Every Christmas I drive from Springfield, Illinois to my mom's house in Herrin, Illinois. The trip takes 3 1/2 to 4 hours, depending on whether or not I get turned around while trying to navigate through St. Louis. I drive Interstate 55 south to St. Louis, then take a left and head east on 64 till I hit Interstate 57 in Mt. Vernon. Then I take 57 south till I reach the Herrin exit.
I'm sharing these otherwise trivial details because I had the most random encounter at a rest area on 57 near Rend Lake. Compelled by my bladder, I stopped at the rest area to take advantage of the facilities. As I was walking back to my car, I saw a guy who looked just like Matt Dillahunty from the Austin Texas-based public-access television show The Atheist Experience. I didn't want to keep staring and look like Creepy Rest Area Guy, so I decided to just ask him.
"Excuse me, sir. Are you Matt Dillahunty?"
I introduced myself and probably sounded like an excited child, but come on. I ran into Matt Dillahunty. In Illinois. At a rest area. On Christmas day. How random and cool is that? He was super nice, and his wife took this picture of us. We chatted for a brief moment and then went back to our holiday travels.
I arrived at my mom's house about 20 minutes later. Had a great day. Ate too much food. My sister gave me a cool t-shirt for Christmas (I'm wearing it here in this picture with my mom):
Happy first day of Kwanzaa, everyone.
— Dead-Logic
