Road Trip - Day 6

Haha, I totally dropped the ball on this, didn't I?

Day 6, we woke up in Kalamazoo and continued on our merry way. We got to Detroit, which was our 'business' part of the trip. By now, it's been two months since I was there, so the memories are getting fuzzy. The city is very large, and the houses are very cute. They are mostly made of bricks, and they are packed together all cozy-like. Every lawn seems to be meticulously kept. We went there to see about potentially buying property there, so our day was spent looking at all the houses.

I don't want this to be too much of a socio-political commentary, but from what we observed, there is a very clear line across the city, and on one side, that's white people territory, and on the other, it's black people territory. Home is nothing like that, so it was weird to see. What I am happy to say we did not see was disrespect between people with different skin colours.

Anyhow, we saw a few business prospects while we were there, but after two months of mulling it over, we still haven't decided whether we're going to do anything there. It's difficult to know precisely what we can expect out of each potential venture, and so we haven't acted on any of it at this point. Plus, we're not even from that state/country, so even if we knew what to expect out of the transaction itself, we are still not sure how international laws/taxes apply.



The hotel we stayed in that night was absolutely enormous. It had 2 big beds, a couch and accompanying sitting chair, a coffee table, a tv, a massage chair, a fireplace, another coffee table and four more accompanying chairs, a desk and accompanying office chair, a wardrobe, a small kitchen with accompanying bar and stools, a jacuzzi tub in its own little room, and of course a bathroom. This room was also the cheapest room we stayed in on the trip, and the price included a buffet breakfast. We of course tried to make use of everything the room had to offer (except the fireplace, as it was July).

Road Trip Day 5

I awoke to Day 5 in a nice comfy bed at a friend's house. After a delicious breakfast of fresh cinnamon buns, we made our way over to another friend's house, along with the couple we'd stayed with, and the five of us began our journey to Chicago. We stopped along the way at a food court place that was built over top the highway, which is a neat idea. We had Taco Bell, which was fun because the boys usually tease me that they're going to Taco Bell at around midnight their time, and I quite frankly cannot do the same, nor obviously join in the fun. Oddly, the menu item I usually order here is not the same in Wisconsin. There's a bean paste in there instead of rice (bean paste is, I will admit, the more normal thing to expect in a burrito, but rice is more interesting and also the reason I choose this particular menu item in my own city).

We continued our way to Chicago, where we went to the Museum of Science and Industry, which was a lot more like a learning center than an actual museum, though the place was home to several artifacts, which were cool to see. There were some old cars there, including a model T. We took several pictures, but mostly they turned out too dark to see much of anything. We saw a giant model train set up, which was cute. We saw baby chicks hatching, which kind of broke my heart, really. Those poor little creatures were hatched with no mama chicken around. Those chicks came into the world utterly alone, save for the other scared, alone chicks hatching near enough the same time. Anyways... *hrmph* One of the displays was a cool submarine, which was captured by Americans during WWII. That was pretty neat to see. There was also a working coal mine, but due to line up sizes and the fact that the museum closed an hour early that day, we did not check it out.

When the museum closed, we parted ways with my friends and took off to find a hotel. Unlike most of our trip, we didn't se any hotels off the side of the highway while we were in Chicago, so we stayed on the main drag for a while before deciding to just continue onward, so we ended up just going around Lake Michigan and onward to... Kalamazoo! Kalamazoo is the friendliest place ever, I think. Everyone was genuinely friendly, not just service-friendly. We told the clerk at the hotel lobby that we were staying in Kalamazoo that night purely because of the name of the city, and he was so delighted, he gave us a discount. As we settled into our room, dusk fell upon us, and brought with it fireflies. This was our first time ever seeing fireflies, and they were very neat. It's hard to believe there's a creature whose butt lights right up, but we've seen them with our own eyes. That night we watched Harry Potter, which was the opening night, and we watched it for $5 each, no line-ups, and we strolled in about 6 minutes before showtime. That was interesting. We scrutinized the tickets after the show and found they'd given us student pricing (hehe).

Doing the Dirty Deeds

In LotRO, there are certain things you can do that earn you titles, traits or sometimes other things, such as xp tokens for your legendary items. These things you can do are called deeds, and as of last November, when the expansion for LotRO was released, for every 40 deeds you do, you can raise the maximum number of quests you have open by one. When this new quest maximum bonus was implemented, my character had 5 bonus quest slots, meaning she had already done over 200 deeds. I have a new mission, which is to double that. I adopted this goal when I opened up my 49th quest slot, so I decided 40 more deeds wouldn't be too bad, and it's fun to make goals. I also decided I should document which 40 deeds I do to open up that magic 50th quest slot, mostly for the purpose of sating my own curiosity later.

