First, I’d like to apologize for disappearing off the face of the blog. I’ve been sick for the past few weeks and I know for a fact that nothing sucks more than to have to read about someone’s miserable illness stricken life. So, I’ve refrained from posting anything in an attempt to keep you all from hating me. Here’s hoping it worked.
Now that I’m on the mend, I have to tell you that I managed to drag my sorry ass out to Indiana (gasp!) last weekend, to one of the last true drive-ins around, The 49er Drive-In. It is in Valparaiso, probably about an hour or 45 minute drive from Chicago, depending on traffic and your level of driving insanity. I’m a big fan of road trips and my friends just happen to own a late model Cadillac (read:serious old man car), so off to the drive-in we went!
The 49er originally opened in 1956 and was completely renovated in 2001. The speakers you can hang on your car still remain on their posts at every parking spot, but now there is FM stereo sound when you tune your radio to 88.5. The concession stand sold pretty much every conceivable form of junk food, not that I was able to eat much. My friends assured me that everything was extremely tasty and even reasonably priced.
The 49er was showing “Alien vs Predator”, probably the only movie that actually persuaded me to venture out to a drive-in last weekend. After all, it wouldn’t be much fun watching Garden State or Farenheit 9/11 at the drive-in, would it? As I expected, it was horrible, but I’m sure you already guessed that. Not even horrible in a campy “Freddy vs Jason” way. Though I’m pretty sure my friends and I will be quoting “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” to each other for months and then collapsing into fits of maniacal laughter. Those of you who’ve seen AvP will understand.
Collateral was the second feature, which we stayed to watch in spite of my intense dislike of Tom Cruise, my great love for Michael Mann winning out over Cruise-in-a-ridiculous-gray-wig in the end. All in all, not a bad night.
So, if you are so inclined, please take a trip and visit the 49er. I’d hate to see drive-ins become extinct. Hell, you might even see a shooting star or two. I did. It was great.