'Come out to the park, we'll get together, have a few laughs...'

We’re down to the last few nice days of the year before winter sets in. There won’t be too many afternoons left to go outdoors without having to bundled up under a thick coat, scarf and gloves. Since I work at home, there are many days that I don’t go outside at all except maybe to take the garbage out. But this was a day too beautiful to let pass without getting outside to enjoy it a bit.

Jen and I decided to take advantage of a still-warm fall evening to take her kids to Price Park over on W. Maple Street in North Canton. So we put the bark collar on the dog and headed out.

I’ve driven past Price Park a number of times on my way to North Canton. I’d admire the duck pond as I drove by, spotting handfuls of people milling about with kids playing on the playground equipment. But I didn’t realize how big Price Park was until we pulled into the parking lot, got out and started exploring.

“This place has everything”

Jen, her kids and I had a quick picnic in the grass, then the kid’s ran off to play on the massive play structures. When there were bored with one, they moved on to another. And then another. And then another.

Price Park isn’t just a playground for the kids. It’s a great place to have a picnic, play some tennis, feed the ducks, spike the volleyball and maybe even play a game of touch football, if you got the crew for it. You’ll find walking paths and plenty of benches scattered about to sit while you watch others at play or just enjoy an afternoon breeze.

Price Park has a pretty substantial duck pond with no small number of ducks. They’ve figured out the whole “people have food” scam so be prepared for them to come at you in swarms.

Price Park is one of the better parks I’ve been to. It’s spacious, plenty of playground equipment for the kids, and appears to be very well maintained. If you’re looking for some afternoon enjoyment, or just a place to lazy a day away, Price Park provides the place and the space.

More Price Park Info

Cost: Free!
Hats off: 5/5
Google Reviews and info
Location:
W. Maple Street off Whipple
North Canton, Ohio

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(What happens when the Hero of Canton leaves town to visit his kids on at the same time Jennifer’s kids are spending the weekend with her in Canton? He begs and pleads with her to do something fun, take lots of pictures and write an incredibly witty and informative post for his blog. Then he crosses his fingers, does the dishes and hopes she’s as brilliant as he knows she is so his readers are left entertained and educated.)

I wanted to caption this "You won't get bored with these gourds" but Stoney said no.

If you’re anything like me, fall is your favorite season. There’s something about walking around outside when the air is crisp, the leaves are changing and crops are harvested. Give me a glass of apple cider, a pumpkin to carve and a bonfire to cozy up to and I’m a happy girl. Thankfully my kids have inherited this love of all things fall, so October generally finds me hunting the nearest pumpkin patch. A few weeks back we carted them off to Nickajack Farms for a pretty fun filled evening. Our primary regret? Not having enough time to really enjoy everything the farm had to offer.

So when my parents decided to come visit on a weekend when my kids were in town, we went hunting for another farm with a harvest event so we could enjoy an afternoon of fun. I went online, did some research and found out the Maize Valley Farm Market & Winery has boatloads of family fun. It was only about a 30 minute drive from Canton, so on Sunday after church we put the bark collar on the dog and headed out.

Maize Valley Farm Market and Winery is located in Hartville, Ohio and is open year round. It doesn’t have to be fall for you to go and enjoy a good time, but it helps. While the Winery features some great outdoor play areas for kids, live entertainment, wine tastings and a great little deli year round, they really ramp things up in the harvest season. Their Family Fun days kick off at the end of September with a hot air balloon festival and keep going strong through Halloween as people spend the days playing and the nights getting their wits scared off in the haunted corn maze.

Stop off in the winery for a bite to eat before or after a day of fun.

We pulled up at the winery at about 3:30 in the afternoon on a Sunday. There was plenty of parking just outside the winery itself and loads of extra space in a field behind the main parking lot. We wandered over to the winery to look at the beautiful displays of pumpkins and gourds and the kids made a beeline to a height chart and a mural of farm animals with face holes. We looked around and it was pretty clear the fun and activity was up the path a hundred yards or so beyond the winery.

Who Knew Burrow Were So Soft?

