The Winchester Brothers travel back and forth across the country in Baby, their 1967 Chevy Impala. I never much paid attention to some of the place names until in one episode Dean mentioned that he was going to Buffalo, New York because his Dad’s old storage locker was broken into. He was in Queens, New York, and said he’d be there in two hours.
I stared at my screen.
I’ve lived in New York my whole life, including spending my elementary years in Queens, and I’ve been to Buffalo. It is not a two hour drive, I don’t care how fast you’re going.
It’s almost 400 miles! That’s six hours and fifteen minutes IF, and that’s a big if, you’re going the speed limit, don’t stop off in any small towns where the speed limit is lowered drastically, don’t need to get gas, and there is no traffic.
Oh, and four hundred miles in a 1967 Chevy? You will definitely need to get gas. At least twice!
Here is a list of fifteen places the Winchesters visited during the series. I’ve included the episode when they first went there. Some places like Kansas, South Dakota, and Fall River, Massachusetts they’ve been to multiple times over the years.
Note: The notation: 1.1 is Season 1, Episode 1.
Lawrence, Kansas [Pilot, 1.1]
Lebanon, Kansas [As Time Goes By, 8.12]
Buffalo, New York [Bad Day at Black Rock, 3.3]
Lily Dale, New York [The Mentalists, 7.7]
Ankeny, Iowa [Hook Man, 1.7]
Sioux Falls, South Dakota [Devil’s Trap, 1.22] *
Las Vegas, Nevada [Season Seven, Time for a Wedding!, 7.8]
Sioux Falls, South Dakota is where Bobby Singer lives. It’s like a home base for the Winchesters. The sheriff is Jody Mills, who becomes a close friend of Bobby and the boys.
Fall River is also where the Lizzie Borden House and Museum is, and Sam and Dean go there in a later episode.
Windom is where Sam and Dean meet their up until then unknown half-brother, Adam Milligan.
Which was your favorite place that the Winchesters traveled to?
This link will take you to the story of Corey Brotherton’s father who was turned away for not being registered to vote. Except he was registered to vote.
Know your rights and know where to get the correct information in order to exercise your right to vote.
Corey went to I Will Vote and was able to show the poll workers that his father was indeed eligible to vote. His is one of many stories of voter suppression.
I’m sure you’ve seen the long lines during early voting, especially in minority neighborhoods. Please stay in line. Bring water, food, a chair.
Another resource to keep with you or on your phone is Georgetown Law’s information sheets – one for each state – on what to do if confronted with unauthorized militia groups at the polling places.
This is the election protection hotline if you are having trouble voting: 1-866-OUR VOTE (1-866-687-8683).
This week has been full of Russian disinformation and DNI Ratcliffe and Sen. Ron Johnson have been at the top of the list encouraging this sort of thing. I know it’s frustrating. I know it’s demoralizing. Try to ignore it. Pay attention to reliable news sources and ignore the Trump Administration’s sidetracking their voter suppression efforts with their screaming about the Biden family. Russia is very much at play in our election, as they were in 2016.
Ignore the polls. Make a plan to vote, and vote as early as you can.
14 days. (See the new countdown on my sidebar.) We can do this. Together.
In celebration of the return of Supernatural’s final season, we had Dean’s favorites for dinner last Thursday. We picked up an apple pie (Dean’s favorite next to cherry), whipped cream, and burgers at our local Red Robin. We’re still deciding on the final episode’s feast.
In the photo: Red Robin sign, Fries, Diet Coke, Bacon Cheeseburger, Apple pie, Supernatural pins, apple pie and whipped cream, SpnFamILY t-shirt (with flannel, of course!)
This is the first in a seven part series appearing here on Thursdays. Unavoidable happenings kept this part from publishing last week. The second part will publish tomorrow or over the weekend so it can coincide with the final seven episodes of Supernatural.
Music has been an integral part of Supernatural since the very beginning. When younger brother Sam complained about Dean’s musical choice, he was reminded of the number one rule of road trip music:
Driver picks the music,
Shotgun shuts his cakehole.
And so for fifteen years, we traveled across the country (and twice in foreign lands) with the brothers, listening to their radio or cassette tapes (until finally updating to the 21st century and iPods) while engrossing ourselves in the classic rock of our own childhoods. Their musical tastes also updated (a little) to some modern classics as the boys grew older, and there was even a fun musical episode complete with soundtrack.
I had originally picked out fifteen songs, but I just couldn’t stop, so I went to twenty-five. You can find all the songs wherever you get your music: Amazon, Pandora, Spotify.
Except for the first and the last, they are in no particular order. I did not place them by season or my favorites.
