What can I say about the Best Western in Chillicothe other than GO THERE! Our situation may be a bit unique, but it was enough to make me go back. First off, the room was clean, the linens also clean, lobby was nice, computer was fast, and breakfast was small but filling. A very nice hotel. However, the staff made it from nice and average to outstanding. Dad and I had just cleaned up a fireworks show in a driving thunderstorm. We were tired, dirty and grumpy. The gal behind the desk listened to our situation (this was about midnight) and told us that "it wasn't the best room in the hotel" but there was a room right outside the laundry room that she could give us. She also let us use the dryer to dry our things considering they were soaked. If this wasn't the best room, I'd like to see the best. The beds were comfrotable and roomy. The bathroom was large. Everything was very neat. It was also set apart from other rooms so it was very quiet. We didn't hear any noise from the laundry room at all. I would request this room again. When staying in Chillicothe, I would recommend this hotel.

The Comfort Inn in Chillicothe was a very nice, clean place to stay. The front desk staff was friendly and efficient. We had two double-bed rooms on the bottom floor for two nights. Sheets, towels, and all other linens were clean and smelled pleasant. I found the bed to be very comfortable. The feather pillows (4 on each bed). There was a refrigerator and microwave (we didn't use either). The television had a good selection of channels. The bathroom and shower were very clean. The shower head was not all clogged up like some hotel showerheads get. Patrick’s pub is attached to the hotel and reasonably priced. There was Karaoke the night we were there. There were locals and hotel guests alike. It was a lot of fun. The bar staff was very personable. There is convention center attached to the hotel as well. We did not see the inside. There's also an outdoor pool that looked very clean but we did not use. Roosters is a wing place just feet from the hotel. They closed at 1 a.m. so we didn't get to go. The only drawback to the hotel is getting to it. It's very easy to see off of Bridge Street (business route 23) and Route 39, but winding back to the parking lot is a trick. You need to go through a few other parking lots or a windy little side road to get to it. I would recommend this hotel.

Now for the big day in Chillicothe.  The Gazette did a very nice write up of the show with pictures at: http://www.chillicothegazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080705/NEWS01/807050302&s=d&page=1#pluckcomments

I’ve done Chillicothe’s show for 3 years.  It’s rained all 3 years.

Having some of the racks already built helped a LOT!  I was up at 7:00 a.m. for the drive down.  The guys had a head start and Mom and I showed up a bit later.  It ALWAYS rains in Chillicothe.  Setting up in the rain is HARD HARD HARD!  You can’t set any of the product on the ground because it’s in cardboard which will soak up water, you have to build and load under tents, it goes slower, and it’s just a pain in the butt.  However, with persistence, hard work, and a whole lot of Divine Intervention, we were loaded, wired, plugged, and ready to shoot with time to spare!  This is our biggest show, and in my opinion, the best.  It’s about 20 minutes of constant fire in the sky.  Hearing the crowd cheer is a rush.  We gathered up the electronic portion of the show and headed for the hotel.  We stayed at the Comfort inn, which was MUCH nicer than Akron’s.  I’ll write a full review and attach it.  We were in bed around 1:45 a.m.

I just want to say again KUDOS to Chillicothe.  Everyone I’ve come in contact with from Chillicothe has been friendly and fun.  (Especially the Elvis impersonator that was singing Karaoke in the hotel pub.)  People are helpful and upbeat.  I told Dan I’d like to go back down to some of the little downtown shops when I’m not filthy and uber-busy setting up a show.

Okay, now in Chillicothe and building racks.  I can’t help too terribly much with rack building, but I can shovel sand and drive nails fairly effectively.  Again, I apologize for the lack of pictures, but there’s just not time to stop and take pictures.

After rack building, we went to a country club to hand fire a smaller show.  I felt REALLY funny going into the fancy club in my filthy fireworks shirt, dirty shorts, hair in a handkerchief, and just streaked with dirt.  Ah well.  People were just happy to see the fireworks crew. J  It’s kind of like being a mini-celebrity.  Everyone I’ve met from Chillicothe has been extremely friendly.  It seems like a fun town.

The hand-fired show went well.  I lit a cake with a battery, which I had never done before.  It’s MUCH safer than hand lighting a cake.  I did learn, however, to turn your back to the cake when lighting it (DUH).  All I know is, I looked over at Dad hand-lighting the finale and saw sparks, debris, and embers flying everywhere with Dad in the middle of it.  That’s when I decided that you’ve got to be a little south of sanity to do this job.  We cleaned up and headed home.

