Midwest US Trip 2015 - Part 1
My first Midwest US trip took place May 11-18. I'll be breaking this down in two entires. This first one takes place May 11-13.
I left work just after 3:30pm on Monday, May 11. It was a busy day and I had a tension headache it seemed. I took the skytrain to Edmonds so I could pick up my bags from Peter quickly and drop off my backpack. I then transited all the way to YVR Airport and dropped off my luggage at United Airlines. It was about 32 pounds but was dinged with a charge of $26.50 because United is like that (bitch slap). Security and customs wasn’t busy and was relatively easy. Surprisingly, they now have you taking a picture of yourself at the terminal. It also wanted to know where I was staying so I pulled out my cell and put in the address of Leatherdaddy Jeff in Ohio since he was my first stop. After the interview, I stopped at the Burger King close to Gate 78 so I could have my first meal of the day. I got a chicken tendercrisp with fries and root beer. The clerk was generous with the fries! I then sat at Gate 78 next to a big cute bearded bear and I used the same outlet as him for my laptop but it wasn’t powering it. He eventually unplugged his phone and got up to go someplace so I used the same plug and of course, it worked. I charged my phone and laptop and started on this here trip entry while chatting with Daddy Jeff in Ohio and Peter here. Besides the one cute bear, there was a hot Daddybear with a shaved head on the same flight too! I managed to get my seat at the window and no one next to my immediate right and just one guy in the aisle seat. The flight left promptly though had to endure my headache for most of the trip. My right ear was in pain when we got closer to San Francisco that it lasted around 20 minutes! Looking at SF at night from my window (despite the damn wing being in the way) it was beautiful. Once I was in the airport, I checked my second boarding pass for Chicago only to find they didn’t have the gate number! So I found a terminal and it was Gate 81. SFO Airport was kind of snazzy and there were quite a few bears walking around! I ate at Fung Lum and it cost me almost $19 for a meal and a drink! The portions were not good either. I had noodles, orange chicken, and Mongolian beef with a strawberry banana drink (which was probably organic as it must have cost me $5 for the small bottle!). After I did some messaging on my computer and activating the travel data plan on my cell phone, I boarded my second flight to Chicago. The plane was only about half full and while I sat in the same window seat, there was no one in my row of seats so I was free to move about. After we took off and reached cruising altitude, I took out my laptop bag from the overhead compartment and had it on the seat next to me. The almost 4 hour flight was boring and I couldn’t sleep at all though my headache was getting better. I was just so restless being cramped with the lack of legroom and the LCD screens being distracting. I played a bit of Kirby Mass Attack on my DS to pass an hour of time. Seeing the lights of Chicago outside made me sad that I won’t get a chance to visit this time. We finally got to Chicago O’Hare Airport after 5am CST. It was a pretty neat looking airport though I had less than an hour layover to browse. Like in SF, I had to find my gate as my pass didn’t have it. In this case, it was C78 if I remember correctly. Onboard the plane, I got seat 22F so the window seat but on the right side this time. I was not in the direction of the sun so there wasn’t much scenery outside of a nice blanket of clouds early in the flight. I had orange juice to drink but didn’t do much more. The flight was about an hour and I arrived in Columbus, Ohio before 9am.
Daddy Jeff Knoll and his partner Eddie picked me at the airport and we went back to their home in Hilliard. Daddy Jeff and I played for a couple of hours, releasing him from his long bonds of celibacy (jackin’ it doesn’t count, Daddybear!) and pent up sexual energy - WOOF! After some snuggling (I fell asleep I was so relaxed and exhausted) and getting him off, Eddie picked up some pepperoni deep dish pizzas from Little Caesars for lunch and a few Dr. Peppers. Not long after I laid down to nap that Daddy Jeff joined. We snuggled and I slept a while until he got up eventually and I slept some more until it was 6pm. I dressed and they took me to Chef’s House Family Restaurant for dinner. It was a simple diner, nothing special but they have been eating there for years. I ordered a Cajun style chicken burger with added bacon and fries. The fries portion was quite small though it wasn’t that expensive. We chatted about a couple of leather guys we knew as we were eating. We next went to The Little Ice Cream Shoppe nearby and I ordered the Monster Cookie which is two scoops of cookie dough ice cream, one cookies and cream scoop in the middle, crushed oreos on the sides, chocolate sauce drizzled, whipped cream with chocolate sprinkles, and topped off with a warm chocolate chip cookie! Since they were out of the cookie dough flavor, I chose salted caramel as a substitute. YUM!!! I stopped into a video game shop two stores over. It was not a bad little shop, kind of like a much smaller version of Willow back in Langley. I saw the original Mega Man game for NES but it was $80 used. I was tempted to get Metroid Prime Trilogy for Wii at $45 used but decided not to. The newer games were the same price in US dollars so buying the same game is cheaper in Canada technically. The store clerks were watching the 1995 Mortal Kombat: The Journey Begins animated movie and overhearing the questionable voice acting and dialogue… ugh! I’m glad I forgot that movie! LOL! We left and returned back to Daddy Jeff and Eddie’s home. We spent the rest of the night on our laptops/macbooks while both of them continued to smoke cigar after cigar (Eddie stuck to his pipe though). I slept in the spare bedroom and had trouble sleeping due to the pet dander and I was itching a bit.
