I met up with Will at his place in downtown Flint and he brought me around Kettering for some pictures, a trip down memory lane, and a tour of the stay-away-from here areas. Considering I’ve been to Kettering twice before, I never ventured off campus, but considering where we were I was always heavily advised not to. So I never really understood or saw why I was not traveling out-of-bounds, but rest assured – I do now! Though I was surprised at how nicely the downtown area is developing.
We grabbed dinner at the Redwood Lodge and it had such interesting things on the menu like bison, rabbit, turtle, venison… I settled for veggie pizza [typical]. Will had given me a head’s up a few days prior that he was going to have to tap out early on our weekend plans, which would have been a bummer had his friends not been AWESOME.
This story seems familiar – it’s exactly how I met Will! When I went on my first road trip to visit Dave, one of his housemates was in a frat and they brought a slew of people over. Will and Samantha hit it off. We all kept in touch, but only I returned to visit about a year later. So when Dave decided to stay in one night, Will and his friend took me under their wing and kept me entertained for the majority of my stay. Since then, I’ve crashed by Will twice on my way to and from California, and now it worked out perfectly that I was to only be a stone’s throw away from Flint again!
In midst of our hour-long trek to the theater to see Boondock Saints II, I learned that not only were these guys as nice as Will, but they also enjoyed shooting guns, bonfires, visiting Flint’s Farmers Market.. Needless to say, when I saw that one of their license plates said “Enginerd” and the other had a pickup truck covered in mud - I knew we’d get along just fine.
I finally got my hot apple cider at the Farmer’s Market, took a quick enough nap to wake up and shoot some clay discs. No one was injured – though the same cannot be said of the truck that I accidentally got stuck shortly afterward when they let me take a turn at off-roading… I knew that was going to be a bad idea. They pulled it out with the tractor.
All in all – great way to spend my last weekend on tour. It’s been a long haul, but I’m excited to be heading home. MY OWN BED. Home cooked meals. Family. MY OWN CAR. Friends. Local bars. DECENT HOCKEY. Going as I please.
I’ll officially be crossing the NJ border on Friday at some point.
Tags: 2012, bonfires, boondock saints, clay discs, country nights, flint, gland blanc, Great Lakes Crossing, guns, handguns, Kettering University, michigan, microbrewery, mud on the tires, off-roading, shotguns
