My question involves a child custody case from the State of: Ohio
My ex and I have a 13 year old son together. I am the custodial parent and live in Ohio and my ex lives in Georgia. My ex has never taken an active interest in our son until a few years back. He was not at the hospital when our son was born and did not even care to see him for the first 2 years of his life. He eventually joined the Marines and is now currently stationed in Georgia. Visitation was established once my ex joined the Marines; however he was stationed across the country so our visitation schedule was not actively followed. I allowed my son to keep in contact and visit with my ex's family regularly and when my ex would be in town, my son would go in visit. It was very difficult when my son was younger because there was at times over a year between any form of communication with his father. My ex and our son do communicate by phone, but it is sporadically. Sometimes my ex will call him regularly (once every two weeks) and then there will be months between any form of communication. My ex has wanted our son to stay with him for the past 2 summers. Our son has fought this with great resistance and we have all compromised on 10 day visits instead of a month visit. This summer my ex is demanding that my son visit for a month, which my son has reluctantly agreed to. My son leaves the last weekend in June and returns the end of July.
Two weeks ago my ex called and said he was going to be in Ohio this coming weekend to run a 10K and wanted to see my son. At the time we had nothing planned so I agreed to meet him. I immediately told our son that he would be visiting with his dad that weekend and he started complaining but accepted it. Last weekend our son got invited to Cedar Point amusement park with his friends for the same weekend and is refusing to go with his dad. I informed my son that it was an issue he needed to discuss with his dad directly. My son does not really feel that comfortable talking with his dad but called and explained that he didn't want to go to the race but wanted to spend the weekend with his friend instead. My son explained that he wouldn't have that many weekends with his friends since he would be in Georgia most of his summer and wanted this weekend to do what he wanted. When my son began getting emotional, my ex told him to "suck it up and stop crying" and that he needed to see his family and not his friends. My son informed me that my ex was cussing at him and eventually hung up on him. My son was a mess after the conversation, he didn't understand while he was forced to spend the weekend doing something his dad wanted to do when his dad never takes the time to do anything he wants to do. I tried talking to my son and explaining that sometimes in life there are just things we have to do and coming from a split home myself I can relate.
I explained that even though I loved my dad, that sometimes I hated leaving my friends every other weekend to stay with him. My son explained that he doesn't love his dad and that he doesn't even know him. He said he can't wait until he turns 18 and he never has to talk to or see him again. Now I understand that my son is a teenager and telling him he can't go to Cedar Point is the end of the world to him, I also understand his point. His father flies all across the country to run in races and marathons, but has never once flown in to see our son's sporting events or take the time to find out his interests. I texted my ex that our son was very upset and that I think they need to talk and hash things out. My ex finally got back to me at 1:00 a.m-of course I was asleep and so was my son. He has not tried calling back and my son is still adamant that he is not going this weekend. I'm not sure what I should do as I feel stuck in the middle. Does my son have any right to refuse to go? I'm not trying to keep my son from my ex and I don't want to cause problems but I also can understand my son's perspective.

