Tag: adventure

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Side Quests

Summer had to work this morning, so I slept in a while, then got up for some leftover corned beef for brunch. Eaddie left for school and I got cleaned up for a trip to Conway with Summer to pick up some stuff for work. I had gotten tickets to see The Super Mario Galaxy Movie so it wouldn’t be a whole trip just for work. I really wanted to see Project Hail Mary, but the release of Mario knocked it out of every single larger theater.

I lost track of time and we got out the door way later than I planned, but we made it just in time to walk straight back and sit down at the end of the trailers. A family with at least one kid was sat right next to our seats in an otherwise mostly empty auditorium, but I sat down and shared an armrest on principle because I had reserved our seats ahead. It wasn’t completely unbearable.

I thought the movie was fun, but the 3D didn’t really do much for it, which was a surprise. After that, we went to Splash to pick up Summer’s stuff. I asked for the key to the manual wash and was able to give the Model 3 one of the best washes it has ever had. I had forgotten how vibrant the paint was.

By the time I finished, we were both super hungry, so we made our way downtown and ended up at the Rogue Roundabout. Summer didn’t have her ID for some reason, so our server said she would have to call over the manager. I didn’t recognize him, but he learned where we were from and said he was born and raised there, having graduated high school a year after me. I asked his name and learned he was the same Chris I had driven to the emergency room after stepping on broken glass at Cole’s bachelor party camp trip some fifteen years ago. I still had photos, and even had his number saved in my phone.

After that, we had several drinks before our food came out an hour and a half later. Everything tasted great – it was just incredibly, frustratingly slow. We caught Chris outside as we left, and I shared a couple pictures. Then we started toward home. Summer had previously said no to Long John Silver’s when we were thinking of where to eat, which put the bug in my brain that I should pick some up for later.

We went through the drive-through where I ordered a family mean, and was subsequently parked to wait for our food. I ended up going inside and had a great conversation with another customer that came in after me. We chatted intermittently with the guy who took my order, since he was busy running around behind the counter. He gave both of us free drinks for waiting so long, and then I remembered their delicious strawberry lemonade. The restaurant always looks super dated and worn down, but has never been what I would consider dirty. The staff has always been super friendly, and the food has always been fresh. I wish them success, because I miss the one in town.

I eventually got my food and we headed home, snacking on clam strips as it started to pour down rain. We made it home where Muad’Dib had apparently been left alone for several hours. He ran up to me like he thought I had gone forever. I had asked Eaddie about being home, but I guess I wasn’t specific enough because she had been gone to Tech for several hours before we made it back. Everything was intact though, so maybe he’ll be okay to be left alone a little more frequently.

First goes the body, then goes the bones. Then all that’s left is dust.

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Together We Can Take the Long Way Home

Eaddie beat us all up and into the shower this morning, which was great. We all managed to get ready and left right at checkout time. The kids actually left a little before us so they could get lunch downtown. I thought my parents had already left, so we headed toward Rogers for lunch, but then discovered they were still back at the hotel. Summer and I got to the Supercharger and walked around with Muad’Dib for 20 minutes or so, then put him back in the car and walked to Việt Buffet.

My parents arrived with perfect timing just shortly after we walked up, and we had a great lunch. I’m worried they won’t last long because of how many people were on staff and how empty the restaurant was, but all of the food was great. It’s a long drive even for a day trip, and there’s not much else up there to do that we can’t find closer.

Mom and Dad left a little before us, and then we still had to walk back to the car, but we got home just behind them. I took Muad’Dib on a run since we hadn’t been through the neighborhood in a couple months, and I could tell he was tired from an adventurous weekend. We visited my parents briefly, then made it home to unpack and clean up.

Eaddie had a sorority thing in the evening, so took a moment to decompress, and then I had to load up my loudspeakers to take to work for the upcoming picnic. I’m excited to actually get to use them properly, especially with all the new accessories I’ve been picking up.

Summer passed out early, and even Eaddie got home and went to bed before I finally got there. It was a fun and exhausting weekend, but man, what a year.

