Roller Coaster Road Trip 2014: Weezie Tries to Stop Smoking

We've all got vices, right?  Well one of mine, the one thing I am the least proud of, is that I am a smoker. I've been smoking for way too long and I need to stop.  I know that, but it's hard.  The one time I did try and quit, I was in the worst mood I'd ever been in my life.  The biggest obstacle in my way of quitting is the fear of failure, but I have to do it!  And soon.  I don't want to do it during the summer, though, because being social and not smoking would be sooo hard, so I'm setting a goal for sometime in the fall.  I will keep you posted on that...

My buddy Rich quit smoking a couple of months ago, and so far he's doing well.  I'm proud of him. Eddie quit a few years ago and he's become very anti-smoking in the years since.  That being said, I was the only one on this road trip that smoked.  Not a good situation!  I know it had to be hard for Rich to have me stopping every couple of hours to get my fix, and oftentimes when we did, he'd go off with Eddie somewhere I think not to be around it.  I understood and felt a little guilty, too, but I needed to feed my addiction.

On the first full day of our trip, I wanted to take a break from waiting in line to ride coasters at Holiday World in the hot sun to go and have a cigarette.  We found a smoking section and I took a seat to puff away. Suddenly Rich had an epiphany. He posted this to his Facebook...

The " Patch" didn't work!

Thus began a short-lived, but funny running gag via Facebook of me trying to quit smoking.  The next day, at Kentucky Kingdom...

The "Patch" didn't work for John Myers, 

neither did the 1-800 number yesterday

 so now to finally quit smoking, 

John has decided to blow himself up!! 

Poor John 

That one was my idea.  I saw the faux gas station set-up and suggested another shot in our running gag.  We giggled like schoolchildren on the playground.  Later on that day, at The Big Four Bridge, we took our third and final shot in the joke...

John Myers' quest to stop smoking 

came to a halting end today. 

Strangers walking by had to 

convince him not to jump. 

There's always tomorrow. 

Having had so many laughs over the first two photos and the reaction they were getting on FB, I had this thought of ending it all by jumping over that bridge.  So we snapped away.  It's too bad we actually forgot the gag after this day. Oh, we could've done so many more...me slumping over a honky tonk in Nashville with a drink in one hand and a cig in the other, incinerating myself on the Firechaser at Dollywood, jumping from the rafters at the Grand Ole Opry.  Oh, more laughs!  Ah well, there's always next time, and for real.

Smoking is not a joking matter, though.  If there was one thing I would change about myself it would be that, and hopefully soon enough I'll be in the mindset to stop.  We'll see...