Tag: adventure

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Middling America

We got up early this morning to hit the road toward Hot Springs. I haven’t actually gotten gas since the prices have started going up, so I felt my soul leave my body as I filled my nearly-empty tank. We got the girls, and headed straight down Highway 7 in the rain. The roads were clear, but it was evident they have been doing a lot of work on the scenic highway since the last time we came down. We crossed at least two new bridges, and bumped along several grooves left by new drainage pipes installed across the road. Then as we neared the end of the journey, they had torn down a gas station and installed a giant roundabout in its place.

Once we got into town, we headed straight to the Mid-America Science Museum. They were pretty packed, and the place was crawling with little children. I had hoped there would be more for young teens, but I think both Autumn and Eaddie had really outgrown most of what they had. It was hard to not feel like we paid that much money just to play with wooden blocks.

The Tesla show was pretty neat, though short. They had a planetarium as well, but they were just showing a movie about our cosmic timeline that mostly bored us all. The guy that sat next to me spent the entire show explaining every single thing to his small child, which I begrudgingly endured. We thought we’d get some food at whatever deli they had, but that was shut down and we had to resort to cold sandwiches out of a refrigerator in the gift shop.

We had enough time for an early dinner before check-in time at the hotel, so I routed us to a Mexican restaurant that was apparently shuttered. Our second choice was an Italian place that just happened to be in the same parking lot, so at least that was easy. I didn’t even order an entrée myself, and just ate half of Autumn’s medium pepperoni pizza instead. We still had more than enough to bring a slice and some bread back for a midnight snack.

I took Summer and Eaddie for a tour around the hotel once we got settled, and then we came down for the evening social once it started. The girls didn’t want to stay down though, so they took some food and drinks back to the room while Summer and I relaxed downstairs. We thought we might all swim, but everyone was so tired they just wanted to hang out in the room for the rest of the night. Summer was, of course, in bed before sundown. Autumn took the sleeper sofa. Eaddie found comfort in the floor under the computer desk because she’s weird.

Spring break has officially started.

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Helton John

We got up and around this morning, I took a shower, and we went to Sam’s for lunch. I knew immediately that I had eaten too much, even though the fish and chicken were both much smaller cuts than usual. Summer and Eaddie went on to their houses while I went back home to get ready for our trip to Little Rock.

I worked up a headache bad enough to take some medicine. Summer said she encountered some attitude with Autumn that ended in her being told to leave the house, and Summer and Eaddie coming back to my house. Eaddie just hung out there while Summer and I went to pick up Suzanne and Trent.

We made it to Conway and stopped for a carwash. Then we went straight to The Butchershop for dinner. I was still pretty full from lunch, and also could not get comfortable in the booth where we were seated, so I was just super uncomfortable the entire time.

After we ate and packed our leftovers, we headed to the arena and parked right up front in one of the main lots. Then we had to walk around the building to find the end of the line until the doors opened. We spotted Wesley and Cindy, as well as Ben from Oakland as the line folded on itself. Some girl cut in front of us in the line, which was pretty pointless on account of how fast the line eventually started moving. It really burned Summer up, but she wasn’t willing to do anything about it either. Next time we just need to bring some pigs blood or something to throw at people like that.

We were sat dead center at the opposite end of the arena to the stage, which made for a great view of the lighting and projections. I knew exactly which songs I thought I would know, and a good time was had by all. Evidently Elton John does not walk across the stage. He rides his piano wherever he wants to go. I thought it would have made a really cool trick, but it seemed like he literally only used it for transportation.

It took us forever to get moving once we got back to the car. We ended up hopping a curb and getting right out after a while. Then it was a quick drive home and quickly to bed.

My favorite was the song about “Who’s the boss?” Hold me closer, Tony Danza!

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Highking Trails

Summer picked up fast food breakfast this morning, and then everyone got up to go to Magazine Mountain. We stopped at a couple overlooks and then the visitor’s center, then made a couple loops around the top of the mountain before parking at the lodge to hike up to the top. Eaddie would never admit it, but she was sweet and walked with me while Summer and Autumn walked way ahead.

