And thus begins the lengthy post where I profess my undying love for everyone I met on this wonderful trip...
No, but seriously. I'm sure I've said it before, and at this point I'm risking cliche, but it needs to be said. I am so dang thankful to everyone involved in this trip - hell, to even be able to take such a trip at all. What a wild ride...
Alright! Stream-of-consciousness...begin!
Roadtrip StatsMiles traveled: 3,738
Gallons of gas consumed:
Hours spent in car: ??
Duration of trip: 11 days
DAY 01 - December 29 2015
As you may have seen,
the first day of the trip (leaving WI, traveling as far south as I could make it) began a little bit more eventful than I wanted... I had to make my way out of 8 inches of snow (because why would we plow), was an hour late for work, worked an hour late due to some crazy stuff going on, and was on my way at last! Once on the freeway, ice and snow were no worry (thankfully). I barely hit any traffic in Chicago, and there wasn't a lick of snow in all of Indiana. Made it all the way to Bowling Green, KY where I made a nice rolling hotel room out of my car in a friendly truck stop.
DAY 02 - December 30 2015
This day was living hell. Everything started off peaceful - driving was calm, everyone was friendly. Ahhhh.....
At some point as I went further and further south, the rules of the road seemed to change pretty drastically. I had always been taught that the left lane is for passing, but this is not the case in GA and FL. Nahhh, the left lane is for going only slightly above the speed limit, while
all of the right lanes are for passing (and slow moving vehicles and trucks...). Hmm. Makes sense. This actually worked out GREAT in the middle of the night when there wasn't much traffic, but during busy hours? **** that.
Also, Atlanta during rush hour = hell no. I saw more wrecks in that afternoon than I've seen in the last month or two. And the delays...
All-in-all, this was a solid 16 hour day of driving. Left the truck stop at 7am central, arrived in Ft. Myers at midnight eastern. :| Got second wind, stayed up until 5am. **** me.
DAY 03 - December 31 2015
Family day #1 (and the whole reason I'm anywhere other than WI right now). Beach, jet skis, relaxing, etc. Fireworks and long walks on the beach.
DAY 04 - January 01 2016
Family day #2. Brunch; some family members begin their return journeys. I stick around and spend the day with my mom and dad. Have them show me around Sanibel, grab some food, nice and relaxing day.
DAY 05 - January 02 2016
Kicked off the GH leg of the road trip with rainb1ood in Ft Myers. I really wish we had more time to chat since he is a great guy, but unfortunately one meal is all I got.
rainb1ood kicked this trip off in high style by gifting me a freaking CC though!
See Orangesicle post above. :O Seriously, cannot thank you enough for that, man. One of these days I will return the favor!
After Ft Myers, I headed up to Tampa to see VesperSAINT and LXXXIX. I've spoken to Vesper quite a bit before, but never LXX. Always great to form some new bonds as well as strengthen existing ones (yay ****ty inspirational quote-ish). Anyway, as is a recurring theme throughout this whole trip, we didn't really have any plans. We met at a mall and went from there - BBQ, boba tea, etc. You'll notice that FOOD is a common theme throughout this trip as well... hehe.
Eventually I had to bail on Tampa and head to Orlando to snuggle with heed.
DAY 06 - January 03 2016
Woke up to heedpantsnow's ADORABLE little kids.
Seriously, they are way too freaking adorable.
But moving on to keyboard things!
heed and I went and did some quick shopping before the grill-out (picked up some "generic" (not really) sausages and a local sausage from AL, where heed is from). CCarlitos, Vesper, smarmar, and DanielUCF ended up attending this little mini-meet. Had such a blast hanging with all of you, and I'm so happy you were all able to make it out. The night ended with some dimmed lights, red wine, and slow jazz...
DAY 07 - January 04 2016
Monday began at Vespr (coffee joint), as thankfully heed was able to get some time away from work to entertain us goons. And HOLY HELL, that espresso/gelato concoction has got to be my absolutely favorite coffee anything ever. I mean, damn.
After coffee, we decided to head to Dandelion Cafe, a super "hipster" place that made a killer grilled cheese sandwich. Of course I got the only non-vegan thing on the menu, but damnit I need my cheese. xD
We then came shockingly close to hacking heed's wallet on some vinyl, but he held out long enough to spare himself. I showed some great restraint myself, only purchasing
two records instead of the four I initially wanted.