Carry On Wayward Son – Kansas
Space Oddity – David Bowie
We Gotta Get Out of This Place – The Animals
Renegade – Styx
Eye of the Tiger – Survivor
Back in Black – AC/DC
Bad Moon Rising – Creedence Clearwater Revival
Don’t Fear the Reaper – Blue Oyster Cult
Cold as Ice – Foreigner
Hey Man Nice Shot – Filter
I Shall Not Be Moved – Johnny Cash
White Rabbit – Jefferson Airplane
Cross Road Blues – Robert Johnson
Rock and Roll Never Forgets – Bob Seger
Heat of the Moment – Asia
Wanted Dead or Alive – Bon Jovi
House of the Rising Sun – The Animals
Can’t Find My Way Home – Blind Faith
Black Water – The Doobie Brothers
O Death – Jen Titus (not on Spotify)
A Well Respected Man – The Kinks
World’s Collide – Louden Swain (not on Spotify)
Simple Man – Lynard Skynard
No One Like You – The Scorpions
Fare Thee Well – Rob Benedict (not on Spotify)
I’ve curated this list (minus the three that weren’t available) for you to listen to on Spotify.
Part of your voting plan is knowing who’s on the ballot. Some states will also have referendums and it is important to know what you are voting for. Not to put too fine a point on it, but some of the wording is intentionally confusing. You think you want to vote yes, but the opposite is what you want. Read the ballot.
Vote Save America has ballots for every state. Look at your ballot, check the boxes after reading and informing yourself of the issues and candidates, and then you can either print out or email the practice ballot to bring with you to the polls.
IMPORTANT:
THIS IS NOT A LEGAL BALLOT. DOING THIS ALONE WILL NOT COUNT AS A VOTE.
You still MUST go to a polling place and vote. This is only to help you be informed.
In addition to the presidential election, if we want to get anything done we need to flip the Senate BLUE. You can help by donating to the Get Mitch Fund.
You can also donate to Gary Peters who is running in Michigan and has a very good chance of winning his Senate seat with our help.
The President has called upon his supporters to be poll watchers. It doesn’t work that way. You can’t just show up at the polls on Election Day and declare yourself a poll watcher.
It is against the law.
What’s worse is that the people he’s encouraging are armed militants; militants, not militia. The US does not have a militia and private “militias” are not legally allowed to act as law enforcement.
Not for the state governments, and not for the federal government.
Georgetown Law has put together this link highlighting the applicable law to turn away any of these right-wing, fascist members of the Trump fan club and keep them from intimidating voters trying to exercise their rights at the ballot box.
The link will take you to the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection fact sheets for all 50 states explaining the laws in each state barring unauthorized private militia groups and what to do if groups of armed individuals are near a polling place or voter registration drive.
“Try new things and discover yourself every single day.”
– Bhavya Choudhary
“TSN”
(Try Something New) – My Husband
For the past two years, my husband has been offering this mantra: TSN, which stands for Try something new. He tries to try something new at least once a month.
I do like to try things, but I try them hesitantly.
I am inherently extraordinarily polite. If I am at someone else’s house and they offer me something that I’ve never had before or am even lukewarm on, I will take it, eat it, and thank them for it.
When we go out to dinner, I prefer tried and true food for the most part, but when I’m on vacation, I will beeline for the local specialty as well as trying new things.
Examples of this are poutine in Canada, tea in the UK, a proper British breakfast in Wales and England, Welsh cakes in Wales, chicken wings in Buffalo, cheesecake in NYC, pretzels and chocolate in Pennsylvania, lobster in Maine, crab cakes in Maryland, beignets and gumbo in New Orleans. Anywhere you go will have a specialty food to try.
On our recent visit to Niagara Falls, Buffalo, and Plattsburgh, New York, we tried many things that were new to us, but were common to the North Country and Western New York.
In the above photo, you will see:
Pizza Logs (from Anchor Bar in Buffalo, NY)
The Mighty Taco, chicken quesadilla
Chicken Caprese Mac & Cheese (from Our House Bistro, Plattsburgh, NY)
Amazing orange peeler for 69¢ (at Vidler’s 5 & 10 in Aurora, NY). I’d never seen this before and it worked like a dream. If I had known how well it worked, I would have bought a dozen and given them out for Christmas!
Sponge Candy (from Platter’s Chocolate in Niagara Falls, NY)
This pandemic has given us many things that are new, not all of them exciting and wonderful, but we’ve hopefully taken them in stride, and will try to move forward embracing the new, the different, the exciting, and even the challenging.
ACLU’s Let People Vote
Follow the link, click on your state and see when your registration deadlines are, when you can early vote, and other voting information.
