#agent ania

So how did it all start? Well, there were a couple hiccups. The car I had intended on taking, needed to be registered and its owner couldn’t get it done until the 8th. I accepted the fact that I would need to take my “not so perfect and in desperate need of repairs” SUV. I grew up in a tow truck and in garages, so I know a thing or two about cars, I just hate doing the work on them. First off, it’s  gas hog. 17 miles to the gallon? UGH. Next, it needs shocks and struts like no tomorrow. This thing rides like a dingy in the Pacific Ocean during a hurricane. The AC needed to be topped up and this is where the trouble started. I let a friend do it and needless to say, it didn’t go as planned. The AC unit was overcharged and not working. This is not good. I recognized the symptoms my car was experiencing and I immediately went into panic mode.

I sat in the parking lot after just getting my shoes for the premiere and bawled my eyes out while I called every mechanic friend I knew and was told the bad news. Upwards of $200 and possibly more if the compressor was damaged in the overcharge. Luckily a friend of mine who works over at GMC knew that Masterlube was running a special on recharges. So I called them and it was less than a $100 but I needed new filters and an oil change too. $150 later, I felt better, but emotionally exhausted. Plus I had to work that night and anyone who works in direct care with developmentally disabled people, you know you need to be on your A game ALL the time. It was a long day and an even longer night. I didn’t get any packing or cleaning done and we needed to hit the road at noon the next day.

Just after 10pm, Jake, manager at Vapor Craziness here in Billings, text me a picture of his shoes, his roommates dog had chewed them up. 8 am rolled around and we went to pick him out new shoes. They were snazzy. I drop him back off at his place and I get to mine so I can actually pack, make sure the fish were fed, garbage was taken out, and the dishes were done. Get that all done and race to my hair appointment. Finally 2 hours later, I am done and I pick Jake back up. We head to his shop to grab e-liquid, batteries, chargers and Reese’s GPS.

We snatch up some lunch and fill the beast up, then hit the road. I’ve driven I-90 so many times in my life, that I know all kinds of quirky hidden gems along the way. I had really hoped we could make some good time to get to Wall Drug, so Jake could experience that. Sturgis was also happening so getting through South Dakota was a nightmare. Speed limits were lowered and there were motorcycles everywhere. It was a pretty hairy ride until after Sturgis.

We were making good time and I kept telling Jake about a place called WALL DRUG where you could get free ice water. He had to of thought I was insane. I kept pointing out the signs along the highway to him and he’d just roll his eyes at me. As we got closer, he said we might as well stop if the place was still open. Well, I think he was pretty glad we did stop. I have been going here since I was 14 yrs old and my kids have been here every single time we’ve driven by it. Wall Drug is the second most magical place in the world! Anyways, Jake and I wondered around for a little while and I snapped this pic of him on the worlds largest jackelope. We waited around for the Tyrannosaurus Rex to come to life too. It was just like I remembered it over 6 years ago. I love how some things never change over time. We grabbed some dinner and hit the road. The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful until we got into Milwaukee. We left at 1pm Montana Time and got into Milwaukee about 23 hours later.

Wisconsin drivers are absolutely bat shit insane. There was so much construction coming off I-94 into the downtown area that we were practically crawling. Once we did get moving, they all seemed to drive how cockroaches scatter when you flick the light on in the middle of the night.

It didn’t take long to get through it and to our hotel… Which was located in a pretty sketchy looking part of Milwaukee. I honestly wish I had brought my firearm. However! Nothing bad happened except for some weird incident at the bus stop across the street when a bunch of cops descended on it… Who knows.

The room was nice though and I couldn’t find anything to really complain about. Shocker, right?

I  tried to nap, that wasn’t happening. In a couple of hours, we would be headed to the Intercontinental Hotel in downtown Milwaukee to meet and greet and then pub crawl with some pretty important people. The anticipation was insane! I wanted to see Shannon first out of anyone though. She is my unbiological sister and I can verify that unlike past vapers who have called me their sister, Shannon is 100% real and totally female. We got to the hotel but decided to walk around for a little while since Shannon hadn’t checked in yet and she needed to get ready too. We ended up finding the BRONZE FONZ thanks to one of our drivers who told us about him. Pretty freaking awesome! I did try to get Jake to put his A BILLION LIVES shirt on him, but that didn’t happen! After walking around, going and getting dinner we made our way back to the hotel. Shannon is everything and more than what I expected. she’s hilarious, absolutely beautiful and so passionate. What you see is what you get and what you get is an absolutely amazing human being. Agent Ania was also with Shannon as her personal body-guard. Unfortunately due to strict protocols, I am unable to show her face here in my blog. She has a special device that wipes out any sneaky photos of her the moment they are taken!

What happened next was pretty intense. We went down to the lobby to wait for everyone to show up and it became quite clear what a large family we all are. People were coming up to Shannon and I, people we had known for year on Twitter of Facebook (for me, she doesn’t Facebook). There were so many introductions, so many hugs…Phil Busardo, who as many of you know I met in England at Vape Jam and Vaper Expo and who ate Fish n Chips in the center of Birmingham on the back of my friend Mark’s car…Didn’t even recognize me. He looked at me 3 times before it finally dawned on him who I was! I didn’t get many pics in the lobby of the hotel or at the bars. But here are the ones I did get. If you head over to my FACEBOOK PAGE you can watch some videos, that facebook won’t let me embed here on the site.

    We stayed here at the bar called Ugly’s on the rooftop for quite some time. I wish I had taken more photos and that I was better at remembering names. If I forgot anyone, please know how sorry I am! I was able to meet Joe Barnett and Robin Barksy of The Vaping Militia, Bill Goodhsall, Dave Goerlitz, Tricia Busardo (Mrs. Phil) Fig, Drea and her husband, Caty from Vape Magazine was there. I can’t even begin to tell you how amazed I was. Joe Barnett and I had a few conversations here and there and let me tell you, this man knows his stuff and I have been listening Joe! It’s just taken me awhile to get back into all of this! Bill Goodshall is totally not what I expected. He doesn’t bullshit you one bit. Within moments of meeting him we were having a great discussion about the lies and the truth and everything  else that was coming down with the FDA. There were also a few other conversations that I will keep to myself, but wanted to note here, that some of you need to be a hell of a lot more grateful for what these great advocates do for all of us.

Jake and I abandoned Shannon to the clutches of Aaron Biebert and Chris Hughes (who I didn’t get to officially meet until the next day) and we wondered off on our own into a little German bar. We were the only two in there and the bartender was amazing and super friendly. We had a couple of drinks and explored the bar before calling a cab and calling it a night.

This is only day one. Now I know some of you are like, “Hey Meg, why aren’t you writing about the FDA?” Right now, I don’t want to. I will at some point this week, but for now, I want to relish in all of the feel good vibes I got from the A Billion Lives weekend. Call it selfish or whatever, but the net is flooded with everyone’s opinion and their own articles about the FDA, I’ll get there, just not right now.

I will start writing Part 2 of this blog tonight after work and aim for publication tomorrow morning. There’s going to be a little bit of raging, but a hell of a lot of raving going on too!

  For now, enjoy these photo’s from our #ABLRoadTrip If you have any photos you would like to share, please post them in the comments section!