)
heed had to head out to take care of some business, so Carlitos and I decided to get some climbing in real quick. Turns out we are both VERY out of shape (I can only speak for myself, of course!)
Carlitos had to take care of some family stuff, so I ended up meeting up with Daniel again in the evening for some dinner. We went to a place called The Black Hammock, and I tried an assortment of friend gator as well as frog legs.
It was interesting, to say the least. Actually rather tasty, but more of a novelty IMO.
He also showed off some of his wife's artwork (and gifted some along, which was really nice
), and passed along some home brews and a local beer as a gift as well (not to mention all the recommendations listed above).
DAY 08 - January 05 2016
Left Orlando at 6am eastern, hoping to get to Atlanta around 1pm. Thanks to Orlando rush hour traffic, I made it to Atlanta around 2pm. fohat.digs and R1N3 were gracious enough to be super flexible and meet me for a 2pm lunch, so thank you guys for that! And wow, what a lunch! First off, the BBQ was amazing. Man. I had so many delicious meats during this trip, it's incredible. But there's something about that pork BBQ that just really set me off. But I digress.
fohat and R1N3 are both really cool people too, so the company was just as good as the food.
Seriously, I really enjoyed chatting with you two, and wish I could have spent more time in Atlanta with you guys.
I left for East TN (thank you for the correction, fohat
) about 430pm, and finally arrived at Booper/scubaste's house around dinner time. They had literally just moved in, so I must once again thank them for hosting despite the chaos their lives are in! But nonetheless, we had a good time eating, drinking, casting, the whole works.
DAY 09 - January 06 2016
Got to see a bit of the city and enjoy some coffee at a local joint downtown.
After that, we headed a bit into the mountains/hills to check out a nice nature reserve park thing, and hiked down by the river a bit. 10/10 would hang out again.
Shortly after lunch time, I headed west to Nashville! I arrived a little late (sorry everyone!), but was able to meet up with tigersharkdude, Incredigasmic, and mashby. And I've got to say, the artisan collections of tiger and Incredigasmic are pretty impressive. Seeing tiger's iconic board in person was...wow. Pictures really don't do it justice. I know it's not everyone's style, but it's just so well put-together.
And of course mashby has his own freaking museum of 60% boards, so...
Oh. And don't even get me started on the food. I don't know how I managed to forget, but holy cow does mashby know his way around eateries.
I already posted pics, so I won't again (my mouth is already watering), but wow. And of course, I cannot thank mashby enough for letting me sleep on his couch (seriously). He already had his mother visiting from out of town, so letting me crash as well was a godsend. Thank you thank you thank you!
DAY 10 - January 07 2016
I left mashby's pretty early in the morning, hoping to hit Indianapolis by 1230 or so (eastern) to be able to meet up with vivalarevolucion (prdlm). Unfortunately, the timing didn't work out (
), but I'm honestly surprised that this was the first hiccup during this entire trip. It has worked out surprisingly well up to this point (due in large part to the flexibility of those I was meeting, so thank you all again for that
).
I press on to Chicago, to meet with Doom and Joey Quinn. Doom shows me around his place (kickass apartment, btw
), and lets me tinker with some resins (and promptly takes over cause I lack the skillz). Many outs are hung, and eventually JQ shows up as well. Unfortunately I wasn't able to connect with sori on this trip, mostly poor planning on my part - I put minimal planning into the Chicago leg of this trip, since it's practically my "home" region, so the thought was that if it didn't work out I can just make a weekend trip to see those people. So I am sorry for the lack of planning, sori, but I will get down there and see you in the near future!
DAY 11 - January 08 2016
Killer brunch, killer coffee shop haul, and killer hanging with Doom + GF. Seriously, had a blast with all the Chicago crew, and I'm really happy I didn't "pass" on that stop and just head the rest of the way home. I will definitely need to get down there again sometime soon.
Okay, I really hope this makes even a little sense. I'm not proof-reading it, it's just too long.
But know that ALL OF YOU are more than welcome to come visit me in WI and surf my couch, as you have allowed me to surf yours. <3
Thank you all for everything over the past weeks - the memories, the friendships, all of it. It means so much to me, and I am so happy I decided to do this.
<3
