Week 687AZ - Manic meatballs, and our new car (Tesla!)!

(Zach writes) It’s not every day that you get dragged along on a 60-minute road trip by your maniacally gleeful brother to get some fast-food meatballs. But when that day comes, and it will happen, I will be the maniacally gleeful brother. If I am being truthful, I have no idea why I set my sights on Manic Meatballs, the fast-food meatball restaurant in question, or what drove me to spend 60 minutes in a brand-new Tesla Model Y to get there. Maybe it was a sense of childlike wonder. Perhaps it was divine providence, a call from the gods that meatballs were to be had. Whatever the case, I did it.

The journey to Manic Meatballs was extremely enlightening. The most obvious revelation, in hindsight, was that my sister doesn’t like road trips. That’s probably why she said, “This is boring!” and “I want to go home!” on the way there. The revelation that impacted me the most, however, is that the Tesla drives itself. Well, it doesn’t really drive itself, but that doesn’t really matter because it can do the highway all by itself. Seriously, and this is crazy, it can even switch lanes. Again, the Tesla can do this on its own. That was the source of my giddiness for the majority of the trip. I’m afraid the meatballs took second place.

The meatballs themselves were quite good for a random fast-food restaurant in Lakewood. The cucumber salad was good and the apple sauce ordinary, but great value for the price. Both me and my sister shared a large “Manic Meal”. Interestingly enough, Manic Meatballs had poutine! They didn’t call it poutine, of course they didn’t, and instead termed the item “Flooded Fries”. This was, of course, a reference to their regular “Seashore Fries”. Ever the cunning linguist I am, I decoded their cypher almost immediately. In another layer of interestingness, forming an interesting onion, the Manic Meatballs building used to be a bank! They made the funny, if not obvious, joke that “the food’s so good it needs protecting!”

Before we departed, we visited the military surplus store. Much to my father’s dismay, all the stickers were rather meanspirited. Luckily for my father, however, he was able to find a military grade belt attachment. The purpose my father used it for, which was likely not its creator’s intent, was as a card holder. Because you can never have too many decks of cards!

The ride home involved stopping at a park and roller skating, which my fellow travelers enjoyed, before the inevitable return to our mundane existence. But this pilgrimage served to remind us that, no matter how bleak and uniform our lives seem, we can always do something full of equal parts fun and whimsy. The hour-long car ride is not required, just greatly encouraged.

Want more info on my take on the tesla? Here