Needing a Bengals-orange toque if I was going to the Cincinnati football game today, I drove up through Cincinnati to some seedy liquor with my last rental car minutes, then dropped it off and returned to carrying everything on my back.

Thankfully the hotel was very close to the Enterprise location, and they even had an available room when I was only looking to drop off my stuff at this early morning hour.

I guess there sometimes are benefits to staying in the giant 1970s hotel with 872 rooms.

For brunch, I found nothing nearby until I finally stumbled upon this new age, hipster joint called something like The Bumblebee Co.; decked out in Subway Tile and jammed to the gills with mustachioed men and women in black floppy hats.

Pausing on the street corner and pondering my desperate options, I really didn't want to deal with the lineup or having people in my personal space inside this crowded restaurant.

Fortuitously, I wasn't in the mood and kept it moving, randomly cutting down some alley and finally coming upon a place with some actual promise: O'Malley's In The Alley.

Within the first seven songs, O'Malley's played both Outkast and Radiohead. And not Ms. Jackson and Creep either. It was something like ATLiens and The Bends, the type of obscure but great songs that make you say "oh...God yeah!" as you're hit with reinvigoration and endorphins.

I clearly couldn't have cherry-picked any better of a lunch stop. Especially as one of those NFL-In-London early morning football games was going on and everyone was randomly clowning on the Eagles, while all rocking random Bengals jerseys. As I've always had a soft spot for the Bengals, I was pretty much in heaven here at O'Malley's.

It was 55 and overcast as I walked over to the stadium - perfect football weather in the Midwest.

Getting in line for a ticket, I was barely in place behind the person in front of me, when a guy in his 50s suddenly appeared and asked if I was buying a ticket.

"No need to do that, here you go" he replied, handing me a ticket and saving me over $50 USD. Score!

Standing there for a minute, I looked up at the giant banners that read "You Live In Cincinnati." If there's anything I know about America and social media, it's that they love clowning on cities and states that aren't their own - which leaves me wondering why I've never seen these banners on Twitter, with people from places like Louisville or Worcester acting like they're better than residents of the Queen City.

I then thought about an old internet thread titled, "if you could move anywhere, where would it be?" to which I replied Cincinnati. This broke my friend Desmet's mind, because for him you'd either pick rural living or you'd pick the greatest city in the world (to him this is Boston, lol). I disagreed because I wouldn't want to put up with the congestion, high prices and population density of somewhere like Boston, while I'd be just as happy to watch Cincinnati's let's assume, perfectly fine orchestra, instead of watching the, again assuming, world-renowned orchestra in Boston. I know nothing about orchestras, but his point was that Boston has and attracts the absolute best things in the world, while I'd have to accept never having the greatest cellist nearby if I lived in Cincy.

I was unmoved by his argument & I'd still much rather live in Cincinnati than Boston.

Anyway, today's game was against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and with Jesus Christ on the home team's side, how could I not put a few greenbacks on the Bengals via text with Roachie?

(The Bengals, in true Bungle fashion, got out to a healthy lead and then blew it against the putrid Buccaneers and mediocre Jameis Winston.)

The Bengals home, Paul Brown Stadium, is frequently listed as one of the lower end football stadiums in the NFL; but even as I tried to look at it objectively and in the way that the general public yearns for glass, modernism and bright lights, it still seemed totally fine to me.

Then again, I've only been to football games in Indy, Houston, Chicago & St. Louis. Maybe I don't know enough about football stadium flash outside of Indy and Houston.

The Bengals got one of the more ridiculous stadium lease stipulations when they used taxpayer money to build this stadium. That is, if any technology is invented and installed in other NFL stadiums, then Hamilton County needs to pay for the Bengals to have it as well.

So if say, holographic replays are installed money-rich Dallas, then Cincinnati and Hamilton County need to pony up the money for holograms to be installed at Paul Brown Stadium as well. This goes along with the $650 million they've already spent on the stadium and stadium upgrades since it was built in 2000.