After the hike, we stopped at my house and cleaned up the back yard after last night’s fire. Then Eaddie rode her bike to my parents’ house while we drove Autumn home to get her car. We all met back at my parents’ house for some leftovers. I rolled around in Mom’s wheelchair for a bit. Eventually Autumn left for her father’s for the week, and the girls and I went home so Eaddie could clean her room and do some laundry.

Summer had to return to work for the week and went to bed, so I stayed up and played some Don’t Starve while Eaddie completed her chores.

Finally made it to winter…

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WIN█

I got up early this morning after having some trouble sleeping, then ran home to shower. On the way out of town, I stopped by Casey’s for a cookie, and McDonald’s for breakfast. It was a long drive to Bentonville to get Mitch, so I put on The Matrix to listen to the original before we watched Resurrections at noon.

I made it up there with enough time to get a little food, so headed back to Fayetteville and went into the Buffalo Wild Wings right outside the Malco theater. It was exactly how I remembered it in Russellville. So much so, that we had trouble getting out in time to make it to the movie. I didn’t even have time to get through concessions for popcorn.

The theater was really nice. I had been to a movie there once before, but it was a really long time ago. The Dolby theater with reclining seats reminded me a lot of the one we visited in Dallas, but through all of the trailers and bumpers, I couldn’t tell that the height channels were used at all. Even the feature film didn’t have any obvious Atmos sound, which was super disappointing. The movie itself was pretty good though. They could have cut the runtime in half if they hadn’t included all of the clips from the original, but I guess it served to point out every one of the callbacks.

After the movie, we went to Arcadia Retrocade for a little bit. Mitch had never been, and I thought we’d spend some time there and reminisce. He had been struggling with some anxiety all day though, so we ended up playing a few games for just a short bit, and then heading on back to his place.

On the way back, we stopped by Big Whiskey’s for a while. I finally got my soda, and eventually we got some dinner as we chatted away. It was really great getting to catch up some more, and I’m excited he’ll be closer in Conway soon. We stopped by Mac’s liquor store on the way back to his place, and I picked up a stout that he recommended after they didn’t have the Bentonville Brewery flavor I had a sip of at the bar. The lady at the counter was super sweet, which seemed very different from every liquor store I’ve been to before.

After I dropped him back off at his apartment, I looked for the largest Walmart I could find. I ended up at the one across from the main office, but had trouble finding the actual entrance. It was weirdly obfuscated from the road, but I made it. The store was very large, but outside of an empty clearance area that was half the size of ours, and two entire aisles worth of bicycle helmets, there wasn’t a whole lot very special about it. I had to wait in line a while to check out, and then I was on my way home.

The trip back was rough, because for some reason people wanted to park in the leftmost lane the entire way back. After I finally got on I-40, I ended up behind a truck and another slow car trying to pass one another at like 65 miles per hour. Another guy behind me got mad and passed me on the right shoulder, all to cut off the guy in front of me. By the time I got home and cleaned up a bit, I was too tired to lug anything over to Summer’s, so I just went to bed.

Always the plan.

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Köttbullar

We slept in a little this morning without losing much time, thanks to daylight saving time coming to an end. We went downstairs and loaded up on breakfast, and then cleaned up and packed for the return home. We still had a full day planned though, so it was a slow drive across the city to find an Ikea.

I’ve wanted to go to an Ikea for ages, and we never had a chance to stop the last time I saw one in person in St. Louis. There were two to pick from in the Dallas area, so we went to the one up north. Summer thought I was kidding about meatballs, and the look on her face when she saw the sign at the entrance was worth the drive all by itself.

Having never been, we were really impressed with the showrooms as we wandered through the maze. Some of them looked really incredible, and I could really see us building something entirely out of what they had available. As we finished our way through the upstairs showrooms, we entered into the restaurant where even there, you could get a push cart for your trays full of food. Summer got the regular Swedish meatballs, and I tried the salmon meatballs so we could share. Everything was pretty good, and it was a neat break from shopping.

After all of that, we really had to rush through the downstairs area in order to make our movie on time. I wish we could have spent a bit more time there, because there were actually a couple things we wanted to buy, but we ended up grabbing a couple bottles of fruit juice with mulling spices that totally wasn’t real wine, and running out the door.

