Roadtrippin' Part 1.

"And you're the only reason
that I remain unfrozen.
Suppose it stands to reason
that you would turn on me."
-Muse, "Sober"

ROADTRIPS ARE AWESOME.


I am sitting in a hotel that I really thought was in Nebraska, until we saw that all the information downstairs in the lobby was for Iowa.. so I suppose I am currently residing in a Days Inn somewhere around the general Nebraska/Iowa area. I swear, we can like, see Omaha from our window. How is this Iowa?

Anyway.

We began driving last night at 5:30 pm. I took a 7 hour shift, Eia took a 7 hour shift, I took another 5 hour shift, she took another 7 hour shift, and I finished off the day with one last 3 hour drive. Each of us had two little backseat power naps. Liz provided moral support, entertainment, iPod song changing and Starburst unwrapping.

Eia only learned to drive a stick like a week before we left. She's amazing.

There are probably a million little stupid road trip anecdotes I could share right now but I am so tired. We just drove for 30 hours straight stopping only for gas, once at an Arby's, once at a Subway, and then being duped into stopping at Wall Drug in South Dakota.

Actually, I will talk about Wall Drug.

Liz was asleep in the back and Eia and I were cruising along I-90, when all of a sudden we started seeing these interesting hand painted signs. They started out pretty innocently.

"Have a Milkshake!" the first one said.

A few miles later, another insisted, "Have a Root Beer!"

We laughed about it, saying we wished the signs would stop telling us what to do.

Then they started getting weirder.

"We have historic photos!"

"Free Ice Water!" followed immediately by "It's COOL!"

And then our favorite, amidst a rainbow background, "Kids Love It!"

This went on for honestly an hour. We watched in amazement as we went from thinking that Wall Drug was stupid, to being intrigued, to wondering how they could have "A T-REX IN THE BACK", "CHILI DOGS", "HOMEMADE PIE" as well as an "OLD FASHIONED PHOTOGRAPH STUDIO" all in the same place. Before long, we NEEDED to go there. There was no doubt in our mind that we would be stopping in Wall, South Dakota.

And we did. It was stupid. We got our pictures taken with a 10 foot Jackelope. We bought shot glasses. We wandered through this scary place called "The Backyard" where half was a real functioning restaurant (that was darkened and closed) and the other half was a museum style arcade and photo-op with creepy saloon people and a disappointingly non-scary T-Rex.

Aaron Nordyke of Ministry of Magic warned us not to stop. We didn't listen.

We didn't even get the FREE ICE WATER or 5 CENT COFFEE.

The funny thing is, we loved Wall Drug while we were there. Hence the shot glasses. I am only realizing its lameness now in my reflection of the experience. I do have to appreciate the absolutely successful marketing tactics. We were suckers.

Anyway. Now we're in a hotel. This hotel is nice. I am sleepy, I know a lot more about Liz and Eia than I did before we started this road trip (for the first 10 or 15 hours of the trip we made each other do "confessions" every hour on the hour, where we told each other something we didn't already know. This was difficult, as I live with Eia and have known Liz for about six years and already know pretty much everything about them), we put about 1600 miles on the car, I keep making lame driving jokes (like - "Dry Creek Road? Dry Creek? Wouldn't that just be a ditch?" - or, "Two Mile Road? Wonder how long it is." I'M STUPID), and we're meeting Ministry of Magic in Kansas City before driving the rest of the way to Potosi. :D Can't wait.


I am probably forgetting loads of funny things that happened on this trip so far, but I am too tired to care. Tomorrow is Wrockstock. Bring it on.