Following the game, dinner was going be to a matter of finally checking off Cincinnati's famous Skyline Chili.

Instead of walking up the hill to the Cincinnati neighbourhood location that isn't even the original restaurant anyway, I walked across the Bailey Bridge to Kentucky and their Covington Skyline location.

Things at Skyline are ordered by "ways." You can get a simple chili dog, but that's only a 2-way (and not recommended). You get a 3-way when it has cheese, a 4-way when you add onions, and then a 5-way if you add spaghetti or something else.

So I got a 4-way coney dog, which is the standard onions, mustard and chili coney dog of Detroit but with cheese. I also had to have some of their famous chili on spaghetti.

As for my verdict, I think my outlook is why I enjoyed Skyline chili. When I think of chili, I think of Detroit coney island chili & not chili with hearty, huge meat chunks and giant chili beans. So I went into this thinking of the smooth and abrasive chili you get in Detroit; finding Cincinnati's similar in texture, but much mellower in taste.

In the end, I'd go back to Skyline. It was the right blend of spices for what they do, while I'd be skeptical of Detroit-style chili on spaghetti because of its sharpness. It doesn't displace Adi's or Colombo's Coney Island in terms of chili I long for, but Skyline's aight in my book.

Leaving Skyline, I found Gentleman Jim's Liquor Store pretty much right under a train bridge back to Cincinnati. And even though I was full of Skyline Chili, there was even a Taco Bell across the street.

Just a glorious slice of Earth.

Instead of walking back to the hotel, I was tired now, so I looked up the bus schedule and sat around on some curb in Covington Kentucky for about an hour. About the only excitement came from some other football fan hopping a fence to take a leak, only for 3 cop cars to immediately show up and arrest him. Good thing I didn't get into my grab bag from Gentleman Jim's!

By the time I made it back to the Millennium Hotel, I was beat and ready to chill out.

I last came to Cincinnati for a grand total of three hours in 2008 (to watch baseball), but my real infatuation with Cincinnati started with an ex bringing me here for my birthday a few years before that. We even stayed in this exact hotel. I couldn't help but wonder if I would get nostalgic or romanticize the past, but even as a sentimental person, I was surprised I didn't really get into my feelings.

Anyway, you're never going to read another awkward paragraph from me about Cincinnati's Millennium Hotel. Its reputation and bad reviews have always annoyed the City of Cincinnati, since it's attached to the convention center and conventions would supposedly skip over Cincinnati because the Millennium was so bad. This even went as far as having the mayor recommend against staying here. Personally, I would have thought the mayor of Cincinnati wouldn't be so fucking soft, lol.

Which leads us to 2019, when Cincinnati paid $36 million to acquire the Millennium Hotel, and plan to spend another $12 million demolishing it. It will be replaced with something possibly under the Hilton brand, which convention goers will then not hide under their office desks in fear of a possible Cincy convention, even though the Millennium was totally fine (and made me happy with its $89.50 CAD nightly cost).

The Millennium's closing date adds an extra bit of sadness here too as I was thinking of going to a Cincinnati Cyclones game for 2019-20 New Years, but the Millennium closed on December 31st, 2019.

The next morning I rode an hour-long city bus out to another rental car location, which helped satiate my desire since 2005 to see more of the hills and brick homes stretching upwards from Cincinnati's downtown.

I also sort of checked another thing at the rental place, as this middle-aged man was sitting there just observing things for whatever reason. He noticed my Cincinnati Royals shirt - that I purchased at a great sporting goods store downtown the day prior - which piqued his interest since he didn't know what someone of my age would know about the NBA Cincinnati Royals who left town in 1972. As he told me about watching basketball and hockey games at the old Cincinnati Gardens, I told him those Cincinnati Gardens are why I bought the shirt since I really planned on seeing the Gardens due to my friend Yaz telling me about it, except the city bought and demolished the arena without giving me any window to visit.