On the walk up to the ticket booth, we passed a small concession stand with a fresh donut fryer sitting out front and a giant stack of cinnamon sugar donuts that were clearly fresh from the fryer. With promises to the kids (and me!) that we’d return to sample them later we continued up the path. The path runs along side a field that was home to a variety of pigs, llamas, goats and a very friendly Burro. Emmitt and I detoured over to the fence to make friends with the burro (who was as soft as fleece) while Elnora and my mother tried to pet a goat that clearly thought it was enjoy a never ending game of tag.

The “family fun” area of Maize Valley is fenced off, so if you want anything more than animal petting and fresh donuts you’ll need to pay an admission fee. At $7 for kids age 2-12 and $9 for anyone 13 and over, (kids under 2 are free) Maize Valley’s Fall Family Fun isn’t cheap. That said, you could easily kill four or five hours here.

Who Knew Hard Work Could be so Fun

The first place we headed once we got through the gate was up to a covered pavilion. At one end was a swarm of kids gathered around hand pump powered rubber duckie racers. Four hand pumps were feeding into large buckets that then fed into about a 12 foot long section of piping just wide enough to hold a rubber duckie. Racers set the rubber ducking at the starting point and then pumped water fast enough to overflow the bucket and fill the pipes. The fastest or most productive pumper then propelled their rubber ducky down the track and back to win the game.

My kids adored this and probably spent a good 20-30 minutes here before we literally dragged them off to experience other things.

Hay Bales + Old Tires + Rocks = Fun (No, Really!)

The protests we heard as we dragged the kids away from the pavilion quickly turned to cheers when they spotted the kids play area just up the hill. Emmitt and Nora made a beeline for a giant wooden ark, storming up the gang plank to explore the ship. It was just your standard church or preschool style wooden ark, but to a three and four year old, it was heaven. They burned another 20 minutes or so here before noticing the grain silo sitting behind it acting like a giant sandbox.

We headed back there and realized the “sand box” was actually a rock box. Very fine rock was piled up several inches deep around and inside the grain silo, giving kids a chance to dig and pile and play without loading their shoes and socks up with enough sand to fill a house for the next six months. (A brilliant idea Maize Valley, moms everywhere thank you!)

Now THIS is smart recycling!

Next to this was a giant pile of old tractor tires with a little bit of plastic piping thrown in for good measure. Yeah, yeah, I know…sounds like loads of fun, right? Actually…it was. The Maize Valley team had taken a dozen or more old tractor tires of various sizes and piled them up just right to make a great little jungle gym. A few well placed pipes to act as tunnels and slides and Emmitt was in heaven. Granted, I had to help him out quite a bit because the tires were just too big for him to really be able to climb across, but he had a blast going down the slide.

While Emmitt was exploring the tire pile, Elnora spotted the giant hay mound of death. Ok, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but I’ll fully admit that even my fairly easy going parenting was tested when I saw the 20 foot mountain of hay and tunnels standing before us. While my kids tend to be outgoing and like to explore, neither is particularly fearless, so I didn’t worry too much. I figured they’d stick to the low tunnels and enjoy clambering in the hay around the base.

Nope.

I glanced over to see Nora heading through a tunnel and the next thing I knew, she was standing on top of the world.

After a brief moment of mom-induced “oh my word, she’ll fall and kill herself” I came to my senses and realized the hay pile was set up kind of like a pyramid. If the kids fell off, they were probably only going to fall one hay level down (a few feet) and of course they’d be landing on hay. All in all, not quite the death trap I’d labeled it.

The hay pile was probably the single most exciting thing there for my kids. They spent at least half an hour, maybe longer climbing up, over, under and through. It took Emmitt a while to get up the courage to climb up to the top, but a little coaxing and help from Elnora was enough to get him inspired. In the end, I joined them and the three of us spent a bit of time sitting on the top of the pile taking in the sites before making our way back down to go explore the rest of the farm.

Not the Longest Hay Ride Ever (and that’s a good thing!)

A hay ride that stops at the shows? It's a lazy man's (or Stoney's) dream!

By this time, the grown-ups were ready for a little bit of a rest. Mom and dad suggested we take the hay ride as a way to see what else was around the farm. That’s when the protesting started.

“We don’t want to go on the hay ride!”

“It’s too long!”

“We want to play! Don’t make us go!”

(If you read Stoney’s review of Nickajack Farms and the hay ride we took there, you’ll understand.)

After a minute or two of this I played the mommy card and decided that we (ALL of us) would be going on the hay ride. Kudos to Maize Valley, they set this up nicely.

