Travel-U.S., Cross County: Day 1 continued

For Travel Thursday, I am continuing with last week’s post of my husband and I’s cross country trip.  So where were we…oh, that’s right…we were walking into a the building labeled UFO store…

So after our UFO expert (the nice lady we just met) approached the door and began dialing in a code to open the latch, the door swung open to reveal a loud, smoky bar and we had just interrupted Karaoke night!  When I say that the music literally stopped and every bar stool swung around to look at us, I mean it!  It was straight out of a movie…as if the needle on the record player had scratched along the surface of the record, all the world stopped and all the locals couldn’t understand who we were and why we were in their bar!

So here we were, two young yuppies, me with my Polo popped-collar (yeah, good times) and my husband in his Brooks Brothers button-down and khakis, you would have thought we were the aliens that had just landed at this bar.  We were suddenly the main attraction of the evening and this bar crowd was anxiously awaiting our arrival.  Even with the strange glances and weird looks we were receiving, we just smiled and waved as the lady turned to us and said, “right this way.”  We followed her through the bar, past the Karaoke man who continued his music selection while gracefully balancing a beer mug in one hand and a cigarette in the other (pretty well I might add), into a small room the size of my first college dorm room closet!  The lady gleamed as she explained all the merchandize they had to offer, as a 4-foot tall wood-carved Alien stood on the register staring down at us.  My eyes quickly scanned the room for the smallest, cheapest item that I could find and there it was, my own personal beanie-baby-sized, bright green-colored Alien!!!  I loved it!  “I’ll take that,” I exclaimed as I pointedly anxiously to the Alien on the shelf.  She replied, “It’s yours for three dollars.”  I gave her five and said please keep it for the fire department, my husband smiled at her, we thanked everyone and then left.  As we squeezed out of the room, two burly gentlemen (which we hadn’t realized had just joined us in the closet) started inquiring the reasons behind why they couldn’t purchase the tall wooden alien.  The nice lady went on to explain that it wasn’t for sale.  “A local fire man carved that out of wood in his free time.  Just for our shop!”  Wow, what a town, I thought.  We sheepishly exited the closet and walked back into the open bar, knowing full well that as soon as we left, we would be the talk of the evening…the silly tourists that came into the UFO store after 9 pm on a Friday night.  I squeezed my alien tight in my hands and smiled.  One final stop for the night, I thought, before we headed to the hotel – The Big Mac Museum!

So long story short, it took us hours to find this so-called Big Mac Museum.  Later we realized we had passed it twice on the road and didn’t know it.  But once we made it, luckily it was housed inside of a McDonald’s, I enjoyed my FIRST EVER BIG MAC!  Yes, my first!  It was super yummy…especially at 11 pm at night!  Thank goodness for late night fast-food restaurants.  My husband and I started singing the song, “Two all beef patties, special sauce…on a sesame seed bun!

We took some pictures, explored a bit of the museum, I slurped down my chocolate banana milkshake and we were back in the car on our way to Erie, Pennsylvania.

We arrived at the hotel a little before 2 AM, completely exhausted!  The first day of our cross country trip wouldn’t be the longest…we had some memorable long days!  But what an amazing first day it was.  You never know what’s going to happen next with 21 days left.

For your enjoyment, haha!  I’m hungry now…