What a day.  I don't even know where to start.

Dan drove Dad to go get the products truck at the Sheriff's Office (they kind of frown on leaving trucks with mass amounts of explosives near hotels...) and started for Chillicothe, which was a drive a little over 2.5 hours.  Mom followed in her car, and Dan and I in the truck with trailor.  At 9:00 a.m., I get a phone call from Dad saying that his truck (with all the explosives) was stranded at a rest stop along Route 71.  Now, This is a HUGE problem for MANY reasons.

1. It's July 4th.  No one is coming to fix it.

2. Someone must stay with the truck at all times because of its contents.

3. We're already running behind on a very LARGE show.

Dad and Mom take off for a nearby town (Mansfield) and gets a truck from another guy in our company.

  Meanwhile, we call the rental truck place and let them know we're stranded.  Dan and I sit at a road side rest along 71 for 2.5 hours amusing ourselves by counting cars that go by.  Dad returns with the other truck.  Now, we have to unload an entire show off the broken down truck into the new truck, which the three of us do successfully and fairly quickly.  Dad zooms off in the new truck, Dan and I follow him, and Mom sits at the rest stop waiting for the truck repair person.

We arrive at Chillicothe around 2:00 p.m. for a show that's to go up around 10:00 p.m.  This is cause for LARGE amounts of stress.  While setting the fronts (ground show - that's my baby) I tripped over a firework and thought I broke my foot.

Now you have to understand, you can't just stop working in this business.  We simply were out of time.  There could be no setbacks or the show doesn't go up.  So Dad found me an instant ice pack, I took my sock off and put the ice pack into it and used the super adhesive tape to secure the pack-filled-sock to my foot.  I then took a K-Mart plastic bag and taped it around my foot so it didn't get wet.  Hobbling all over the site, we ended up doing final checks and firing at 10:15.  Sitting only a few feet away from the 10" shells, it was quite a rush.  Due to the rain and pressed time constraints we didn't get pictures at Chilli. :(

After the show it's clean up time and this is the part I hate the most.  However, God smiled on us and sent torrential rain.

  We can't do a full clean up in the rain.  So we grabbed the firing system, threw it in the truck, and left for the hotel (but not before the rain drenched us).  If you're ever in Chillicothe Ohio, STAY AT THE BEST WESTERN!  It was clean, the room was nice, and the staff is friendly.  Needless to say, Dad and I were soaked to the bone.  The gal behind the counter let us into the hotel laundry faculities to dry our things in the dryer!  We were able to get about 5 hours of sleep that night.

We woke up the next morning and went back to the site.  3 of us cleaned up this massive show.  It's dirty, back-breaking work.  6 hours later, we filled the truck but still had racks to load.  So we sent our helper home and Dad and I took off to get the truck that previously broke down and was supposed to be fixed.  We needed that truck to finish loading.  Off we went...

Alright, now this is just silly.  I'm really grumpy and my muscles are overworked.  It's 11:00 p.m., I'm 3 hours from home, and we still need to load racks.  They are about 50 lbs. each and we still had about 75 to load on the back of the truck, just Dad and I.  It's dark, the grass is soaked which soaked us, the black powder has now turned into this delightful sludge that got all over everything, including our hands (which burns like the dickens), and I'm dead on my feet.  We finally get the last rack in the truck, secure the load, Dad gets in the Ryder and I get in his truck with trailer, we're FINALLY ready to head home...

then...

Dad's trailer lights top working.  It's midnight, all we have to get us around is a very large Ryder truck full of equipment and we make a WalMart run.  After buying a new light plug and walkie-talkies, we head BACK down to the park, replace the plug and FINALLY take off.  It's now 1 a.m. and we're staring down a 3 hour drive.  The walkie talkies helped us talk each other through the drive and at 3:45 a.m. I went to bed *sigh* for a short 5 hour sleep.

Liz and I checked out of the shady hotel and headed for Ohio.  Liz was really realived to get the hell out of West Vriginia.  We stayed on 50 all the way through Ohio.  The ride was pretty boring, not very much to see.  We stopped halfway through Ohio in Chillicothe to see the Mound City.  It was a pretty awsome sight.  The weather couldn't have been nicer for walking around the park.  The museum was pretty small but gave some good background. 

Its strange to think that there were people living in Ohio over 2000 years ago.  Liz and I walked around the mounds and took a bunch of pictures.  We went down to the river and tried to see the mounds on the other side, but the bank was too high.  We got some postcards at the giftshop and got back on 50.  We wanted to make it to Cincinnati by the end of the night.