The hay ride starts in front of the farm’s pumpkin chunkin’ machine. (If you’re not familiar with pumpkin chunkin, you’re missing out. There’s nothing like watching grown men operate fire truck size, air powered pumpkin launchers that can hurl a pumpkin thousands of feet or blast the side out of an old van…it’s all very Monty Pythonesque and quite entertaining.)

We watched the operator spool up the air compressor, load a few pumpkins into the pipe and then take aim at an old beat up van a few hundred yards away. His first shot fell short, exploding the pumpkin just in front of the van on the ground, but the next two pumpkins pounded the snot out of the side of the van. Once he’d wowed us with the sheer force of the pumpkin cannon, he cranked up the cannon’s trajectory and lobbed a couple of pumpkins a few thousand yards into the nearby woods.

When the pumpkin chunkin display was over, the hay ride took off and drove us a couple hundred yards down to the “Nashog Raceway” where we had a chance to watch the Maize Valley pig races.

Our next stop was the farm’s self-pick pumpkin patch where visitors could hop off, borrow a wagon and head out into the fields to pick just the right pumpkin. At 40 cents a pound, the self pick pumpkins were far from cheap, but if you’re looking to take your kids for an experience, it’s a fun way to let them really feel like they’ve “picked” their own pumpkin.

The final stop on the hay ride was Maize Valley’s giant themed corn maze. While we didn’t have a chance to check out the maze with the little ones, it’s clearly an experience. There’s a large stairway leading to a platform in the middle of the maze so lost visitors can climb up and try to find their way out. There are also discovery stations and games throughout the maze as well as an interactive text message game designed to help visitors find their way through.

Incidentally, if you’ve ever wondered how a corn maze is created, the team at Maize Valley has put together a YouTube video about this year’s civil war themed maze.

So Much More to Do and See

Power Wheels? We don't need no stinkin' Power Wheels!

When we came back from the hay ride, it was about time to head out. It was cold that day and my fingers were starting to lose all feeling. The kids made a beeline for some push powered racing cars, so mom and I joined them. The kids were pretty good at steering them, so I decided to hop on one myself. No sooner had dad snapped a picture than mom decided to start pushing. Apparently my mad driving skills do not translate to people powered carts.

I crashed.

Big time.

It was not graceful.

Thankfully, it was also not captured on film. (Thanks Dad!)

As we gathered up the kids to head out, we passed quite a few other activities we hadn’t had a chance to try. There were a variety of large plastic pipes being rolled up and down the hill, often with children laughing hysterically inside them. There was also a tractor pulling a long train of barrels fitted with seats and decorated to look like farm animals.

If you’re looking to have some fun without small children around, Maize Valley also offers a haunted corn maze and forest that sets up after dark and runs an additional $12 per person.

On our way back down to the parking lot we stopped by that little snack bar to pick up a dozen freshly made cinnamon sugar donuts. At $6 a dozen, the price was perfect. We took them to the Winery with the kids and headed inside to get drinks, warm up and enjoy the sweet doughy goodness. And what sweet, doughy goodness it was. I consider myself a bit of a donut connoisseur, and these may have been the finest, freshest cinnamon sugar donuts I’d ever tasted. I ate two that day, and stopped only because I wanted to have some to eat the next day. They were a hit with everyone else as well.

Mmmmmmmmmm................donuts.

That was the first time I’d been inside the winery and it was beautiful. An old barn converted into a lovely little shop and deli, the winery also has ample seating and a beautiful wine bar. The deli offers a variety of fresh made Amish cheeses, deli meats and baked goods, or you can order fresh made sandwiches for around $6-$8 each. Wine isn’t served on Sundays, so if you’re looking to do some tasting, avoid that day.

Overall, Maize Valley Farm Market and Winery puts on a wonderful fall harvest festival. Perhaps one of the nicest I’d ever attended. It’s a great place to take the family, but I’d also highly suggest planning an outing with a group. There’s a large field just behind the activity area filled with large fire pits and hay bales. Maize Valley rents these out to groups and allows you to bring in food and drink. It’s a great way to extend the day by giving your group a home base for food, s’ mores and warming up.

