Shorter day of driving. 200 miles from Lincoln, NE to Kansas City, MO. Started my Nebraska morning with a Runza1, then chewed through the rest of the state. Had a trucker at a rest stop buy my coffee because he liked the bus so much. Another endorsement from a key constituency.
I’ve been using this exquisite counter my sister got me for my birthday to count how many miles I’ve driven, in units of 100. One thousand miles under my belt — zero accidents. Halfway home. Getting better at driving this thing.
Began this trip in a legal state, and after cruising through two prohibition states, it was welcome to be back in another jurisdiction with recreational herb. Stopped at a dispensary with a big parking lot shortly after crossing the state line — a much more tempting roadside vice than a fireworks stand. The girl helping me out offered me a giant pack of gummies for a penny. Solid Midwest hospitality, right there.
Navigated the bus downtown, close to Hayden’s apartment — an old coworker from iiQ. He moved out here a year ago, and I caught him at the perfect time — two days before he’s set to move to Louisville. Most of his stuff is in boxes already, his girlfriend made the move a month ago, and my guy is soaking in a last little stretch of Dude Living before moving in with his partner down in Kentucky.
Grabbed a slice and a salad from a nice little spot in his Quality Hill neighborhood and caught up. First conversation longer than 15 minutes that I’ve had with someone since I got picked up from the Bozeman Airport a week ago. Very refreshing to kick it with a familiar face. Went for another round at The Peanut, a 10/10 KC dive.
Got massively blazed after dinner. So stoned, that I inadvertently dumped my whole-ass shaving kit into the washing machine as I was availing myself of his apartment building’s amenities. Was going crazy trying to figure out where it was. We retraced our steps, scoured the bus, then returned to the laundry room, opened the lid, and saw that essential satchel just floating there, completely waterlogged. Stupid, unforced error. Nothing lost, magnificently enough. Grateful my trimmer still worked like a champ after drying out for a bit.
Had a transformative shower and a trim, and watched YouTube flotsam2 on his couch while my laundry ran. We watched a Kansas City Mudflood conspiracy video3, where a vlogger with a voice somewhere firmly in the uncanny valley between poor-presenter and generative AI laid out the evidence4 that a catastrophic flood had wiped out an ancient KC civilization, and the facts around this event were being suppressed5 by the “mainstream”. A key part of this conspiracy centers around buildings in downtown with slanted, ground-floor/basement windows. Mudflood, baby. We walked around KC at night pointing out further “evidence”. See that basement? It used to be the penthouse…before Mudflood III came along.
Finished drying my clothes well after midnight, then bopped back to the bus. Wound down the evening listening to some Chet Baker, after fixing6 the sound bar that came jostled loose during the day. Heater is still blowing cold air, even after changing the propane tank out. Gotta figure that out soon, though sleeping fully-clothed is plenty comfortable, even as it’s dropping close to freezing at night up here.
- Verdict: 6.5/10. Got the Mushroom Swiss Runza. The foundation of a solid regional sandwich was there, but it was way too salty. Over-salted to the point that I’m willing to chalk it up as a mistake by that one Runza franchise. I’d eat another to compare, but I think I’m already outside that chain’s jurisdiction. ↩︎
- Dove down some odd YT rabbit holes with the search query roulette of typing in [RANDOM DATE] and [MOV], which returns dozens of scattershot videos with 0-50 views. The most unnerving we found was this guy, with uncomfortable face tattoos and hundreds of short videos recorded over years and years, all for an audience of no one. ↩︎
- Hayden introduced me to this conspiracy, not in a “I’m going to convince you and mudflood-pill you” way, but in a “check out this wild shit I found” way. ↩︎
- Half-skimmed wikipedia articles and cursory google searches. ↩︎
- Evidence of this deliberate suppression includes images “buried behind paywalls” and things being “hard to find” online. ↩︎
- Taping it back into place using generous amounts of Gorilla Tape. ↩︎
bus.hair 
