Day One

We left the house basically. On the road, I began playing Mega Man Battle Network 2. It's a pretty decent game. If you liked the oriiginal, you'll like this one much better, as it has some challenge and whatnot. Anyways, I also opened my iBook and began playing MP3's. We had been driving and not even reached Columbia Missouri, and the trailer had a blowout. We heard a sound, looked back, and the trailer was tilted. Just perfect. There was a lot of cussing from my parents I know that much. We had ALMOST canceled the entire trip. Instead, after someone came out a fixed the flat and whatnot, we had just continued driving. Dad doesn't trust the second tire now as we type this, which was why we stopped at the house of my parent's house, Brett and Rita. We ate Taco Bell. Taco Bell tastes better on a vacation. So, as we're there, we discover we'll be sleeping over until morning when all the places open so we can get the other tire replaced as well. There's a nearby place here... in fact we're at that place now, right as I speak. I'm sure other days won't be as exciting as this one. You realize I'm typing this on day two though, right? Good. I'll be righting up what today is like later on. And I leave you with a song. A pretty dang tight one at that. I chose this song to bring with me on the trip, and promised me not to listen to it before the trip started. This is a very cool song. I also have many other songs with me. But i'm already missing Ryan and my other friends. Anyways, i'll leave you now with a song.

Music: Chemical Brothers - The Test

Day Two

Earlier, I wrote the day one Blog thingy. After we got the trailer fixed, we were on the road again. Ahh, good times, good times. Me and my brother have been exchanging turns on the small LCD screen TV (PS2 hooked up) every stop we make. And every stop we make is a gas station usually 2 to 2 and a half horus apart, at around 50 to 70 miles per hour. So we just recently got in Colorado. And we'll be on the road for a while. The sun is BRIGHT BRIGHT BRIGHT! It's shining on my iBook now and if I turn around and stay there for for too long, I'd probably go blind. So not much has happened today, really. Now it's my brother's turn on the PS2.
Something I've noticed is that a lot of gas stations we go by are usually runned down or old or whatever. And since we need to go to the bathroom at every stop, I get to see what kind of stuff is there. Well, I've noticed that our first gas station, somewhere back in Missouri, yesterday, had some type of 75 cent dispenser thingy. You've probably seen them with Advil and breath fresheners and the like in movie theaters like AMC. Well, I noticed that this one had a metal sheet that had a door hinge like motion, covering it. Out of curiosity, I lifted it. There was stuff lubricant and condoms and whatnot. Also, this one was, surpisingly, the only one that had writing. It was your normal stuff for a place like this. But there was one that stood out. It said "Jesus loves you.... even porno fags." Well, to be quite honest, I really don't think Jesus would have referred to them as "porno fags". Maybe as sinners or something, but most definately not porno fags. Next stop that had this was... today, I believe. You've probably been to a few gas stations where you need a key to the bathroom. Yeah, this was one of them. This dispenser in it wasn't covered, and it was locked and whatnot, just as every other one has been. But one of the labels on one side had a picture of a rainbow-ish wolf howling on a black background. The odd thing is, I could have SWORN I may have seen this logo before. Not sure where. Maybe at home (in which case I would probably scream), maybe as a logo or sign somewhere else in the country. Not sure, but it looked vaguely familiar. The third one so far was at the gas station I was just at. It was covered as well, and there was nothing special to say about it. Nope, no jokes. But just to have something else to do, I'll be counting all the broken down condom dispenser things. This will be the "Colorado Condom Count 2002." CCC2K2. Current condom count is 3. I'm sure there'll be more.
Anyways, I'm generally out in the middle of nowhere at 6:30 Colorado time, and the sun shows no sign of going down anytime soon. At least the van is better than outside at this point. This is probably the closest I've ever seen or been to a desert climate, even if it's NOT one, it's probably the most like one that I'VE experienced.
I'll end this now before the sun decides it wants to devour my soul or something. Dad says that we'll be at our destination point sometime after dark, and at the rate the sun is at, I'll still have some time to play my games, so long as I don't accidentaly sit wrong and get blinded by the sun. So, song of the day?

The Beatles - Here Comes The Sun

Day Three

Interesting day, to say the least. I started by putting on some way too tight jeans and breif-like boxers. Not my choice. Ugh. Why I bring this up? Because they caused my legs to be divided into two equal parts during the horseback riding atop the mountain (which sucked, except for a bit of the Fantasy-esque views). Those two parts are sunburned and non sunburned. Ouch. My laptop is hurting my lap in our ride in the car. Ow....