More Maize Valley Farm Market and Winery Fall Family Fun Info

Cost: 3 adults, 2 children – $41 (+ $6 for a dozen donuts)
Hats off: 5/5
Yelp reviews
Google Reviews and info
Location:
6193 Edison Street NE
Hartville, OH 44632
(330) 877-8344

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Certainly no shortage of pumpkins here.

Halloween has never been one of my favorite holidays. Except for the candy. I love the candy. And the costumes, those are cool too. Oh, and haunted houses, I loooooove haunted houses! Put those aside and I could take or leave Halloween.

Maybe it’s because I don’t care much for pumpkins. Well, except for pumpkin seeds. And carving jack-o-lanterns. Put those aside and I could take or leave pumpkins.

Now that I think about it, I kinda do like Halloween. Well, aside from the fact that it’s Satan’s birthday. (j/k)

This time of year provides all kinds of out-of-the-ordinary activities for kids, and Nickajack Farms is just one of those places. Jen tries to plan weekly Monday outings with her kids and since the weather was nice she decided to take them (and me!) to Nickajack Farms. We went to an early dinner at Rooser’s and I tormented the waitress with 80′s music trivia. After dinner, with the bark collar having already been put on the dog, we headed out.

Beyond these doors is a world of adventure. Well, maybe just a couple of fields and a barn's worth.

Nickajack is only about 12 miles from where I live, but it’s a lot of stop-light ridden back roads. We arrived around 6pm on a Monday night and stayed for about two hours, though we easily could have stayed three or four hours had we given ourselves more time. I suggest coming on a Saturday or no later than 4pm on a weeknight.

At first glance Nickajack Farms doesn’t seem to add up to a whole lot of anything at all. But a lot of little things add up to several hours worth of fun and activities for kids, and adults can enjoy it right a long with them.

Upon entering Nickajack Farms, off to the left, just behind a wagon train, is a mini old west town front where kids can pretend to be cowboys and cow girls. Or cows, they can pretend to be cows too. There are a few cut-outs that adults and kids can stick their heads through for the traditional “I’m a farmer” or “I’m a pumpkin” photo-op.

In the middle were pumpkins, lots of pumpkins, and more pumpkins. Pumpkins of all shapes and sizes. Hey look! Even more pumpkins. On the far right was the straw maze for kids. Careful, cheaters are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law!

Next to the straw maze is pumpkin bowling. Set up your bowling pins (the real thing) and let the kids roll the pumpkins down, down, down and, oooh, gutter ball. So sad.

The highlight of Nickajack Farms is the corn maze. At least it was for me. I’ve been to one corn maze before and it stunk in comparison to the one at Nickajack. Well, it stunk period. I guess that’s what you get for going to a corn maze in Reno!

Nickajack Farms’ corn maze was a lot of fun and very well thought out. Each intersection had a corresponding question provided to you on a sheet of paper. Signs were posted at the intersection with two answers. Get it right, you go the right way. Get it wrong you hit a dead end. (Don’t worry, answers are provided.) I guessed most of the answers correctly on my second try!

Mud happens.

We had to rush through the hay maze in order to catch the last hay-ride for the night. That and the kids didn’t particularly enjoy the semi-muddy path. Ladies, wear sneakers, not heels!

We caught the last hay ride just as it was getting dark. I figured it would be a quick 10-15 minute ride. Instead we got a 30-40 minute ride through the cornfields, bean fields and around the farm. It was fun. And then it was amusing. And then it got annoying. And then it became frustrating. Then it became funny. By the end of the ride I was thinking, “I should have bought a squirrel.” (Obscure movie reference. Any guesses?)

Hay ride at dusk!

As fun as it was, we were glad it was finally over. I was half expecting that they would dump us out in the middle of some cornfield miles from our vehicle and strip us of our cash!

Even though everything had closed for the night, the good people at Nickajack farms were kind enough to let us drive up to the discovery barn and petting zoo. Once we parked all daylight had vanished and we had a heck of a time finding which barn was the discover barn. But finally, (pun alert!) that discovery was made.

Had we come at a time when more kids had been present the Discovery Barn would have been a lot more enjoyable, buzzing with activity. But even still the kids had a lot of fun.

When you walk in you immediately see the cornbox (sand box with corn instead of sand). Around the sides of the barn were all kinds of information on agriculture and kid-friendly learning stations. A couple of craft tables filled the center where kids can make a bee, trace pumpkins and create a Jack-O-Lantern mask. There was also coloring stations, a “corn picking” field, information on wool shearing and lots more.

