I had it all planned

Today we drove from Detroit back to Chicago. We're there (here) for the next 4 days what with a family wedding coming up.

Observing on the map that we were going to drive through Kalamazoo I had it all planned. Photo of yours truly before a Kalamazoo sign, a very bad pun on 'I've got a gal in Kalamazoo', the works.

So much for plans, for as we approached Battle Creek Michigan we saw a sign pointing the way to 'Kellogs Cereal City, USA'. How could we resist an attraction like this?

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Tasteful no? Sonya tells me that everyone knows the name Battle Creek and associates it with Kellogs. When I pointed out that I'd never heard the name she narrowed it down a trifle; every American knows the name. When I'm feeling in the mood I'll conduct an informal survey and see if that's true.

So we fronted up at the building about 4 PM. The entrance fee of 8 bucks a head seemed a trifle steep for cornflakes but they had an offer we couldn't refuse; last shift gets in half price. 4 bucks seemed much more in order so we signed up for the last tour of the day. It was almost worth it!

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We had to endure a video presentation (why is it that every damn tourist site in the entire universe feels compelled to present video?) that was pitched to the intelligence level of a very dull four year old. Toward the end I was about ready to gnaw my arm off at the shoulder and beat someone over the head with the wet end. This is a feeling normally only present at the Tuesday evening phone conference from hell!

As we were herded into the presentation area there was really very little in the way of visual cues to tell us which way we were to face. Backless benches and a couple of small TV screens were it. Sonya sat facing the wrong way! She explained, as the rest of the cattle seated themselves facing the same way, that she was running an experiment in suggestibility; she was quite sure we were facing the wrong way. Uh huh. But she was right and silly the rest of the herd felt when requested to turn the other way!

We got a silly hat each to wear. Andrew refused to wear his. Perhaps this is why!

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Mum and I both wore ours and Andrew protested at the humiliation! Poor bastard! Sonya promised to wear hers when we checked in to the hotel but when it came time I had to hold her to the promise. I wore the hat until dinner time :-) and I've decided that henceforth Wednesday dinner time is Cereal City USA on the head time, to match underpants on the head Sunday!