June 18, 2007

  • Friday at 5 in the PM, my vacation started! WOOOOHOOOO, YAAAAAAAAY ME!!!!!! I started off by going to Scott's to play cards and bbq. With me being on vacation, as far as food is concerned, anything goes. So, at Scott's I had a burger, a cheddar dog and some strip steaks. Everything was very good, except the strip steak was kinda tough. Ok, it was really really tough and I literaly bit off more than I could chew and nearly choked to death. But what can I say, it was taking for-fucking-ever to chew the food to the poi..............wait, this is kinda gross, so I will just leave it alone.

    Anywho, I only played one game and took 2nd out of 9 people. I have played very good lately playing cards, but I still would have liked to win.

    Yesterday, we were to pick up the rental car from Hertz in Plainfield at 11 in the am. We went with an economy car, which was the Hyundai Accent. We got there and as it turned out, they were all out of them and they upgraded us for free to the Ford Focus. This made John kind of upset because we were trying to get the Accent because it gets 37 miles a gallon. I could bore you with more details, but this is a long post so I do need to skip ahead.

    We got on the road about 12:10. According to Mapquest, the drive would take 6 1/2 hours, although 11 years ago when Mark, Roseann and I went it took about 8 hours (that was with Roseann making us stop to piss what seemed to be every half hour). I decided not to print directions from the internet, but instead decided to be old school and just use the atlas that I bought. The drive down there was nice, because of WGN's powerful signal, we were able to listen to all of the Cubs game, which wound up being a good game, even though they lost. As usual, I had my David Sunflower seeds, which as we know, are the best seeds anywhere. I also bought some Rold Gold pretzel rods, which are the best pretzel rods anywhere. Jeez, when did this turn into a damn commercial. Also, this was the first time I had a cell phone for a road trip, which was neat because I was able to pass the time texting people.

    About an hour north of St Louis, John said he was hungry so we might as well stop to eat and gas up. He said he saw a sign for Subway, which was "only" 2 1/2 miles off of I55. I told him that we should probably go some place right off the highway but he said "its only 2 miles." 10 wasteful minutes later, we were in downtown Staunton, IL which if you were like me, you were shocked to find out that not only was there a Staunton IL, but also a downtown to Staunton. We went to a BP and also got some Italian subs from a sandwich place inside the BP. Even though John got a ham & cheese sandwich, it seemed to take a long time for it to be baked and for him to eat. I killed time by losing money on scratch off lotto tickets. Enjoy my money, school children of IL.

    Our little jaunt into the legendary IL town of Staunton would cost us 45 minutes! We drove on well into Missouri and down near Lake of the Ozarks to a very tiny town called Versailles. We got to a gas station and called our brother in law to meet us there so that he could take us back to his grandma's house where he and our nieces were staying. I guess I should explain something here, we were picking up our nieces who are 11 (or soon to be 11, like in just a few days) and 9 and who live in Golden, CO.

    After  a few minutes, Mike (my brother in law) showed up. We followed him back to his grandma's house which was in the middle of a forest. We went down a gravel road and a dirt road and I could see why he needed to meet us in town. We got there and the house was a lot like I had remembered it, except a little more worn down. She even still had the same couch I slept on the only other time I was there back in October 1996. Her son and his family live up the road about a quarter of a mile. Shit, it might have even been a little more than that. Also, it wasn't much of a road, it was just an area of land in the middle of the forest with no other houses. Mike's Catholic aunt and uncle with 6 kids live there. Mike's aunt is really close to him in age, in fact, she is only 10 months older then him. Nevertheless, we grabbed the girls and walked back to grandma's house.She made us burgers and pasta salad and we all hung out for a few hours before going to bed about 11:30 or 12.

    We got up bright and fucking early the next day at 6:30am. Shit, it should be illegal for me to be up that early on a Sunday, but his grandma got up and she started to make coffee. Also, Mike had a 12 hour drive back to CO and we had about a 7 hour drive back home. She made us eggs and toast, not much but still very nice of her to do since we were staying at her house. We got on the road about 8:30 in the am. We drove for about 2 hours before stopping off at a Waffle House. John, Rachel (the 11 year old) and I each had chocolate chip waffles. Willow had some other waffles. I could go into more detail and give play by play of the waffle eating, but shit, this post is long enough as it is.

    We were back on the road by about 11:15ish. We drove into St Louis where we were going to stop at the Arch. John and I are not to fond of height, but I had been up in the Arch 4 other times, so this should not be a problem for me. As we sat at a stop light directly in front of the Arch, John was able to see all the way up the 630 feet to the top. He said that he was having 2nd thoughts at this time, but we still went on and parked the car. We headed into the base of the Arch while I bought tickets and John and the girls went through the little museum they have there. Soon, we were in the little tram cars that would take us to the top. After a 4 minute ride, we got out and walked out. For those of you not familiar, the Arch doesn't have much room at the top, but it does have 40 tiny windows in which you can look out and take pictures. The place was packed and therefore, I did not get many chances to see out the window or take any pictures. Instead, I text messaged Mark, Heather and Dave to tell them where I was. Even though this was my 5th time in the Arch, I was still a little scared up there. It reminded me of an airplane and I swear, I could feel the damn thing moving. It seemed that we were only up there for 5 minutes when the girls got scared and said they wanted to go down. So, with that, we were done with the Arch.

    We managed to get a little lost walking back to the car in the extreme St Louis heat. I swear, it must have been 100 degrees out there. In fact, even right now at 11:30, its still 77 in St Louis, which is a far cry from the current Romeoville temp of 77 degrees. Fuck damn, its fucking hot out here, I'm so glad my AC works. Anywho, we eventually made it back to the car and we were on our way.

    While on the road, we got invited to Amy's parents house for dinner. My goal now was to make it all the way home without stopping, a tall task even without kids, since it is a 4 1/2 hour drive from St Lou. We made it to Bloomington before John and Willow had to pee. Still, we made it pretty far. We made it to their house right about 6:30. We ate and played some beanbags before heading home.

    I could have written this with more detail, but what can I say, the damn road can really wear somebody out.