Trouble with the KSU Wildcats: Day 3 of the Purple Hat Road Trip

(This blog is by intern Jakob and documents my trip across the country with Chris Klemmer on his search for purple hats for the YAK.)

We left Oklahoma City at 9am after a scare with the car keys when Klemmer and I both forgot that I had given him the keys back minutes earlier (after I left my charger in the car the night before). Today was a change of pace as we were able to spin the wheels and pop the tires right from the start.

On the way to Kansas, 80s music played. We played Billy Joel, Beastie Boys, and Depeche Mode. The morning chat turned to politics, the American economy, and a bit of history. As we crossed Kansas, there was a sign saying Eisenhower founded the highway (greetings, Ike). Klemmer asked me if I knew who his vice president was, and it took me a second, but I had the right answer: Richard Nixon. Then we talked about JFK's worst day in the convertible.

We stopped at a mall in Wichita, Kansas, to have lunch and look around. No purple hats, but we walked back to the food court and ate Chinese food, just like in New Mexico. Then we headed north toward Manhattan, home of the Kansas State Wildcats, and socialized in solitude at Auntie Anne's Pretzel Nuggets and the Kirk Minihane show.

We continued chatting and talked about Rizzler going to the New York office today and what content they would get with him. Klemmer was really keen on Rizzler and said he would rather be with me today. That was one of the biggest compliments I have ever received.

After arriving in Manhattan, we made our way to the KSU campus on foot. We left every stone unturned. We roamed the streets, the library, the student union. There was a hat in the library, but the guy said he went through a lot with it. It has sentimental value, not for sale. In the student union, a guy with a purple hat was asking for $100 since he streams with that hat, sorry LoneWolf on Twitch, no deal. One guy was wearing a purple hat but was completely uninterested, ignored Klemmer and kept walking.

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Klemmer fumed at the apparent lack of school pride on campus, evident by the glaring absence of purple caps at a university whose trademark primary color is K-State Purple.

“All the respect I had for Kansas State has transferred to your school,” Klemmer said, after saying that if we needed an orange or blue cap, we would spend 10 minutes or less on campus in the swamp.

After two hours of depressing searching, we finally left the K-State campus, Klemmer still upset. “I wouldn't even bring enemies here. I might spend the next 40 years of my life watching Kansas State games just to be against them.” It's safe to say that Christopher Klemmer is not on friendly terms with the Kansas State Wildcats.

Our next stop was a Dillons grocery store east of campus, and an old hand named Allen saved the day.

We waved the surrender flag and went to Jack Stack's for dinner for KC BBQ, the real stuff. I must say it was some lovely meat. Unfortunately we weren't as lucky at dinner as we were the night before in Oklahoma City. We end the day with a hard-earned hat and are up early tomorrow for the last leg of our journey through Iowa.

W of the day: The sunset in Kansas City was awesome.

L of the day: In the middle of nowhere in Kansas, we were stopped at a roadblock where a two-mile stretch of road was being squeezed into one lane for paving work. We stood there for 15 minutes before we saw any sign of other traffic, but after standing there for 5 minutes, we had a wild encounter. The lady in the car in front of us got out, walked back to us, and warned us that the upcoming stretch of road was dangerous due to construction and that people had died there before. She saw the Colorado license plate on our rental car and assumed we weren't from around here. Thankfully, we survived the impending danger without a scratch.

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