By the time we left the Discovery barn we needed to head back so the kiddies could go to bed. We had to pass up the petting zoo all together, but I got some pictures anyway. One question that had been bugging me since a discussion I had with Jen’s mother at the Canfield fair was, do sheep and goats speak different dialects of the same language or different languages all together? The non-scientific opinion of the person who worked there was: different languages.

BLAST! I owe Jen $5!

Nickajack farms is a great day-time place to take the kids for some cheap fun and games and some education to go along with it. The only complaints we got from the kids was the corn maze. They were anxious to move on to other things fairly quickly.

I suggest you give yourselves at least 4 hours and take your time with each game and activity. The kids wanted to spend more time bowling and playing in the straw maze than we were able do. But they did have a good time and were quite ready to fall asleep by the time we were done.

More Nickajack Farms Info

Cost: 2 adults, 2 kids – $26
Hats off: 3/5
Nickajack Farms website
Yelp reviews
Google Reviews and info
Location:
2955 Manchester Ave. NW
North Lawrence, Ohio 44666
(330) 323-9714

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The Fear Forest hay-less hay ride.

It was a dark and foggy night. The air was damp and dreary with a full moon in the midnight sky. The howls of werewolves could be heard in the distance coming from the speaker on the back of the tractor in front of us!

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s go back to the beginning.

In the beginning God created monsters and zombies. They were lonely creatures with no one to scare… so He created man.

The second half of Jen’s and my two-fer night was the Fear Forest Haunted Hay ride and Insanetarium. We left the drive in disappointed having seen the zombie coming of age flick: Zombieland. Not scary, not gory, not funny.

We really needed a good dose of scary monsters right about now, so we headed over to Fear Forest hoping for the best. At 9:15pm the parking lot was barely full and we found a spot right at the front.

Not allowed to take pictures on the ride... so here's a picture of the ticket for you.

We bought our tickets for the hay ride and the Insanetarium haunted house. You can buy tickets for the hay ride or hay ride Insanetarium combo. Due to the location of the Insanetarim you can’t get solo tickets for just that. The hay ride should be called a hay-less ride, because… well, there was no hay to be found. They put you in a large 30 passenger open wagon pulled by a tractor.

With our tickets in hand we went to the line and waited.

And waited.

The mood music for the line was haunting for the first three minutes but quickly became repetitive. It would have been fine for a short wait, but we were treated to almost 45 minutes of the same sequence of notes over and over and over. Seriously, could they not find more than a 60 second loop of haunt music?

There were about 10 people in front of us in line and another 10 on the wagon. I wondered why they didn’t fill it, assuming they wanted the appearance of a long line. Restaurants do that too.

After about 15 minutes that wagon took off, another arrived and the line started moving. Unfortunately for us we didn’t make the next cart, as again, they only filled it half full. So we waited.

There's a wagon in the darkness somewhere.

And waited.

While at the front of the line Jen and I tried to chitchat with the workers. There were three of them standing around and we quickly realized that they didn’t have a whole lot of information to provide us. “Why are the wagons only half full?” She didn’t know. “Can you purchase tickets for the Insanetarium but not the hay ride?” One said you could last year, the other said it’s never been that way. Mostly they just cared about getting “lunch” from the Dairy Queen next door. These were not the brightest bulbs I’ve ever encountered.

After another 15 minutes, the tractor and wagon left and the next arrived. We grabbed front row spots thinking this would give us the best view of the sights. We got the rules of wagon riding; no flash cameras, stay in your seat, don’t eat the dead people (I added that, they weren’t that clever.) And then we waited.

And waited.

Is this a monster tractor?

We were left on our own, with a handful of other passengers behind us, listening to the werewolf howls coming out of the speaker on the back of the tractor. After sitting there for 15 minutes, the tractor driver broke from his chit chat with another employee, boarded the tractor and started down the trail. All this was done without a word to anyone. No, this wasn’t a mood thing, he just didn’t care to interact with us tourists.

Finally, 45 minutes after we bought our tickets we were off on the “hay” ride. We quickly realized that our front row seats put us at a disadvantage. A lot of the action happened toward the rear of the wagon. Most of the monsters jumped out only after we in the front had passed by. We spent much of the time turned around watching the rest of the passengers get the scares.

