days sixteen and seventeen

the final two days of our road trip were interesting in that we all got a chance to go home. we woke up around ten on tuesday, had a little food, laughed at wade's 7-year-old brother andrew's antics, and headed to leavenworth.

mom and dad were both home, luckily, so we sat and talked with them briefly about our favorite parts of the trip. i headed upstairs to make a mix cd that would carry us through the remainder of the trip - believe me, and the other two, it was long overdue. the guys convinced mom and dad to put on some baby dvds. apparently, i had some trouble with standing up when i was not yet two years old. go figure.

i fiddled around on the computer for a bit, then played gabe "only wins by deuce" shaukat in some ping pong. won. played wade "internet may-may" wisdom. won. played gabe again. lost by deuce. perfection would have been ideal, but i was off my game.


i drove the guys around leavenworth high school, then we ate lunch with mom and dad at homer's. the food was greasy and delicious, quite satisfying for the bros. from there, we headed up to padilla field, where i had the opportunity to reclaim my glorious past on the baseball field. it was unfortunately unkempt, but we managed to get a few pitches in from the mound and take some grounders anyway.

we headed back to kansas city, where we got to make fun of wade's brother andrew for looking like short round from indiana jones and the temple of doom. the kid has also apparently pooped in the pool. cool little guy, though. lots of energy. steve took us to the royals game and bought us some beers. his devious plot to inebriate gabe and myself to the extent that we were no longer capable of beating him and wade in a friendly game of 8-ball was totally foiled. gabe and i took the series 2-1. how'd the royals game go, you ask? we left in the seventh. it ended up going about twelve innings, a real nail-biter. of course, the boys in blue couldn't keep it together and ended up dropping the series to the twins.

we slept well, and drove all the way back to columbus the next day. via the southern route. if you've ever seen deliverance, you're well aware of many of the wonders and joys that southern missouri, arkansas, and alabama hold. we slept in columbus, and i departed early the next morning, bringing our road trip to an end. the odometer hit 8000 miles just south of atlanta.

here's to closed chapters of open books.

day one

our morning was a comedy of errors, marked by forgotten items, a trip to murray-hobbs's vehicle for a folder dropoff, getting a despondent, academically minded lass to take a few photos of us at the arch, and swinging by the swankiest apartments in athens to drop off wade "cockmiel" wisdom's rent. gabe "scared of bridges" shaukat had predicted a 9:40 am etd, and we left the chick-fil-a drivethru for 316 precisely then.

first stop was columbus, where we bathroom broke and sipped some coke while discussing the sad state of the columbus ledger with gabe's grandmother. we ate lunch at country's, which for all the shit my compatriots talked on it, was not that bad, nor were the waitresses or clientele particularly unattractive. we fired up sally, our dirty slut of a gps unit, and whimsically decided to head to navarre beach, florida, where wade and i had gone for spring break. sally obliged, as she always does.

we hit the beach along about 6:30, after a drive whose soundtrack relied heavily on usher and r. kelly's "same girl." if you haven't heard it, it's definitely worth a listen. our trip mascots, two owl decoys named lochmiel and rockmiel, accompanied us to the shore, where we threw the football for a good long while. wade got introspective, and my arm got tired from throwing into the wind, so i went to the car to make a few phone calls to friends and family to update them on our progress and attain the phone numbers of friends and family along our route.

now, here we sit in the mcdonalds in the winn dixie shopping center, contemplating wade's inability to take pills and reflecting on the day's events. we're not sure about sleeping arrangements, but who needs to sleep anyway?

here's to sandy feet and mcdonald's free wi-fi.