It has to happen at one point in your life. As you spin off an American Interstate, completely helpless in the passenger seat, you get a chance to prioritise some things. Very quickly.

Obviously, the first thing that goes through your head is how do I stop this. Once that’s out the way, things become much more organised and calm.

Next up, you get a chance to focus on who you love and how you will remember them, and what they’ll think of you. But that bit doesn’t matter - it won’t affect you after all this.

Again, the thought of stopping this and saving yourself pops through, but by this time you’re now feeling the vehicle move onto the grass, and the jolt reminds you that there’s nothing that can be done at this time.

Wonderment will go through an engineers mind. Wonderment at how the incredible designs of the thousands of clever people to have gone before have lead up to this moment. Everything that is happening is the product of someone else. Isn’t that amazing? I mean, really - I can’t describe the excitement that can be felt when dwelling on how wonderful and productive our creations are and how much potential the human race has. We have vehicles in space. We have vehicles that can carry us for hundreds of miles in incredible comfort, up until this point where it all goes wron…

Oh yeah… I’m still spinning off the Interstate. Well, this is it. It’s been good, but I’d like longer.

…

…

Oh. We stopped short of that steep, scary looking hill we were about to roll sideways down. Embarassing… I guess I overreacted. It’s a habit.

And so came to an end a wonderful weekend in Columbus, Ohio with Erik. We didn’t get much done, but it was a satisfying excursion. Arrival in the city was marked with a drive through the near-downtown area on the Interstate, much like the M8 going through Glasgow, and after a quick stop off at a bar to pick up some tickets, we headed off to a cook up in a very pleasant house in a comfortable suburb. Burgers, bacon strips and sausages were had,  and then we rushed off to the next port of call. 

Columbus Crew at their home stadium. US Major League Soccer (or MLS as I should call it, I guess) is another thing I can add to my list of experiences. One of these days, I really should look into seeing football in my own country. So, how did it stack up against Baseball? 

Well, I spent 90 minutes watching a much more familiar sport, surrounded by much more passionate songs. I can’t speak Spanish, but needless to say I spent the whole time making noises that sounded roughly like the songs that were being sung in that language. It was great fun… A community that were really excited about their sport, and passionate about their team. 

The Cincinnati Reds baseball team has a vast range of merchandise, but people typically don’t go for the game and the love of the sport, as I’ve said before. With MLS, people are just so excited and passionate about the team and the experience of being in the stadium. I found MLS much more fulfilling than MLB, but the MLB was much more filling…

After this a brief tour of The Ohio State University Campus was provided. It was nothing short of amazing. All 1764 Acres, 454 buildings and 55,000 students of it. It’s huge. The football stadium seats 110,000 at a time. The medical block looks bigger than all of Strathclyde Uni. It was a sight to behold. A true testament to the beauty of education, and all this in America. I guess I should have expected it. Education on an American scale. 

After a brief Taco Bell expedition for fourthmeal, it was home to a student house to bed. It was just like in the films. But with less drunk frat boys. Maybe next time I’ll get to join a fraternity and take my clothes off in some bizarre ritual celebration. Or something.

Next morning, it was a case of up, more breakfast food (Erik seems to quite like breakfast…) and then home to Cincinnati for the beginning of my last week at GE.

And so we find ourselves back at the start, spinning off the interstate. But now y’all know how this story ends. 

Thank goodness for the clever engineer who built the safety system, eh?