Jenn Dolari @dolari@driveinsaturday.org

After talking some history with a lawn-mowing resident of Bow, he suggested I visit Edison just down the way "they got buildings and everything." Edison, as it turns out, is a happening little town. A sign says "The Kindness Town," a pride flag greeted me coming into down, the tiny downtown was BUSY and I even saw a few artsy painted pro-choice signs in driveways. I could get to like this place.... (1/2)

#230514roadtrip

The Not-Really-A-Ghost-Town-But-It's-Certainly-Not-The-Bustling-Town-It-Once-Was of Bow, WA.

#230514roadtrip

Awesome driftwood yard art in Bow, WA. (2/2)

#230514roadtrip

Awesome driftwood yard art in Bow, WA. (1/2)

#230514roadtrip

You can't fool me, that's a TARDIS. This is TOTALLY a TARDIS. Maybe it's my TARDIS. It's my TARDIS now.

Stay classy Snohomish County.

#230514roadtrip

It's hot. In AND out of doors.

#230514Roadtrip

So something I'm trying to do with Tears of the Kingdom and my personal life is two days of gaming, one day of anything else.

When I did the first Play All The Zeldas Quest, the last parts of that happened when I was laid off. And I literally woke up, played games all day, and went to bed. For, like, two months.

Some people got very worried about me, and they were probably right. So today, I went on a roadtrip instead of playing Tears of the Kingdom. And I'm going to try and keep to that. Two days gaming, one day whatevs, until I'm done with the game.

And today I roadtripped. :)

Where I am now.

Hit my first snag in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. After getting out of the tutorial, and mapping the first area, I decided I'd hit Gerudo Town, since That's My Adopted Hometown in Breath of the Wild. I only had four hearts, though and one extra stamina bar.

It was pretty obvious that that might not be enough given the troubles I had getting there. But I did everything I needed to out of sheer powering through it (and a LOT of meals). Four hearts wasn't enough, but a maxxed out meal menu just kept the hearts up enough to plough through everything.

There was a puzzle, though, that I could NOT figure out for the life of me and after a hour of working on it, I gave in and looked for a walkthrough. Yeah, I wasn't supposed to spend an hour messing with the thing at all, and had solved that part of the puzzle within seconds of being there. -_-

Also the lack of hearts really came through in my first boss fight which just was straight up "One hit kills." And my first death in the game came from that one hit. :)

I'm really enjoying the game, though. The trip to Gerudo in BOTW was a trip, to be sure. But in TOTK? It feels like a JOURNEY. Like I'm REALLY going somewhere. Like they took the existing geography and made it more exansive and bigger. It LOOKS familiar, but looks BIGGER. Also, really loving that this FEELS like a a real sequel to BOTW. Same characters, a few years older and wiser (Majora's Mask wasn't a direct sequel, and the Wind Waker/Phantom Hourglass/Spirit Tracks trilogy were direct sequels, but with completely different characters).

Loving this game so far. But I can't play it Sunday...I need to get out and enjoy the sun while it's out there. :)

My first death...choosing Gerudo Town for my first was way way way above my health level. The fact that this was my first death was SUPER surprising. I am eating my way to victory, though....

#tearsofthekingdom

Yay! Jules is now a permanent resident of Gerudo Town. My personal head canon for Breath of the Wild was that Jules is trans, and now in Tears of the Kingdom, she's a resident.

❤

#tearsofthekingdom

More cleaning the freezer out. Barbacoa! Or outside of Texas, tacos de cabeza.

Also, here's my new griddle. I've retired the comal until I get the crack repaired and...well...I learn better how to take care of cast iron.

Thirdly, I love flour tortillas. I like the 50/50 flour/corn tortillas. I cannot STAND pure corn tortillas. EXCEPT in barbacoa tacos. Only way to eat them.

When the trailers for the game came out, showing off some of the story, I had an inking that the story was going into a dark place. The more I play this, the more I think this Princess Zelda story is going into a very very very dark place.

#tearsofthekingdom

MAH PEOPLE

#tearsofthekingdom

So I knew I was gonna go see the Gerudo today, and I was gonna power through somehow, which is why I ended running through all 25 Zelda amiibo to stock up. Went up the lighthouse in Kara Kara Oasis, and flew straight for Gerudo town.

When I didn't make it the whole way, I took off all my clothes for heat resistance (which didn't 100% work as I still took damage), ate a meal that gave me extra hearts (ate a meal which gave me some heat resistance), and straight up dead reckoned through the sand shroud (which wasn't easy as they put a rift in there now to keep you from, well, dead reckoning).

AND I MADE IT. Nothing's gonna keep me out of Gerudo Town. :)

Tears of the Kingdom isn't easy at all, but it is easier if you remember all your Breath of the Wild knowledge to keep you alive (eat eat eat).

#tearsofthekingdom