The drive back to the AMC wasn’t too bad, but parking was a chore. We finally found a parking garage and briskly walked to the theater just in time to get settled in before the show. The theater was incredible, with countless Dolby speakers on practically every surface. As the previews came on, they barely scratched the surface of the experience. The seat shakers felt natural, and brought an additional layer of depth that I loved. I just wished the movie had lent itself more to that kind of theater.

I enjoyed Eternals, though I understood that it wasn’t exactly a blockbuster style action film in the traditional way. I couldn’t see it being rated poorly though. There were some things that probably could have been done better, but overall it had a nice pace for how long it was. It wasn’t like Dune that felt super slow the entire time, and then ended just as things got good.

Once out of the movie, we made the drive home. The GPS took us on our alternate route this time, heading north through Oklahoma. It was a slightly shorter drive by distance, but also shorter in time with the lack of traffic leaving the city. We stopped once for gas and food at a Moe’s inside of a Pilot, where we got surprisingly good service worthy of a tip.

Eaddie was still awake when we got home, but took a shower and went to bed as Summer crashed. I still had my own routine to go through, but then it was off to sleep as well.

Literally hundreds of speakers.

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Muddy Buddies

We went downstairs for breakfast first thing this morning, then came back up to the room to get ready for Summer’s Tough Mudder race. Traffic was relatively fine, but it was still a long drive across a boring, asphalt city. Once there, it was just a sea of cars parked in a hilly field. It took a bit of time to get through the processing, but she made it in time for the last wave in her hour start time. Once she got started, I went back to the car and waited for about three hours.

I brought all kinds of things to keep myself busy, but I just ended up playing on my phone the entire time. I could see a couple of obstacles from where I was parked, and I could hear a bunch of sheep across a pond. The weather was perfect for just hanging out there, so it wasn’t too bad. As the two and a half hour mark approached, I made my way back up to the event and waited at the finish line.

Summer had made a friend along the way, and they helped coach each other along to the end. She had to run pretty immediately though, so I waited for Summer to clean up and then we made our way back to the hotel. Traffic was pretty awful on the way back, and I added some time to the drive making a wrong turn. Constant construction made it worse. I fully decided that I would be okay if Thanos successfully snapped away half of all life in the universe. There are just too many people.

I waited for Summer to clean up, and we had just enough time for her to relax a bit before making our way across the city again for a late dinner at Medieval Times. Summer absolutely loved it. I enjoyed it for a while, but eventually I got tired of watching sadly drooly horses prance around in circles. I thought the knights would play off of the heckling a bit more, but the crowd was pretty loud and it made it difficult to communicate even with our serf.

Our knight was the first one down during every round, which made it all the more disappointing. The food was pretty good though, and Summer really enjoyed the whole experience. As the show came to a close, we took the short-but-long way back to the hotel and went straight to bed.

Rough knight?

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Over and In and Down and Out

I slept in a little bit today before getting ready for our trip. Summer had to work, but thought she might get off earlier than expected. That ended up falling through, so we left around two and headed toward Little Rock. We stopped at the Splash in Benton for a quick car wash, and then we headed practically straight through to our destination.

We stopped in Rockwall, since it was the first In-N-Out Burger we encountered. I’ve wanted to try it for ages, and we finally had a chance to stop in. Summer got a double-double, and I had to go with the triple-triple. Overall I guess it really was comparatively cheap. The biggest surprise was the poster advertising the pay for new hires. I also wasn’t quite sure how masks would be down here, but only like two people we encountered there were wearing them, and neither were employees.

The last bit of the trip was hectic, even for a night drive. We made it through traffic in the dark in unexplored territory, and nobody died. The hotel was relatively easy to find, and the studio room was pretty cute. Summer pretty much crashed as soon as she hit the bed, so I didn’t dawdle before wrapping it up for the day.

Hopefully COVID doesn’t mess with you guys…

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We’re Duned

I went home to shower this morning, then picked up Zane for our trip to Little Rock. As we pulled in to get the girls, I had him duck down in the back seat to surprise her. I was a little disappointed that she didn’t scream, but her reaction was very typical Eaddie.

