Monday, September 2, 2013

Episode 04 - Drunken Tourism - 9-2-2013

This particular entry is my favorite part of my trip down to TN, and is possibly the most fun I’ve ever had drunk that didn’t involve me rubbing on lady parts.  Not only did I make up for all the lame trading that had been going on the whole trip, I managed to… well, I don’t want to ruin the best part!


So, a big part of why I went down there was to check out the store, but it was also the first vacation I’ve had by myself since… well, ever.  We mostly hung around the shop, because that is the kind of person I am anyways, and I was having a pretty good time hanging out with Shelly’s four year old.  He rules.  He is such a cute kid, and really helped me with the home sickness. 

Still, I had to get out and enjoy the tourist destination that was around me, so the last full night before I left, I went out drinking.  Before we get to that though, I want to talk about the trading I did.  I got rid of my last Liliana of the Vale’s, which was a bit of a bummer, but she was the only one of my starting playset that ending up going away for the high price she commanded towards the end of the ISD run.  Anyways, I got a lot of great EDH cards, like Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, a foil Rakdos, Lord of Riots, and the elusive Master of Cruelties which I had yet to pick up.  Best of all, though, was the Rhys the Redeemed, which I wanted very badly for a long time. 

So, after doing some good trading, we first went to some sort of sports bar / restaurant thingy, and got some Scotch on the rocks.  I forget what brand it was, because I mostly just drink Johnny Walker, so that’s all I know.  I am not a big fan of sports bars personally, and especially not for spending a lot of money on drinks, but the night was to get much better.  Why?

Well, because of moonshine, that’s why.  This place had people giving out free samples of some tasty alcohol, and after slipping the guy a $5, we got completely hammered on hillbilly honey.  The apple pie shot was definitely the strongest of them, and the guy was so happy for the tip, he started showing us the best combinations of some of the fruity flavors. 

After that, we did a 5D show (basically a videogame with water spraying sometimes, and smells) which was a great time, and then we wandered over to another bar for some bloody Mary’s, my favorite drink of all time.  As we were waiting for our drinks, we started chatting up the bartender… first it was about the hockey game on the TV, but once we told him about Gamers Link Gatlinburg, it turns out the dude plays Magic.  Small world, and it was especially surprising because the dude didn’t look the part at all.  The bloody’s were on the house, and Eddie was starting to realize more and more that Magic is big bidness.

So, thoroughly intoxicated, we went to a t-shirt shop run by some friends of the store.  They had mentioned they had old Magic cards for me to look at, but I wasn’t really sure what I would find.  I looked through one box while there, and there was an Elspeth, Knight-Errant in there, that sort of thing.  So I said, sure, bring the rest over to the store, and we’ll take a look. 

As soon as I got into these cards, I started finding a lot of good stuff, but nothing too special… until I found not one, not two, but THREE Tarmogoyfs.  One was even foil!  Now, these people had no idea that they were sitting on a small fortune with these Tarmogoyfs ($600 for three cards seems fortunate to me), and even if I was the type of person to try and rip them off, I was way too drunk to pull it off.  On the other hand, they also had two pairs of Onslaught fetch lands – Wooded Foothills and Polluted Delta.  I ended up getting a VERY favorable trade for myself, though I did have to get rid of that Rhys that I just picked up.  Totally worth it, though, and she was happy to have the ‘Goyfs anyways. 

The combination of the high-priced Magic cards, the free-flowing booze, and the crisp mountain air made for a really great time.  In the next episode, we will conclude The Link Adventure prologue, and move into chapter 1: Link Awakening.

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