Trouble with the KSU Wildcats: Day 3 of the Purple Hat Road Trip
(This blog is by Intern Jakob, documenting my journey across the country with Chris Klemmer in his pursuit of finding purple hats for the YAK)
We got on the road from Oklahoma City at 9 am after a scare with the car keys in which Klemmer and I both forgot that I had given the keys back to him minutes prior (after I forgot my charger in the car the night before). It was a switch up today in that we were able to spin wheels and burn rubber right off the top.
On the road to Kansas, it was 80s music. Billy Joel, Beastie Boys, Depeche Mode, we jammed. Chitchat for the morning included politics, the American economy, and some history. Once we crossed into Kansas there was a sign about Eisenhower founding the interstate (shoutout Ike). Klemmer asked me if I knew who his VP was, and it took a second but I got it right with Richard Nixon. Then we talked about JFK’s all time rough day in the drop top.
We stopped at a mall in Wichita, Kansas, for a lunch and look. No purple hats, but we ran it back with the food court Chinese food just like in New Mexico. Then, we migrated north towards Manhattan, home of the Kansas State Wildcats, bonding in solitude over Auntie Anne’s pretzel nuggets and the Kirk Minihane show.
We yapped further, discussing the Rizzler going to the New York office today and the content they were getting with him. Klemmer had a steaming hot take about the Rizzler and said he’d rather be on the road today with me. It was one of the greatest compliments I’ve ever received.
After arriving in Manhattan, we set out on foot at the KSU campus. We flipped every stone. We roamed the streets, the library, the student union. There was one hat in the library, but the guy said he’s been through a lot with it. Sentimental value, not for sale. In the student union, a guy wearing a purple hat asked for $100 since it was the hat he streams with, sorry LoneWolf on Twitch, no deal. One guy had a purple hat on but was completely uninterested and ignored Klemmer and kept walking.
Advertisement
Klemmer fumed about the seeming lack of school pride on the campus, obvious by the glaring absence of purple hats at a university branded with a primary color of K-State Purple.
“All respect I had for Kansas State has been transferred to your school,” Klemmer said. After I said that if we needed an orange or blue hat we’d be on campus in The Swamp for 10 minutes max.
We eventually bailed on K-State’s campus after 2 hours of depressing search, Klemmer still heated. “I wouldn’t even bring enemies here. I might spend the next 40 years of my life tuning into Kansas State games just to root against them.” It is safe to say that there’s no love lost between Christopher Klemmer and the Kansas State Wildcats.
Our next stop was a Dillons grocery store to the east of campus, and an old timer named Allen saved our day.
We waved the flag of surrender and went to dinner at Jack Stack for some KC BBQ, the real shit. It was some glorious meat I must say. Unfortunately though, we did not have the same luck at dinner that we had the night prior in Oklahoma City. We end the day with one hat painstakingly gained, and tomorrow morning we rise for our final leg of the trip through Iowa.
W of the Day: The sunset in Kansas City rocked.
L of the Day: In the middle of nowhere in Kansas, we got stopped at a roadblock when road paving caused a two mile stretch of road to be squeezed into one lane. We were stopped for 15 minutes before we saw any sign of other traffic, but after sitting there for 5 minutes initially we had a wild encounter. The lady in the car in front of us got out of her car, walked back to us, and warned us that the upcoming stretch of road was dangerous with construction and that people have died on it. She saw the Colorado plates on our rental and figured we weren’t from ‘round here. Fortunately we survived the imminent peril without a scratch.
