I've been somewhat absent these past couple weeks. That's because I was drove all the way from Washington to Illinois to meet up with DaftPunkYoshi. Doing a long road trip has been on my mind these last few years and DPY and I are good friends, it seemed like a good thing to do. Plus I would get to kill two birds with one stone as I've never met up with anyone I met online.
I figured I'd start with a quick description of each state I passed through to get to Illinois. I also have a few pictures to share.
Washington
I’m already near the border of the state, so the entire length was just a bunch of cities. Got some Starbucks at the start of the day, but it was decaf so really it just made me stop at a rest area after a couple hours.
Idaho
Tons of trees and single lane construction on a mountain pass. It’s a lot of fun going 25 MPH behind a truck going up a mountain.
Montana
Here we start with some mountain passes and then long stretches of nothing until you reach a large city.
Wyoming
This section was really fun. It was only 200 miles and an 80 MPH speed limit, but the scenery was so nice that it made the drive really relaxing. Here's a picture I took while driving. It was the only good one since I wasn't looking at the phone while driving.
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South Dakota
WALL DRUG WALL DRUG WALL DRUG WALL DRUG WALL DRUG
Minnesota
Pretty much like South Dakota. A straight shot of interstate highway with fields of corn, but without the Wall Drug billboards. There was a cloud formation that looked like North and South America…though I don’t think Minnesota had anything to do with it.
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Wisconsin
Holy shit, fuck this state. It starts out nice, and then BAM you get a concurrency with I-94 and you either have to go 10 over the speed limit in the left lane or get stuck behind semi-trucks in the right lane. And then they fuck with you more by getting into another concurrency with I-39. Even then, after I-94 goes on its way in another direction, the traffic is just so godawful for the rest of the state. It also didn’t help that there was an accident on the way there that put everything to a crawl for what felt like an hour.
Illinois
I got off the interstate highway because fuck trying to go through a toll booth. So the side roads were a nice change of pace.
After 3 days of driving, I finally make it to the Chicago area and check in to the hotel I'll be staying at for 5 nights. Not long after, I finally met up with DPY. A couple others met up as well
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We had a lot of fun together just hanging out, watching some Ali Baba, playing Mario Party and Smash Bros 64. Hell, even watching the People's Court and the Fresh Prince of Bel Air together was fun. We did more than just that though, we saw the Mach 5!
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And the Ghostbusters Van
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And the Batmobile
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DPY also got me my first NES game while we visited an antique mall. It felt like it appeared out of nowhere and it was one of, if not the last areas we looked at. I just need to get a system to play it now.
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A few days later we went to an arcade. I've never actually been to a full fledged arcade before so it was a fun experience, even if it wasn't what DPY remembered it being like about a decade earlier. We played a good number of games like the Mario Kart arcade game, House of the Dead 2 (which we used a lot of credits on a stupid boss), DDR, Donkey Kong, a nifty virtual roller coaster that moved the seats and of course the best game of all
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There were also some games that gave tickets, we ended up getting enough combined to get two Resse's. Worth it.
The week went by so quickly, it was really hard to head back home. I had a lot of fun on the vacation and really wished it could have gone on a bit longer, but I have to go back to work tomorrow.
Other than the cool things in Illinois, on the way back I was told of a neat hamburger restaurant in a small town in Montana. It has really weird burgers like an "Elvis Presley" burger with peanut butter and bananas to outlandish ones like a 1/2 pound burger topped with a 1/4 pound cheeseburger. I didn't get anything special but it was really good it was called the "Blues Brothers" burger and it was just a bacon cheeseburger with Gorgonzola.
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I'll need to come back to this place again to try a more gutsy burger. Also the restaurant has coke products everywhere, here's a section of the wall next to me
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In closing, I have to say, it's really strange meeting someone you only know from online. You only know them from text on a screen and then to see them as a real person, it gets some getting used to. Fortunately, it didn't take long enough for that, and by the end of the week, I sincerely felt like that my online friendship really was just a normal friendship. I would definitely do this again.
