So, Yeah, That Just Happened

Today started off a little more hurried than usual. I was still recovering from a 13 hour workday the previous day and an inability to fall asleep this morning. I was looking forward to heading to my favorite coffee spot in the city. I loaded up the truck, grabbed the phone and camera, and then things went all wibbily.

 I got a text from the person I was meeting at Sump that the place was closed. This did not make me happy. I really wanted to grab some of the current roast as a cortado. It is a Columbian with chocolate and cherry notes.  But it was not to be. I had been trying to introduce my friend to The Vine down on Grand and figured I could get some turkish coffee to tide me over. This went worse.I want to preface this with the fact that I have been to the vine on many occasions and it is has always been consistently above average to good, both on foodstuff and on coffee. I think I offended the server. As we were ordering, I tried to order turkish coffee and she said they only had one kind of coffee, and that you had to ask for cardamom to be added. I was sleepy and without coffee so, whatever I needed to do to get some coffee in me was fine. The hummus was good as usual. But the coffee was the better part of 20 minutes getting to the table and when it did, there was more coffee on the pot than in the pot and it tasted like windex. I took 2 drinks out of it. They did take it off the check. Feeling less than happy, I headed west.
As I was almost out of town I nearly died twice and then I got a little sadder. If you clicked the link above, you know that the coffee house is closed until at least May. This does not bode well and now I will have to find alternate caffeine for the next 3 weeks. After this the truck pictured above attempted to kill me twice. First he barreled up the on ramp bypassing the line that was running @10-15mph for the better part of 2 miles and slid across the median to cut me off. Following this he promptly stalled on the on ramp coming to a complete halt on the highway just at we were speeding up to 40-ish. This concludes the whining, annoyed portion of the post.
The rest of the trip was beautiful. Weather was in the low 60s, I listened to a Cards game on the radio and saw some pretty country. My first stop of the day was Albers, IL, population 878. I spent a good bit of time taking pictures of the church and some macro shots. Then back on the road east bound and down.  I carried some fruit for snacks and munched on this as I listened to the Cards lose a squeaker to the Giants. I passed by an amazing looking lake and was thinking about pulling off the side of the road for a few minutes to take a few pictures. Just as I decided to keep going, fate tossed me a rest stop with a scenic overview of Rend Lake. While I was there, I got in a quick workout hiking around the lake, some push-ups and dips on the truck.
I finally got into Nashville just after 2000 local time, met my family at McDonald's where they were grabbing dinner. Went back to their room and I arranged for one for myself in Clarksville. It is just under an hour away and the last room at the place. Well, it's late, I need to get up early.