Aside from our unfortunate positioning, the hay ride was far better than I had anticipated. The full moon and low fog contributed to a creepy atmosphere. There were tons of great props along the way, buildings, sheds, and an abandoned car (was that intentional or just white trash?). Monsters jumped out along the way and at times boarding the wagon for effect.

Not everybody brought their A game. Like the camper who came walking out toward us amidst his family slaughtered in their tents saying, “you have to help us” in monotone. He didn’t give the impression of being worried. Then there was the axe murder dressed in plain clothes without a hint of blood on him. But then, people always say how “normal” everybody thought they were.

The picture Michael Meyers killed for.

I would have got more photos but we were told not to use our cameras. The flash blinds the monsters! At one point I tried to take a flash-free shot and found myself staring into the dark eyes of Michael Meyers. “I didn’t use the flash! I didn’t use the flash,” I was heard pleading as I was violently grabbed and then dragged away into the dark forest never to be seen or heard from again.

Oh, wait… I forgot, I’m the one who survives the horror movie.

There was a lot that was fantastic about the hay-free ride. They did a great job of setting up decoy distractions, taking your eyes away from the person or thing hidden in the bushes, waiting for the opportunity to pounce. A large cast of horror movie well-knowns were present. Michael Meyers, Jason, Freddy Krueger, Leatherface. Oddly I didn’t see Chucky. There were plenty of half-dead, mostly dead and in the process of being made dead people along the way. A few werewolves and other ghouly monsters showed their faces as well.

At one point the tractor drove through one of those spinning tunnels. Maybe it was the darkness and glow-in-the dark walls, but this was probably one of the best I’ve experienced.

The hay ride itself is worth the money if you don’t mind the wait. It took us a good 20 minutes to get through it all with plenty of good, scary action along the way.

The Insanetarium is at the end of the hay ride. It’s a small warehouse converted into a house full of monsters, serial killers and… well that’s funny…. I swear that I’ve seen that guy on Star Trek!

The Insanetarium is an indoor, walk through haunted house. It took us about 20 minutes to get through and not a second of it was wasted. As you walk through you’re treated to room after room of horror scenes, dead bodies, skeletons and monsters. Winding your way through, you never knew what to expect around the next corner, what might jump out at you or be following you from behind.

It was set up so you could go through with your own group without having to share space or scares with people you don’t know. I wanted to take my time walking through and I was able to do that without anybody catching up to us.

Near the end was another spinning tunnel. Again, this was one of the best I’ve encountered. I’m still dizzy.

The actors seemed to enjoy themselves thoroughly. They weren’t there just to put on a show, but they were interacting with us as well. The last haunted house I went to in Reno was about 1/4 the size and didn’t even compare on the thrill scare.

Upon exiting the Insanetarium there were a group of employees huddled around the wagon re-loading zone. They couldn’t care less about us. No interaction, no making sure we had fun, no communication. That’s too bad. The experience with the Fear Forest sets and actors had been exciting, but the rest of the crew just pulled you right out of the experience back into the real world of part-time employees that don’t give a rats ass about the customer.

There were a lot of young kids, but I’d be careful about bringing any that scare easily. This isn’t just a horror movie, it’s real life people coming out at you with knives and chainsaws. But If the kids can hack it, bring them out have an ice cream or burger at Dairy Queen and enjoy the (hay-less) ride.

More Fear Forest Haunted Hayride Info

My Cost: 2 Adults, hay ride & Insanetarium combo; $28
Hats off: 4/5
Fear Forest website
Location:
6780 Tod Ave SW
Warren, Ohio 44481
(330) 392-6527

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Aaah... the old-fashioned movie experience!

Friday afternoon and work was done. Jen and I headed out to Youngstown. Saturday is her cousin’s wedding so we planned on staying the weekend at her parents, attending the reception on Saturday afternoon and then coming back home to Canton sometime after church on Sunday.

The drive to Youngstown was uneventful. The kids and the dog fell asleep in the car which gave us a break from 20 questions (and no, we weren’t playing the game). After dinner the options were to watch live TV with the folks (What? No DVR?) or go check out some haunted houses. Jen and I opted for the latter.

