You’d think being on this adventurous summer roadtrip, I’d be better at keeping you updated on what we’ve been doing. Unfortunately, baseball, bars & swimming all day have kept me from doing so. I’m sorry. I’ll try harder. I’m going to attempt to recap the past 5 days to you in an excruciatingly detailed blog that will make Matt’s mini-series of books look like child’s play. But I get ADD more often than not, so we’ll just take it one paragraph at a time.
Six hours after midnight & five after I went to bed, we had to hit the road for our eleven-hour drive toward the gateway to the west. The minute I realized our jaunt was nearing the halfway point, I wanted to drive slower, thinking that I could somehow make this lifestyle last an extra month. We got to St. Louis around 4 in the afternoon to my Uncle Fuffy’s house (my brother couldn’t say Jeff when he was younger, Fuff came out & that’s stuck around for about 25 years). I haven’t seen Fuffy, Aunt Sandy or their perfect little munchkins, Abigail & Blake for about a year. Matt and I parted ways for the night (tear) & I spent the night with the family at Sandy’s family reunion. The game was Sunday afternoon & Busch Stadium quickly became my new favorite stadium (until Kansas City, but we’ll get to that eventually). We went to the game with Matt’s friends & their family. It’s becoming more apparent to me that when people join us for the games, it’s a better time. Not that I don’t love you dearly, Matt, but after long hours in the car together we’re starting to run out of things to talk about. It was especially nice having other people with us at this game, because it fell on a day that Matt decided to have a hangover. For those of you who know Matt’s new years resolution for 2008 was to have one & only one hangover (which I was lucky enough to see last summer in W.V). This year- he’s doubled that number on this trip alone. While I was in bed at 10:30 on Saturday night, Matt was busy playing beer pong, going to bars, & eventually losing his phone/dignity/ a little self-respect.
After the game I had a homemade family dinner while waiting for Pavia to get back from the family dinner he was attending. We watched Entourage & went to bed early- rightfully so for Matt, I just went to bed out of boredom. Monday we went swimming with the kids for a little bit before we left. They’re in 1st & 3rd grade and a delight to be around. I was sad to say goodbye. Nonetheless, we packed up & headed out for Kansas City to prepare for our visit to Kauffman, Drama’s & for those of you who know us, another night of drinking.
We arrived 4 hours later to Drama’s house. Drama & Mike met a few years ago in a Browns bar- apparently there’s some outside of Cleveland- & it must have been love at first sight because they lived together when Mike lived in Kansas City. After a couple hours of UFC (I’ve got to get some more girlfriends), a bar called Saints was on the itinerary. Ah, Saints- where the $2 drinks flow like wine & the 20-something TV monitors show silhouettes of exotic dancers after midnight. After what I would consider to have been little-to-no effort on our part in persuading Drama to drop the position of DD & to let me witness what everyone has been referring to as “dramatized”, things started to get interesting. Yes, $2 domestic beers, import beers, well and call drinks and yes, Matt & I still manage to rack up a $66 dollar tab. Not bad right? After the damage done to my credit card we cabbed it home & sealed our fate for the next day- of being bums. While Drama had what I imagine to be a terrible-horrible-no-good-very-long day at work, I introduced Matt to Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia. 4 hours of it. After, we got our acts together & went to the best BBQ restaurant I’ve ever been to, which happened to be connected to a gas station. Oklahoma Joe’s was the best recommendation I’ve ever been given- Thanks Mike! The Plaza is a pretty cool area with outside shops, restaurants & bars near Mike & Drama’s old place. From there we went to the Royals game. I love, love, loved Kauffman Stadium. The waterfalls in the outfield, the jumbotron, & my favorite, the kids’ area behind the outfield. They had mini golf, a mini baseball field & batting cages. Everything a 10 year old could ask for. & apparently, everything Matt could ask for because I had to remind him he was 23 a number of times. In fact, saying “We gotta get outta here, I wanna do all this stuff but I’m an effing grown up now” would be a direct quote. After snagging some close seats for the rest of the game, we went back to a friend of Drama’s to watch more Its Always Sunny & to relax before the long drive ahead of us on Wednesday.
Flash forward to Wednesday around midnight, after our 10-hour odyssey to Pueblo, CO in order to break up our original 20-hour trip to Arizona. Another friend of Pavia’s was kind enough to leave us the key to his apartment even though he’s out of town for the week. One problem: midnight + half working flashlight + possible wrong address does not equal a comfortable night stay in Pueblo. What it does equal is a mad Matt & a $60 hotel room. Our night of beer, pizza & Bull Durham was interrupted by this unfortunate turn of events. Matt went to bed & I stayed awake watching Fight Club & working on this fine piece of craftsmanship you are now enjoying.
We woke up today & after digging in the rocks for a while we finally found the invisible key to let us into the apartment. We got ready & headed for the Garden of the Gods- which has been my favorite place to date. I’ve been looking forward to the Colorado visit since the beginning of the trip & I’ve been quite pleased so far.
Garden of the Gods is a beautiful place that I can only describe with photos (which will be up soon). Matt & I went on our own for this exploration & I eventually found a cozy rock that overlooked the mountains where I sat & read for about an hour. I can’t wait for our visit to Denver in a couple weeks.
Even though this is the longest blog I’ve written, it may not have surpassed Matt’s epic entries. But you’ll have to forgive me because A) tonight we are rain checking my favorite movie, which was interrupted last night & 2) we’re watching Walking Tall right now featuring the absolute love of my life, The Rock. If you’ve ever been in my bedroom before you’ve seen the life size cardboard cut out & the water bottle, so you know I’m being totally serious. I probably won’t blog again until after my birthday so the next time you hear from me, I’ll be 23!
And again, I’m being totally serious about The Rock.
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