Food Truck And Cart Festival At Arts & Ideas: Fill & Download for Free

I lived in Columbus Ohio for 5 years during college, for a year when I was 30, just East of it for 4 years in High School, and currently just North of it for 2 years.Other places I’ve lived include 4 years in Arizona (I was too young to remember much), 10 years in Denver, and 7 years in Chicagoland (Aurora/Naperville area).Here’s what it’s like living in Columbus:OSU Football is inescapable.For 2.5 years, I lived on High St just a few miles from the OSU stadium. The street would fill with cars several hours before game time. Normally, my parking was on High St, but on game weekends I had to make sure to claim a spot on a side street early (parking on High St was prohibited on game days), and resign myself to not going anywhere by car or risk losing my parking space and being stuck in game traffic for much too long.Fans, with scarlet and gray clothes and make-up would stream down the street, I could watch them from my 2nd floor apartment window. If the Buckeyes won, they’d be drunkenly and boisterously rambling back down the street. If they had won a particularly important game, there might be riots: burning couches in the street, tearing down the end goals on the field, jumping in mirror lake on the OSU campus.Having not been a fan of sports before, living around this madness did nothing to make me more amenable to it. A few months ago, I wore a red shirt and gray slacks to work. “Rocking that scarlet and gray!” A coworker called to me as she passed me in the hall. And now, I can’t wear a red shirt with gray pants ever again. It’s completely unfair for a sports team to claim color combinations so thoroughly.[image: photo of OSU football fans trying to tear down their own teams goal post]Gay PrideColumbus is one of the nation’s most accepting cities of GLBT individuals. I did not appreciate, in college, that this is an unusually accepting city. We have a wonderfully popular Gay Pride Parade every year and many, many, openly allied businesses, especially in the Short North and German Village.I remember seeing an article lauding Columbus for being so GLBT friendly a few years ago. It’s deeply ironic that Ohio was one of the last remaining states to have not allowed homosexual marriage before the big supreme court decision. At least Columbus was a bastion of hope in a state stubbornly clinging to the past.[image: rainbow colors abound at Pride Festival]ComfestShort for “community festival”, this is your chance to embrace your inner weird. I love comfest and try to make it every year. If you’re a women, no one will fault you for taking advantage of the fact that it is not, in fact, illegal for a woman to go topless in Columbus. Many women get elaborate body paint on their chests for this event.In college, I worked a booth for “The Joint” during Comfest, which sold things which shall never be called “bongs”. They are water pipes, people. They are also beautiful glass sculptures. Seriously, we did not sell bongs… Despite being pretty well controlled, it was accepted that a few of these artistic pipes would get stolen every year. That’s not very community, folks.The last time I went to Comfest we ran into a guy that had a giant snake and was allowing all passers by to pet it. We could not convince our daughter (4 at the time) that she should pet the snake.[image: Typical Comfest crowd]ArtsOn the first Saturday of every month, the Short North, where an there is an unusual high concentration of art studios, stays open late for hordes of artsy folks to come and look at arts and craft and eat free hors d'oeuvres. This is called the Gallery Hop. It’s actually fun.In addition to this, there are many art festivals that happen in and around Columbus. I think it’s an artsy kind of city. The Columbus Museum of Art is pretty cool. I had my high school prom there, actually.[image: a Short North gallery on gallery hop night]Public TransportationThere are city buses that regularly run up and down High St, and elsewhere. I pretty much only used them for High St. As an OSU student, I got a free pass on the city buses. I didn’t use the buses that much because I never quite figured out the schedules and routes and I never minded walking too much anyway. Besides, I had a car for the truly desperate times.Still, when I did use the buses, they were clean and seemed to come at regular intervals. I have no complaints.There is no train of any kind.There is generally plenty of parking anywhere you go. Parking is far more reasonably priced than in Denver or Chicago if you can’t find it free.[image: map of COTA (Central Ohio Transit Authority) bus routes]SafetyMore often than I probably should have, I walked around Columbus at night as a college student. I also did not stick to safe areas.For a while I worked a job which ended at 3am just north of the Short North area. I would then drive downtown to a government subsidized apartment building where a friend lived at the time, at 3am, by myself, on multiple occasions. Nothing bad ever happened to me other than getting a dick pic stuck under my windshield wiper once.I would also occasionally make a 3 mile or so walk from my apartment North of OSU campus, down High St and through campus out to a club nestled in a little neighborhood out west of Victorian Village, alone. The worst thing that happened to me on these treks was some guy asked me for money “for gas” in the middle of the Oval (a park on OSU campus), far from the road. It was creepy, I gave him $20 and he went away.Two of my coworkers have been robbed while driving around Columbus. One in a known bad neighborhood after their car broke down, one in a known good neighborhood while stopped at a red light. When I lived north of OSU campus, every couple months several cars on my street would have their windows busted in the night. I kept nothing valuable in my car and left the doors unlocked. It was rifled through once or twice, but no one ever stole my cow print seat covers or nail clippers.All in all, if you stay away from the OSU football madness and don’t do drugs or hang out where drug dealers are doing business or join a street gang, I’d say Columbus is really very safe. There are street gangs in Columbus, the Bloods and the Crips are the major ones. I have met members of both, not in the same place.[Image: map of serious crimes in Columbus by district]EntertainmentWhen I was in college I was convinced that Columbus was a boring town and Ohio was a boring state. There was one club I enjoyed going to, and I spent a lot of time walking around or playing video games.I think this was a self imposed sense of boredom. There are definitely things to do, although not as much constant activity as I found in Chicago. There is not, unfortunately, somewhere to go Salsa dancing every single night of the week as we had in Chicago. Maybe 2 or 3 nights of the week is likely, if we had time to get back involved in dancing.There is a few good theaters, there are frequent concerts. All the major Broadway shows do come through Columbus, eventually. We have opera and classical performances too. We also get lots of pop artists, rock, country, and various other types of musicians through town.There is a lot of sports. I do really like the Columbus Clippers, our little minor league baseball team. Once, at a Clippers game which was delayed due to rain, the entire audience applauded for every lightning strike. We were there to be entertained and took advantage of the slightest reason.[image: Ohio Theater in downtown Columbus]Nature / ClimateAfter growing up at the foot of the Rockies in Denver, it took me a long time to realize that other environments could be just as beautiful. Ohio has beautiful trees, check out the Dawes Arboretum. I have also come to find wide open farms particularly aesthetic to the eye.However, there is no good downhill skiing anywhere around here. I have been to Mad River “Mountain”. Please, that is not a Mountain. That entire hill is the size of the bunny slopes that Coloradans use to teach toddlers. And it’s icy.It is much more entertaining to hook up a sled to a lawn mower or golf cart and whip around a flat yard or a very well frozen over lake. We’re flat here in Ohio, let’s make the most of it.Likewise, there is no “hiking” in Ohio. There is walking. You can even put on a backpack and walk through the woods to make camp. I would even call that backpacking, but it’s just not the same as the Rocky Mountains.I suppose I have been spoiled by the Rockies for natural beauty close to home. But, every year I am coming to appreciate more the simply loveliness of woods and farms and prairie and lakes.[image: Dawes Arboretum]Columbus Zoo and The WildsThe Columbus Zoo is home to famous Zookeeper, Jack Hanna. It is a very good zoo, as zoos go. Far more interesting to me, thought, is The Wilds. This is a place that’s about 1.5 hrs drive from Columbus where you can take a safari through over 9000 acres of reclaimed mining land that is now a nature preserve for lots of displaced zoo animals. It’s a pretty amazing place to have practically in our backyard.[image: safari tour at The Wilds]County FairsOhio does really good county fairs. This is where you go to eat seriously unhealthy delicious food, see a wide variety of farm animals, shop crafts and antiques, and watch all manner of amusing community events. Have you ever seen a group of toddlers in little kid cars painted up like demolition derby cars trying to crash into each other? It’s hilarious. Also, tractor pulls, monster truck rallies, adult demolition derbies, rodeos, horsemanship shows, etc. This is All-American entertainment.There is something just blissful about sitting down with a Bloomin’ Onion to watch a demolition derby. Can life get any better than this?[image: Ohio State Fair, near downtown Columbus]Family LifeAs a parent, with children, I have a new appreciation for Columbus that I never had as a college student. Here, we can afford to live on acreage in the country with a not too long daily commute to the city. Traffic is far more manageable than in Chicago. We don’t need constant activity, because kids keep us pretty well occupied.[image: kids in Central Ohio]There’s a peek into Columbus, Ohio life.

