Reddit's Fantastical Voyage Pt. Three

• 12:00pm - Arrive in Chicago
• 1:00pm - Wander around and get lunch
• 4:00pm - Where's Waldo
• 6:00pm - Back to O'Hare and rent a car. Drive to Madison
• 10:00pm - Arrive in Madison
• 11:00pm - ZanshinJ's fake ID confiscated, boot left unconsumed.
• 12:00am - House party
• 12:30am - "Fuck bitches" - unsure if this was a question or statement

September 13^th

• 11:00am - Breakfast at Micky's Dairy Barn
• 1:00pm - Edit, write, etc...
• 4:00pm - Taste of Madison including Tibetan food, Brats, famous burgers, and mac & cheese pizza
• 7:30pm - Drive back to O'Hare
• 11:00pm - Try to sleep by the ticketing counter
• 3:00am - Wait for security to open
• 4:00am - Actually get through security
• 8:30am - Depart for Tampa

We arrived at our next destination still tired from the last stop - I would be shocked if every entry does not start this way, and if it doesn't then we did something wrong. We landed in Chicago to a big surprise: our host was not expecting us. To start with there was trouble leading up to Chicago. First we were being picked up after Where's Waldo in the loop, being taken to Madison, and being brought back for our flight which changed to someone could pick us up, but we had to take a bus back which became we had to take a bus both ways (which cost $100 combined for us and arrived after our flight had left, minor details). There was a new host lined up that I called when we got to O'Hare to see what his plans were only to find out he thought he was hosting us the next day after we had already been to Madison. OMGclusterfuck. We chose to commit to going to Madison that night, rent a car if it came down to it, and just go play Where's Waldo for the afternoon.

Tom has put together a nice video that covers the Where's Waldo portion of this trip to be found somewhere on Associated Content.

After finally stumbling upon that bastard Waldo, we made our way back to O'Hare, rented a car and sped off towards Madison. ZanshinJ greeted us and promised us a wild night of bar hopping around his town starting off with a two liter boot at the Essen Haus. It turned out that ZanshinJ may not have quite reached 21 years of age because the bouncer outside the bar took one look at his ID and said, "You are not six feet tall", and began questioning him about his address and other information. One fake ID lighter, we were shuttled off to a house party instead. Keg beer was consumed, beer pong played and won (I'm baffled as to how), and the enigma of the night discovered: "fuck bitches" - statement or question?

The next morning we went to Micky's Dairy Barn for a hearty breakfast before crashing back at ZanshinJ's house to try and get a bit of writing and video editing done. We then had the bright idea of doing our own "Taste of Madison" tour sampling a bunch of different foods around town. It started with a snack of Tibetan steamed dumplings (mediocre) and lo mein (pretty good). What really made both dishes was a outstanding spicy chili sauce. The on to what I expected to be great but what turned out to be the worst food of the day, maybe of the trip so far - a brat. A brat in Wisconsin? You can't go wrong! But no, it was over cooked, burnt, and stale with little flavor. The mustard and kraut didn't help at all and the texture was something I'd like to forget. People of Wisconsin - please don't kill me, buy me a better brat next time. The New Glarus beer, however, was damn tasty. We split a burger at a place whose name neither of us can remember, but we do remember that they have all you can drink beverages for your birthday and write your name up on a whiteboard. At this point we were stuffed, but ZanshinJ insisted on getting us Ian's Pizza for the road - half mac & cheese, half chicken penne alfredo.

Enough food. Off to the airport again. We got into O'Hare at about eleven at night and our flight did not leave until around 8:30am, so it was another night of catching a nap here and there if we could. We got up at three in the morning to get through security, but they didn't get around to opening the gate until almost four. A few more hours rest on the floor by our gate and it was off to Tampa for new adventures.