We had to stop in Conway first, so I could pick up an order from Kohl’s. Then we continued to Little Rock and went to Tokyo House for lunch. The kids didn’t eat a whole lot, which left me holding everyone else up while I ate. I wasn’t just going to not eat all of the things though.

Next we went to The Promenade at Chenal to kill some time until the movie. We only went into a couple of the stores, as everyone balked at the prices of everything. The new Bath & Body Works was probably the most reasonably priced store on the premises, and we didn’t even walk in. I kind of thought we’d eat there and then just lounge around, but instead we just meandered around and then went into the theater really early.

The movie was very long and slow, so I knew the others wouldn’t really be that into it. I didn’t know what to expect, but really thought we’d get farther along than we did. I felt like the movie covered about as much as I had read of the book as a child. I never did make it very far, and it ended just as it got to the exciting bits.

As we waited for Amber to get there to pick up Zane, we walked to Maggie Moo’s and had some ice cream. It gave us about the perfect amount of time to wind things down for the day. Once she got there, I got to share some of the pictures I had taken throughout the day, and then we headed home.

Eaddie and I stayed up late and watched a couple episodes of House. I stayed up to make sure Autumn made it home from her Sadie Hawkins dance, and then made it to bed.

Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.

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Buckets N Boards N Guitars N Ukuleles N Turtles

We lazed around a bit this morning before Summer went to the gym and then home to make mashed potatoes and Brussels sprouts. Eaddie and I watched some House until it was time for her to take off on her bicycle to meet us at my parents’ house. I ran by the shop because I thought Summer was going to be stuck there helping remove a drain plug, but she finished up just as I got there.

We dropped her car off at my house and then continued to my parents’ house for a late lunch. Eaddie showed up a few minutes later with her friend Aaron, but then went back out to ride bikes. Julie came to eat too, but just sat in the living room. It was like a mini Thanksgiving dinner, but with slightly less food and yelling. Eventually the kids showed back up and ate a little too, before taking off again.

Summer and I went for a little swim before we had to leave so she could change before the concert. She bought tickets for us all to see Buckets N Boards at the arts center. Autumn beat us there right after work, and my parents showed up just in time to find seats before the show. At first I was worried it was going to be more Buckets N Bored, but then they started roasting children. It was entertaining but long, with an intermission.

The girls wanted to go home after the show, so Summer let them go while we went back to my house for the night. She played games in bed while I messed around on the computer, and then it was a relatively early night to sleep.

There’s 1,440 hours in my day!

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How Much Water Does it Take to Clean New Orleans?

Today was a slow day at work, especially having finished most of the imaging. I worked in my office for a while and fixed the SLC image. Then I ran to the junior high with Greg to help Brody, who had been working on a faulty touch panel for the past hour or more. We determined it likely had a bad board that also prevented the power button from working, then went to Sequoyah to check out the library sound system.

I went home after work and just kind of burned up some time in the afternoon. I started to go back out, but was blocked off by some roadwork on 16th Street, so I just went right back home. I had texted Ben earlier in the day, and he invited us to Kings Live Music in Conway to see Ashley’s son Presley play. Summer really deserved some country, so we left town a bit after six.

We stopped at a place called Sharks Fish and Chicken for dinner just inside of Conway. I let the hostess pick a sandwich for me, and got a pretty good Philly steak. I think the surprise star of the show was the side order of fries, but it was all pretty good though. Afterward we headed to Kings and ran into Kevin and Ashley. Ben came along shortly afterward and we took in a country music show, as presented by Mario Mario of the Mario Brothers.

I don’t care for country, but I can handle just a guy with a guitar. I understood the lyric about a “holler,” and even heard a song I kind of liked, about hurricanes washing away New Orleans. We had drinks and a good time was had by all. Presley did a great job, and Summer was just as happy as a clam to hear the songs of her people.

We made it home late, and the girls were winding down after a day of cleaning house. Summer went straight to bed, and I wasn’t long behind.

I’m just glad we didn’t have a pickup roll call.