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A happy face water tower backdropping a park pavilion and rainbow colored playground?!? What do you mean find happiness in a NOT SO HAPPY situation? What could be happier than a happy TOWER?!
Let me explain- - - >
As you all know, I should have been really freakin' on top of World Scavenger Hunt, as I was traveling the entire country, a new town on a weekly basis, seeing all kinds of crazy shit along the way. Who was with me the entire journey? Blanche. Blanche is the Autumn Teneyl company vehicle who was misunderstood, in my opinion. Most anyone who rode with her feared for their life or simply became disgruntled by the awkward situation of the passenger side: no window option, inadequate legroom, and front row seat to the Meghann's ramblings about how Blanche won't: turn, stop, speed up or start.
So, why was this day that I met the happy face tower in Ashley, Indiana a not so happy day? Well, the day I met the happy face tower was the day of Blanche's death. She passed gracefully along 69 North, about 2.1 miles south of Ashley, Indiana, who proudly announces on a modest-sized street sign that they
birthed the Smiley Face.
Imagine the irony of this situation: my road companion Andy and I are traveling approximately 12 miles an hour on the shoulder of a 65 MPH highway, stopping to turn off the engine every 2 minutes to just get Blanche to move, and as we pull into the first town for a car doctor, the very first thing we see is a sign stating "Welcome to Ashley Indiana, Home of the Smiley Face." Just ahead peaks the cadmium yellow water tower, decked out in a symmetrical bi-triangle black bow tie.
I think that is exactly the place Blanche would've chosen to be buried.
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Blanche after the autopsy
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Trying to pretend it's all okay . . .
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What Blanche would've wanted her gravestone to say... 303 MLF. 303 is the area code for Boulder, Colorado and there sure are lots of Milfs there. . . everyone always thought that's what her plates said from far away.
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Her replacement from upstate Michigan. Certainly did not have as much of a personality as Blanche . . .
R.I.P Blanche.