Around this time, the young lady running the desk told the man to shut up and then apologized to me as she thought no one wanted to hear "them old stories." I nodded but also gave the guy a look as if this young lady was being ridiculous.

Leaving in my rental car, it wasn't long before I was in Dayton Ohio and looking for lunch. This brought me to the Oregon District, where I walked around and was impressed with all of the historic, well-maintained homes.

I'd also allotted some time for walking around downtown in this town that I'd never been to, which in the case of Dayton, reminded me of a funny story.

Back in the day, Steve tells me that he named his kid Dayton because his missus wanted the name, but also, "y'know, Dayton rims. Plus Dayton seems like a cool city."

At this point I paused and quizzed Steve, "but...you've never been to Dayton? So it's like that Modest Mouse song where you name your kids after towns you've never been to?"

Steve sighed, "you two (Donnie & I) always have something to say, don't you?"

LOL!

Now where I've always thought Dallas would make a good kid's name, apparently I have to go with somewhere I haven't been. Terre Haute or Tuscaloosa it is then, haha.

Dayton's old Montgomery County Courthouse, built in 1847 and modelled after the Temple of Hephaestus in ancient Greece.

And because I didn't also go check out their new building, I can't check Montgomery County off the map.

Another thing I was excited to see in downtown Dayton was the Dayton Arcade, shown above with its Third Street (Gibbons) entrance.

The interior is even more impressive, and after being vacant for many years, I can't wait for them to finish renovations and open it to the public.

Dayton's fine Sacred Heart Catholic Church, built in 1890.

While I've been showing some nicer scenes of Dayton, there were also a lot of big abandoned skyscrapers. I'd later tell Donnie about how I got the old school Detroit or St. Louis feeling of disbelief here, and while he challenged me on that, it did feel like that desolate, how does this possibly exist, downtown feeling.

Developers seem like they're trying to put the squeeze on downtown people like in other major cities, but I guess it's just slow to come to Ohio's 6th largest metropolis. Not to mention how far Dayton seemingly has to come back.

Driving out of downtown, I passed through rougher neighbourhoods where I clearly should have stopped for the Dayton Fish Company.

Jambalaya! Gumbo! Snow cod! Gah!

One last thing I wanted to check out was Dayton's Hara Arena. Built in 1964 and home to the iconic Dayton Gems, this is the place where Wayne Gretzky played his first professional game as a member of the Indianapolis Racers.

I was really sad when I stumbled on a webpage in 2016 with pictures of the last Hara Arena walkthrough before its closure.

Sure enough, there was a backside door that was wide open. But not having set myself up for success because I needed to get going to Detroit, I only went into that one room & retreated, since I didn't think it was the best idea to have my rental car parked directly outside.

And then in 2019, an F-4 tornado ripped apart the arena, and skipping another Dayton trip at Christmas of 2019-20, the next thing I knew there were stories of the arena being torn down in September 2020.

Instead I went west and got the Preble County Courthouse in Eaton.

When you also factor in not stopping at the Dayton Fish Company, my decision making on this day was clearly suspect.

Driving 3 hours from Dayton to Detroit - including one sweet golden hour drive along the marshes and power wires of I-75 in Michigan - I arrived after dark in Clawson at Albe's Bike Shop.

This was another reason I was rushing, since I needed to get up here to pick up a portable handrail I was buying, drop off the rental car on 9 mile, walk a half mile to catch the nearest bus downtown, then cross the border to where my Moms was going to pick me up.

Everything was going about as good as carrying a 30lb handrail box on a city bus could go, until I got downtown, continued trudging down to the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral and then realized that the tunnel renovation closures were still ongoing.

I really have to thank Nailhed here, as he bailed me out by scooping me up and bringing me across, even though he had recently been annoyed with the Canadian border guards and their intrusive questions.

Thanks again man!

And thanks to y'all for reading.