Better than watching Geller bending silver spoons

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Makin’ Our Way Downtown

Summer and I got out for breakfast alone this morning because the kids didn’t want to get up. We drove across town to a place called The Squatch, where we had a breakfast burrito, biscuits and gravy, and avocado toast. The toast was probably the best of them. None of it was bad, but none of it was great either. It was a cute place though.

Afterward, we made our way back to the hotel and I ran around with Muad’Dib a bit. Evidently there was some kind of a footrace going on across the street, because we saw a few runners and could hear the commotion. We eventually got everyone out to go downtown and walk around, dropping the Model 3 off to charge at the top of the hill before taking Eli’s truck to park down the hill. I mostly stayed out of the shops with Muad’Dib, but it was really nice outside. As lunchtime approached, we ended up eating at New Delhi Cafe where they had a fusion of Indian and American. Eli and I split a burger and a curry chicken wrap. Eaddie had some butter chicken, and Summer had a huge fillet of fried fish and chips. Everything was really good, but I think the fish was probably my favorite bite.

We made it back for the afternoon show, which was much better than the last. We all had a good time before going back to the room to rest a bit. I ran around with Muad’Dib some more, and the others spent some time at the clubhouse playing mini golf and pool.

Dinner time eventually came around and the four of us met my parents, Uncle Rick, and Ginny at Red’s Pizzeria. Their four-generation sourdough pizza crust was great, and then we picked up my car on the way back for the evening show.

Everyone had a great time, but even Muad’Dib was exhausted by the end of it. We made it back to the room and started settling down for bed. Of course the Harry Potter marathon was finishing up, so I had trouble as my eyes kept wandering over to the TV, but I finally got to bed after midnight.

fifteen

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Cavalcade of Home Movies

Summer worked this morning, so I slept in a little while before having a quick breakfast. Summer made it home and cleaned up, and then I gave Muad’Dib a bath. Eli came over, and eventually left with Eaddie for Eureka Springs ahead of us. Summer and I finally got things packed up and left, stopping in Ozark for some food and a Supercharge.

We got to the Inn of the Ozarks with enough time to check in and decompress a bit before dinner. I needed to charge, so we dropped my car off at the trolley stop and had Eli pick us up to meet my parents, Uncle Rick, and Ginny at La Familia for dinner. Muad’Dib had to sit on the porch and wait for us, but he did great.

After dinner, we got back just in time for the evening tribute show. There were more people in the audience than I had ever seen, which was a shame because the tribute show was less magic and more of a talk-show style tribute with a surprising amount of home movies on a projector. It seemed like half the audience left halfway through that.

I rode around the parking lot with Muad’Dib before finally making it back to the room for the evening. The first couple Harry Potter movies played before everyone started to pass out.

It’s knot juggling.

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Wheely Bad Service

I took a toasted pork chop sandwich for breakfast, and a heated lunch box with some chicken, sweet potato, and broccoli for lunch today. In spite of all the frustration, I was excited to get my Onewheel back in the morning. Teisha called when it showed up, and I loaded it into the car. The entire day was spent at the office wrapping up some of my understanding of Autopilot, so now I’m ready to actually build out some stuff around that and properly manage our devices.

My heated lunch box worked perfectly, and my meal was piping hot. Afterward, we took a break for some cake for Janice’s birthday. The afternoon went by fairly quickly after that, and we made our way home through heavy traffic.

Summer was in the tub, and Eaddie was leaving to play pickleball at Old Post, so I decided to take Muad’Dib out there to ride around. We never did find the kids, but we had a good time making a big loop around the park before coming back to the house.

As for the Onewheel; Future Motion did their usual shit job. It started with insufficient packaging because they didn’t replace the top egg carton inside the retail package, which I absolutely shipped to them. The Onewheel itself was completely covered in some kind of dust or powder that just blew off, so it had clearly been sitting out somewhere for a while. They replaced my Maghandle for some reason, and gave me a super shitty torn-up one with a really bad rubber grip. The plastics on the bottom corners also had huge chunks hanging off like they had curbed it multiple times. They rode it hard for 27 miles, which I’m not surprised wasn’t enough for them to reproduce my motor disengage issue. They did give me someone else’s used TFL valve stem cap though.

