Roadtrip (part 1)
Victoria and I left our apartment yesterday at about 7:00 am for a pre-trip breakfast with Victoria's parents. We ate at Cracker Barrel then met up with Tony Beard, Ben, Newman, Chelsea, and Joe at Sportstime and headed out to Wendy's. Met up there with the rest of the gang (Wendy, Alex, Justin, Peanut Butter, Chris, Devin, and Squire) and finally headed out about 10:15 or so. We made it to City Museum about 2:00ish.
City Museum is pretty freaking amazing. It's not at all what I expected either. I had heard lots of painted re-bar and caves but didn't really know what that meant and so had pictured this large open warehouse with basically a huge metal jungle gym and lots of room to fall many stories to the ground. I had not expected the art made of recycled industrial material, or the husks of airplanes used to create vaulting walkways and passages. There are manufactured caves made of some sort of rock and rebar and everywhere you look it seems that there are five different directions you can go if you can fit.
I was initiated at the "fountain" which is basically a glorified hole in the ground that leads to a narrow passageway under the main floor, changing height along the length of it. Supposedly it was originally pitch black in the hole, which made it about twice as cramped and three times as long, but for us it was lit and not at all scary. Unfortunately, I had thought it okay to jump down the hole instead of gingerly stepping into it and I landed on a step I couldn't quite see and rolled my ankle. It hurt, and was kind of disheartening since it was the first thing I did there. I walked on it a bit before thinking to stop and look at it. Found a huge swollen knot on it and the whole leg was much bigger than it should have been near the ankle. It didn't stop me, though it slowed me down considerably. We went to the bar in the place and had a Fat Tire (Belgian-type beer). This guy that worked there, Max, happened upon us when he was taking his smoke break. He was actually the first guy I'd seen there in a City Museum shirt. He saw that I was nursing a hurt foot and got me an ice pack and some bandages, put them on me, and gave me some extra for later. Devin and Chris brought Victoria a cake that Devin had made and we had a surprise birthday ...thing... for Victoria, which was really nice. After that we hit the outside and climbed all over the place. Awesome, nothing short of it.
We left the place and headed to our hotel around 4:30ish -- everyone hungry, myself wanting to nurse my foot some more, and Victoria wanting to hit the hot tub. There was a wedding party which eased the whole night, because the hotel had turned off the security on the elevator which would have required us to use a key card to go to the 13th floor (where the hot tub and pool were) and our room (on the 7th floor). We ordered pizza and Justin, Ben, and Joe went out on a freaking adventure to find beer. They got back a bit later and I worried a bit too much about the noise we were making. I hope I wasn't too annoying with that. Victoria, myself, Wendy, Alex, and Peanut Butter stayed in our room later while everyone else (I think) went back to City Museum until it closed. We watched some bad TV (read: SNL) and talked. Fell asleep, woke up, and parted ways.
Victoria and I finally got a picture of the Gateway Arch on our way out of town. I'd realized how accidentally symbolic it was to start our roadtrip out West with St. Louis once I saw the Arch and remembered that it's supposed to be "the gateway to the West." We took I-55 south through Missouri and Victoria commented how pretty it was through Missouri, similar to I-64 between I-265 in Indiana and Wendy's place. Some rockiness, and trees. There were so few cars we made excellent time. We made it to Little Rock at about 6:15 and sat and visited with Diane (Victoria's grandma) for a few hours over some Damgoode pizza. Chicago-style with pepperoni, hamburger, mushrooms, and bell peppers. Delicious.
Now it's getting close to bedtime. We've got about 8 hours ahead of us tomorrow on our way to Austin, and neither of us have been to Texas before. We get to see Kimble and Jamie in their natural habitat. Woot!
I don't know if I'll do this again, but if I don't I'll talk about it after we get back.
City Museum is pretty freaking amazing. It's not at all what I expected either. I had heard lots of painted re-bar and caves but didn't really know what that meant and so had pictured this large open warehouse with basically a huge metal jungle gym and lots of room to fall many stories to the ground. I had not expected the art made of recycled industrial material, or the husks of airplanes used to create vaulting walkways and passages. There are manufactured caves made of some sort of rock and rebar and everywhere you look it seems that there are five different directions you can go if you can fit.
I was initiated at the "fountain" which is basically a glorified hole in the ground that leads to a narrow passageway under the main floor, changing height along the length of it. Supposedly it was originally pitch black in the hole, which made it about twice as cramped and three times as long, but for us it was lit and not at all scary. Unfortunately, I had thought it okay to jump down the hole instead of gingerly stepping into it and I landed on a step I couldn't quite see and rolled my ankle. It hurt, and was kind of disheartening since it was the first thing I did there. I walked on it a bit before thinking to stop and look at it. Found a huge swollen knot on it and the whole leg was much bigger than it should have been near the ankle. It didn't stop me, though it slowed me down considerably. We went to the bar in the place and had a Fat Tire (Belgian-type beer). This guy that worked there, Max, happened upon us when he was taking his smoke break. He was actually the first guy I'd seen there in a City Museum shirt. He saw that I was nursing a hurt foot and got me an ice pack and some bandages, put them on me, and gave me some extra for later. Devin and Chris brought Victoria a cake that Devin had made and we had a surprise birthday ...thing... for Victoria, which was really nice. After that we hit the outside and climbed all over the place. Awesome, nothing short of it.
We left the place and headed to our hotel around 4:30ish -- everyone hungry, myself wanting to nurse my foot some more, and Victoria wanting to hit the hot tub. There was a wedding party which eased the whole night, because the hotel had turned off the security on the elevator which would have required us to use a key card to go to the 13th floor (where the hot tub and pool were) and our room (on the 7th floor). We ordered pizza and Justin, Ben, and Joe went out on a freaking adventure to find beer. They got back a bit later and I worried a bit too much about the noise we were making. I hope I wasn't too annoying with that. Victoria, myself, Wendy, Alex, and Peanut Butter stayed in our room later while everyone else (I think) went back to City Museum until it closed. We watched some bad TV (read: SNL) and talked. Fell asleep, woke up, and parted ways.
Victoria and I finally got a picture of the Gateway Arch on our way out of town. I'd realized how accidentally symbolic it was to start our roadtrip out West with St. Louis once I saw the Arch and remembered that it's supposed to be "the gateway to the West." We took I-55 south through Missouri and Victoria commented how pretty it was through Missouri, similar to I-64 between I-265 in Indiana and Wendy's place. Some rockiness, and trees. There were so few cars we made excellent time. We made it to Little Rock at about 6:15 and sat and visited with Diane (Victoria's grandma) for a few hours over some Damgoode pizza. Chicago-style with pepperoni, hamburger, mushrooms, and bell peppers. Delicious.
Now it's getting close to bedtime. We've got about 8 hours ahead of us tomorrow on our way to Austin, and neither of us have been to Texas before. We get to see Kimble and Jamie in their natural habitat. Woot!
I don't know if I'll do this again, but if I don't I'll talk about it after we get back.