HockeyDude!: THE HOME STRETCH!!!

[J-Mann]

Stop in KC and say hi if you have time.

[J-Mann]

Stop in KC and say hi if you have time.

I'll be in KC for about an hour Sunday morning at 7:30, J-Mann.  If you want to swing by the Greyhound bus station and have a breakfast burrito with me, I'm down. 

I'm up for that. You should add me on Facebook so I know who I'm looking for.

[J-Mann]

I'm here, but I can't get back to where the food is because that's for ticketed passengers only. And I don't see you ... yet!

[J-Mann]

Food morning, Atlas!  Currently at a truck stop in Salina, KS.  Nothing to report, as there is nothing in Kansas to report.  The nice redneck who rang up my coffee liked my Iron Maiden shirt, but that's about it.

Kansas!  Come for the corn.  There's corn.

Edit: Morning J-mann.  Apparently we were delayed en route by an accident.  I am in Salina, KS right now, KC is our next stop.

Boooo!! I'll try to make it back down here around the time you'll be stopping through. I wonder how an accident on the nearly-deserted I-70 could have delayed you for three hours!? My guess is the driver pulled over and got some shut-eye.

Fun fact: I was born in Salina, KS and grew up in a tiny rural town just 30 miles west of there! You are currently in my old stomping grounds!

[J-Mann]

Nightlife? I don't know who or what that is.

Actually, if you haven't figured it out already, Salina is pretty white trash. The town that I grew up in, Kanopolis, was a lot more fun as far as "nightlife" goes. It was a town of 500 people but we had three bars. Drinking I suppose was all there was to do.

[J-Mann]

Nightlife? I don't know who or what that is.

Actually, if you haven't figured it out already, Salina is pretty white trash. The town that I grew up in, Kanopolis, was a lot more fun as far as "nightlife" goes. It was a town of 500 people but we had three bars. Drinking I suppose was all there was to do.

Twas a yoke.

Yea, I can tell this is as desolate as it gets.  And 3 bars for 500 people?  I hope you had a beer Olympics where the regulars of each would be pitted against each other in sport.

Amongst true professionals, if you can count how many you've had, you haven't had enough!

[J-Mann]

Lmao!  HILARIOUS billboard on I-70!



"Jesus heals and restores, pornography destroys" if you can't see it. 

That was a big to-do about 10 years ago. A Lion's Den went in a few miles west of Abilene, and the townsfolk got up in arms asking, "They can't build that here, can they?" and "Whatever shall we do!?" Alas, there was nothing they could do, save for pass some poorly-timed zoning laws afterwards that didn't deal with their menace.

The good citizens of Abilene fought mightily against the pornographic hoards, including the farmer who owned land on both sides of the store erecting (pffft, erect!) billboards like the one you saw. There used to be another of THE LORD and his judging eyes, watching us hustle in the store in trenchcoats and dark sunglasses.

There was a church group that used to go park in the Lion's Den parking lot and write down license plate numbers of patrons, as if they could tattle on them. They stopped when a friend of mine pulled up behind them, wrote down their license plates, and -- when asked what he was going to do with them -- responded, "Oh, you'll see."

[J-Mann]

Where are you now? Hell, give me a mile marker and I can tell. I'm trying to see if I'm able to make it back down to the bus station without hanging out there by myself for too long!

[J-Mann]

Damn, if your trip home were a week later you guys could have made a Bushie sandwich! Oh well.

I know!  Pity.

He would have taken a rain check, unfortunately.

[J-Mann]

Ladies (lol) and gentlemen, I'm about to cross the mighty Miss and reenter the Eastern United States.  A milestone in my journey, indeed!

I just wish the crazy old lady up front would stop asking everybody where her luggage is.  Ugh.

She's still going on about that!?

[J-Mann]

On the topic of Kansas (and Nebraska too), I have to say that the tourism people out there are extremely resourceful, despite having almost nothing to work with. Lots of people pass through, and Kansans, trying to get people to stop and drop a few dollars have thought of a million kitchy tourist things for people do along the way. Come see the world's largest ball of twine. Seriously. http://www.kansastravel.org/balloftwine.htm

When I was a wee lad, we stopped off at something advertising THE WORLD'S LARGEST PRAIRIE DOG!  It was a 15' tall wooden.....thing.  They also had large boxes full of rattlesnakes and wire cages with raccoon in them and several "freak" farm animals (goats with two heads, cows with 6 legs...ya know, the kind of thing you get if you inbreed your livestock for several generations).  Oh and an American Bison (I refuse to call them buffalo since they aint) nearly crushed my sister.  It was all very depressing....even to an 8 year old that should have been impressed with such things.


...and Googling shows me it still exists and is still depressing.  link

You were just a few miles outside of Oakley, KS, my friend -- Exit 70 or so along I-70. Prairie Dog Town has vehicles from all over the country constantly filling its parking lot, because the owner bought junk cars and license plates from other states to make the place look like it was hoppin'.

You always think that a five-legged cow is going to be some sort of miracle animal, till you actually see it, fly- and feces-covered, with a dead appendage dangling from its side. The goats are far too aggressive, and the rattlesnake boxes are scary and sad at the same time, as no animal should live like they do.

I think it has been closed for a year or two, now, though I could be wrong. I'm in Oakley quite often. I'll have to check next time I'm there.

[J-Mann]

King of Prussia Mall.  Back in the Philly Metro.  Oh so close!

The company I work for designs a system that helps control the traffic right outside of there. It's a challenge, given the volume in and out, but you should have seen it back in the day!