Date Night in K-Vegas

First of all, if I wasn’t already in a committed relationship with my boyfriend, I think “I have to research dates, can you help me out,” would be the smoothest pick up line ever.

Moving to Kirksville for school can be quite a shock for those of us who came from a large suburb or a bustling city. Since it is such a small town, it could be difficult finding the hidden gems this town has to offer. What better way to explore Kirksville than taking that special someone with you in this special town?

Thousand Hills State Park

After classes, I picked up my date, Zach, and we grabbed some sodas on the way to Thousand Hills. This park is perfect year-round. In the spring the flowers are blooming, in the summer you can swim in the lake, in the fall you can see the beautiful leaves changing color, and in the winter, if you’re brave enough, you can trek through the snow. We went on December 2nd, so it was fairly cold. We walked around, skipping rocks on the lake, and swinging on the swing set on the playground nearby. As we watched the sunset, we made jokes with each other and talked about our days. This was the perfect start to our date!

Downtown Cinema 8

Our next stop was the movie theater on the square. The movie we saw started at 5:00, so there was a discounted price. Keep in mind that using your student ID gets you a discount at the theater if you don’t want to go to an early showing. We ordered a large bucket of popcorn, and that came with free refills. When we first walked in, we had the whole theater to ourselves, so the choice was completely ours as to where we got to sit. Movies are always a classic date option, and it gives you something to talk about.

Wooden Nickel

Watching movies really works up an appetite. When we left the theater, we headed

over to the Wooden Nickel. This restaurant is fairly fancy. You can wear a t-shirt and not feel too underdressed, but dressing up doesn’t make you look out of place either. This is a hot spot for couples to go on dates in Kirksville. In fact, I saw someone I knew on a date while I was there! We had originally planned on going there for just appetizers, but we didn’t count on being so hungry. I ordered a prime rib sandwich with au jus, he ordered chicken kreps, and we mozzarella sticks as an appetizer. The bread from my sandwich was so fresh and the au jus was very flavorful. His chicken kreps was stuffed with crab meat and cheese and topped with crab sauce (I stole a bite, and it was delicious). Don’t even get me started about those mozzarella sticks. These are definitely not the frozen kind. They are made right there and practically punch you in the face with flavor. I’m considering telling Zach we need to go back for more “research.”

Leisure World

With full bellies, we drove down to Leisure World for some more fun. The original plan was to do Cosmic Bowling and adult skating, but we were a bit too tired from both having long days (keep in mind, this is a little over a week before finals), so we decided to pick one activity. Adult skating sounded like a blast. Basically, you don’t have to worry about accidentally knocking down a small child with your adult-sized legs. The crowd is much smaller, and there’s more freedom. This goes on from 10:00p.m. until 1:00a.m. Again, while this sounded fun, we decided to go bowling instead so we didn’t have to use as much physical energy (translation: we are old and lazy). Cosmic bowling starts at 9:00p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Every day there is a special that allows you to pay a flat rate for bowling and shoe rentals and you can bowl as many games as you can within two hours. It’s a great deal that pays for itself after two games. While you’re sitting down, you can get a $5 pitcher of soda and drink it while you make fun of your partner for his/her bowling abilities. Unless of course you’re one of those people who is actually good at bowling somehow. In that case, I don’t know what you would talk about.

Train Bridge

Going to train bridge has become a rite of passage for Truman students. If you don’t already know what train bridge is, it’s when you get together with your friends, drive out to the middle of nowhere and find the bridge over the train tracks, and wait for a train. When a train comes, you hide by squatting behind the rails, and wait for it to pass beneath the bridge. At that moment, everyone jumps up and fights the wind from the passing train. It sounds weird, but it is really just a bonding activity and an excuse to take pictures. Also, if you’re lucky, on a clear night, you can see hundreds of stars, and it is absolutely breath-taking. Traditionally, students end up going to pancake city when they are done, but we didn’t do that. In fact, we didn’t even wait for a train. Despite dressing warm, it was still super cold. Also, this girl may have been watching a bit too much American Horror Story lately and couldn’t stop looking around waiting for a killer clown to show up. Even though this particular time was a bust, I had taken Zach here over a year ago, and this was the place that I first told him “I love you.” We got to see a train, and it was a sweet, romantic night. It was also much warmer.

There were more things that we could have done, but this was already a pretty hefty itinerary. Also, if you’re thinking about taking someone out on a date, there is really no obligation to do all of these things in one night. In fact, saving some of these ideas would be good for future dates (because you’re totally going to get a second date from this). In addition to these places, you can go to a Truman-sponsored event, go shopping, have a picnic, or go grab a pizza from Pagliai’s and cuddle up to a movie at home. Creativity is key when it comes to dates. Small towns often get a bad rep for being boring, but in my opinion, if you think your town is boring, then you might be a boring person.