Journal Day 3: Hardee's vs. Carl's Jr: A Conspiracy?
Tuesday, September 12, 2006Up early again this morning. 6:45am. Apparently I've self-programmed to wake up at ungodly hours on holidays. I'm pretty sure that if I had to get up for work, I wouldn't be wide awake at this hour.
Anyway, up and on our way to the Lethbridge Stantec office which, for our purposes today, is serving as a comfy, coffee serving post office. Kristie, the bubbly receptionist with the biggest smile I've ever seen that early on a Tuesday morning kept the banter going every few minutes saying "Well, they're still not here" ("they" referring to DHL courier who is typically bang on time at 8am every day of the week except the Tuesday morning that I am trying, again, not to mention, to cross the border to start my new life). Eventually I tired of her worrying about the office and dragged Alan off to the mall a few blocks away. We strolled through until we found Music World. I bought two movies (What Dreams May Come and The Last Castle) for $8 a pop and Alan found a CD. Then we went back to the Stantec office and waited until about 10:30 when Mr. DHL finally arrived. I think I probably came across as a bit snippy with him when I said something along of the lines of "it's about time", but them's the breaks. You're late. Screwing with my destiny. I'm gonna be a bit chapped. Plus I'd paid about $6 in parking to keep my car handy.
Once again we were at the border by about 11:45 or so. Met an equally nice gentleman at the border who was VERY LOUD. He was trying to be friendly but I think someone had turned his volume up because by the time we got to the Border Guard who had to process our paperwork we were laughing about being yelled at, but in a nice way.
The border guard inside remembered me from the day before and was momentarily confused as to why I was back. However, he was, too, very pleasant and we completed our paperwork in about 30 minutes. No guns drawn. No sirens. Just a few chuckles at one another's inaptitude and we were off. I felt kind of like a fugitive running for the border. It was right there. I could have just left the day before and no one would have been the wiser, I'm sure, but this time felt sneaky even though I actually had permission. I don't know why.
Once across the border I had to start dealing with the conversion from metric to imperial right away. Boy, that put my panties in a bunch. Almost immediately I turned on Alan (the Yank that he is; or not) and started asking why Americans didn't just change their system to Metric. I mean seriously, they're the only country left that doesn't use it. Why don't they conform? Isn't that what the States is all about, one big melting pot? Anyway, it took me a while to figure it all out with the speeds, etc. but eventually I got it alright. I'm feeling very melted!
We drove straight through into Great Falls, Montana, where we had to stop for lunch, a bathroom break, and a fax machine. I had to fax a copy of my approved Visa back up to Canada so the shipping company with my goods was able to leave for San Diego the next day. Well, we found two rather unusual things:
- We didn't find a Staples or a Kinko's to fax from. We stopped at a bank to ask for directions
and we found Denise. Denise is the friendliest bank receptionist I've ever met. She offered to
fax it for us, to Canada, free of charge. She even smiled when she did it. Plus, when it didn't
go through she said we could go for lunch and she'd keep trying. Turns out it didn't go
through during our whole lunch hour so she tried a different number for us when we got back
after lunch. Nice lady. - Carl's Jr. = Hardee's. But with a different menu; sort of. Down in San Diego, and to my
knowledge the greater part of the US, Carl's Jr. is a major fast food chain. They serve Mexistyle hamburgers, fries, taco salads, tacos (I think) etc. All with this green burrito. Well, the only difference we could find between Hardee's and Carl's Jr., besides the name was the Green Burrito vs. the Red Burrito. Yep, that's the mystery. End of conspiracy theory. It would be be like if McDonalds had a sister restaurant called Shirley's or something. It's so
weird. However, now that I've done some research, the Western states have Carl's Jr., the
Northern West states have Hardees, and the South Central and South East have Krystals' and White Castle's. Crazy.
Once we were done in Great Falls, Montana, we headed south a bit more and then west through Idaho (kind of a boring state after the scenery in Montana), and into Spokane, Washington where we stopped for our first night in a hotel and our first Applebee's meal. We arrived around 8:15 and checked into the Best Western just off the Freeway. Oh yes, folks. It's a freeway in the US of A. Not a highway. Gosh darn Yankees! Just kidding, kidding. Anyway, we checked in, pouted for 20 minutes because we couldn't decide what to eat or which bed to sleep on (we had two queens) and then decided on Applebee's drive through. We ordered two wraps (one spicy chicken, and one oriental chicken) and came back to the hotel to watch Standoff, which is new to me. By 10:15 it was lights out for this cat. The bed was comfy and warm and we'd covered a lot of ground. Or
so I thought.
posted by Meg @ 7:30 PM
3 Comments:
The southeast has hardee's too.
Just so you know...Krystal and White Castle have nothing to do with Hardee's or Carl's Jr. And White Castle is in the Northeast, not the Southeast.
the east coast has hardees as well...
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