Chris, Rachael and Tabby in Their Apartment
I arrived in Murfreesboro, Tennessee (About 30 miles south of Nashville) around 5:10 pm (Central Time) on Friday March 1st. It was a nice drive. The weather was good for the whole trip up. It was nice and sunny with no rain. The temperature was not that bad. I stopped part way up at Wendy's for lunch.
Since MapQuest did not provide the directions on how to get to Chris's house once I got to Murfreesboro, Chris told me to just call from the first gas station I got to once I got off the exit from I-24. So I called from the Burger King near the BP gas station. He came and met me there. He lived about only 10 minutes away from that gas station. Once he got there I was able to see him for the first time since 1997. I also met his girlfriend Rachael and his 3 and a half-month-old daughter Tabby for the first time. Then I followed them back to their apartment. We hung out and talked for a bit. Later that night a few friends stopped by and we had a little party. Chris had just gotten some new DJ equipment earlier that day. So he got that all hooked up and showed me how the turntables worked and how to do various effects on them and switch between one record and another with matching the beats.
Chris also recently got the Nintendo Game Cube. So I was able to check that out for the first time. It was pretty kewl. I played Pikman for a bit. That is a cute little game where you crash-land your space ship into a planet and need to search for 30 missing parts from it to repair the ship. You use these little creatures called Pikman to help you find the missing pieces. It is kind of like lemmings in that you can set them to different tasks to help find the missing parts and fix the ship.
On Saturday we slept in. We watched Time Bandits on TV and then went out to do some shopping after that. While we were out shopping we went to Backyard Burger since I have never eaten at one of those before. They have pretty good burgers there and it is one of the few fast food places that has Mt. Dew :)
We picked up a lot of stuff for Tabby while out shopping. On our first stop we got some toys for her along with some cloths and a stroller. Chris and I assembled the stroller in the Wall*Mart parking lot so we could use it when wondering around the mall. Chris also got Sonic Adventure 2 Battle for the Nintendo Game Cube.
When we got home we ordered Jeepers Creepers on Pay-Per-View and ordered out for some pizza. Jeepers Creepers is a very cheap B movie. The two main characters kept making stupid choices that got them into more and more danger with this weird demon like creature that was chasing after them. Near the end of the movie the cable went out. So we never did get to see the end of it. We called and complained and they said they could give us that movie again, but none of us wanted to watch it again just to see the ending. So we had them give us American Pie 2 instead, but the cable was out for the rest of the night so we watched that on Sunday. Since the cable was out we decided to throw in the Sonic game we had just got and try that out. It was a pretty kewl game with nice graphics.
On Sunday we hung out for a while and one of Chris's friends that lives in the apartment downstairs stopped by for a bit. We watched American Pie 2. I have seen it before, but Chris and Rachael have never seen it. It was a good movie so I did not mind seeing it again :)
Later that night we went out to a pizza chain that is around here that they don't have in New York. They have an all you can eat pizza buffet along with salad. Kind of like the one Pizza Hut has, but this one is available all the time, not just for lunch on weekdays. After going there we went grocery shopping and then came back to the house. Chris and I went back out after helping to carry the groceries in. We went to Hollywood Video to rent a few DVDs. Turns out that Chris knew the guy that was working there and I had met him before as well back when I was living down here in late '96 early '97. So he said if we would go pick up some food from Taco Bell and a pack of cigarettes for him that he would give us 50% off on our rentals. So of course we got him some food and cigarettes. At the convenient store we ran in to Chris's mom and talked to her for a few minutes.
We ended up renting Stir of Echoes, Bless the Child and Quills. All of witch I have never seen before. That night we watched Stir of Echoes. It was a very good movie. Much better then I expected. It kind of had the 6th Sense feel to it.
On Monday Chris and Rachael went to work and I hung around the apartment. I played Sonic some more, talked with my sister some on ICQ in the morning, and slept some. It has been a very relaxing day :)
I did get an e-mail from Pete (The person I was planning on visiting next in Fayetteville Arkansas). He said he got confused and thought I would be coming the week after this one and not this week. He is currently in Kansas City and is trying to get a job to become a truck driver. After talking with him we decided that I would just skip seeing him on this trip, and he would come and visit me in Portland Oregon sometime when he happened to be in the area driving a truck. So I talked with Chris and he said it would be kewl for me to stay for the week. So I will hang out here until Thursday and then leave in the morning and go straight to Parsons Kansas to visit Crystal. It will still be a one-day drive. I have not checked MapQuest yet, but it will probably be around a 12-hour drive.
I called Crystal to make sure it would be ok to arrive Thursday night instead of Friday afternoon and she said that would work out fine. She said that they got a lot of snow there this past weekend. In some places there were drifts up to three feet. I'm glad that I was not going there last weekend. Hopefully it will warm up a bit and will be all clear for when I go there this Thursday.
This change of plans won't affect the timing of the trip or the people I will be visiting after leaving Parsons, Kansas. It will be good to be able to spend a bit more time with Chris. I will miss seeing Pete, but if he is able to visit in Portland sometime that will be kewl :)
I left Murfreesboro, Tennessee Thursday morning March 7th at around 8:10am.
The way Chris went to work was the same way for me to get out of Murfreesboro
and onto I-24 West. On the way out of town we stopped by at the convenient store
and picked up a few snacks. In Murfreesboro a few drops of rain hit my car as
I was heading out. That only lasted for a few minuets and the rest of the drive
was perfect weather.