When we got back to the house, Summer and I ate some more leftovers. I saw another possum on camera under the house, so I had to investigate that. I have no idea how they’re getting in, because I walked the entire perimeter of the house and couldn’t find any holes apart from the small one at the top of the house under the eave of the roof.

Summer went to bed and Eaddie got home early and disappeared into her room. That left me to my own chores for the night before an even earlier bedtime than when I actually have to work the next day.

#FFM

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Flower Farm

We got up early today and basically had to drag Eaddie out of the house so we could make it up to Fayetteville in time to get everything done. Eli showed up at the house early, and I don’t know why she took so long, but we eventually made it out. I let Muad’Dib run to my parents’ house, and we tied him up to spend the day with Dad.

We made it to Alma for a short charge while we snacked on some cold chicken from Harp’s. Then we headed straight to the Rivercrest Orchard tulip festival. There were a ton of cars and people there, and it was even more “official” looking than I expected. It looked like they didn’t allow pets because they had food crops like strawberries growing as well.

You could pay per stem if you wanted to pick flowers, or they had several activities that were mostly free all around the property. We walked through the fields that smelled great, rode a little tractor train, and then a train on rails. I picked us up a couple loaded pretzels that were okay, but dressed more like pizza, so that was weird. I probably wouldn’t do it again.

They all seemed to really enjoyed it, but I think next time we’ll try another location. Getting out was tough, because presumably somebody gridlocked the place trying to get in and out. Cars were stuck in a complete standstill, unable to come in or out. Finally some employees showed up to try and clear the mess, and we were able to leave.

We went to charge in Rogers, and roamed a PetCo for a bit until that was done. Then we went to Viet Buffet for a late lunch. They were super slow and ran really lean on the food, but everything was still really good. They didn’t have any of the sausage I liked anywhere, but they had a few new things to try.

From there, we had two more stops for food to take home. Eli’s dad wanted some Pollo Campero, which was in the nearby Walmart. They must have taken a page out of Popeye’s playbook, because they were completely out of chicken and said it would take an hour for them to make a 20-piece order, so we left without. Next up was Hawaiian Bros. after griping at Eaddie for eating mine twice in a row. I don’t even know that it was worth it the last two times, but I’ve just been so upset that I haven’t gotten to eat my own food that I keep going back for more.

Finally we headed home, with a quick stop in Ozark to finish the trip. We picked up Muad’Dib after his day with Dad, and then the kids had to leave for their band thing. Summer didn’t feel great, so she was pretty lame the rest of the night. Eli spotted a jumping spider on my car right as we got back, so I captured it and tried to figure out how to raise it in captivity, but didn’t make much real progress with it. Hopefully tomorrow I can come up with something a little better for it.

let’s put a smile on that face

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Concrete and Grass

I didn’t sleep much last night because we had to get up early to get back up to Denton when the kids checked out of their hotel. Breakfast wasn’t quite as good this morning either, and I didn’t feel super for most of the morning. Most of the day ended up being just waiting around anyway, because the kids wanted to watch other bands until they finished at one in the afternoon.

Summer and I got their bags and then went to South Lakes Park with Muad’Dib for a while. We walked some around the mostly grassy “park,” then sat at a picnic table for a while, and finally walked through a wooded path before heading back to the university. When we got there, we found a swinging bench and hung out right outside the performing arts center until the kids came out.

By the time we got them, the kids were hungry. I found a place called Hawaiian Bros Island Grill that everyone liked, so we went there and ate outside. The food was great, and super filling. Then we went to Buc-ee’s to charge. Everyone wanted to wait in the car, so I walked around with Muad’Dib for several minutes before we finally made it back to the hotel.

Eli and Summer napped for a bit while Eaddie and I doom-scrolled and watched TV. Then as the sun went down, we loaded up to head to Medieval times for dinner and a show.

We arrived a while after the doors opened, which was fine. We weren’t looking to spend a lot of time in the gift shop. We had our picture taken and found our seats, then enjoyed a two hour show of poorly choreographed fighting in narrow seats with greasy hands. I checked in on the cabin camera frequently to see how Muad’Dib was handling three hours in the car, and he seemed to be okay in his bed. He was really happy when we finally made it back though.

