More than a year

Since my last post. But most of the people who care have been close (geographically speaking) and found out the details themselves. So, while I've been terribly lax in keeping up with this, I will start --- At this point my writing is interrupted by an evangelist at my door. I kindly tell them that we're fine with our faith, and to please go. They do not leave, so I begin explaining the concepts of Secular Humanism, which is tantamount in these parts to licking the devil's ball sack, and they flee-- at the point in which I depart.

We left later than scheduled. I stayed up until two AM Sunday night packing, and didn't want to get up. Fifteen minutes here, and there, extended goodbyes (of which I was, more than once, the first to cry) made me late in picking up Will. A quick hug with Mrs. Will's mom, and we were on the road. Having not eaten and being devoid of gas, we stopped at Dunkin Donuts for the former, and got our first fill up.

Then we went west.

We went three hours without stop, through the long and ultimately un-interesting Pennsylvanian landscape. We stopped only for Will to give the gift of freedom to the distilled remnants of his large iced coffee which, unoccupied with the task of driving, he drank much more quickly than I. Another three hour stint and we were at our destination for the night, a nice little roadside Super Eight just that-side of the Ohio/Pennsylvania border. We indulged the deepest, teenage id and ordered a large, stuffed crust hawaiian pizza from Pizza Hut, and a large order of bread sticks. Now, I would never agree with Jacky that Pizza Hut is the best pizza, or even in the top ten. However, at that moment, in that place, it hit the spot. A few hours later, I passed out, with my alarm set for early in the morning, and the GPS pre-programmed for the next day's destination.

I woke up, and was surprised to find that Will had taken all the bedding off his mattress, and arranged it on the floor next to the wall. After waking him up, he went to go take his shower, and I set about the normal morning routine wherein, regardless of location, I use my spider-senses to detect coffee. Having procured two six-ounce cups of coffee and a few mini-donuts (BTW: WHO decided that six ounces was a serving of coffee? Did you forget an exponent? Get out of my breakfast), took a quick shower, and we set off.

Ohio looks about the same as Pennsylvania, until you're past Cleveland, and it looks like the boondocks. At some point here, we stop heading west, and set course Northwest towards Grand Rapids. Once in Michigan does the Midwest start to look sufficiently Midwesterly (it's a word because I said it.)

It's worth mentioning at this point that the car makes this entire trip, about 18 hours, on about fifty dollars worth of gas. Also, cruise control should run for President. On a platform of being totally frickin' awesome.

Tuesday dinner time finds us meeting Kevin and his wife Lesley, who we've played with for a few years and never met before. They're exactly like the virtual entities we've come to know, and we have a good time. Playing SSMB leads to a brief weight lifting routine (Kevin and his brother do this every week. I participate, Will opts not to (pussy). However, they soon decide that it's too hot and stop after a half hour. Ironically, Kevin's brother suggests we go get icecream. All that aside, I was sore the next day despite the relative brevity of the work out), and then a few hours of chatting about various games. Kevin ends up deciding to join one of ours, which makes me happy, as adding new players keeps up the pace.

We sleep in a finished attic room, with no air conditioning. However, it was a wonderfully cool after the sun went down, and we slept well. The next morning we met two more people we've played with for a while, whom are also close friend's of Kevin. After a few hours of chatting, and a quick lunch we set off again.

By dinner time, we were in Indianapolis. It's a small big city, but the city-sprawl goes pretty far. For a good fifty miles in any direction out of the city, the highways are lined with the retail locations and strip malls of any good metropolis. And after about fifty miles, it suddenly drops off, as if they had run out of concrete, and is overgrown with corn fields and other properly Mid-Western features.

The house is large, and old, and well-decorated. It reminds me a great deal of New Hope-ish bed and breakfast in its style, and is filled with the electic relics of people with good and varied tastes and interests. In the dining room, hanging on a rack, are a monumental size of golden wings crafted by Sam. A solid wood china case stands next to it, and next to that is a shiny black cabinet engraved with oriental artwork. The living room hosts a massive, stone fireplace, in front of which is a convertible-red drumset. In one corner of the room is a cast iron birdcage, sans birds. On top of a solid wood stand, is a large flat screen TV, a DVR, a game cube, PS3 and a Wii. Hanging on the walls are large, colorful, non-objective paintings that ar clearly done with a palette knife. I can tell that I will like it here.

Over the next fourty-eight hours I must reconcile the strange feelings that accompany Steph suddenly having a face. Having known her for a year, through the internet, it is a lesser trial to mentally relocate this disembodied voice into a real person. Sam, her wife, is utterly laid out, having had surgery on her spine the day before, but she is in good spirits. We've arrived at around seven pm, and so, Steph gives us a quick tour of the house, and then of the nearby neighborhood (that is to say, about two blocks in any given direction). We order a pizza, and while it's being cooked, explore the new comic book store that has opened up two doors down from the pizzeria, just today.

Indy likes its comic books. I've seen almost ten different comic book stores at this point, and being host to gencon, know that the metropolis certainly has more than its fair share of gamers, nerds, and the like. I've already applied for jobs at two of them :)

More to come! SOON.