About the rest of the trip

I already talked about the game that this trip was designed for, but I can't help but tell you a few brief stories from the rest of the trip. In bullet form!

- The first night, we only made it to Des Moines. You would think that finding a hotel in Des Moines would generally be pretty easy. Not so fast, my friend. It was the weekend of the Iowa state wrestling tournament, and if you know anything about Iowa, you know that they love their wrestling. All the hotels were booked and chock full of wrestlers. After getting ourselves a room, this still led to a couple of problems. A) Way too much spandex and cauliflower ear on the local news and B) It was impossible to get to the continental breakfast. Wrestlers like their breakfast.

- Our next stop was visiting a friend in northwestern Arkansas. We ate dinner at a restaurant in Springdale, near Fayetteville, and saw athletes affiliated with three different schools pass through. Auburn, Ole Miss and Michigan, if you were wondering. No, I don't know what sport they played.

- Driving through Pine Bluff, I have more respect for Torii Hunter, coming out of that town. Most cities have a nice side of town, but I'll be damned if we could find it in Pine Bluff.

- Speaking of rural Arkansas, driving through the small town of Jerome, population 46, we saw a man walking down the street. In one hand, he had a bucket and tucked under the other arm was a shotgun. We were speechless for about 5 minutes. I'm never going back to Jerome, Arkansas.

- Driving through Marlin, Texas, doing 77 in a 70, a cop actually drove across the median to get us a ticket. The fine was 140 bucks. All of this is ridiculous. I'm never going back to Marlin, Texas.

-I ate at Sonic for the first time ever. I like the tater tots.

I'm completely certain I forgot some important elements to this trip, but I'm sure those stories will crop up in later posts. Back to regular posting tomorrow.