There are different kinds of deeds you can do. There are the dreaded slayer deeds, which I have plenty of to do, since I don't particularly like doing them. There are also exploration deeds, which I quite enjoy. Needless to say, there aren't many of those left for me to do. Another kind of deed rewards you for doing a certain number of quests in an area. There are also hidden deeds, several of which I have done. I may solicit my friends to help me a bit with this kind, as these hidden deeds tend to be unlocked by other people doing certain emotes at you (such as bowing, cowering, saluting, kissing, cheering, and mocking). Others are gained by eating a certain amount of certain foods, which I would like to work on also. The hobby system also rewards you for certain accomplishments (currently there is only fishing, so the deeds are things like, gain a certain fishing skill level, or catch all 9 kinds of trout - that sort of thing). There are also event deeds, for such things as participating in festivals. Finally, there are adventure-based deeds, which reward you for completing instances, often having with them associated exploration and slayer deeds. These are some of my favorite, since you can often get several, just for having an adventure.

Melawe's list of dirty deeds:

1. Kill dunlendings in the school of Tham Mirdain (Eregion)
2. Kill dunlendings in Eregion
3. Kill half-orcs in Eregion
4. Kill harvest-flies in the Shire
5. Kill trolls in Sarnur (Ered Luin)
6. Kill Angmarim in Forochel
7. Find the deep-fires in Goblin Town (Misty Mountains)
8. Kill orcs in the 16th Hall (Moria)
9. Drive evil from the 16th Hall (Moria)
10. Kill Globsnaga orcs in Moria
11. Kill merrivail in Lumul-nar (Hall of Mirrors - Moria)
12. Kill Ergoth (Hall of Mirrors - Moria)
13. Kill goblins in the Grand Stair (Moria)
14. Carnivore! (eat 3 each of lots of different meat dishes)
15. Kill kergrim in Evendim
16. Pork-chopper! (kill a boar in each of the original zones)
17. Kill giants in Evendim
18. Kill barrow-wardens in Haudh Iarchith (Bree-land)
19. Executioner of the Wicked (slay 6 bosses in Haudh Iarchith - Bree-land)
20. Kill the bosses in the Hall of Crafting (Moria)
21. Collect 5 crates in the Hall of Crafting (Moria)
22. Do 40 quests in Lothlorien
23. Find the Duvardain Quarters in Carn Dum (Angmar)
24. Kill trolls in Carn Dum (Angmar)
25. Kill Angmarim in Carn Dum (Angmar)
26. Explore Caras Galadhon (Lothlorien)
27. Kill orcs in Lothlorien
28. Wanderer of the Golden Wood (explore Lothlorien)
29. Kill worms in Moria
30. The Circle of Despair (explore the area around Barad Gularan in Angmar)
31. Hall of Crafting
32. Hall of Crafting
33. Shire Brewmaster (help the tavern keeps in the Shire)
34. Kill lizards in the Water-Wheels (Moria)
35. Collect flowers in the Water-Wheels (Moria)
36. Kill harvest-flies in Bree-land
37. Lorien Lookout (Lothlorien)
38. Flet-runner (Lothlorien)
39. Kill beasts in Lothlorien
40. Doer of Great Deeds (complete certain deeds in Lothlorien)

Well, that was an experience. I like how that last one worked out - it seems appropriate!

Road Trip Day 4

Day 4 of our road trip made its beginnings with us leaving Albert Lea and heading off toward Wisconsin. On our way, we saw lots of wind farms:



After a while, as we got closer to Wisconsin, and also once we were in Wisconsin, wind farms turned into dairy farms with windmills on them, and then dairy farms with no windmills:



We stopped in Wisconsin Dells to look for a place called Witches Gulch, but alas, we did not find it. We drove all over town looking for it. I've seen pictures of it, so I know it exists; it must have been hiding on me. We finally gave up and stopped for lunch at an IHOP, which we had been thinking about doing at some point during our trip. Wisconsin Dells is a very small town with a very small population, and a large amount of tourism. It's kind of what I imagine Banff, Alberta would be like if you took it out of the mountains and traded in the moose/elk for waterslides and the like. All the appropriate elements are there: quaint but touristy downtown, pedestrian crossings everywhere, people everywhere, out-of-towners working at the service places, and, where there isn't a bunch of buildings, nice roads with trees and nature.

After that, we continued to Milwaukee, where we met up with some friends of mine from Lord of the Rings Online. Now, that was really neat. I already knew these people, but I didn't know their faces, their families, their homes, their day-to-day lives. It was a treat to see them, a lot of them all together at once. My mother worried a lot when I told her I was going to be staying at a friend's house - she told me all kinds of horror stories of people meeting up with people they'd only met online. I told her if he was creepy, we didn't have to stay there. She told me if he was an axe-murderer, I wouldn't know until it was too late. However, as I suspected, there was no need to worry. There was about as much chance I'd mis-gauged my friends as there was I'd mis-gauged my coworkers, classmates, relatives or other friends whose houses I'd been to after only being their classmates. There's always a slight chance anyone you know could be a bonafide psycho, which is why you sort of test the waters before jumping in. Anyhow, it was nice to see my friends, healthy and happy, and meet their families, who were also wonderful. We had a barbeque feast, complete with such wonders as colby-jack cheese and lime chiffon (which I will have to learn how to make), neither of which I'd ever had before. All in all, this and the following day were my favorite part of the whole trip.