The highlight of the day was the Flying W Ranch. It was pretty good. Authentic cowboy and Indian stuff there. pretty interesting, to say the least. I bought a knife (WAA HOO! Blacksmith custom made for $13). I also bought a "newspaper." It had the custom headline "Steve deemed l337357 Gamer". WHy? For $1.50, it's worth it just to make a Nool (Nerd and fool) out of myself. Then came dinner. It was AEWSOME! If your ever in Colorado, stop by the Flying W Ranch just for the food. Red Beans, Chicken or Beef, INCREDIBLE biscuits, potatoes, coffee (EEEEEEEE!!!!!!!), EVERYTHING was made incredibly finetuned and whatnot. Then there was a Cowboy song abnd show. Not Country. Not Bluegrass. Cowboy. They played many a song. And yes, you'd probably be BLIND to see they aren't Christian. Deaf as well, as the guy even mentioned. Oh, the name of the band? Flying W Wranglers. VERY good band. My favorites were Mississippi Squirrel Revival, a story about a squirrel whom was let loose at a Mississippi church and began going crazy and whatnot (The best part was when she began confessing her love life, and started naming names!). Funny song indeed. As is She Taught Me How To Yodel (For a big mama, yous ure don'ts weat that much!...We're gonna get in trouble for that one). Later, they played a song written by Scotty Vaughn himself called Church Out On The Prairie. A gospel song. Afterwards, he said "we've been getting a lot of requests for this one. So let's slap a guitar down on the devil." WHOO HOO! Devil went down to Georgia indeed. Got his ass kicked by a fiddle player while he was there... Or maybe his fiddle's ass got kicked, but it still works. Oh, and this was a pretty funny comedy act incorporated into it as well. VERY funny stuff.

Oh, and I met a 10 year old from Virginia with an authentic accent who cussed up a storm. The best parta bout him was he thought math was easy as well. Very smart kid, if not a bit... rude. But hey, he even used the word arrogant to describe my brother. Do you know this kid Nathan?

I'm out. My dad's being disrespectful to me and blasting the CD's we bought at max volume because I'm not shutting up about the music being too loud. I cant even hear my own earphones and he just said "You ahve headphones! I don't!" I've hardly been shown any respect as any type of equal from my parents. I've probably shown them more respect then they have me, so they shouldn't be complaining about me never showing them respect or listening to them to the very single last word they say. Ah well....

Music: Gene Pitney - The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence

Day Four

Not much happened today, except for the fact that we went to the top of Pike's Peak on a cog train. Probably the best day of the trip so far. It was beatutiful up there. Simply beautiful. Highest mountain in the Rockies. It was awesome! I took a ton of pictures tos how everyone. Huzzah!
What else? Every other thing I can say involves games. first off, I've been keeping track of how many times anything noticeable is said in Mega Man Battle Network 2. Once inside the Mother Computer, Lan exclaims "Damn! What should we do?" Another time, in Netopia in the trap ridden part of the castle Lan says Damn and then something else. Not too long after, he says Damn It!. As for Hell... a black kid in the backstreet of Netopia where "All the minorities and the poor live" (Quote, Raoul) says "Who the Hell are you?" Another time, on the plane, a black guy challenges you to follow his mad rappin skills in exchange for a bottle of whiskey. You can answer either "Hellz ya!" or "Nah!" And after you beat Magnet Man, his owner exclaims "Damn it to Hell!" Also in the same plot area, Magnet man exclaims "GOD BLESS GOSPEL" as he explodes. Ironically, Gospel is the evil bad coproration Netmafia people in the game. There are also many praises to God and the Lord throughout the plane events. Heh. Kind of surprised me. Oh, and Mrs. Millions felt so stimulated and had a lot of excitement after you beat her NetNavi, SnakeMan. And I think Lan fell asleep on the plane and dreamt about being Mayl's captain or something like that. And all this happened in the sequence of one day.
Oh, and as for Final Fantasies, my brother started Final Fantasy X. He likes it. Mikey. And for anyone whom claims that the well known main final Fantasy tune isn't in this game (you know the one. You heard it at the very opening text sequence of the first Final Fantasy) knows jack diddly. Evidentaly, the only time it's played is at the Zanarkand sequence at the beginning of the game. No, not the one with all the characters. I mean where Tidus is still in Zanarkand. The first two screens have a funky rendition of it, but that's the only time I've seen it played...

That's all I have. Tomorrow is white water rafting. Joy.

Music: None, actually.

