Missouri Vacation: Days 1-3

Since this is the last summer I know I'll be home for sure, I'm really glad I was able to plan a week-long vacation amidst the friends and various events in town. Plus, thanks to the way my Academy job is set up, I was also able to bring a carload of stuff to drop off at the school (who knows, maybe I won't need to rent a U-Haul at the end of the summer).

Day 1: My mom and I have both had a lot of things on our plate lately, so our trip started out with packing a suitcase right before leaving. It felt odd, but starting the day out by not running around hysterically was a nice way to say "I'm on vacation now. Just relax". After packing the car (personal bags but also boxes for my MO apt) and running some errands in town, we were off! Since my mom and I both got a full week off, she opted for taking the scenic roads, so we drove from home to Worthington. As the departure day drew closer, we did see the hot forecast, which proved itself correct on the first day. Dinner was at the Ground Round right by the Holiday Inn Express, which was... well, the waiter thought I said bruschetta burger when I really ordered a turkey burger... and they ran out of fries... and they gave my mom wax beans when she wanted broccoli. At least we could laugh about it when we left.

Day 2: Big driving day. We left Worthington early and began the drive across Iowa. I had told my mom that there were lots of places to take pictures of fields of wind turbines that were quite close to the road--well, apparently that's the other side of the state because we just saw a lot of fields (okay, a few turbines, but nothing too impressive). The US highway we used was quite low-maintenance to use as few words as possible. At least it's good experience for driving in hills and on faster roads. My mom drove the first leg and within the first 10 minutes of my leg, I ended up driving over some scrap metal on the road, so we had an impromptu stop at a Ford dealer in Ida Falls so someone could make sure we didn't have a new hole underneath the car. It turned out alright and away we went again. Overall, Iowa driving was simplistic and we made it to Missouri. After getting into Maryville, we drove directly to the Academy to drop my stuff off. The only other time I had been to Maryville was in March, which included being driven around everywhere, so I'm glad we ended up at the school right away (especially with my normal disregard to street directions). It was blazing hot by the time we pulled into the batcave, but at least we could ultilize carts, elevators, and doors that are unlocked during normal business hours. After dropping stuff, we checked into the hotel, cooled off from moving boxes, and then walked to the Applebees (yeah, taking part in the local eateries, I know :-P). We ended up channel surfing after that and called it a night.

Day 3: Maryville Day! Mom had read up on Maryville in the MO Chamber of Commerce info packet and with my uncle being an avid golf fan/player, the first order of business was going to the golf course/Mozingo lake and taking some pictures/taking in some sights before it got too hot. After that, we got to campus to explore (and so I could connect the buildings in my mind) and that was really nice. Self-led tours are nice when you've been there once before even if you only remember a thing or two. Then, I met up with some people I'll be working with in the fall for lunch at the student union. I was rather quiet, but I did enjoy listening (as I told them, I'll definitely get more talkative in the fall). After lunch, Mom and I went into town to look around. The little driving we did around town had us pass by City Hall and some of the off-campus student apparel stores, so we drove to a main part of town and walked around... today being the second 100degree day (not counting the heat index)... yeah, that was warm. In the evening, we drove into town to the Hangar, which is Maryville's movie theater taken from old airplane hangars with an aerial feel. Specifically, we went to the Observation Deck, which is a screen that's also a restaurant! You go early, order food and enjoy dinner while watching a movie. I had heard about this during my interview in March, so we had to go. It was "The Proposal" with a really filling pizza (including spices that loved to cling to fingertips, especially when you took a drink or had dessert). Awesome experience; highly recommended. If anything, we felt bad because there only seemed to be two servers working, so they were running back and forth between the kitchen and seating all night. Plus, figuring in the extra work of hauling trays of food up the little sets of stairs in movie theaters means they would be getting a good workout (and the fewer people means fewer ways to split the tips).

I'll stop here because it's getting late. Tomorrow (Day 6 actually) will be a long day of driving so I might not finish the journal until Sunday or Monday. At least I'm still having a good time! Part 2 coming soon.