Road Trip 2005

Road Trips: Colorado | 2005 | Minnesota | 2006 | Alabama

My Trip 2005

Road Trip 2005 is a road trip from November 1st through 5th, 2005. Final start/finish was 10:47am 11/01/05 to 8:12am 11/05/05. The following account is fairly detailed. Winston, having read it, commented "concise. to the point and damned entertaining." Will commented "nice story. I laughed. I cried. I laughed some more. I cried some more. Truly a story of epic proportions."
I hope you enjoy it as well.

Tuesday morning I left at 10:47am and after filling up with gas, I caravaned down to Pittsburg KS with my sister Anne.

I stopped by the Computer Science department of Pittsburg State University to see what was new and happening. It was fun getting a little technical with things. I also managed to down a sandwich since by that time it was nearing 3 oclock. I met Anne back at her apartment and we hung out for a bit. Then off to see Lindy as she was not real busy at work. Finally, I decided to go catch dinner with Anne as she had finished all of her classes for the day. So then I called Nicole to see what she was doing and she gave me crap cuz I hadn't called earlier. Oh well, I told her I saved the best for last but did she believe me? No.

Then Rustin called me while I was chilling with Nicole and her roommate Amanda. So I made plans to meet him up at his place. His wife Joy made an excellent dinner, which was more like a second dinner for me but whatever. So Rustin and I talked for a while and his dog was being hilarious in all the craziness that dogs are.

By the time 11:30 rolled around I decided I was tired so I drove back to Anne's apartment and crashed out not too much later.

Wednesday I woke up and got ready, then ran off to Wichita. I actually had some breakfast beforehand... Captain crunch and milk! On my way there if went by Weir KS. Yeah. Weird name. Ha ha. Okay whatever. I also was impressed by these semis that were carrying some big construction equiptment and they were bookin it. I also saw some windmills doin their lil thing cuz it sure was windy. At least I thought so. Northeast KS has more trees to stop the wind than farther south. I kid you not! I also had to stop for a train. It was crossing the road and I didn't think I could bully my way through.

i met up with my chat friend Jess for lunch, but on the way there found a Borders and killed some time looking at things there. I picked up a 2006 calendar that has pictures of military aircraft on it. Then Jess confirmed it would be a bit before she got to Applebees so I went to Dicks and Best Buy cuz they were right next door. Yeah I mean how sweet is that? Okay so Jess and I got to have lunch and it was friggin sweet. It was nice to get to meet her and talk in person. She reccommended I go by the mall if I was looking for something else to do in wichita. She had to go pick up her sister from school so it cut in our time geting to hang out but oh well. It happens.

So then I stopped by the mall in Wichita, and they had this dude playin the piano at one of the upper scale stores...yeah. Twas the only cool thing about that place. But I did find hot topic and got a shirt. Then Kristin called me and that was totally awesome. I had left a message with her to confirm if she could meet up with me on Friday. We talked for like twenty minutes about various things including the idiosynchracies of college level discipline with regards to fellow students. Or in words that make sense....how some students don't handle taking orders from fellow students. See? It sounded better the first way.

Well anyways I drove back to Pittsburg, it was about 2.5 hours each way. When I got back I had a lil pizza for dinner then we went to Cross Quest's bonfire. Yay for fires in fields at night. Good fun, then someone snuck up and picked me up from behind. I was so close to turning around and putting them in their place when who do I see? Crazy Dave! That was cool. He's fully allowed to pull stunts like that on me and get away with it. We used to rock the house..err..dorm rooms back in the day.

Okay so then after the bonfire we went home and Anne found this group on a website and the title was "Pitt State - Outdrinking your school since 1903" ha ha! Well maybe some of you don't understand...too bad.

Well so then I get up Thursday morning at like 7:30 and leave around 8:29 I believe it was. This was a day of driving for sure. I headed south on 69 highway...destination: Oklahoma. W00t. So I drive down there and find I44 and run through Tulsa. There were a lot of pretty trees there. To get to the pretty trees I first got attacked by a fury of tumbleweeds on my way to Oklahoma City. And then....I kid you not...I drive even farther west into Oklahoma. It was windy here, maybe moreso than Wichita. I find myself arriving about 1:30p at Weatherford. This would be my outpost for the day. I had reserved a hotel room there. Nice place. Best Western, right off Main St. Then I called my friend Sam from Pennsylvania cuz she had sent me a message on my phone. We talked, had a good convo for a bit.

Okay so what's the point of going to western oklahoma? Other than to see wind farms at weatherford? To see my chat friend Katy! It's True! Ha ha. She'd get that. Then maybe set it on fire too, who knows. But so anyways I met up with her...but oh wait I had called her first and she was busy till a lil later so I went to an Air And Space Museum there in Weatherford. Had interesting information about space stuff and some military aircraft. Had an F-16 siting in the display section. Katy gave me great directions for getting there.