As a bonus, we decided to check out a movie we’ve been wanting to see which was playing at the the Elm Road Triple Drive-In. This was my second time at this drive-in and I had a mixed experience. If this night had been my first time I would have left with a poor review. However, a month earlier I had a fantastic time at Elm Road Drive-In with no complaints.

That first visit was over the Labor Day holiday weekend. I hadn’t been to a drive-in theater since high school so I was excited to try it again. I can’t recall having that much fun at a theater in a long time. The theater was offering triple features on two of the three screens. Jen and I saw Orphan, The Perfect Getaway, and The Final Destination.

We popped the trunk of Jen’s teeny-van (or mega-car, whichever), folded down the back seats and reclined on some blankets in the cool summer air. All three movies were enjoyable. I firmly believe the drive-in has the power to make any movie better.

There are very few drive-in theaters left in America and it’s a shame. At it’s peak there were somewhere around 4000 drive-in theaters across the country. Now there are less than 400.

Food! Food! Food!

Typical drive-ins offer two first-run movies for the price of one. Like most theaters they rely heavily on concession sales. It’s easy to sneak stuff in so you don’t have to pay concession prices and Elm Road Triple Drive-In knows this. They go out of their way to ask you to patronize their concession stand instead of sneaking food in. Their concessions boast a wide variety of options, including a great pizza dinner deal.

I’m one of those people that likes to make running commentary during movies. I try to talk quietly so only those I’m with can hear me but I’m told I don’t always succeed at it. A few weeks ago in the general theater I stopped into the restroom after the movie ended. While at the urinal some guy walked behind me and said “I hope you pee on yourself.” When I mentioned it to Jen she laughed. She said he was sitting behind us and probably upset that I talked too loud during the movie.

So I guess I’m that guy. Let me just apologize right now for anybody I may have annoyed in the theater. It won’t happen again, I promise.

But that’s what makes drive-ins so cool. I can offer my commentary as loud as I want and nobody cares. You can critique the movie just like you do at home and there is no one there to shush you or tell you that they hope you pee on yourself (other than your family and friends, of course.)

After that first time, I left the Elm Road Triple Drive-In excited about returning again, believing it wouldn’t be until next summer. I was surprised to find out that the theater is still open! Awesome!

They got games!

Jen and I showed up about five minutes before the movie started. We were one of the first 50 cars to arrive so they gave us a coupon for a free small popcorn, no strings attached. We parked, headed over to the concession stand, got our popcorn and headed back to the car.

The popcorn tasted stale, like it was made the night before. I wondered if the free coupons were just a way to get rid of the old popcorn before drive-in season ends. Jen liked the popcorn, BTW. Apparently I’m a popcorn snob.

My movie viewing experience this time around was not as good as the first time. Let’s put aside the fact that the movie, Zombieland, pretty much blew zombie chunks all over the windshield. No wait, had there been zombie chunks in the movie that would have made it cool. The movie was a cross between Shaun of the Dead (a good, but not great movie) and Adventureland (a really really lame movie) creating what turned out to be a coming-of-age movie set in a zombie world.

But that’s not the theater’s fault. What was their fault was that the sound quality. The radio broadcast was wavy as if it was being piped through a large fan. It was really bad at first but got better after I called the drive-in to complain. But it never did get completely fixed.

We would have stayed for the second movie, but we had a date with a werewolf. (You can read that review later.)

The Elm Road Drive-In has a very large parking lot, three screens and… wait for it… a playground for kids. Between movies the kids can play on all kinds of standard playground equipment which is just under one of the large screens. In fact, the playground here is better than many that I’ve seen at the parks.

The sound is broadcast on a radio signal so you can use your car’s stereo system. If you don’t have one they have the old speakers that you hang in your window, but you won’t get good quality sound out of that.

If you remember enjoying the drive-in theater in long ago, I suggest you get out to one soon, before they are all gone. If you’ve never been to one before, you should. They are a seasonal business and with all the high-tech video and audio experience you get in the traditional theater, fewer people are going to drive-ins. Keeping them open gets harder and harder to do.

Drive-ins are are a dying breed, so get to one while you still can. Movies are way more fun when you have freedom to talk without pissing anybody off. (Yay for the pun!)