I got about 2 or 3 hours of sleep before Daddy Jeff woke me up. I took a shower and dressed (fresh socks and boxers felt so much better). I said goodbye to Eddie and Daddy Jeff took me back to Columbus to the Greyhound station. The sunrise was pretty nice to look at during the drive. I said goodbye to Daddy Jeff and thanked him for his hospitality. Inside the station I got my boarding pass and while I had an hour until departure at 7:55am, I went to the restaurant in the back. I couldn’t have a chicken sandwich as the grills weren’t ready yet so I had a Danish, cookie (for later), and pop. Back at the terminal I waited for the bus. The other scheduled buses had some fucking woofy drivers! I was getting hard and I think I found my new career choice LOL! I noticed a couple of senior Amish couples, one of the men was bearded and he seemed friendly. This is probably the very first time I ever seen Amish people in real life. Anyways, 7:55am comes and my bus doesn’t arrive. Okay, a little late I thought... but then it doesn’t arrive for just under two hours! Fuck, that’s bad. The driver said he didn’t know what happened to the original driver as he had some “family emergency” and threw the schedule of out whack (the people at the stop before us had to wait over two hours!). Before boarding I got a bottle of water from the machine given I didn’t know if we would get sufficient breaks on the way. I had a seat to myself but found the wifi is password protected (WTF?) so I assumed you had to pay to know the password and I didn’t bother asking. Our first stop was Trotwood and we picked up a few people there. We went on the I-70 to continue to Indianapolis. I was letting Daddy Jeff of Alton, Illinois who was picking me up at my stop in Effingham, know my progress. I got to Indy at 12:30pm and I noticed the previous group of riders who left earlier than us was there and (Fuck!) they would be boarding the same bus as us! I guess this was to “make up” for the schedule screw up! I had a washroom break and got myself a 7-inch pepperoni pizza to eat and apple to take with me. Back on the bus, one of the senior Amish couples took my seat so I ended sitting next to a guy who took the window seat. The trip to Effingham was pretty uncomfortable and boring. Daddy Jeff got to the bus stop - which was at a McDonalds - before I did as we continued texting each other as to how far as I was. After we arrived, I immediately knew where Daddy Jeff was (The red pants and orange shirt gave it away LOL!) and he gave me a kiss when I approached him. He put my luggage and laptop bag in the back of his truck (??? Thankfully, he was right in that it would be okay - sorry, I'm not used to trucks) and he had a phone charger that worked for my phone so I used it as he started on his way back to his home in Alton. Early on the way, he saw someone walking on the side of the highway and stops and picks him up by having him jump into the back of the truck! Given that this wouldn’t legally fly in some places, I was very surprised (and hoping he wouldn’t take anything from my bags!). But Daddy Jeff considered it his “civic duty” since the guy shouldn’t be walking on the side of the road. As Daddy Jeff pulled out to continue, he gets stopped by a state trooper! Holy shit! I thought it was his getting caught taking in the hitchhiker and riding in the back of his truck. The state trooper came on my side of the truck and asked for our IDs - all three of us. Daddy Jeff pointed out I was Canadian and the trooper asked for whatever “Canadian ID” I had so I gave my driver’s license. Thinking he was pulled over because of the hitchhiker, the trooper returned about 30 minutes later (Daddy noticed that the trooper took a picture with his phone) with our IDs and two tickets to Daddy Jeff. What were his crimes? The license plate on the back of his truck was upside down (I guess the original reason why he was pulled over), and his front windshield had a crack on it (due to recent hail in his area). The hitchhiker thing? Nothing at all. The other shitty thing about this is that because it happened in Effingham county, he has to drive 2 hours from Alton to Effingham to go to the scheduled court date in July. He asked the trooper if he could transfer the charge to a court closer to him and the trooper said no given where it happened. We left and continued west though I became concerned that the trooper using my license (even though I got no ticket or was charged) meant I had something on record that Customs could see and this would make coming back to the US a problem. I’ll have to look into this and will maybe know my answer later this year. Anyways, Daddy Jeff dropped the hitchhiker off just before the bridge to St. Louis and we continued to Alton. We got to his small home and I was introduced to his neighbours. We dropped my stuff at his place and I met his alpha dog, Lady. While big and friendly, she can be intrusive at times. Daddy Jeff and I played a bit (fuck, is Daddy’s cock thick - it tires out my mouth in seconds LOL!) and set my stuff up. Around sunset, I put on my leather boots and a leather jacket of Daddy Jeff’s (that was a little too big for me LOL!) and rode on the back of a motorcycle for the very first time. It was exhilarating! I’ll admit I was afraid and it took a while to process and get used to but later in the night, I was becoming more comfortable with it. Daddy Jeff’s next door neighbours joined us too. Our first stop was a view of the sunset on the Mississippi River at a state park lock and dam. I got some sufficient pictures and even had one of Daddy Jeff and I together. We then went to the Piasa Bird Caves but couldn’t get inside (damn!). We went home afterwards after some more driving around. For supper, Daddy Jeff made a pot roast in his crock pot slow cooker with carrots and potatoes. It was very good that when Daddy Jeff reached his limit, I finished off the rest of the majority of the roast. I got a chance to open all my EBay and Amazon purchases that Daddy Jeff was hoarding for me for a few weeks and everything arrived okay (I'll show one cool bust I got in my next month's entry!). We watched a couple of episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation he had DVR’ed before heading to bed around 1am. Lady joined us on the bed that it became uncomfortable given she was heavy and my legs were sandwiched in the middle between her at the foot of the bed and Daddy Jeff next to me. I was sleeping diagonally with no leg room. I tried to nudge Lady to move but she wouldn’t budge. I slept on and off throughout the night.
I'll upload Part 2 of my trip tomorrow. :)