We got to the hotel, Summer and I walked around with him for a moment, and finally made it up to the room for bed.

I’ve had it with this noise floor.

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Downtown Dallas

We slept in a little bit and then went downstairs for a late breakfast since they didn’t shut down until nearly lunch time. They had eggs a few ways, waffles, and the other usual suspects, and it was all pretty good. It took us a while to get around to much after that. I ended up taking a work call at one while Summer looked for things to do. Then we headed downtown.

We stopped to supercharge since the hotel charger cost more per kWh, and made a loop around the shopping area with Muad’Dib while we waited. Then we went to Mutt’s Cantina downtown to see what that was about. It was a cute little dog park with several dogs, but upon further inspection, you had to pay for a day pass on top of having other food and drinks available. We ended up leaving and just walked around looking for something to eat.

A few blocks later, we found a place called Malai Kitchen with a patio, and were seated with the most incredible server. We had a couple drinks and some really good food in the perfect weather. On the way back to the car, Summer wanted to stop at the Capital One Cafe that we saw, and ended up getting a free cappuccino for having a Capital One card.

From there, we headed straight back to the hotel. We thought we’d have a swim in the pool, but it was cold in spite of being indoors. We went back to the room and watched the Marvel marathon on FX until bed.

Eggs for days.

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Road Dog

We got up fairly early this morning and got ready for our long drive to Dallas. I did all my packing and we got on the road right about when we wanted. Our first stop was Alma for a charge and some early lunch at Sonic. As soon as we walked up, one of the carhops offered us a pup cup of some whipped cream, which Muad’Dib loved. It was probably the busiest either of us had ever seen a Sonic, so the food was hot and fresh.

We continued on to our next two charge stops at Henryetta and Denison before finally making it to our hotel in Dallas. We barely had time to get changed before we had to head up to Denton, stopping one more time at the nearby Buccee’s for some more charge and a quick dinner. Summer said Muad’Dib found and killed a baby rabbit while I was inside getting food, which was particularly frustrating because she had his e-collar ready to go.

We arrived at the Murchison Performing Arts Center just in time to find Eli’s family and then got our pick of seats. I figured Tech was the last band to play after a long day of music, and there were still quite a few people there, but there were a lot of empty seats. We just happened to sit behind a composer of one of the pieces they played, and I convinced the girls to get their programs signed between sets.

After the show, there was a brief reception with some hors d’oeuvres. The kids eventually came out and we chatted for a little bit, but then Summer and I had to get back to Dallas. Luckily traffic was much more manageable at night. We got up to the room and crashed.

King size!

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Walk in the Park

Summer went to work, but I was off for Presidents’ Day, so I got up and made myself some rice and egg for breakfast. I wanted to get lunch with her later, so I got around for a little bit of productivity, but didn’t really accomplish much after an anxiety attack. I ended up sitting in a bath for a little while before I finally took Muad’Dib to get her. We went to Cici’s since I rarely have an opportunity to go for their Monday and Tuesday deal any more. The food was good, and then I vacuumed my car after I dropped her back off at work.

As we rode home, I decided to stop by Allen’s house on a whim just to see if he was still alive. We ended up chatting for about an hour as I lost track of time, so then I raced home to get Summer for her vein appointment. Muad’Dib and I hung out in the parking lot while she went in for the procedure, and then we went up to Pleasant View Park to check out the dog park.

The dog park was way in the back behind the ballfields. There were only a couple people there with their dogs, and they were friendly up until another old lady showed up with a large pitbull. That was Mrs. Carnahan, an old junior high math teacher, who I didn’t have, but recognized. Her pitbull had a short tussle with one of the other dogs, so they ended up going to the other side of the fence, and eventually left. Muad’Dib didn’t mind too much though, and we stuck around for a little longer before going out to walk a lap around the pond.

When we got back home, I drained the basement and then put out the rest of the poison because I got video earlier in the morning of three rats on camera at once. Then Summer and I watched Cruella before bed. She was weary about it, but I thought it was a great movie. I finally watered my plants, and eventually made it to bed.

People do need a villain to believe in.