this first day in the parks, once getting all the students successfully through security and checked in, was dropping off the med bag containing students' meds to the First Aid Station.

A group of us teachers got lunch at this joint while waiting for the park to warm up a bit.

It was overcast when we got there, but was supposed to get sunnier and warm up as the day drew on.

The soon-to-be-retired Lisa makes a friend in the Frontier section of the park.

Making our rounds around the park - we ended up clocking way over 20,000 steps on this first day.

Sun's out.

That People Mover you see on the right was the only ride I ended up going on that first day in the park, we just walked around most of the time.

Nnnnnnnope.

Later that day, all the teachers went out for dinner at Famous Dave's, our usual destination for the annual teacher meal.

The restaurant is right on the marina, adjacent to the park itself.

Doing another lap of walking in the park.  We took a lot more pictures, but they had students in them, and, you know. . . FERPA.

At the end of the day, around 7pm, we started gathering up students at the rendezvous point at the front of the park (the Carousel.)  Once collected, we'd take them in groups out to the awaiting charter buses in order to drive them over to our hotel for the night, The Breakers.

En route to the hotel.

A complete clusterf*** getting nearly 400 students checked in to their rooms.  This always the worst part of the trip, and takes over an hour.

The room I shared with the only other male teacher that ended up chaperoning this year's trip.

More obligatory hotel room pics.

(We didn't end up using any of this.)

The next morning, looking out at scenic Lake Erie.

Another view from our hotel.

As we checked students out of the room, we escorted them in groups down to the awaiting charter buses to load up their overnight bags and coolers, than proceeded to walk them down to a pavilion for their complimentary breakfast.

The beach none of us went to.

Yours Truly along with my teammates, Rachel (ELA) and Lisa (Science), and Shelli (8-1's Science teacher.)

Back in the park, around 9:30am.  Once kids finished up with their breakfast, they were given their admission ticket and could head straight into the park.  Getting in an hour before general admission, they were able to get in line for the busies, more popular rides ahead of the masses.

We did a lap around the park again, but everyone was sore from the previous day's excursion.

I decided after the first lap that I was going to spend a few hours bronzing in one of these chairs reading a book, so I bid my farewells to my other teachers and took a huge chunk out of my book - Shogun - while chilling on this pavilion.

After a couple hours, a student texted me on our school's Remind app to let me know that his glasses had flown off on a roller coaster and we had to take him to Lost and Found, so, for the rest of the day, I was walking around solving student dilemmas as they surfaced.  Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

I ended up joining up with a group of eight students for a series of rides - the Mine Ride, Corkscrew, etc. - lesser ones that I could stomach without killing myself.  Between this and solving student issues as they arose, most of my day flew by pretty fast.

The team (with a student.)

Fort Something-or-Other.  I don't know, it's not a real fort.

Around 5pm, we had all our students once again rendezvous at the Carousel, and once again boarded them in groups onto their assigned charter buses.  By 6pm, we were back on the road heading back for Saginaw.

Reentering the Homeland after two days in the Shittiest of All States.

- Brian