Episode II: The Raid, Etc.

Episode II part I (in which various travel times are related)

Above is a sample of the official Campus Map, which I have cropped to show the general south-west portion of campus- my stomping-ground. As you can hopefully see (and you can click on the image for a higher-resolution picture) most important things are relatively close. My residence (Jayhawker Towers) is circled in green; the closest, and perhaps most important, building is circled in yellow: this is Mrs. E's all-you-can-eat diner, which serves quite good food.

The blue-circled building is the music building where they have piano practice rooms (though I have only used them once), the reddish-circled building is Haworth hall, where all my Bio stuff is, the black circle contains the student gym (which is totally cool) and the brownish circle has the main library (which unfortunately is some distance away).

In case you are interested, here are some statistics on average time (t) it takes me to walk to these various locations (sample # n>5):

Mrs. E's: Five minutes and six seconds

Haworth Hall: Six minutes and fifty-two seconds

Music Building: Four minutes and one second

Library (roughly): Eleven minutes and thirty-three seconds

Gym (roughly): Seven minutes and twenty-seven seconds

Episode II part II (in which Missouri is visited)

I visited Lees Summit last weekend and although I forgot to take a picture of numerous relatives eating breakfast at IHOP, I did at least get a pic of some folks (including Jerry Bennet and his new bike).

Episode II part III (in which the author's life is endangered)

So the other night I went to the Lawrence Museum of History or whatnot to see a presentation on Bill Quantrill, a guy who, among other things, came to raid Lawrence during the Civil War and killed a bunch of innocent men and burned down the city.

It was quite good. One person was an author who spoke about some of the history behind the raiders, and then the other guy started his presentation by bursting into the building shooting his pistol and yelling. It turns out he was playing the part of Bill Quantrill, and we were playing the part of the innocent townspeople. He threatened that if we didn't tell him the whereabouts of the mayor, he was going to shoot and kill every man above the age of 12. Needless to say, a good time was had by all.

Episode I: The Journey

Well hello. I find it altogether fitting and appropriate to begin the first installation with a brief survey of my 35 hour trip from Brea, CA to Lawrence KS (total distance traveled: 1,647 miles)

The first item of interest (besides a burning car) was: the largest thermometer in the world? (Baker, CA)

I stopped for a while in Vegas with exactly 2 and 1/2 objectives:

(1) To swim in the pool at the Hard Rock Hotel in which they pump music through the water so you can listen while you swim (Norris kids know what I'm talking about here). I failed in this objective.

(2) To visit the Bellagio, which holds some kind of record for most expensive building ever built. I succeeded in this objective, with evidence below.

(2 and 1/2) To see the lions at the MGM Grand. Unfortunately the lions were gone due to cage cleaning or something important like that.

So here is the Bellagio. They have a huge inner courtyard with like 10 pools with various fountains and things coming out of them, in addition to a famous atrium with fantastic hand-made models of buildings and trains, and arches of water that you can walk under. Perhaps the most unique part is the large choreographed water show that plays every half hour.



I also happened to encounter New York and a magic shop where a guy was making things levitate and spin around, then offering to sell the trick (I didn't buy it).

Here is a gas station selling 85 octane gasoline (available in Utah and Colorad, as I recall). I used it and noticed a marked decrease in gas mileage.




I stopped in Burlington, CO for church- you may recognize these books- and they also had the most cushiony pews I have ever seen.



The Old Town Museum in Burlington contains original buildings from the pioneer era, complete with authentic furnishings. It was quite interesting. Also included was a wagon ride to an antique carousel, complete with original hand-painted animals and 100 year old oil paintings.