Events, activities and other hometown items going on in and around Tipp City
by Greg Enslen
Harvestfest
I’ve heard from several folks that this year’s Tippecanoe HarvestFest went well — it sounds like they had over 500 people attend, with costumes ranging from zombies to Iron Man (or was that Whiplash?) to the full cast of the Wizard of Oz. A special thanks to “Stranger,” our featured performers, for playing their first HarvestFest — welcome to the party! I’m wondering if holding the 2010 HarvestFest two weeks before Halloween helped the turnout — it seems there were more people in attendance this year as opposed to last year. Congratulations to the DTCP for putting together another great event, and a special thanks to the residents and shopkeepers on Second Street for allowing the DTCP to close the street down and for supporting this yearly festival. See you next year!
Great Wolf Lodge
We had planned to attend HarvestFest, but decided at the last minute to take the kids out of town to enjoy the four-day weekend. Friday afternoon we drove down to Mason to spend the night at the Great Wolf Lodge, a combination hotel and indoor water park. We’re fans of the TV show “Undercover Boss” and had just seen the company’s CEO featured on the show, going “undercover” as a waitress, check-in clerk, and lifeguard at the hotel. We were intrigued and decided to check the resort ourselves. The kids loved the massive indoor water park, which included eight slides, a wave pool, a lazy river (why don’t we have one of these at the Tippecanoe Aquatic Center? It was my favoirite part of the place!), water basketball, and mini-slide areas. I hit the Starbucks and spent time with Katie as she splashed around in the wave pool, playing with the inner tubes and water jets. Sam and Anna scrambled across a series of floating lily pads while hanging from a rope that stretched across part of the pool. Xander couldn’t get enough of the water slides or the climbing areas, which allowed kids to shoot each other with mini-water cannons and duck out of the way of huge spilling buckets of water.
“Undercover Waitress”
The next morning at breakfast, imagine our surprise when our waitress was the same one who had been featured on “Undercover Boss!” On the show, she had been tasked with training a new waitress, who turned out to be the CEO in disguise. Deanna said that the filming experience was fun and that the CEO was just as friendly and thoughtful as she seemed on the show. She also said that they filmed several segments that didn’t make the final cut, including one in which the CEO worked in the resort kitchen, preparing meals for the guests.
King’s Island
On Saturday, we walked over to King’s Island (the park is located next door to Great Wolf Lodge, so if you stay there, skip the $10 parking fee and just walk over) and enjoyed a full day at the park. We tried to enjoy the “Howl-O-Ween,” which featured candy and costumed kids and hay rides and a crazy foam dance party. But it was so loud and crowed that we had to leave. Plant Snoopy, on the other hand, was great. Xander and I rode on the Woodstock Express, a roller coaster designed for kids, and I almost didn’t fit into the car! Katie didn’t know what to think of most of it, but she seemed to enjoy the carousel and the French fries. We had perfect weather, as well. I would recommend Planet Snoopy at Kings Island for any kids age 2 to 10 — the rides really are catered to little ones.
Get Social Gets Political
Last week on the Get Social Show, we featured two local politicials who are running for seats in the November 2 election: Dave Mihalyo is running for Miami County Treasurer, and Bill Beagle is running against Fred Strahorn for the District 5 State Senate seat. It was great to hear two different perspectives from two different political parties on the state of Ohio’s economy and other issues facing our region. Dave Mihalyo mentioned that the current Miami Country Treasurer is only part-time and drives a school bus–he is interested in making it a full-time position. Bill Beagle spent some time explaining more about the “buckets” of which money can go where and how he has enjoyed getting out and meeting voters and hearing about their concerns. Whatever your political leanings, don’t forget to get out and express your beliefs by voting on November 2.
Footloose in Tipp City
We also discussed the huge brouhaha surrounding the Tipp High School Homecoming Dance, held on October 9. From what I’m hearing, forty-four students were asked to leave the buildiung because of “inappropraite” dancing, and many of the rest of the students followed them out to the parking lot for an impromptu and unsupervised dance party. Sounds like there’s going to be some fallout from this. I keep waiting to hear that Kevin Bacon is in town to sponsor a dance “just over the county line” for our Tipp students. When Tipp News Daily covered the story, it got some 500 comments — kudos to this online paper for creating a forum where students, parents, and school administrators could all share their opinions about this tricky issue.
Halloween Parade
Don’t forget to get your kids’ costumes ready! Next Monday, October 25, is the annual Halloween Parade and Costume Judging contest, sponsored by Community Services. If you want to participate, meet at Broadway Elementary on the Dow Street side at 6pm, then follow the Tippecanoe High School band to the Zion Lutheran Church parking lot (at Third and Main) for the contest. Since the parade only goes along about 6 blocks — and takes no more than 10 minutes — it’s great for both little kids and kids in strollers.
Remember, TELL FOLKS you read about it in the Tippecanoe Gazette “Tipp Talk” column – I love getting feedback. Hear something interesting for “Tipp Talk”? Have a Tidbit for printing? Visit my new website at www.gregenslen.com and use the “Contact Me” page to let me know what you’re thinking. And don’t worry – I won’t quote you unless you want me to!
