My brother, sister and I headed to Cedar Point last Saturday for the first time together in over 10 years. Far gone were the days of riding the Junior Gemini and those sparkily cars with loud horns in circles all day. We, along with their significant others and our cousin, spent the day riding roller coasters and eating every fried food we could get our hands on.

I conquered another item on my 101 in 1001 list – something that scares the shit out of me. It had nothing to with going 80 mph barely strapped into a tiny car that could rip itself from the track at any second. No, it was walking through the haunted portion of the park that I feared for weeks. I thought I would be able to avoid it, but alas, we left the Maverick until the end, which meant walking through haunted Frontier Town. All six of us hooked elbows and, like most other groups, walked in a squirming line down the street, shrieking at everything that came near us. I dragged everyone along, past goblins and witches that would come out of now where to scream in our faces. The park was filled with fog and strageically placed lights made it difficult to see anything until it was right in front of you.

Once we made it though we were rewarded by a 1.5 hour wait to ride the Maverick…totally worth it.

My body is still bruised, my arms, my back, my thigh, my ribs, but my voice is finally back to normal.

* The title of this post alludes to a billboard we saw just before leaving Michigan – “Free Stuff Behind McDonald’s” – can you say child predator?