Day Five

White water rafting. The water ain't white. The rafting ain't exciting. My guide was somewhat funny. But it was somewhat decent. I sat down most of the time. And relaxed. And then I got drenched in water in the mini waterfall we went over. Joy.

What else? Tour of Cave of the winds. Better than rafting. Why? The tour guide as hilarious. he took offense when I compared him to Bob Sagat, or Bob Seger as I later accidentaly said. But seriously though. We would owe him $500 or 90 days in jail if we didn't laugh. You oughta go to this place if you ever get the chance. My only complaint was it was too short. Way too short. Ah well.

Music: Sheila Nicolls - Faith (Despite the fact that it has nothing to do with today)

Day Six

HIghlights? An outlet mall, Airforce academy, and Mini Golf. At the outlet mall, I bought me Ico for the PS2; 22.95. Good deal indeed. I learned that the Sony store actually has people whom really think they could find an Xbox or GameCube or GBA there. The guy knew I was kidding around, but he told me that some people believe that. And we talked a bit about favorite systems. Of course this was a one minute discussion as my parents were waiting out in the car. But corporate annoyance is fun.

Airforce academy was very cool. If you're in Colorado, go there. Nuff said.

Minigolf was fun. I'm still curious if I got a water penalty for Course 2 Hole 5 when I hit in across the park into Course 1 Hole 15's water hazard.... Oh well. I still got a hole in one. I;m still not quite sure, but I think it has something to do with a certain unnamed supernatural being. *coughs, points up* Or something.... Heh. Oh, and I made a perfect shot for one of the courses. There was a narrow, CURVED bridge which you had to hit the ball in. It went in the cup, perfectly, bounced out, onto the bridge, rolled back into the cup, perfectly, bounced out onto the bridge in the middle, just like every other encounter with the bridge, and stopped at the bottom of the bridge. Dad just gave me a hole in one because it looked cool and almost made it in one shot twice. Joy. Mom never learned how to bend over and place the ball on the tee matt thingy. Oh well. It was a fun game. Three courses. 18 holes each. very fun. At KFC, we got to talking about how Colorado fast food is better than Missouri fast food, and how Missouri has nothing special, yet has no disadvantages to living there either. It's a well rounded state, in general. Minnesota's like Missouri only with a big ass mall, in my opinion. Probably a few other sites too, but I lack internet so I can't really check, now can I?

Yes, I am getting pictures.... I think. I'll post some later.

Music: Mr_44 - Fear [Arrakis:Giga] (Rez, OC ReMix)

Day Seven

"And it all started with a cover of Only The Good Die Young by Billy Joel..."

Or so it was, after visiting the sand dunes, which I'll go over after this.

Over here at the campsite, I heard what sounded like a black guy (No offense Mario. Sounded like one of them strong singers from afar) covering Only The Good Die Young by Billy Joel, so I came over and talked and listened to what else he could play. He was an excellent musician, in my opinion. A lot of songs he played I didn't know of, but he and his friend, Kyle, played songs very well. Both of them are just people who sit around and play music (after day jobs) and certain places, which for now, is the Garden of the Gods campgrounds, and people can drop money in their guitar cases. So they play for the heck of it. Very good though. Soon, we got started talking about stuff. About passions such as music and creativity. And the like. Evidentally, we all got along pretty well, and have generally a lot in common. I learned some stuff from them too. Evidentally. I know I should broaden my horizons musically as well, and plus I'm glad that I don't need to know what "THE" passion for me is yet. But instead, just to fool around with stuff like I already do occasionally, and eventually it'll come. I'm glad I made some friends, ones whom are adults as well. I'm sure I could learn some things about life and stuff in general from them. Luckily, I got their eMails. Oh, and Kyle composed some of his own music. He's pretty good. Both are giitarists. I really enjoyed talking with them and look forward to doing so when I get back as well.

Now the sand dunes. They were hot, and I felt like I could climb them or walk up to the actual dunes themselves at the time, but i knew I wasn't well enough prepared. But it was pretty fun. The ride there and back combines got me six hours of progression in Mega Man Battle Network 2, which I must say, any Mega Man fan will enjoy the last parts of the game. The ending, and what you can do thereafter, is somewhat surprising. I don't want to give away any spoilers, but let's just say that the WWW isn't as gone as you thought.... And Bass gets his revenge on Gospel....

Well, I still have a long way to go before I am 100% done with it. But it's still fun. Oh, and if anyone is trying to get the Star ID thing, dont bother. You get the Star ID after beating the game and the Star is next to the Continue option. The Star ID gives you access to a place where you get Army Data as well, so you have generally plenty to do after beating the game. Have fun, if you get this game.

