While many college students across the country hit the beach in search of who knows what, a group of us from Hocking headed inland for Spring Break. Early Sunday morning six of us met at the student center to load up and get a move on. We were headed for the fabled rock of the Midwest. We filled the trailer, hopped in the van, and took off for the country's interior.
After a few hours drive we found ourselves in Louisville, Ky. We stopped for a quick round of disc golf in the rain. While it wasn't pouring we had a bad feeling about this precipitation and what it might mean for the rest of our climbing pilgrimage. We stopped again somewhere in Indiana at one of those huge truck stops with the fast food inside. Some grabbed the ever gut wrenching T-Bell while I chose the more user friendly Subway. This would prove to be a mistake.
When I ordered my sandwich the girl behind the counter asked me if I would like double meat and a free cookie. I said yes to the free cookie not realizing that I needed the extra proteins to get the oatmeal raisin treat. There was a long moment of confusion between us about it which I thought was caused by my lack of sleep. This would prove to be untrue. There were a few other instances of supreme confusion during the toasted or untoasted section of my transaction as well as the veggie portion. Now it's time for sauce. I asked politely for Chipotle Southwest. Her response was simply, "Great Job".
Now I'm not sure if it's just the boredom induced by growing up in Truckstop, Indiana or if it was some inside joke that I didn't get, but this was more than I could handle. I paid quickly and left so as to avoid the panic attack I could feel swelling up inside me. I sat my sandwich on the table and announced to the group that, "ordering that sandwich nearly killed me". They all erupted into laughter. When I told them the story they were nearly in tears. This puzzled me until I found out that Eric had just minutes before relayed a similar story to the group. So thank you Indiana for all the fun and laughs. Lets never do that again.
After a quick check of the weather it became apparent that SoIll would be soaked and we decided to head straight for Arkansas. Things would soon spiral into a new realm of funny/weird/ridiculous/confusing. For more than a few hours we drove through rain of all kinds. I think Forrest Gump said it best, "We been through every kind of rain there is. Little bitty stingin' rain... and big ol' fat rain. Rain that flew in sideways. And sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath. Shoot, it even rained at night... ". Then the rain cleared and we arrived in Springfield, Mo.
We had stopped for a Wal-mart run. We needed supplies and this was the last vestige of hope to get them. We spent some time in the store picking out food and looking at things we might need. We loaded it all in the trailer and hopped back in the van. Tim noticed something was under our windshield wiper and Dan grumbled something about hating it when people do that. Tim pulled it out and quickly realized that it was not some dumb flyer.
Upon examination he revealed to us a note. It was written by some girls that we had seen in the store. It asked us what band we were in and that we should hit them up on facebook. We laughed for a good while and decided to take pictures, those will come soon, I assure you. So now with our food and gear stowed we hit the road for Arkansas.
When we got to Horseshoe Canyon Ranch there was several inches of snow on the ground. We were worried to say the least. It was 3am, we were tired, and there was snow. things weren't looking good.
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