Road Trip Day 3

Day 3, we woke up in the Badlands National Park in South Dakota. This place is so incredible, mere words don't do it justice. Neither do these pictures, but they're pretty good nevertheless:





The top picture is a picture of the ladder stairs we climbed to get to the top of Notch Trail, which was a pretty neat, although short, hike. The view at the top is spectacular (the second pic). The third pic shows how vast an expanse these structures are, and it also shows the stripes of different colours, and how many layers there are.

After that, we went on our merry way, to Minnesota. The rest of South Dakota, along with most of Minnesota, was not nearly so captivating as the Badlands, and as such, I actually slept through large portions of both. We stayed in Albert Lea, MN, that night, in a hotel with a shower that had no tub - just a slight dip in the tile floor so the water wouldn't get everywhere. After cleaning up, we had dinner and saw a movie (The Hangover, which was pretty funny).

Road Trip Day 2

We woke up in a beautiful campsite in Montana on Day Two of our journey. I was not well rested, so I tried to sleep in the car. We spent most of this day in Montana, which has a lot of different scenery, so it was not as boring as one might expect sitting in the car all day to be. Here is one of the many interesting sights we saw in Montana:



We followed the I-90 as it made its way across Montana and into Wyoming. In a lot of spots along the highway, the road was paved red. We could see why, since the soil is also red in many spots. Here is a red highway (through a windshield with a bug on it - I did try to avoid taking pictures through the windshield but sometimes that's the only way to capture what you're looking at):



After Wyoming, we found ourselves in South Dakota, home of the iconic Mount Rushmore. We stopped in at Mt Rushmore to check it out. It was a pretty impressive sight. We of course had to pay to park, but as a bonus, we got to keep our parking pass for there for a year. Unfortunately, this is non-transferable, but at least if anyone else is crazy enough to rent the exact same car and take it to Mt Rushmore, they won't have to pay for the parking.



After this, it was getting dark, and we wanted to find our campsite in the Badlands, so we continued on our way. The drive in to the campsite was through Badlands National Park, and we saw quite a lot of wildlife on the roads and not much of anything off the road, since it was completely dark by the time we got there. In flat lands, it gets dark very quickly once the sun sets, whereas where I live, in the mountains, the sun sets but then we have twilight for several hours afterward, as the sun is still technically in the sky - just it gets blocked by the mountains sooner. Anyways, though we couldn't see the landscape, we still knew that the badlands are supposed to be somewhat desert-like, which is why the first of many frogs we saw took us by surprise. Driving along that road became like a game of reverse-frogger - we in the car were trying to dodge the frogs! We also saw a raccoon, an owl, a snake, and plenty of rabbits and mice. Every once in a while, some geographical wonder would pop briefly into view in our headlights, so I was very excited by this wildlife wonderland and its many nifty sights.

Road Trip Day 1

We started a little late because our car rental process took ages. We had an appointment to pick up the car at 10am, but when we got there, there was no person working in the booth, but there was another couple who also had an appointment for 10am to rent their car. It ended up being that the girl who was supposed to be there was instead out on the lot washing cars. Not filling them up with windshield washer fluid or anything like that, but at least they were clean. However, out of three factors that contributed to not making it as far this day as I had intended, this one wasn't too terrible.

Once we got going, say, an hour or so into our journey, it became clear (from looking at a map, finally) that we were in fact going the wrong way and had to re-route ourselves to be going the right way. This is the sort of thing you really have to watch out for, I'm afraid, when you rely on me to direct you anyplace. However, once we were on the right track, the adventure was quite nice. We went through orchards, vineyards and small vacation towns on big lakes. In one town, they have a canal running through town, sort of alongside the highway, and it is customary for locals and tourists alike to slam on their swimsuits, hop on a floaty toy and bob along down the river:



We went through the border without hassle, and continued along our way. We stopped at a pharmacy/grocery/everything store to pick up breakfast foods for the next couple days and then set out to drive until our eyelids wouldn't stay open any more. We went through some very beautiful terrain, including one area that had been ravaged some years ago by a forest fire. The trees at one time had all been burnt, and you could see each tree still had charred remains of bark clinging to them. However, they mostly looked like white posts with the undergrowth coming up around their bases:



We got to Spokane around dark, and then it was my turn to drive. After getting all turned around, my boyfriend had to take over again and get us out of that city, before it was my turn again. We cut across Idaho (took about an hour) and then went into Montana, where, disappointingly, I only made it a little over an hour before having to stop and set up camp, which turned out, at least, to be in a very beautiful campground. That turned out to be the only time I sat behind the wheel this entire trip.