I leave with one last thing. The total miles I did this past week and a half
![Posted Image]()
I figured I'd start with a quick description of each state I passed through to get to Illinois. I also have a few pictures to share.
Washington
I’m already near the border of the state, so the entire length was just a bunch of cities. Got some Starbucks at the start of the day, but it was decaf so really it just made me stop at a rest area after a couple hours.
Idaho
Tons of trees and single lane construction on a mountain pass. It’s a lot of fun going 25 MPH behind a truck going up a mountain.
Montana
Here we start with some mountain passes and then long stretches of nothing until you reach a large city.
Wyoming
This section was really fun. It was only 200 miles and an 80 MPH speed limit, but the scenery was so nice that it made the drive really relaxing. Here's a picture I took while driving. It was the only good one since I wasn't looking at the phone while driving.
South Dakota
WALL DRUG WALL DRUG WALL DRUG WALL DRUG WALL DRUG
Minnesota
Pretty much like South Dakota. A straight shot of interstate highway with fields of corn, but without the Wall Drug billboards. There was a cloud formation that looked like North and South America…though I don’t think Minnesota had anything to do with it.
Wisconsin
Holy shit, fuck this state. It starts out nice, and then BAM you get a concurrency with I-94 and you either have to go 10 over the speed limit in the left lane or get stuck behind semi-trucks in the right lane. And then they fuck with you more by getting into another concurrency with I-39. Even then, after I-94 goes on its way in another direction, the traffic is just so godawful for the rest of the state. It also didn’t help that there was an accident on the way there that put everything to a crawl for what felt like an hour.
Illinois
I got off the interstate highway because fuck trying to go through a toll booth. So the side roads were a nice change of pace.
After 3 days of driving, I finally make it to the Chicago area and check in to the hotel I'll be staying at for 5 nights. Not long after, I finally met up with DPY. A couple others met up as well
We had a lot of fun together just hanging out, watching some Ali Baba, playing Mario Party and Smash Bros 64. Hell, even watching the People's Court and the Fresh Prince of Bel Air together was fun. We did more than just that though, we saw the Mach 5!
And the Ghostbusters Van
And the Batmobile
DPY also got me my first NES game while we visited an antique mall. It felt like it appeared out of nowhere and it was one of, if not the last areas we looked at. I just need to get a system to play it now.
A few days later we went to an arcade. I've never actually been to a full fledged arcade before so it was a fun experience, even if it wasn't what DPY remembered it being like about a decade earlier. We played a good number of games like the Mario Kart arcade game, House of the Dead 2 (which we used a lot of credits on a stupid boss), DDR, Donkey Kong, a nifty virtual roller coaster that moved the seats and of course the best game of all
Thanks DPY for taking this picture!
There were also some games that gave tickets, we ended up getting enough combined to get two Resse's. Worth it.
The week went by so quickly, it was really hard to head back home. I had a lot of fun on the vacation and really wished it could have gone on a bit longer, but I have to go back to work tomorrow.
Other than the cool things in Illinois, on the way back I was told of a neat hamburger restaurant in a small town in Montana. It has really weird burgers like an "Elvis Presley" burger with peanut butter and bananas to outlandish ones like a 1/2 pound burger topped with a 1/4 pound cheeseburger. I didn't get anything special but it was really good it was called the "Blues Brothers" burger and it was just a bacon cheeseburger with Gorgonzola.
I'll need to come back to this place again to try a more gutsy burger. Also the restaurant has coke products everywhere, here's a section of the wall next to me
In closing, I have to say, it's really strange meeting someone you only know from online. You only know them from text on a screen and then to see them as a real person, it gets some getting used to. Fortunately, it didn't take long enough for that, and by the end of the week, I sincerely felt like that my online friendship really was just a normal friendship. I would definitely do this again.
I leave with one last thing. The total miles I did this past week and a half
