The Land of Concrete

Happy Sunday! I'm back for another enthralling edition of my blog.

Yesterday, a group of us went to the Mizzou basketball game at Iowa State. The drive wasn't that bad, only about 5 hours of actual driving time each way. (Not great, but not terrible). We stopped at Gates BBQ in Kansas City. Having never been there before, I was totally confused as to what was going on. We walked in and we were standing in line, just waiting, and they tried to take our order. We were yelling over people in front of us. I didn't know what was going on! Everyone around us knew exactly what to do, so of course I felt silly. Anyhoo, lunch was good, and we were on our way again!

We got into Ames about an hour before the game, and we drove around for a bit. I mean no offense to anyone who is a die hard Iowa State fan, but I could NOT go there. Every building was gray concrete, which made for a gloomy mix with the dirty snow that had piled up over what I'm guessing has been a few weeks. Then, when we were walking into the stadium, we noticed that the parking lot was a bit...off. The spots were diagonal but it seems in Iowa people just park their cars wherever they want. Cars were in walkways, in the middle of aisles, and criss-crossing the parking spot lines. I guess that's how things go there? Who knows.

The game was fun! Mizzou won, yay! Afterwards, we went around to take some pictures on campus. We went through an open gate at the stadium, which we were pretty sure was still trespassing, and got some pictures with the field...that we were practically standing on. Then we took some pictures at other places on campus. We saw sooo many raccoons just walking around. Anyone from Frisco would be excited, like I was, to see Frisky just hanging out! We left shortly after taking pics because it was cold, and there was nothing to do. Jill, the GPS, decided to take us back a different way than we came. I'd like to call it the "where the hell are we?" way. We ended up in the industrial ghetto of Des Moines, driving down a road that smelled like fried chicken, which I'm pretty sure was actually toxic chemicals. When we finally got on a highway, it was a two lane curvy road in the middle of nowhere. After driving by around 4-5 "Casey's General Stores" (they advertised selling pizza and donuts; I think that sounds legit), we finally stopped at a Subway somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Apparently we were in Albia, IA. Look it up, I didn't know what it was or where it was. The entire time we were in the restaurant, I had zero cell phone service. At the risk of sounding like a snob, how can you live somewhere without cell phone service? As if! Haha, wow.

I think we all breathed a collective sigh of relief when we crossed the Missouri state line. It was marked unceremoniously on the tiny ass road by a small green sign. We finally got home around 2AM, and I was asleep pretty quickly. If Mizzou had lost, that trip would have SUCKED. But, as it was, it was a good time.

Today, I was absolutely unproductive. Aside from going to workout, I got nothing done. I ran errands, but that was about it. I have a LOT to do tomorrow, and the big Mizzou/ku basketball game is tomorrow night. Go Tigers! I'm off for now; I hope y'all had a good weekend!

~Ned