Bowling Green: Character

I continued my farewell tour with a short stint in Ohio for the past couple of days. I know, I know: my road trip was supposed to be over. And Ohio is definitely not in the Carolinas - or even anywhere near the South! But what can I say? I've been bitten by the travel bug, and is it really my fault that my best friend lives five hours away? (Answer: no, it's not.)

I left yesterday around lunchtime to see Daniel Scott, hoping to make my entrance just as he was returning from work - I was a bit off, but not enough to have missed anything. I met his roommate, Megan, and his friend, Mara, and got to see Lauren, whom I had already met when she came home with him and rode around with the two of us as I got my hair and make-up done for my senior prom. Anyway, the five of us sat around the half-packed apartment (they're moving this weekend) and chatted for a bit before Mara and Lauren had to go home and Danny and I had to eat before we fainted.

It was at this point that my tour of BG began. We walked around Main Street a bit, stopping in at the Ben Franklin, which is certainly superior to the one that was once in this town and which makes me wish that we had such a good craft store in Greenville. We extended our route to go back and forth between a few restaurants and eventually to find an ATM so that we could eat at Call of the Canyon. We stuffed ourselves and then, on the way to the car, we decided to stop in at Grounds for Thought, a favorite coffee shop of Dan's. Luckily, we happened upon a stupendous jazz concert, so we stayed through a few songs. We then continued on, stopping to admire the creepy courthouse across from the rabbit window, to the biggest DQ in the entire world (portion-wise), where we enjoyed delicious Blizzards and flipping through the latest issue of BG Magazine. They gave me so much ice cream that I couldn't even finish it!

After our dessert, we went back to his apartment. It was already late, so I changed clothes and, after a quick round of Mario Kart on Super Nintendo and then a stop at his friend's house to play Mario Kart on Wii (So I'm becoming a gaming addict - sue me!), we went to Uptown, where we not only danced the night away but where I witnessed my first-ever drag show. They do one every Tuesday! It was very fun, I must say. We got there well into the show, but there was enough time to see three or four drag queens perform. Upon the show's conclusion, we decided to stay and dance for a while, and I met some of Danny's friends.

The next day was the surprise that Danny would not reveal to me. After he woke me up and we tasted the hemp milk that we had purchased the previous night (It was not so good...), I made every excuse to continue lying on the futon in the comfortable clothes that I had borrowed from Danny the night before, but I eventually did get up and take a shower. We went out the door at least three different times, always forgetting something, and somehow, we ended up watching the Bridges dance class performance video as well as the video that Danny made about his Salamanca trip, so by the time we made it to Waffle House for breakfast, it was actually lunchtime.

I would like to take this time to say how impressed I was with that Waffle House - the workers were competent, clean, and friendly, and the restaurant did not smell smoky or greasy but was instead clean and bright. The food was good, too.

Danny then took me to BG's campus, and he gave me a tour of the school as well as his office. We spent the rest of the day exploring BG more, hitting up, to name a few:
-freaking BEN FRANKLIN and their fabulous candy counter
-an art gallery
-a hippie store that quite possibly bests the one in Marietta
-a COOKIE store, at which I tasted the best snickerdoodle that I have ever had
-a gas station convenience store

Finally, we had to leave so that a.) we could find some real food for dinner and b.) I could get home "not too late." My car was packed (not that I had that much stuff, really), so after I said my goodbyes, we met his family in Arcadia and then went into Findlay for dinner at the Olive Garden. The day came to a close with me driving home with the windows down, listening to the Iron & Wine CD that Danny left playing for me in my car.

Things that I would like to remember about my 24 hours in BG (+2 or so hours in the surrounding area):
-dancing on the speaker to "I Gotta Feeling"
-skipping to The Cookie Jar
-Story People
-the helpful trucker
-Ore-GON Trail/the shopkeeper's instructions
-"Are you drunk?" "Um...no." "Oh - it must be me!"
-dancing people at John Nemeth's concert
-our hula-hooping blocking the exit
-how comfortable Danny's clothes were to sleep in
-our pirate server
-healthy diets
-walking into what may or may not have been Danny's apartment while he was outside
-the restaurant with the long bathroom hallway with a stop in the kitchen

Reasons that I absolutely must return:
-to eat at Squeekers
-to check out Finders
-to swim in the quarry
-to go to Canada
-to continue staring at the twins in hopes of really being able to tell them apart w/out guessing
-to make friends with the people living in the Church as well as the Windmill
-to finish a small Blizzard from DQ
-to wear Danny's clothes again
-to receive tie-dyeing lessons