The First Leg of the Trip

Its 5:00am. Picture yourself in a gigantic Uhaul truck. Come on, play along, Get in the truck!... Good, now that we have you and you are aboard for the ride, we are leaving for Illinois. I say we. I mean you, myself, and my Grandpa Earl. Oh don't worry, we have plenty to talk about and we are going to try to get there in three days. And if you really get bored talking to us, you can always jump in Jessica's car, she is following close behind. She is making the same trip, so we decided to caravan. The first three hours are not bad. The excitement of the huge truck is starting to wear off, but there is still a good amount of energy in the cab. We have been riding for a while, so this would be a good time to pull over, "get some coffee for Grandpa," take a bathroom break, and switch the drivers. It just so happens that we are passing my old stomping grounds. Loomis, California. There is a Burger King there now, so I thought that would be a good place to pull in. I have had a great respect for Loomis, I spent some of my best years here. And my view of this little town just got better. As I enter into the BK I am immediately drawn to a space age soda machine, its incredible. It claims that it has over 100 different flavors of soda. Skeptical, I get in line and spend approximately $2.00 to see how this thing really works. Never before have I seen such a device. And to think that I first discovered it in Loomis! The machine was pretty intuitive, growing up in Silicon Valley I had no problem navigating the touch screen display and cyphering through the hundred options that were available. It was then that I thought about that 9 year old kid who always takes his time filling his happy meal sized cup with a little bit of soda from every option. I don't know what you called it when you were a kid, we called it a "suicide." And with 100 options, if there is ever a kid who tried it with this machine, it might as well be suicide if there is someone impatiently waiting behind him. Nonetheless, I continued and easily found the Diet Coke option. It was then that I realized the real potential of the machine. I could have have the drink with or without caffeine, or with Lime, or Cherry, or about 8 other diet coke flavors that I didn't even know existed. I was so intrigued. I shared my enthusiasm with Jessica. She was equally thrilled. My Grandpa on the other hand wasn't that interested. He got his coffee from the antique coffee maker, and was desperate to get back on the road. I wonder if we will see another soda machine like this on our journey. With about 2000 more miles to go, who knows what we might run into.