Wow, it's been a few months since I made a music recommendation, I apologize.
I first heard the Deftones at a concert my friends and I went to Monday, August 5th, 1996 at the Target Center in Minneapolis. We were going to See Pantera. The concert had the Deftones opening, and White Zombie and Pantera as the headliners.
We has not heard of the Deftones before, and they turned out to be a pretty damn good band, No Pantera, But no one is, or ever will be. So good, that the very next day, my friend and I went out to the record store and picked up their album, Adrenaline.
This is a great album, and is definitely one to be in anyone's Metal collection. I didn't as much care for much of the following albums however, But Adrenaline is Awesome!
Couple of my favorite tracks, Bored and 7 Words, but I do enjoy the entire album, no track skipping here. Do yourself a favor, and pickup this album.
Pawn America had another $10.00 off $20.00 or more coupon again, it was good for fathers day weekend, so I had to go take a look.
Aaaaaaand I picked up a few things.
We'll start with the Genesis games. Skitchin, basically Road Rash on Roller blades and a Star Trek game, it was $20 for both those, so with the coupon figure $5.00 each.
Both Complete
Then, I also picked up a Complete and in GREAT shape Super Nintendo game. For a 20+ year old game, the box is in great condition, the manual has a few creased corners though.
$5.00
And a couple other Nintendo games. Driver 2 for the Gameboy Advance, I enjoy the Driver series, and I already have the 1st Driver for the Gameboy Color, and Driver 3 for the Gameboy Advance.
Also picked up Hogans Alley for the Original Nintendo, $2.00, and it's a 5 Screw game. I want to collect all the 5 Screw games for NES.
Hogan's Alley also held a secret, A secret I have been chasing for a while, Stay Tuned!
Haven't been out too much since returning home from Utah, but have made a stop or two, as well as a few other miscellaneous purchases.
At a recent Goodwill I picked up Test Drive for the PS2, I have had this game for the Original Xbox since the early 2000's, have loved the Test Drive Series since PS1. Also picked up the Guitar Hero III set mainly because I have the Original Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero II, as well as a single guitar controller all in the original boxes, so basically just got it to go with those.
Another Goodwill pickup, a new sealed Hitch UMD Movie for PSP, and a Media Manager for PSP. I had never seen the Media Manger thing, although I really do not have a lot of knowledge about the PSP.
Also finally picked up a Nintendo DSi XL in Great Shape, with the Box and all the Orignal Manuals and Paperwork. I didn't need one, I just wanted to have one to go in my DS collection. I already had an original DS, a DS Lite and my 3DS, but No DSi. I had to get an XL, as admittedly I am getting old, and it is easier to see................
And, today my 4yr old gave me my Fathers Day present a day early, so I can play it tonight. Sniper Elite III the Ultimate Edition (has all the DLC)for Xbox 360. I had never played the Sniper Elite series until Sniper Elite V.2 was a Free download (I am looking for a physical copy, as I prefer physical copies of games) with Xbox Live Games with Gold promotion, and I downloaded it and played it, and liked it. I also found out there was the first one on Original Xbox (and PS2) and I am on the lookout for that as well.
And some of my favorite pickups, a Bunch of Sega Genesis games. The first two pics were 0.95 a piece, and the last pic were 2.95 each, but had $45% off. Yes the majority are Sports games, but since I am going to try and put together a complete Sega Genesis Library, that includes sports games. At least they were cheap.
All were 0.95, Except Jurassic Park ($4.95), Side Pocket & Outrun 2019 ($2.95ea)
All 0.95
All $2.95 with 45% off, so were basically a Buck Fiddy ea
While we were in Utah, we had to go Game Hunting. Couldn't go to a new/different area without doing some.
We did hit up a Deseret Industries Thrift Store on Wednesday while waiting to be able to check in at the hotel. I was excited when I saw one of these, I have seen a few Youtubers hit these up with good results. We went in, and there were some game items, PS1 games for $1.00 (Sports games), Original Xbox and PS2 for $2.00 (Again, just Sports Games) and a PS1 console for $5.00, not bad.
So Friday, we finally went out specifically Game Hunting. First place we went was Hastings. They are a Used/New media store with Video Games, Books, Movies and Music.
They had oh kay, prices on the games, but I just didn't find anything Video Game or Music wise (Yeah I am shocked too). But I ended up getting some books from two of my favorite authors:
I also picked up this Gear of War Energy Drink, Haven't tried it yet though, I am a Rockstar Addict. I call it Crack in a Can.
My daughter got a cool Sonic the Hedgehog puzzle:
Which we put together promptly after we got home
And my GF got some brand new Simpsons DVD's (she already had 1-4 & 8) as well:
Next stop was a little Pawn Shop, they had some interesting stuff, but the prices were a lil high. Then we were getting hungry, and we saw a Sizzler! I hadn't eaten at a Sizzler since I lived in California 25 Years ago, We over stuffed ourselves, it was so Delicious!
Then, we went to a store that was pretty awesome, and my daughter had been to Utah before to visit her sister and told me about it (She also brought me back Skate or Die and Robocop for the NES) Called Fun Unlimited. This place is HUGE and PACKED with Games. They also have Movies (VHS, DVD and Blu Rays) Books and Music. The store is probably 5 times as deep as it is wide.
I knew we were coming here, so I brought a bunch of extra 360 games I had and got $50.00 in Store Credit to spend. I coulda spent soo much more, Ok I did spend a lil More.
