All the craziness!
So much has happened to us in the past two weeks that it is extremely difficult to figure out where to begin. Two weeks ago three Nomads arrived to Arlington and only 2 Nomads continued the journey. We were down one man, but our spirits were so up! We came out here to break records, spread our passion all over the Heartland and whether we are two or three we will overcome! We hit Oklahama and Kansas which was a true treat! I wish we could shout out all the lovely people that served us and chilled with us and consoled us as we continued one man down. You know who you are, and hopefully you know how priceless you’ve made our journey thus far! We love you OK and KS!
Last Tuesday, Chaos, also known as Dylan hit the streets! Yup! I couldn’t believe it either! Dylan the Legend from Baltimore, joined us on the road! He came upon us like a dove and has shaken us like a storm! He has been the glue keeping us strong and pulling us closer together! Our screenings have been lacking a bit, but now that Dylan is here, we can only really go up! And that is fully what we intend to do! There has already been some pretty awesome moments since he joined our team! Some notable ones are below. Keep reading!
Thursday we ate about a million Chinese eggrolls. Creighton University had provided tea, cookies, and eggrolls for our screening. Since the amount of food needed was slightly overestimated Dylan, Stephen, and I became the beneficiaries of a TON of eggrolls! And yup! We did eat, and eat, and eat those eggrolls!
As if the eggrolls weren’t enough, I discovered the guys went freegan for the night, and found some lovely cheese, bread, and breadsticks. All free! You can use your imagination to figure out how they scored 20 bucks worth of cheese for free. :)
Last night! MEGA SHOUT OUT TO AMANDA!!! Not only did she completely spoil us she nearly corrupted us! “hey guys! let’s got to an apple orchard!” Mind you it was night. Just kidding! It didn’t quite happen like that, but still super sketch and super priceless in fun! We were gorging ourselves (like we needed it, with all the cookies, eggrolls and cheese we’ve consumed) on Indian buffet when someone at our table mentioned an apple orchard up the highway where peopel can go and get free apples. DID SOMEONE SAY FREE?! These three Nomads are IN ACTION! So we hear that you can go, even at night, and shake the apples off the trees and keep the good ones. So after dinner that is exactly what we do. We pile into our van with the lovely Amanda and head out into pitch-black-nothingness that is Decorah. Fields supposedly surround us, but we can hardly see 20ft ahead of us, even with the high beams. We go up and down, and even take a few creepy dirt roads that lead us into forests. CREEEEEPPPPYYYY!! OMG! At one point I was certain that our van would be consumed by zomies emerging out of the corn fields/forest area around us! Our van was slippin on gravel down the slope that curved around into oblivion!
Finally I got the van back on the right track and we arrived to another sketch road that literally wrapped through the forest and to a clearing where behind a fence, lay the orchard. A FENCE!? Dang this really was going to be an adventure! But alas, Stephen unlatched the gate, after Dylan had jumped it and Amanda was half over. Our headlights cast an eerie light off the trees, making them seemingly glow in the dark. We carefully stepped through the effervescent orchard straining to locate apples on high branches which could be shaken down. We had our dying cellphones pointed up at the trees and also scanning the ground beneath as our feet nimbly squished rotten apple after rotten apple. Finally we hit JACKPOT! We found a tree that had many clusters of bright red apples just asking to be picked! Stephen climbed up, then Dylan, and Amanda and I all taking our turns shaking the tree and watching the branches unleash the bounty! We all scrambled around with just our screen lights trying to find the apples bouncing and rolling all over the ground, getting lost among the previously felled apples. We filled an entire bag with red apples and took the first bites of refreshing, juicy sweetness! G-L-O-R-Y!
We located a green apple tree and tried again! We all were determined to claim the best apples off this tree. So Stephen climbed up and the three of us were positioned below the tree ready to grab and catch the falling apples that would result from Stephen shaking the tree. My back was pounded by green apples, they bounced everywhere! But alas, we were able to fill another bag of the deliciously sour, yet sweet crisp of green apples.
Quite the craziness! For future Nomads or visitors to Decorah, hit up Amanda and get you some apples! Especially at night, in the cold, down creepy roads!! You won’t be disappointed!
—Kyla
