"Sandra Bullock could fly out on a jet, come over and fuck me silly, and it still wouldn't top this moment. Here in the car, listening to this music, eating this gigantic Nut Log, this is the best moment of the day. Its all downhill from here."
Yes, the day topped out early for the Hall boys.
We're on our way out to Gencon, the world's largest gaming convention. Board games that is. Table top. Pen and paper. Dice. Little plastic figures. Nerds. LARP.
Today was all about the journey, however. At 5 AM my uncle Donald and I (Donald not a gamer, just along to help me at and around the convention, so his reaction should be pretty interesting.) left Lawrence in his truck, and plowed through the heart of the Midwest and the Bible Belt.
The first pitstop was the real highlight. An American tradition. Stuckey's.
For those shamefully unaware, Stuckey's is a chain of truckstops that used to pepper the country at exits all along every major highway. Now relegated almost exclusively to the Midwest and deep South, what Stuckey's are left tend to be shacked up with a Diary Queen, and continue to offer their unique blend of nick-nacks, trucker tools, coloring books and snacks.
In particular, the Pecan Nut Log and the Goo Goo. Either one is rich enough to induce a colon explosion upon contact.
So it was that, Nut Logs in hand (an an emergency stash of Goo Goos in the cooler) that we hit the road, led on by the soothing sounds of John Anderson's 'Swingin'. Red letter day, right there.
The Midwest is an odd place. I can say that, having lived in a small town for so long. Mostly, its a bunch of little road stops in a state of disrepair, inhabited by old men and truckers.
But, there's something to be proud of here. Oh, sure the whole 'Bible Belt' protest against everything new and different attitude is kinda creepy... but really, that's just something that's gotten worse in the last ten years or so as the country, especially the Heartland, has begun to falter. People are afraid, they look back to the times when they were happier, not sure exactly why those times seemed better, and they try to use powerful relics like religions to recall them back into existence. I can't blame them.
But, its still friendly folks, hard workers, and green, so much green. And peaceful, restful quiet.
I was sitting in town square in my little hometown of Baldwin the other evening. Despite the lovely new fountain they've installed, and some great public works projects, still a lot of the businesses have closed, a lot of the businesses are in disrepair.
Its all part of the trend of the large business swallowing the small, the large city swallowing the town. The death of small town America. But I've lived in both, and while I love city life, I can't help but also love the quiet of Baldwin. No constant drum of traffic. No endless sirens. No fighting drunks. Just peace.
For a moment, I looked at quiet, slowly dying Baldwin and thought "This used to be a place you could be proud of." But I realized that wasn't right. The truth is that people have just forgotten what to be proud of.
Its really not monuments of capitalism and monsters of industry. Progress shouldn't be measured in mass marketing and production. Progress should be measured in peace and community. And there it was in sleepy little Baldwin.
It may not have the energy I need now, while I'm young and speeding through life. But it was a good place to be born, and it would be a good place to die.
... I'm getting off track. Gencon. We continued our journey, looking for a good Mom and Pop place to get lunch. Donald and I have both come to generally avoid chains when we can, and prefer fresh food (something terribly hard to find in Vegas). We wanted to find someplace delightfully weird, perhaps a "Somali Tamale" or "King Tut's Nut Hut", but to no avail. Finally, we stopped at Country Kitchen, a modest truck stop diner off of I-70 in Effingham (home of The Cross!). Surprisingly good. All you can eat friend chicken and mashed potatoes. Fresh, hot, crispy. Not necessarily exceptional, but probably the best truck stop I've eaten at.
After battling the Itis (and possibly running over a hobo? We'll never know for sure) we made it to Indianapolis.... which is kind of a boring town. For a place as big as it is, there is virtually no nightlife here. Hopefully Gencon will offer up some more interesting nocturnal activities via con events.
But it was good to be among fellow nerds, already gathering for pick-up games in the convention center halls, a full day before the event even started. Looks to be a big turn-out this year. The number of sexy tattooed gamer girls continues to grow, which is always a plus.
After scoping out the convention center and Lucas Oil Stadium, we succumbed to a road-weary nap, and awoke to a sudden and tremendous lightening storm. I've missed Kansas's tremendous storms, so it was nice to get a little nature show while I was on vacation. The lightening was the entertainment during dinner at Kazablanka, a little Greek restaurant that only had maybe 6 Greek items on the menu. We got Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches, which were really very good.
And then we spent the rest of the night laughing at this:
Overall, a successful and pretty easy trip. Tomorrow marks the first day of the 'con proper, and the Web of Spider-Man release event tournament for me.
Also, some special activities reserved for after the con...
Tune in tomorrow!
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