There is something fun for everyone. Take your pick:Top GolfEscape Room/Puzzle RoomBallet or theaterKayaking/SUP/canoeingCave explorationHikingSwimmingShoppingSampling food trucksLive music sceneZilker Park (fly kites, ride the train, playground, play frisbee/Ultimate Frisbee course)Rent an electric scooter/bikeSegway toursIndoor go-cartsGo-carts on the Formula One racetrackMountain bikingCamping nearbyBoating on Lake TravisHaunted House ToursBat watching on Congress Bridge (summertime)Free concertsArt festivalsClimb Mount Bonnell

What part of Nevada? I live in Reno - we frequent Lake Tahoe, and also enjoy Frenchman’s, we bike the river walk and trails at Idlewild (nice and flat trails so kid friendly and I use a Lime bike since I don’t have my own), food truck Friday in the summer (I give each of my kids $10 and let them spend it however they want) we’ve floated the river in summer too. Art town in July. Carson Valley Swimming pole is great and really affordable - I have a large family and it’s only $15 for a family. Any one of the weekend festivals - taco fest with the chihuahua beauty contest was a hit with my kids. Go-carts or arcade at GSR or arcades and midway at circus circus. On rainy/cold days we’ve done the Discovery museum (be sure and check out Holey Schmidt donuts next door to them) or just gone to scheels and ridden the Ferris wheel. We’ve done pottery painting or paint classes as well. So many things to do and we’re never bored!I check the “nearby events” section on Facebook too, and there’s seems to always be something going on that’s kid friendly. Enjoy!