Music: AmIEvil - Four Little Metroids (Super Metroid, OC ReMix)


Day Eight and That Other Number

Day eight was a simple, go to outlet malls, get ready to leave, etc. day. We packed up the trailer, bought some stuff, and played one course of minigolf and went to sleep at 10:30. I dunno why, I can't sleep in the trailer.

Day Other Number has been driving all day since eight. Colorado time. My parents are still listening to Stephen King's "Dreamcatcher" on tape. I play FFX or Mega Man Battle Network 2. Dreamcatcher is interesting, but it seems like it switches between too many different realities if you aren't paying close attention. Dudditz. All day is a long day. It's currently 11:12 Central, PM. We still have 2 hours untill we get home and just made our last gas stop. Oh, and that last gas station wasn't rundown,, was fairly new, had a condom dispenser thing in the bathroom, which I believe still works perfectly, as it looks pretty new. So the CCC2K2 is 4.

Earlier, I drew some stuff. But the road was/is incredibly bumpy, which makes it excrutiatingly hard to draw/type. Even more annoying to type because the laptop's screen would move down a bit, so I have to relift it so it doesn't snap or anything. I'm not sure if it does that, but nows not the time to take chances like that.
I may begin renaming the 54 pictures I uploaded from my camera. Maybe not. Not entirely sure. Depends on my mood.

Damn laptop screen, STAY STILL! I can't see if I make typos or not!

...Oh yeah. In Colorado, in that one shopping mall outlet thingy (Wasn't an outlet or strip mall. Was more like some big highway of various stores and restaurants and whatno), there was a store that sold things like knives, swords, and the like. They had the sword of darkness (Which was INCREDIBLY sweet!) for $190. My mom wasn't willing for me to do a payment type thing for that. Instead, I bought me a pretty long, samurai katana with a sheath and full hilt (or whatever it's called when the blade runs through the handle all the way). It's a very sweet sword, for $110, which makes most of it already payed for already. But I still need to pay for some of it.... But hey, I own a real, full length sword which therefore, makes me cooler than you. That, or it just makes me a nerd blackbelt who now owns a Katana. You choose. I'm too lazy.


I really hope Ryan voted for those video game character thingies at gamefaqs.com, for me. Man, I'm going to need to go there to help me get past the Protecto2 and the locked area in WWW Area 2.... Not sure how to do so, but I think it may have to do with the girl who can see the ghosts of the Level 3 Navi's that have been deleted at Busting Level S. She lives on the streets of ACDC Town. She sees dead people.

And I am proud to say that throughout the entire trip, I ONLY used MacOS 9.2, except for when I needed to upload pictures from a Flash memory Card via a USB device and didn't want to find an OS 9.2 program that does that because I knew of one right on OS X... Even though I probably could have opened it as a normal folder, like a secondary harddrive, and copied the pictures to the hard drive. Oh well....
So in a nutshell, our family drove all the way from Garden Of The Gods compgrounds in Colorado Springs. to St. Louis County (Not the real St. Louis. Part of the good ol' suburbs, not the city) in one day with a trailer hitched onto our minivan which currently holds most of the stuff we'd rather not hold in the van. ...And we made 2 eating stops along the way, and 3 gas stops, one of which was combined with an eating stop. So I think we made pretty good progress. I hope my parents remembered to cancel our reservations to that motel in Topeka Kansas we originally intended on going to.... And I swear, I WILL NOT open this document again to add on anything else I may have forgotten. The three or so paragraphs were made in about 5 different reopenings. Everything else is part of the first edit. Which include what's written here on out.

Music?
Day Eight: Yasunori Mitsuda - Scars of Time, FFmusic DJ - Timescars (Chrono Cross, OC ReMix), Instant Remedy - Instant (Outrun, OC ReMix), JV - Terra Trip Machine (Final Fantasy 6, OC ReMix)

Day Other Number: Stephen King - Dreamcatcher (hey, it still works, doesn't it?)

Steve, whom is about 1.5 hours until he gets home, at around 11:30 PM


Day X

...What, you're still here? Go away. I'm tired. I need my sleep. I lost most of it in the camper. I promise I'll put this on the website later. Go away, let me sleep. Don't forget, I got a Katana. I can strike a cool pose and make you run away in fear. Or I could hang it on my wall and go to sleep.

Music: Whatever song is stuck in my head for some odd reason and causes me to have insomnia.

I am officially done with my vacation. Each one of these was written on the day they correspond to. The first day was Friday the 12th of July 2002.