The Road Trip

I believe I have outdone myself as far as evening entertainment.
I have never stayed out all night and done so much with 4 friends and half a tank of gas. I will relate the whole evening to you as clearly as possible. I will eliminate code names for the present.
At work, Calvin and I proposed a road trip to visit our friend Biye who is at a smart person summer program at McMaster University in Hamilton. Upon reaching home, we coordinated a vehicle and 3 other people: Emily, Roland, and Porky (that's not even a code name really).
Emily was taking care of her horse, and was to be at my house at 8ish, and we were going to collect the guys and set out. We planned to find Biye about 1030 maybe, chat, and leave.
Emily showed up about 45 minutes late. Apparently she had to help birth kittens.
That was ok, really, we were just gonna have to speed things up. I was going through a couple little suburban streets in my minivan with her on our way to pick up the guys. I had just accelerated to about 70km/h and Emily screamed "STOP SIGN!" and I realised I was about to run it.
Of course, I slammed on the brakes. My minivan's wheels locked up, and we started fishtailing through the intersection in a four-wheel skid. About halfway through I thought "Screw it" and just kept going.
By this point Emily and I had the hiccups and were both insanely hyper. We got Roland at his house and Porky and Calvin at Porky's, and left for Hamilton.
Seriously, getting to Hamilton isn't too hard. Just follow the signs really, and make enough Timmy's stops. We got there about 10. And we thought it wouldn't be too hard to find McMaster because hey, it's a university. Everyone will know where it is.
An hour, a bathroom break, 3 direction-askings, and much frustrating wandering later, we finally found it.
From thence it took half an hour to find the right building and another half hour to break in (it was locked up) so when we finally got close to Biye it was around midnight. The building was a university residence where you hafta get someone in the building to buzz open the door for you. We didn't know which room Biye was in, so we hung around until someone was going in/out and then just got them to let us in. We took the elevator up, hoping to find someone in a common area and ask for Biye.
We wandered around the building a bit, and came across a man with a binder who looked rather shocked to see us. We asked f her was with the smart person program, and he said yes. We asked for Biye and he said everyone was sleeping. A lady with a guitar happened along and listened to us ask for Biye and just out of the blue asked if we were his friends who made soap cookies. We were very shocked to find she knew this about us, but we conceded it.
Apparently our Biye had made a speech detailing some of our extravagant past adventures. She asked us about setting things on fire, and we pointed at Porky. She asked us about running around screaming for a minute straight, and Emily and I started laughing. So Biye had pre-introduced us.
We couldn't see him, so we left a note about how much we loved him and saying that Emily was keeping the baby (there isn't one, just to clarify), and the guy with the binder said that Biye would have to read it in front of all the smart people, which made us exceedingly pleased.
Oh, and somewhere in there we told them how we got in and they looked, I must say, a little scared....hehehe.

So we headed out of Hamilton. Well we tried anyway. Got lost again. But eventually the 401 came to us and we ended up back at Elmira Tim Horton's for sustenance. Then we remembered that our buddies Micheal and Colton were staying at long-lost-buddy Pip's place in Mount Forest area. Porky had been there before and thought he could recognize it. So we stopped at Roland's house to find vague directions and headed out there.
The way to Mount Forest, like Hamilton, is simple. Go North out of Elmira, turn right, turn left. But here are the facts we speculated about Pip's house's location: Near, but not in, a small town called Holstein; on a gravel road; the numbers 1 and 4 in the fire number; trees on the right-hand side of the drive; and there was a creek in the vicinity.
It took us less time to find it than to find McMaster. After carefully checking out a whack of farms on dirt roads, we spied Colton's van, and joyfully drove up.
Then the dog started barking. We didn't want to wake up Pip's family, because that is impolite. Porky scouted around and tried to find them stealthily with no luck. After sitting annoyed and indecisive, we decided to leave and let the family sleep.
We noticed while at Pip's the intensely bright stars. So we were trying to find a decent field to stargaze in, but they were all wet. Eventually we parked on the side of the road and the whole pack of us lay down on the pavement and looked up and talked about life, the universe, and everything. It was really crazy to see the sky so starry. I could see the milky way, which I haven't seen for a long time. I felt like I was back into a place where I was supposed to be; it was like someone set up a pretty blanket over me and was saying "It's ok, you're home here."
Anyway, we headed back to Elmira. We saw a gas station that was under 1.30/litre and stopped to fill up. We tried to calculate who owed who what $, but it was 4 am, and just was not working.
I went in to pay, and I literally stumbled into the store. There was an unexpected lip on the door step, and so I made quite an entrance. I looked up laughing at myself to discover a nice looking boy behind the counter also laughing in a good natured type of way. I engaged in conversation, and we exchanged notes on drunk people (verbal notes). And it was a strange experience, because after I left, I felt like I should know him. Like, he was so happy and friendly seeming that I really wanted to hang out with him. And I've been thinking about it a lot since... all 6 hours since.
*Sigh*
So we went back to Elmira, but no one wanted to go home. We could see the sun beginning to rise, and we decided to collect blankets from Porky's house and go watch the sunrise on the swings at Lion's Park. We arrived and there was a police car sitting in the parking lot. We decided screw it, we're going to hang out on the swings anyway.
It must have been very entertaining for the cop to watch 5 teenagers fit themselves onto a little basket swing comfortably. All of us were cold and none of use could breath quite right, but we were happy all balled up like kittens and chatting merrily.
530 rolled around and we decided to call it a night (or day, whatever) and the guys got placed at their homes and Emily and I returned to my house.
My mother was up to see my brother off to camp and she was not happy I had stayed up all night. Notice she doesn't mind the staying out, but she doesn't like the staying up. I'm apparently bipolar.
So Emily and I went to breakfast at Elmira Doughnuts and Deli, which felt good and wholesome and yummy.
We came to my house again and dozed while watching the matrix, and Emily left about 930.

So that was my night. It was active and happy and spent with friends. I wouldn't have done it any other way. Except maybe asking for that guy's email address... hmm... road trip next weekend?
Porky's mom showed up at my house for the garden tour this morning and asked me why she heard him come in at quarter to six. I said we got lost in Hamilton and then in Mount Forest. She looked shocked and laughed.

I encourage anyone who has stuff to add that I missed, because everything is a little foggy.

Cheers to a good Friday night!