mychai's Diaryland Diary

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The Final Day and the weekend after.

First off, sorry for putting off writing for a whole week.

Secondly... The journey is over. I am back in Missouri. It's been a fantastic month on the road and rails. I am sad that everything is finished, that there is no more planning and no more living from day to day. But I am also excited and relieved to be done with it all. I was getting tired of living out of a bag and feeling like I had to be go-go-go every day. I'm ready to just sit around and be a bum for this last month before I go into the Air Force.

So, yeah. The journey is over. The mission was accomplished. I had the time of my life, met a great girl who I will probably know for the rest of my life, saw great things and ate great food.


My train arrived into St. Louis at around 10:45 on Friday evening. Waiting at the gate was Air Force Buddy Justin and Bartender Tricia.

Well, I can't really call her Bartender Tricia anymore because she's no longer bartending.

Anyway, they looked all nice and dressed up, and I had been sitting in trains and train stations all day. I felt bad because I looked like crap.

So, to lift my spirits and make me feel like I wasn't a street bum, we went to Hooters where they have beers that you can swim in and hamburgers that are to die for.

I get my hamburgers medium rare. I like how they taste, and I also like how everyone moans when you order it.

The waitress made sure to push ample cleavage into my face, which I will admit wasn't too bad of an experience. But I am too much of a "gentleman" if you will to stare into a girl's cleavage as she talks, so I never got the direct look. Dang.

We ate and drank until about 1:00-ish. Bartender Tricia's friend showed up with her brand new Mitsubishi Spider, and Air Force Buddy Justin and I dry-humped the back end admired the workmanship while the girls checked out the interior. It was a nice ride, but it was too small for me.

We got back in Columbia at around 3:30 Saturday morning. I was whooped. Beat. Tired. It had been 23-1/2 hours since I had woken up.


Justin and I woke up at 11 Saturday morning so we could be at my Air Force meeting by 12.

We were to run for two miles and play a game of football with the other DEP team.

A tidy tidbit of advice for you runners: Don't drink close to 50 ounces of beer the night before you run for two miles. It doesn't work all that well.

And don't play football for a long time if you aren't used to it. You'll end up feeling like ass for days. The recruiter for the other DEP team layed me on my ass hard. After I went down on my butt, I also continued on to my back, neck, and head. I think that's why I'm so sore.

And I have a slightly bruised ego to boot. Hrumph.


Justin and I met up with Tricia and others at the bar Smokehouse on Saturday night. I brought the pictures of my trip, and when it came to pictures of Nicole, people would say, "Wow! She's so cute! Short... and cute!"

It was good seeing all of the regulars at the bar. It was quite reassuring to be back in familiar territory again.


Justin spent the day with his family on Sunday, so Tricia and I went down to her farm in bustling Freeburg, Missouri, population -- as far as I could tell -- just Tricia's family.

But they left midway through my visit to go visit some family of their own, so Freeburg pretty much consisted of Tricia and me.

She pulled out her three wheelers and we travelled all over her farm. It was the first time I had ever been on a three wheeler, and I was pretty nervous at first. My mom -- a first grade teacher -- had a student get killed on one a long time back, and so I haven't really had the desire to ride one.

But I had a blast. Tricia has been reading my diary while I have been away, so I guess she knew that taking me down to a river and through some woods (this sounds like a Christmas carol) is my idea of a perfect afternoon. We had a great time, and it was pretty much trauma free until she decided to take me into the woods to show me some Indian burial mounds. That was when the dead Indians rose from their ancient graves and tried to pull us under!!!

Ok. That's a bit of an exaggeration. What was really traumatic was that we are experiencing a heavy tick season, so I looked at Tricia, and she had ticks crawling all over her legs. Then I looked at my legs. More ticks.

There is not much in this world that will freak my shit out. I can handle snakes until the cows come home. I can climb to great heights. I can stand in front of large crowds and speak my mind. But get one tick on me, and I feel like I have crawlies on me for the rest of the week.

We never found the burial mounds, but we succeeded in getting probably twenty or more ticks on our legs. Even now, 24 hours later, I still feel things crawling up my legs. Who needs to drop acid when I can get this feeling without any drugs at all?!

But I had a nice time. Thanks!

After we got back into Columbia, we went our separate ways to get cleaned up, then we met back up at another bar. It was kareoke night, and when I walked in, Tricia was singing "Elvira" with another guy I've never met.

They did a.. umm... good job. I like the song. I guarantee -- like any kareoke performance -- that it would have sounded much better had I drunk a few pints.

I sang along, though. My favorite part is the "giddy-up, baroom, a-baroom, a-ba-wow-wow" part. Ahh. Classic songs are great.


So, now you are all caught up on my weekend. How was your weekend?

I have only a few more days in Columbia before I head down to Tennessee for a few days, then I go home.

I am dreading leaving Columbia. Air Force Buddy Justin has easily turned into one of the best friends I've had in a long, long time.

Oh. Everyone email Justin and wish him good luck when he goes to boot camp in ONE WEEK. He's getting a tad bit nervous, and he could use the encouragement.

Ok. I'm outta here.

1:47 p.m. - Mon., Apr. 21, 2003

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