Finishing Off Ohio
Not long after arriving in Columbus, a massive snow storm hit. We got covered under half a metre (20") of snow, which was 5" more than the previous record from 1910! It was awesome to see, well for me anyway. Maybe not so much fun for the people who were attempting to live out a normal life in it.
Dublin was the name of the particular suburb I was staying in. So, as you can probably imagine, St. Patty's Day was huge. The whole place was going off, with a massive tent set up at one of the bars and a heap of live acts inside. There was plenty of Guinness flowing that day.
There was plenty of booze flowing for most of my stay in Columbus actually (nice work Justin and Tom). A couple of times we went to this cool Greek restaurant/bar called Tria's. The food was great and the bartender was even better. He'd charge us hardly anything to drink there all night. He was also a big fan of a game where everyone involved names a drink (alcoholic or otherwise) and he chucks a bit of each in a shaker and pours out shots for everyone. My choice of Tabasco Sauce didn't go down too well for some reason. And to top it all off he hooked us up with free tickets (and they were good ones) to one of two ice hockey games I managed to get to while I was there! Cheers Jimmy!!
I was also lucky enough to get a personal tour of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and the museum there, from an ex-employee. The museum is massive, five hangars, each filled with different types of aircraft. There was stuff from all through the years, right up to modern day experimental aircraft. One hangar also had old Air Force One presidential planes that you could walk through.
Next came Upper Sandusky. It's a pretty small rural town, where everyone knows everyone else. But don't let that fool you, I had a great time here too. This is where I spent an enjoyable Easter weekend with old family friends, the Logsdons (thanks guys!).
Being a rural town in America, it's perhaps not surprising that guns (actually anything that'll make a bang) are pretty popular here. There's even a gun factory in town, busy reviving the Ithaca name. And I had an absolute blast (no pun intended) making stuff go bang! The pistol and the AK47 were on the more common side of things. But the potato gun (which we made) and the mini cannon certainly weren't!
The first night I arrived in Upper was a Friday so Isaac took me out to a poker evening with the boys. A few beers and a few hands later, things escalated ever so slightly. And after an incident with some fish and one with some cleaning spray, an LCD tv was chucked out of a second story window onto the pavement below! Anyway, it was on this crazy and highly entertaining night that I met Dave.
Deep Sea Fishing Extravaganza
And it was four days later that I met Dave's family, while on holiday with them in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Despite not knowing any of them (and hardly even knowing Dave), they were more than happy to have me along for a week of sun, beer and deep sea fishing. How cool is that?!
As far as deep sea fishing goes, this is one of the premier spots around the globe. Not only that, we were doing it in style. Dave's Dad has a 50ft boat with 1500hp of Detroit diesel power sitting below deck, and it's all set up for one thing and one thing only, fishing. Rods and reels of all different shapes and sizes, live wells and a fighting chair are all there for business.
Every day but one was a fishing day. We'd head out early with a chilly bin/cooler/eski (look at that, I even translate for you bloody Aussies!) full of beer, live wells full of fish and a boat full of people (including the top notch Mexican crew). Depending on whether we were looking for tuna or marlin determined in which direction we'd head off. And then it was all on.
It was awesome when we'd run through a school of tuna and all four reels would go off. Everyone would jump up and grab a rod, eager to fight in what ever was on the end of it. After a bit of a battle and another fish for the take, there was, inevitably, the sound of another few beers opening from the seemingly never ending stash (thanks Dave Sr.)!
The best day of the lot, however, was the day we ventured 47 miles from the harbour, in search of marlin. It was yet another beautiful, sunny day. The ocean was flatter than most lakes. And, most importantly, the marlin were biting! This was the day I had my first ever battle with a marlin. It's such a rush sitting in that fighting chair trying to reel in a 170lb fish! They jump and dive and fight all the way to the boat. Then when you think you're finally there, they'll take off again and it's back to square one. Unfortunately mine also managed to jump out of the grasp of the deck hands as they tried to bring him on board (no gaffing as we were catching and releasing that day). Oh well, I'll just have to do it again some time! I think Billy Joe said it best when he said 'Welcome to Paradise'!
Needless to say, we also ate fairly well down there. Not only did we eat our fair share of the 60 tuna, eight marlin and three mahi mahi (aka dorado or dolphin, and no, not the mammal, the fish!) that we caught. We also had some fantastic (and huge) shrimp and some delicious steaks as well. Yup, I'd go back in a second.
Other activities included swimming, shopping and even a cockfight! One of their Mexican friends took us to a cockfighting arena in the middle of nowhere. There certainly weren't any other out-of-towners there. It was pretty interesting to see, certainly a different form of entertainment!
Thank you to all the Dlubaks for one of the best weeks of my trip (and therefore my life)!!
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