DND Store & Driving
I got a super late start on day 1. I finished cleaning my room out all the stuff left over, under the bed etc. Packed up the car. Had a decent breakfast. Said my final good byes to my family. It was nice. All the tension seemed to had left at this point and there was acceptance on both ends. I headed off! South… I wanted to see the biggest and best DND place I knew of so I went to Tate’s in Fort Lauderdale. What a shop. It might be the biggest game store in Florida. But don’t quote me on that I did literally 0 research and headed there. It was a solid 45 minutes there and 45 minutes back by car. I must have spent 2 hours there talking to people interviewing them, getting footage for the vlog. I really like their satellite store. It goes to show how separate but equal “comic books” and “DND” are from each other. I’ve read a few comic books here and there but I recognized everything in the satellite as it was all DND related. I did find that I wasn’t really familiar with the miniature painting section so I interviewed a friendly game store employee who had been painting for quite a while. He had a ton of information on painting minis and if I get the guts I might try my hand at painting one of the minis I bought if I ever get “snowed in”
I also interviewed Calthur a manager of the satellite and really picked his brain about DND and “The current situation” (There should be a drinking game any time someone mentions COVID). He had a ton of insight and it was super fun to just chat about this fun niche hobby. I can’t imagine being born in the 80s where it was kind of taboo. I’m so happy more people are falling into the game and other TTRPGs. Whatever gets you and your friends around a table telling stories, laughing and having fun I’m all for it. I wish I had more opportunities to play in other kinds of games too! But anyway back on topic.
Tate’s was amazing. I highly recommend checking it out if you’re ever in the West Fort Lauderdale Area. Video of the experience coming soon. I’m planning on editing these vlogs after I get the videos up and embedding them here once they’re on Youtube. I feel like I’ll need to make a separate channel eventually because there’s going to be so much random content flooding in… Such is life when you have a dual purpose channel!
It was around 3 or 4pm when I finally got back near home and drove straight on through. Not much to say about the drive. It was uneventful but beautiful. I listened to a bunch of old country songs that reminded me of my dad. Then switched over to Midwest emo from the aughts and Teens. I also had a I started listening to podcasts on day 2. Got Micky Dees which I mainly chose for the experience but it was kind of gross (there goes my Mcdonald’s Sponsorship). I mainly did it for the experience. Just to say I went and got fast food on the road. Seems like a very road trippy thing to do.
I ended up tapping out for the night in north Florida near Jensen. I got directions (as his house isn’t on google maps) to my uncle’s newly founded farmstead. It was awesome experience but that’s another story for Day 2! Stay tuned.