More Elm Road Triple Drive-In Info

My Cost: 2 Adults, 2 movies, 1 small popcorn – $14
Hats off: 4/5
Elm Road Triple Drive-In website
Yelp reviews
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Location:
1895 Elm Rd NE
Warren, OH‎ 44483
(330) 372-9732‎

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Jen’s and my date to Seneca Caverns had been planned for several weeks so we were looking forward to getting out and doing something new. Nothing says “romantic date” like crawling around in tiny caves 130 feet underground.

Hell.... 40 feet this way!

What we didn’t plan on was starting a 10-day fast that would bring us through two weekends of no food. I never knew this before, but going out and doing things when you can’t eat really sucks.

Luckily we broke our 10-day fast early so the cloud of dread that hung over us last week had been lifted. We were now free and clear to enjoy cave crawling without enduring an empty stomach.

Date-day started out as a typical lazy Saturday morning. Jen came over, made breakfast (mmmm food!) and we watched a couple episodes of Battlestar Galactica on Blu-ray (oooh, pretty!) About 15 minutes before Noon O’clock we put the bark collar on her dog and headed out.

All the people who have died in Seneca Caverns. (j/k)

Seneca Caverns is about a two hour drive from Canton. We arrived around 1:30 and walked over to the cemetery for a picnic lunch. Yep, there are bodies buried underground not 10 feet away from one of the cave tunnels! I was hoping to see dead people, but no such luck underground.

Tour tickets cost about $15 per adult. We just missed the previous tour and had to wait about 15 minutes for the next. We mulled around the gift shop looking at rocks. Lots and lots of pretty rocks. There are also plenty of toys for the kids including some bags of sand they can take out to the sluice to pan for various artifacts.

Cave descent starts and finishes inside the gift shop.

If you gotta go, don’t expect much from the “restrooms.” You get your choice of three porta-potties found on the other side of the parking lot. I can’t tell you how bad they smell because I held my breath!

Our tour group consisted of Jen and myself, two demons from hell young girls approximately 8 and 10 years old, their grandmother and the tour guide. The caves were found in the late 1800′s when two boys accidentally fell into them while hunting. For about 60 years they used they caves as their own clubhouse until, as adults, they sold the land to the current owner who turned it into a tourist trap attraction, which it has been ever since.

It took us about five minutes to get from the basement down to the first level of the caverns because Grandma had trouble with the stairs! An hour-long tour was starting to look like it would run three or four, (or worse, Jen might have to carry grandma back up out of the deep.) Thankfully Grandma gave up and turned back, leaving Jen and I with the Talky Twins.

The caves have approximately 13 levels, many of which are underwater most of the year. In the spring when they open the caves for the season the water often comes all the way up to level two or three then slowly recedes, giving access to more levels as it does. We were able to climb all the way down to level seven, the furthest they take tourists. This year was the first in the last three years the water went down far enough to bring people that far.

Seneca Caverns is the largest fractured cave in the world. It could also be the only one, but “biggests” and “only” was used interchangeably by the tour guide. Around level five we saw the worlds smallest stalagmites. I think I disappointed the tour guide when I told her I’ve seen 20 foot long stalagmites. Seneca Caverns boasted stalagmites of… wait for it… one whole inch. I think Seneca has stalagmite envy.

They call it pillow rock, but it's really not a rock at all. Any guesses?

We went past a mystery rock. I won’t ruin it for you so you can just use your imagination to decide what it is. The tour guide said they knew little about the river that ran under the caves. I suggested they throw a dead body in there to see where it turns up, but that idea was met with underwhelming appreciation.

The trip back to the top didn’t take nearly as long as going down. There are a lot of short-cuts and less tourist dialogue for the Talky-Twins to interrupt. The tour ended with little fanfare. We walk back up into the gift shop, said our thank-yous and headed back to the car for the two-hour drive home.

Be prepared for a lot of steep steps and low ceilings. It gets pretty cold near the bottom so bringing a sweater isn’t a bad idea. If you want to explore deep I suggest you go late in the year when the water is at its lowest point. I’d definitely go back with the kids. Little explorers would likely enjoy climbing down into the hole and would have plenty to talk about on the drive home.

More Seneca Caverns Info

My Cost: 2 adults – $30
Hats off: 3/5
Seneca Caverns website
Yelp reviews
Google reviews and information
Location:
15248 Township Road 178
Bellevue, OH
(419) 483-6711

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