I'll Miss You--OHIO

I'll never understand all the orange barrel jokes. I see no shortage of construction projects anywhere else in the country.

Did someone request the Pretenders?

A, O, way to go, Ohio...

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Pagoda Gift Shop said:
In other words, If you're moving to Ohio and want the best location for the most coasters, you should live in Columbus. Hmm, maybe that's why RideMan works at Capital...

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Actually, I was born in Columbus, and I happen to be a Capital alumnus.

But the numbers certainly don't hurt--
Ohio Expo Center: 2 miles
Wyandot Lake: 17 miles
Kings Island: 88 miles
Cedar Point: 110 miles
Stricker's Grove: 115 miles
Coney Island: 130 miles
Geauga Lake: 140 miles
Indiana Beach: 200 miles
Kennywood: 200 miles
Conneaut Lake: 210 miles
Kentucky Kingdom: 240 miles
Idlewild: 260 miles
Holiday World: 300 miles

Well, you get the idea...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

yea.....i still say Virginia is the best state:) sure, only two parks close to me (well, three, but SFA is a couple hours), but they are great parks (PKD, BGW, both 40 min away) and i have mounntains two hours west, and the ocean 90 minutes east. thats all i need:)

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CoasterDad64 said:]

Yup, I lived in Aurora Shores from

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Wow. Same here. Well hello to a (former) fellow Aurora Shores resident!!! My folks still live there. Small world.

Rideman, you forgot Waldameer and Camden parks. They are both within the mileages that you gave for some of the others.

Along with Erieview...for the time being. :(

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millrace said:
And you don't know what suburbs are until you've lived in northern NJ for 23 years. Between my house and NYC (about 40 miles) was one long continuous strip mall, with traffic to match and property taxes higher than Top Thrill Dragster.

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No kidding. I'm up the other way in western CT 60 miles from NYC and its no better. Currently I live "in the country" let still pay like I'm in the city, and I fight traffic everywhere I go. OH is looking pretty good to me right now. We just made the decision to move back.

(and to keep it on the amusement topic, as much as I can appreciate the charm of Lake Compounce and Rye Playland, I won't mind closer proximity to CP, etc)

As far as I know, Columbus is the only city in the entire Midwest that's still growing.

And as Rideman says, the fact that the Columbus city limits are constantly expanding allows Columbus to claim the title of 14th largest city in the U.S. (bigger than many you wouldn't expect, such as Miami, Cleveland, San Francisco, Baltimore, Seattle, Atlanta, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Boston, etc.).

I love it here, personally. There have been only a few places I've visited that I could see myself moving to.

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millrace said:
A lot of people I knew on the east coast had the mindset that there was virtually nothing of value between the east and California.

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This is true, but that perception may be changing. My wife and I are in the midst of planning our relocation back to Columbus after living in the NYC area for the last 6 years--and I was a little shocked after talking to job-recruiters and realtors, that we're not alone. There is a fairly large exodus of people right now leaving the northeast for the south and midwest. Housing prices and marathon-commmutes are finally taking their toll.

Uh oh...Maybe we don't want them here! THere's a lot to be said for remaining somewhat anonymous. I stumbled upon Columbus quite by accident and carved out a niche. I'm not sure I want my secret to be discovered!

The 3.5 major metro areas (Akron/Canon being the ".5") in Ohio are actually pretty good places to live, especially if you're a home buyer right now. Cost of living is low, and the only real negative is the two or three months of winter that annoy me.

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CoasterDad64 said:
Florida is nothing but one giant suburb. Even the so called city is really just a suburb. There is no real sense of community in the neighborhood.

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Well you have to go to The Villages for that. Those retired folks like to party!

CoasterDad64 is referring to the coasts (both of them now) from Orlando south...there's plenty of NICE places to live in FL....provided you have employment or retirement... ;)

And a high tolerance for humidity. ;)

True story - a friend of mine moved from Columbus to Washington, D.C. In her cubicle at her new job, she hung a postcard of the Columbus skyline.

Her co-workers were surprised that Columbus had skyscrapers. They thought it was just farms and cows. Seriously.

East- and west-coasters can be so ignorant. I don't know how you can go through life without wanting to see everything in between.

You mean the world doesn't revolve around New York and LA? There's stuff in the middle?

not that there's anything wrong with farms and cows...

No, but the point is, the majority of people who live in LA and NYC seem to be clueless about the rest of the country.

Are you sure it's a majority?

I can't comment on LA but as a former New Jerseyan, I've gotten my share of comments about Ohio.

I've also discovered that many people seem to confuse Idaho and Iowa. Sheesh, get a map people!

Millrace, you just reminded me of a conversation I had about two and a half years ago.

I moved from Ohio to Colorado in 2003. One night at a bar the bartender commented on my Ohio State t-shirt. She told me how she enjoyed her drive through Ohio. I inquired as to where she was going. She responded with Seattle. I asked where she was driving from. She responded, "Colorado." Over the next 15 minutes I tried desperately to convince her that she had not driven through Ohio on that trip unless they were REALLY lost. It ended up that I couldn't convince her that she was probably in Oregon, or possibly Idaha, Utah, Montana or Wyoming.

Back on topic. I enjoyed my 2 years in Columbus and could easily live there again.