You know how people say it’s not about the destination, but the journey? Sometimes, they’re wrong. Sometimes the journey sucks and you just want to get to where you’re going as fast as possible. That was the case for me and my friends last Wednesday, when we drove from Kitchener to Indianapolis for Gen Con, the biggest gaming convention in North America.

It all started when we split into two cars. I was lucky to be with Minh and Alvin, who are both chill and easygoing. I did much of the first stretch of driving, which went pretty smoothly. When I switched with Minh though, it wasn’t long before we saw lights flashing behind us, pulling us over. He had not switched to the left lane to pass a cop on the highway, and since the cop was finished with whoever he was ticketing, he promptly pulled us over. Luckily, the cop was feeling generous and let us go with a warning. On the plus side, Waze rerouted us around some accidents and saved us an hour of driving time.

We thought that was the worst of it, but we were wrong. Our next stop was a gas station, where we needed to use the washroom. I walked in and saw something that will haunt me for the rest of my life: a toilet without a stall, just sitting there next to the sink. Who would think that’s okay? Who would use it?!? Would you wash your hands if you saw someone sitting there? I quickly finished up and ran out, hoping no one sit down on that toilet. Alvin and Minh followed suit, and we agreed to never speak of it again.

We were starving by then, so we decided to stop at Salvatori’s Authentic Italian, a place that claimed to have the best calzones in town. We ordered one each, thinking they would be normal-sized. Boy, were we wrong. They brought out these monstrous things that looked like they could feed a family of four. They were stuffed with cheese, meat, sauce, and more cheese. They were delicious, but impossible to finish. We ate as much as we could, then took boxes to take the rest with us.

We finally made it to Indianapolis around 10pm, only to find a huge line of people waiting to pick up their badges for Gen Con. We joined the queue, hoping it would move fast. It didn’t. We spent 45 minutes inching forward, while I tried to distract myself by scanning QR codes that were posted around the convention center. They were part of a scavenger hunt that promised prizes for completing tasks. I got Minh into it too, and we started sharing codes that we found.

We finally got our badges and headed to our hotel, exhausted and ready to crash. We had survived the road trip, but we still had four days of gaming ahead of us. Would we make it? Would we have fun? Would we ever eat calzones again? Stay tuned for the next installment of our Gen Con adventure!