Father’s Day this year for me began with the kids and I going to church. Afterwards my brother, the kids and I came home, ate lunch, and got changed to meet my sister at King’s Island. We left the house a little after 1:00 pm and just needed to jump on I-71 at US 68 and on to Mason.

As soon as we got on the I-71 south on-ramp, I saw that the freeway was backed up in all lanes south. We just got on the ramp, so I backed off and tried to head for an alternate route. Passing over I-71 we could see the accident, so we decided the freeway would not take long to get through. Wrong! We just merged onto the freeway and all lanes stopped completely. For the next 20+ minutes, emergency vehicles continued to stream past us.

It was clear that we were not going to move after we saw Care Flight appear and land ahead of us. We were still just off the on-ramp so I decided to pull off and drive up the berm of the ramp to US 68. I had just told the kids that this was something we could get in trouble for. At that instant, a state patrol car appeared, waved me to stop and I got the 3rd degree from a patrolman. I felt he was right and knew I was to be chastised, but we did not get more than an earful.

We got on US 68 south, and took it to a side road I knew headed south towards SR 73. For the next 15 minutes we took side roads and finally arrived at SR 73 near I-71. No good! I had forgotten that one lane was closed on the I-71 and SR 73 bridge near Caesar’s Creek Flea Market. So we turned around and headed east on SR 73 and spent nearly 40 minutes winding through back roads trying to find the next east/west route to I-71.

We ended up on SR 22 and 3 south of King’s Island at Fields Ertle Road south of Mason! There are no good routes for what we were trying to get to, as most roads run NE or SE in this area.

We finally arrived to meet my sister, who was celebrating her birthday and was waiting for us outside King’s Island for some 2.5 hours!!!! Horrible trip, horrible wait, not what a “dad” wants at all, for many reasons.

King’s Island was crowded to capacity but we did enjoy some nice weather, some fun water rides and most of all a little time together and NOT at work. As painful as the trip was to get there, I had a decent time. Not sure about my brother Travis, who sat in his normal laid-back way (how can I get that?) through it all. My sister too stood patiently for us FOREVER!! Sorry sis.

Next time, we will have things go more smoothly, and hopefully patiently (and legally).

– Rog