I was disappointed that they do not include the Genesis Game Cases with their games...... They use em for display, I really wanted the Aero the Acrobat WITH the case and manual ( I had and played the shit outta it way back when), but they wouldn't budge, so I mostly wrote those off, Except for one, See Below.
I did pick these games up though:
Got Sonic Unleashed for my daughter. When he pulled the Shenmue II out of the drawer, They keep em in paper sleeves, it did not include the DVD. But while he was casing the games I noticed another copy on the shelf behind the counter behind him, and asked "Does that one have the DVD?" he checked, and it did! He put it in my case. I also tried to get Fahrenheit for the Sega CD/32X, but they only had 1 of the 2 discs :(
And I also got these DVD's:
Death Tunnel is Really Good, I had a "backup" copy, it was filmed at the Waverly Hills Sanitorium
Also, while he was casing the games I noticed a Genesis cartridge on the shelf behind him, and it was a Large cartridge like a EA or Accolade game, but wasn't either of those. So I asked him if I could look at it, it was Stormlord by Razorsoft.
I picked it up as well.
Here it is between Electronic Arts and Accolade Cartridges
I Intentionally did not look at any gameplay, or reviews or anything for this game, as I wanted to do a little game play video for my You Tube channel:
Overall, a pretty good haul, next time I go to Utah, We will fly NOT drive, I will definitely be going back to both these places.
My daughters wedding was Thursday June 4th @10:00am in Logan, UT. They were married by her husbands father, who registered for this just to be able to legally marry them, And received all the paperwork the day before.
I am very happy for my daughter, I may not think much about marriage having 2 ex-wives myself, as I never plan on ever getting married again, but it does work out for some people, and I believe these two are perfect for each other. My new son in law is a very awesome person, they have so much in common and my daughter just adores him, and He is a gamer. When they left to go live in Utah, I told him to take good care of my little girl, and he said to me "I may not be able to give her everything she wants, but I will make sure she has everything she needs" I respected that very much.
Anyway, we went out to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch afterwards, and later that evening, we had the reception. It was a very nice time, I got to meet some of the in-laws, and had some great food. There were some awesome, huge, red, delicious strawberries! I really enjoyed meeting my Grandson, and he loved the Trucks grampa brought him, and I look forward to going back and seeing them all again.
We left Saturday morning around 9:00am, Made a few stops for lunch and dinner (I honestly forget where), as well as found some Blue Raspberry Rockstar (I drink a Rockstar everyday) that was delicious, and apparently a regional flavor :( We returned home about 10-10:30am Sunday morning.
Over all I was glad to be home, and out of the car, a day long road trip is just too much to spend in the car. We put 3,064 Miles on in total driving down there, driving around town and driving back home. We Averaged 34mpg on the trip, we usually get 24 round the city locally.
Friday was spent Game Hunting (Hey, was in a new town on a trip, had to do it) and that will be covered in my next blog post, Stay Tuned!
My daughter was getting married in Logan, UT on Thursday, Google maps shows it to be about a 20 hour drive. We decided to drive to save money on airfare, and so that we would have our own car to use while in Utah.
We left at 9:00am Tuesday. We had the back seat area set up for our 4 yr old, she had a DVD player to watch strapped to the back of the driver headrest, she had her leap frog hand held (I got at Goodwill for $3.00) and her Leap Frog Leap Pad we got her for Xmas 2 years ago, so I blocked off the left rear window with a towel, so the sun didn't glare on her screens. She also had a tub of toys and books as well.
Along the way we made a few stops for Lunch at Subway, and Dinner at Cracker Barrel. After Dinner we got gas and my GF took over driving duty, we swapped back about 9:00pm and I drove until 1-1:30am. I was tired of driving and was getting uncomfortable, so my GF and I swapped spots, and I tried to nap. I got a little sleep, She had to pull off in Nebraska at a rest area on the side off the freeway around 4:00am since she was drooping her eyelids, and couldn't drive anymore. This was not a full rest area, just a pull over and rest/nap/sleep area, NO toilets.... Our 4yr old did very well on the trip, with very minimal whining, I probably whined more about needing a more comfortable driver seat.
We got a little sleep and continued on our way again around 6:30am. After stopping for breakfast at Denny's, and road work in Utah, we finally arrived at my daughters around 10:30am Wednesday morning. After the food, gas and bathroom stops, it took roughly 25 hours to drive from Anoka, MN to Logan, UT. There were 2 separate times, when not getting gas, we had to stop at the gas station, just to clean the dead bug guts off of the windshield so we could see, at one point I was slaughtering so may bugs my GF woke and asked it if was storming.
I was glad to finally be out of the car, our 2012 Impala is a nice car, and is fairly comfortable in daily driving to work and back, etc.. but not so much for a long road trip.
Here are a couple nice scenery shots of the mountains, Utah is a very beautiful place, and I wouldn't mind living there myself.
We got our Hotel at 2:30, and I took a 3 1/2 hour nap before going to visit with my daughters and grandson. My oldest daughter, her boyfriend and her mom all flew down for the wedding.
It was the first time I was able to meet my grandson in person, he will be two in a month. We had talked and whatnot over Skype in the last 2 years, but in person is so much better. It was awesome, definitely a highlight of the trip, and worth the hard hours in the driver seat.
