Wednesday, July 15, 2009

30: The Worst Mall Ever & Other Mistakes

Stoker's Log Day Thirty

7/15/09

Break Day in Hutchinson, KS

I really love libraries. We spent most of today in a rather nice one, alternating between blogging and reading Lance Armstrong's It's Not About the Bike (yes, exactly like we did in Effingham) and it made me incredibly happy. Our lunch at Subway was rather subpar, especially since the All Kansans Are Friendly rule apparently doesn't extend to their employees, but at least the cookies were as delicious as usual.

We were waiting for the bike shop across the street to finish their work, which we thought would include a much needed chain replacement. Unfortunately they informed us that it would make no sense to replace the chain without replacing the cassette (as a ragged cassette like ours would quickly tear up a new chain) and they didn't have the parts for our odd bicycle. We couldn't wait for them to be shipped in, so we had them clean the bike and fix a few minor problems and just hoped for the best. Kyle was also finally able to replace his old helmet with a snazzy new one that made me a bit jealous. I also longingly browsed the cruiser bikes, but I think if I ever bought one I would feel like a traitor.

By the time we finished at the bike shop, the salt mine and most of the museums were closed. So much for our tourist plans. Instead we decided to go out for a nice dinner and a movie, a plan that failed miserably. The movie theater was located in what we eventually dubbed The Worst Mall Ever, complete with theme song. (the only lyrics were "the worst mall ever," but I think it was pretty catchy all the same.) it was nearly impossible to access as a pedestrian, and the inside was incredibly empty and depressing. I say this having seen far too much of it, since we wrongly assumed that we could access the theater from within the mall and wandered all around it before realizing we would have to make a long loop around it outside, and in the rain no less. When we finally made it to the box office, it was packed with people waiting to see the new harry potter, which was the only movie we wanted to see. Even though we had just run the gauntlet to get there we decided that we'd rather see Harry Potter in a theater that was less depressing and less crowded, so we headed back through the rain the way we came to find dinner.

We ended up at Chili's, which turned out to be an even worse decision than touring The Worst Mall Ever. Our waiter was very charming in an awkward sort of way, but we had to wait so long for our food to arrive that we consumed two giant bowls of chips and cheesy dip. Then we had a three course meal deal from a menu that included only absurdly unhealthy options. We were fit to burst by the time the dessert shooters arrived, but they tasted the best of everything we'd had so we couldn't resist finishing them too. I don't know what we were thinking.

The long walk back and the stop at Target for ziplock bags nearly killed me, and when we finally made it back to the hotel room we just collapsed on the bed and groaned for a few hours. I'm betting my first meal at Chili's will also be my last; I just hope we recover by tomorrow. To make matters worse, we noticed on our way in that the hotel had a laundry room that we could have used last night or all day today, but now it would be too late for everything to dry. Very frustrating. But on the other hand we also finally found the switch for the main light; we had gone through yesterday thinking they had just gone overboard on the mood lighting. We felt rather stupid all around as we drifted off to sleep.

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