Ryan and Luke's Great Adventure: Pt. 1

Sometime back in July, it was 2 AM in Andrea's basemen as Ryan and I tried to stay awake. We were on the final installment of the Back to the Future trilogy when we began to talk about how we should do something great before we went back to school. The obvious pick was a road trip. But where to?

Luke: "How about Nashville?"
Ryan: "No! That's a tourist town. We're not going to a tourist town."
Luke: "Wha?"
Andrea: "He's right."
Luke: "Well we have to have a good road. Like, we need to have a long drive if it's going to be a road trip."
Ryan: "Well ok, but where?"
Luke: ...
Andrea: ...
Ryan: "Do you have a passport?"

We deliberated for quite some time. Weeks even. For a while, the destinations was the Ben & Jerry's Factory in Vermont. Then we were all set to go to Toronto. Finally, we decided on Chicago, taking Highway 30 straight there. And after loads of planning (packing clothes in a backpack and charging our phones), we set out on our great adventure.

I started the day off right with a McDonald's coffee and breakfast sandwich, while Ryan went with a coffee from Speedway. It was very rainy in the morning as we drove through the more Amish area of Ohio.



After the coffee and breakfast disaster on an English muffin, nature called and Ryan and I were desperate to find a toilet. We finally turned into a small speck in the middle of a corn field called Bucyrus. We searched through Bucyrus for a restaurant. Then we found Bucyrus High School. Conveniently, it was a teacher in service day. We marched past the office assistants, found the restroom, and took care of everything. As we did a donut and peeled out of the parking lot, we ditched our trash in the neighbor's garbage can.

At some point we got to Indiana. Indiana was home to the worst drivers we saw. If you are from Indiana, I pity you. But alas, I regress. We stopped for gas and decided to look for a Qdoba because you only live once. Garmin set up a route that took us right through Ft. Wayne. Fair enough. A half hour we finally arrived, gorged ourselves, and were off. We decided to not get the cashier's number, even though it was quite obvious there was natural chemistry. What a shame. But that's life on the road. I imagine it's how Poison used to feel.

When we were nearly to Illinois, Indiana finally provided some noteworthy pit stops.

Ryan: "Did you see that!?"
Luke: "That's a dragon!"
Ryan: "Did they have go carts!?!?!"
Luke: "I'm looking!"
(Pause)
Luke: "Yup, turn this thing around!"

I don't know what celestial being inspired the creation of this wonder world, but it was phenomenal. Putt putt. Batting cages. And of course, go carts.



The jury is still out on who won the contest. One thing is certain, we beat the tar out of each other in those little things.

As we continued on, we found another gold mine. As we took a last second 90 degrees turn at 45 miles per hour, we arrived at the Salvation Army. There, we found novelty shirts drenched in irony. Cheerleading camp. Bragging about grandchildren. Previous employment. Little league jersey. You never know what you'll find.



Finally, after driving through the ghetto, we arrived in Chi Town. It took us about 8 hours, but we had done it.



To be continued...