so it begins...

As expected, Buddy and I woke up to the chilly morning air and sunlight pouring through the humidified windows. Much to our surprise, the parking lot at school was rather full and campus seemed to be fairly busy for a Sunday morning. Around 8am or so, we crawled out of our sleeping bags and did our best to appear somewhat presentable before heading into the school. The building is quite different to the structure we call "school" and we were caught off-guard when we were asked to sign in at the front desk and present identification. It was a very different feel than the open campus we were used to in Kirksville. After clearing the front desk, we immediately setup a base camp within the student lounge on the first floor.

One of the first items of business was to secure housing for the evening. I immediately called the Econo Logde in hopes of finding a vacancy. I must admit that I was surprised when the front desk informed me that there were vacancies, but even more so when he said he was too busy to take my reservation on the phone. He suggested that we come in around 11am. With that, we began our furious housing search. We managed to locate the name of a real estate agent as well as some promising properties over the internet. We left some messages and sent some e-mails and hoped to hear back from these leads by the afternoon.

Right around that time, we decided to head out to the Econo Lodge to actually reserve a room for the evening. Paul and Kristi were also coming down so it was going to be a incredibly economic four-way split for the room. Imagine my surprise when we walked into the lobby and the front desk said that they had just booked their last room fifteen minutes ago. So, we were consigned to pursue the other hotels in our search for shelter. Fortunately, we came across a Days Inn with a vacancy and quickly snatched up the room. The best part about having a hotel room was that we would finally be able to take a shower. We quickly moved our belongings into the room and washed off the last twenty hours of our road trip. We then headed out refreshed and revitalized.

We picked up a map and newspaper at the gas station and returned to the school to continue searching for properites. We were ecstatic to receive return phone calls from a couple property owners near ASU. We set up an appointment for tomorrow and felt as though we were well on our way. While on campus, we ran across a few more properties on the internet as well as several advertised through the classifieds in the paper. We started making a list and began calling people for appointments. After several hours at school, we decided to return to the hotel in search of dinner.

Making our way back to the Days Inn, both Buddy and myself had an unexplained craving for mexican food. I know we have mexican food in Kirksville, but there was something about having it so close to the border. It sounds stupid, I know, but we were both fairly sleep-deprived and it's difficult to explain exactly how our brains were operating at the time. After driving around for a few minutes, we discovered Salsitas, a little place next to the hotel. So, we parked the car outside our room and walked over to the little stand. As expected, the food was cheap and delicious. After finishing a most satisfying dinner, we returned to the room and awaited Kristi and Paul's arrival. I can't say that I was conscious the entire time we were waiting and all we could do was turn on the TV and let our bodies enjoy some much needed relaxation.

Kristi and Paul finally arrived around 9:30pm and we made plans for tomorrow. We will head over to school in the morning and get a little bit of information in the morning. Mostly, we will touch base with student services here and try to see if they have any leads on housing. Then, we're probably going to head over to REI to see if there are any last-minute items we need before camping tomorrow night. Then, Buddy and I will go and take a look at a couple places before we head out to the campsite. So, that's the plan for tomorrow and I have a sleeping bag calling my name.