Thursday, November 5, 2009

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.

17 comments:

Emily said...

Ugh, I'm SO UPSET I couldn't make it to Wrockstock this year! I want to road trip to Potosi! I would be coming from Florida, but still. Same thing. I'm missing it. :[ Sad faces all around.
My wrock band and I REALLY wanted to make it this year, and then we just...couldn't. No money. Blah.
I hope you have a fabulous time, Kristina! Tell us all about it so I can live vicariously through you!

P.S. my word verification word (ooh, redundancy) is "omish", which is how I always thought "amish" should be spelled when I was younger.

Allison said...

Oh MAN, you are so lucky. My BEST FRIEND lives in Omaha and I live in Arizona and it is SO not fair that you get to be there! ALSO, I WANT TO GO TO WROCKSTOCK! :(
Glad to hear you guys are having fun, though! I guess I'll just live vicariously through you via your blog.

Anonymous said...

As long as you've got friends along things always turn out to be fun/awesome.
I'm way jealous of your road trip, by the way. I've always wanted to go on a road trip with my buddies but nobody else is ever totally down with the idea. Someday, I guess.
I hope you all have an amazing time at Wrockstock!

Sarah said...

*lives jsut a couple hours from Wall Drug* I can explain the road signs for Wall Drug, if you didn't happen to find the brochure while you were there.

See, way back when Wall Drug first started out, it struggled because of the new highway that took traffic right past Wall. They were barely scraping by, and were worried they'd have to close it, until one hot summer, before cars had air conditioning. The pharmacist's wife suggested that since they had plenty of ice and water they put up signs offering free ice water to travelers, and once they were there they just might *buy* something, too.

It worked, and people came in droves to get their free ice water, and while they wer at it they bought ice cream cones and such. So now, as a tradition, they put up signs offering free ice water and whatever attractions they add on. It's actually a pretty neat place if you've got time to really explore it.

(Also, if you were at Wall, you were only about two hours from Winner. I don't have to tell you the significance of Winner, SD.)

Elly said...

I did a proper laugh out loud at the two mile road thing, I love lame jokes :D

VicMorrowsGhost said...

I love road trips but I've never done one that long. Furthest I've done is 1800km return. Coolest thing on that trip was a submarine about 500km from the ocean.

Anonymous said...

You should drive through Fairfield, Iowa. It's in the southeast.
It's this little meditative community. We've got domes and everything! :D

Catherine said...

I enjoy the lyrics at the beginning of your post. I get to see Muse live in January! so excited. Although I don't get to witness wrockstock. :(

Emily said...

I'm so envious of your road-tripping and getting to go to WrockStock. Both sound incredibly amazing!

I hope you continue to have fun! =]

to_thine_own_self said...

Oh, wow. This blog made me laugh.
I could just imagine going on a road trip with you. Hah!

KaraDawlish said...

Have So much fun!!!!!!!! I wish i could be there!!!!! Wrockstock, not in the car...

seurat2 said...

Roadtrips with Kristina are awesome anyway, I'm sure. And Eia and Liz too, no doubt. Don't feel bad about getting conned into stopping at that place, your defenses were down because of that driving and at least you got out of the car for a bit. Hopefully you'll find a truly awesome place to stop on the way back. Glad you're having fun with this and thanks for taking the time to blog.

Kkthenerdfighter said...

I so want to go to Wrockstock but I have school :(. Anyways I absolutely love Wall Drugs. I know you think it's lame and I haven't been there since I was 9 so I wouldn't really like it now also. My favorite part though, is the wall with the pictures of people holding signs saying "so many miles to Wall Drugs." I hope it's still there.

Alex Dahlberry said...

So awesome. It's now my goal to go on several roadtrips with my friends when I can drive. And have money. And a car. xD
Hopefully, I'll be able to get my brother to drive my friends and I all the way from Montreal to Orlando for LeakyCon'11.

That Wall Drug is both terrifying and amazing. Kind of subliminal advertisement except you are consciously perceiving it. But it still gets into your head.
So cool.
have fun at wrockstock
-alex

Anonymous said...

you're stopping in Kansas City? That's where I live! AHH!

SigneHansen said...

God I wish I could be there! (At wrockstock that is.. ;D)
Also: How's Nanowrimo going?
My computer just broke down.. I have no way to finish it now :'(

Tass said...

I can't express to you just how excited I was when I read your tweet and then this post about going to Wall Drug. I'm from Rapid City (about an hour west of Wall, you drove through it on I-90) but I'm going to school in Baltimore right now and I haven't been home in 3 months and I've been incredibly homesick this past week. It brightened my day a little bit. I even texted my friend back home "KRISTINA'S AT WALL DRUG, GO KIDNAP HER NOW!!!"
I hope you enjoyed the rest of your drive through SD. There's not much else there.