Jananas

Okay, here’s a quick update while everyone else is still asleep…

We made it out of Toronto safely around 9pm on Monday evening. It was a little later than expected, and put us into Columbus, OH just after 4am. Driving in the dark late at night after having written an exam that day (and just generally being exhausted post-school) wasn’t fun. Strangely the border guard actually recognized Jason from previous crossings! But I did manage to stay awake the entire time to keep Jason company! We had a semi-miserable night’s sleep on a futon at his place. We got up after not nearly enough sleep to run some errands – like getting a US phone number for while I’m here…

And then!! Off to Louisville, KY to see our friends Josh & Jess. We had a great time just shooting the shit and getting caught up. Especially getting caught up on puppy love, as their roommate’s dogs Ruby and Rita are awesome. Had a good dinner at Zen Garden and even managed to score from free homemade ice cream through one of Josh’s friends. I wish that Toronto had entire stores devoted to homemade ice cream and pies! We crashed out pretty early that night and slept super well on our air mattress, even getting a little dog action early in the morning. In case you were wondering, the proper order for dog/human sleeping combos is: dog, human, dog, human. Josh was awesome and made us vegan sweet and savoury crepes for breakfast. Jason did the dishes and then we were off once again!

Day Three of the road trip was driving from Louisville to Kansas City, KS. Essentially, five states (Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas) and eight hours. Surprisingly, not a bad trip overall. We did do some fun things like attempt to use my parent’s GPS to find a veg place in St Louis. The GPS failed, but did get us out of the car for a bit. I also got to see the St Louis Arch.

Then it was back on the road for the other half of the drive. We had a tonne of fun making fun of billboards and all the porn stores on the roadside. I’m also generally thoroughly enthralled by the truck stops/gas stations because they seem so over the top compared to what I’m used to in Ontario. On the way, one of the billboards we passed was for a little local yarn store. Jason said we should stop, but I’m trying to be strong on the not buying any yarn front. However… He accidentally took an exit from the interstate (the highway curved and the exit continued straight ahead) and on the way back to the highway we found the yarn store! So I picked up a single skein of locally dyed superwash sock yarn and a pretty lace cowl pattern.

Back on the road once again to make it to the KC. Thankfully we made it pretty much when we’d expected to. Hung out with our friend Bob and his ladyfriend Tamra and decompressed for a bit. Then it was out for an amazing dinner at the Eden Alley Cafe with some formerly online friends – Marilyn, Irene, and Winston. Jason and I shared the sweet potato burrito and vegan grilled cheese, and had some chocolate cake and vegan creme brulee for dessert. Scrumptious!

Now I’m up early-ish getting some internet stuffs take care of, while everyone else is sleeping. Although to be fair, they stayed up watching Night of the Dead yesterday and instead I passed out super early. Ha!

Today we’re going for vegan pizza @ Waldo’s and Jason gets to see his god-children (Ben & Anna) today for the first time in a few years and I get to meet the munchkins.