So anyways I met Katy for some coffee with her roommate who is also named Katy. Or maybe she spells it Katie, I dunno, we're not gonna worry about that right now. Point is we hung out at a coffee shop for a while. I had some frozen hot chocolate. It was good. Then Katy had things to do so we departed for a while and I slept for a bit. Then Katy and I met back up for dinner at a mexican restaurant there and it was good and we talked for a bit and had good fun times. I had some grilled shrimp burrito and I dipped them in the beans to see what it tasted like and Katy thought I was weird. Whatever. Anyways I was excited to see her too. I was two for two on meeting chat friends.

So I went back to my room and watched some TV then couldn't sleep very well but somehow drifted off to sleep. Woke up at 7:20 the next morning....

Okay so Friday morning I'm all like "what the hell man, I gotta get to Lubbock TX by 1pm!" so I check out of my hotel room, skip breakfast and make a break for I40 on to Amarillo. Blah blah blah lots of open land and then Texas border and repeat as neccessary until bored by open cattle farms but NO TEXAS LONGHORNS! I GOT RIPPED OFF ON THAT DRIVE!

I stopped at Groom TX to get gas and this nice lady told me where to get through Amarillo to make my way to Lubbock. Now I had my trusty State Farm Road Atlas with me...but I gladly accepted her directions and made my way on to Amarillo. I was mostly curious to find from her about timeframes, as it was nearing ten oclock I do believe. Well anyways I mount up on..er...in my car. And off I go. Now it's like 120 miles on south to Lubbock and I was like 45 miles from Amarillo but I drove it straight through, I was so stoked about getting to meet Kristin.

What? You thought I was in search of some tourist venue? ahahahahaha! Silly people. Now I get to Lubbock and drive around it for a bit getting myself lost and found again. I finally stopped and called Kristin cuz I thought by 1:45 she shoulda called me. Well she calls back at 2pm and tells me she had a meeting she didnt remember, so that made me feel better. I thought I was losing my mind or something.

So we finally got to meet up about 2:15 or so. I gave her a big hug cuz I was a long way from home and Texas is a big state for such a small guy. Okay actually I gave her a hug cuz I've known her online for like over six years and we'd never met in person. Well then I gave her a present I had picked up for her while in Wichita. It's a wood cutout in shape of a sunflower and it has kansas written on it. I figured it was a lil something she could remember me by. And she likes sunflowers.

Well anyways we ate lunch and talked for a bit and then she took me to go show off how spectacular Texas Tech's campus is and it's true. Outside of this freakish statue thing...that's apparently a new addition...some people and their art just don't make sense. But anyways she also showed me a really pretty fountain on campus. It was awesome. Oh and we got to ride a bus around the campus too. Well anyways then we hung out for a while longer and talked about random things. It was nice to be able to talk in person. So then it was time for me to go so I got to my car and I took a picture of both of us, I hope it turns out. But it's okay because I got another big hug from her before I left. I really didn't wanna go cuz it was fun to get to hang out with Kristin, but alas people have things they gotta do so I said goodbye. And then I headed home.

I could end it here and say blah blah blah The End. But alas, the return trip home from Lubbock TX to the south side of Kansas City is not just a hop skip and a jump away. no siree bob. I left at 6:47pm and drove drove drove and got past Amarillo and stopped for gas and a subsandwich(which I didnt eat cuz I wasnt really hungry at the time) then I goed goed goed till I got to Weatherford OK at 1:15am and Kristin told me to be safe on my way home so I stopped at a rest stop there and slept for 40 minutes in my car. But I got cold cuz I left the sunroof fipped up...oops. So I start drivin again...and I drove to Oklahoma City, but this time I jump on I35 and head north to Wichita. I stopped outside OK City and got gas. It was like 3am when I did that. Then I went further and made it to Wichita. By now I'm startin to drag a lil. But I have to give mad props to Jen and Russell as they text messaged me throughout the evening while I was logged into yahoo on my phone. Helped keep me awake. So I get past Wichita and I'm tired again. I'd already drank a good Lost Trail Root Beer...but I also had some Jones Cream Soda too. But it wasn't enough to stave off sleep so again I stopped and slept for about 40 minutes. Woke up at 5:50am and started drivin again. And I got past Emporia and jumped off the turnpike said thanks to mr toll dude takin my $5 for drivin the turnpike and gunned away ready to be home. By now it was cold outside, I mean geez I left Lubbock it was like 79 and it musta been like 60 when I rolled down me window to shell out the dinero. So anyways I keep goin and finally make it home at 8:12am Saturday morning.

Done.

Pictures

Here are some pictures from this trip, not a whole lot. Just random things that make road trips what they are.

Here, the first stop to get gas, and the cheapest I found along the way. Pretty weather to begin the adventure too.

This is the train I couldn't quite bully my way past. Note the semi in front and behind me. Both carrying some nice construction equiptment.

Here we see a big pile of rocks...or something. The first notable thing I saw in Oklahoma.

Here's a truck carrying toxic material. At least that's what I've always associated with that yellow and black radioactive symbol.

Alas some towns mean things to some people, and others would have no clue why it was significant. I took the picture anyways.

Last picture on the roll of film. Ha! Proof that I did make it to Weatherford. Why didn't I get any pics of their wind farms? Doh.

A huge cross in Texas.

Kristin and me.