Crystal and Myself in Front of Her House
I arrived at Crystal's in Parsons, Kansas around 7:13 pm on Thursday March 7th. I had no problems finding the house. I was a little nervous since I had never met these people before. Crystal is a friend I have been talking to on the Internet for a little over 3 years now. We never really thought we would actually meet in person since we lived so far from each other. When I was planning this trip, I saw it would not be too far out of my way to stop and see her. She talked with her mother and her boyfriend Steven and both of them said it would be ok for me to come and visit for the weekend.
When I first arrived we talked for a bit and I showed them pictures from the first part of my trip and ones from two of the trips I had taken to Oregon in June 2000 and July 2001. After that Crystal, Steven and I drove around Parsons. Crystal showed me all the kewl things located in the big city they live in. One of the major attractions was the Mc Donald's. This was not an ordinary Mc. Donald's, but the one that the old women sued because she spilled hot coffee on herself and got burned by it because she did not realize that coffee was hot, and it did not say it was hot on the cup. I'm sure you must have heard about that on the news a while back.
We stopped by the local video rental store and picked up a couple movies. We got The One and Pay it Forward. I never saw The One before, but heard it was a good movie from a friend. I did see Pay if Forward before, but I thought it would be one that everyone would enjoy since they never saw it before. When we got back to the house we watched The One and then went to bed.
Crystal had Friday off from school, but had softball practice in the morning. So I went with her to that and watched her practice. Then we went back to the house. Crystal fixed some pancakes for breakfast and we hung out for a while. It is kewl the way the timing has worked on this trip. So far everyone that I have visited that works and is only around on the weekends has had a day off when I was there. With Matt he had a federal holiday on Monday. Chris was going to take Friday off anyways because that was when his DJ equipment was arriving in the mail and he wanted to be home for that. So I thought it was pretty kewl that without realizing it I happened to be there when they had an extra day off :)
Later that day Crystal and I went over to see how Steve was doing. He had bought a boat trailer and was converting it over to a trailer to haul his 4-wheeler or motorcycle on. That evening we watched Pay if Forward. A friend of Steven, Crystal and her mom came over that evening and watched the movie with us. He drives a truck for a living and got back from being in Tennessee. He came over for breakfast the next morning. That afternoon we watched Artificial Intelligence (AI). That was a great movie. I saw it in the theaters, but no one else there had seen it before.
Later that evening Crystal and I talked for a few hours. Then Crystal, Steve and I played some cards and Crystal and I talked on the computer using Word Pad to type what we wanted to say. That was kind of funny talking the way we had always talked before, but in person this time :)
Sunday was a nice restful day. We hung out around the house for most of the day. I showed Crystal and her mom some of the old home videos I made some all the way back from 1986 and one that had the blizzard of '93 in it when Chris (the one I visited in Murfreesboro, Tennessee) and I were snowed in at my dad's house in Jamesville, New York. Later that evening we went and checked how Steven was coming along with the trailer he was working on. Then we stopped at Steven's mom's house and I checked my e-mail real quick since she had an Internet connection to see if there were any important messages I should know about before heading on to Phoenix, Arizona the next morning.
That evening Crystal's mom said that she enjoyed having me there and it was
starting to feel like I was part of the family. She said I was welcome to come
back and visit anytime I was passing though the area. Monday morning we ate
breakfast and then I headed out at around 7:35 am. It was kind of overcast when
I left Parsons, Kansas, but as I continued on my way it became sunny.
