Here’s a true story that happened at Mondo 2006. Pictures were taken and links to the pictures are provided at appropriate points in the story to assist the reader in understanding the story.
It was 1:30 am on Sunday, February 26, 2006. The Mondo gym was closing in half an hour and Nathan, Lana and Vova were looking for something exciting to do. Vova had been wanting to go swimming for a while now and he was trying to convince Nathan and Lana to go with him. However, after a few minutes of talking to locals and on the internet the crew learnt that there was unlikely to be a swimming pool open at that time. By about 1:45 Lana got so discouraged that she put her winter coat, hat and gloves on and got ready to head home and hit the sack. That’s when Nathan stumbled upon Chris LaRuhe and told him about Vova’s desire to go swimming that night. Chris stayed at a Holiday Inn, which happened to have a pool in it. When told that Lana and Vova didn’t have swimsuits, Chris remembered he saw a vending machine that had swim suits (!) for $3.50 a piece at the hotel. Though the three adventure seekers had basis to doubt Chris’ words (being a suspicious looking rollercoaster enthusiast doesn’t exactly make one sound too credible, especially when talking about a vending machine that has swimsuits), they decided to check out the hotel anyway.
Upon arriving at the hotel, the crew was disappointed to find out that the pool was closed, but they figured the vending machine with swim suits, if found, would be amusing to check out anyway. It only took the would-be swimmers a few minutes to find the vending machines and sure enough, one of them had swim suits. At that point Lana - the more experienced of the three in the area of doing crazy shit – knew the three would have a busy night. They thought the idea of swimming suits in vending machines was so amusing that they decided to buy some, put them on and document the events by taking a few pictures. Vova was first to get his $3.50 swimsuit. After trying the swimsuit on and taking a few solo shots of Vova, the crew decided that having all of them wear the swimsuits in pictures would be hilarious.
There was only one major problem that they were facing - the vending machine didn’t offer any ladies’ swimsuits. However the youngsters didn’t let that faze them. They decided to buy two pairs of swim trunks for Lana and put one of them over her chest. As Nathan was trying to pull a pair of trunks over Lana’s head down to her chest, one of the hallway doors opened and a young man walked into the hallways where the vending machines were. Upon discovering that Vova was wearing nothing but the flimsy swimsuit and Nathan was trying to pull a pair of trunks over Lana’s head the man exclaimed, “What the hell is going on?” followed by “Wait, nevermind, I don’t really want to know.” The three adventure-seekers were really shocked and then cracked up at the awkwardness of the situation.
Despite the challenges, Lana’s “swimsuit” worked out well. (One more pic of Lana) Soon Nathan joined the two and got his swimsuit.
After having a lot of fun with the swimsuits and Nate’s camera, the three decided it may be amusing to take some of the pictures outside. At that point it was about 4 am and it was a cold night in Minneapolis. Vova and Lana went outside first to test what the pictures would come out like. Nathan stayed inside to watch the crew’s stuff. Lana and Vova thought the pictures would come out great, and headed back to the vending machines where Nathan was waiting. The two were almost back where the vending machines were at when Vova saw a hotel lady talking to Nathan, who was still only wearing the trunks. Vova grabbed Lana’s arm and dragged her away to avoid being caught by the lady. However, the lady must have noticed Lana and Vova behind the glass door, so she opened it and told Lana and Vova to stop running, get their stuff and go away. The three were forced to get dressed and leave the hotel.
At that point Lana suggested that they go to a grocery store and buy some food, as the three were getting hungry. Upon getting to a grocery store, the three decided to take some swimsuit pictures in there. Lana was real gun ho about the idea, Nathan was kinda neutral and Vova didn’t seem to think it was a great idea. Nevertheless, the three accomplished another mission by taking a swimsuit picture at the grocery store, miraculously not being noticed by anyone. The crew then decided to take a break, bought some doughnuts and juice and sat down to eat.
After eating, Nathan, Lana and Vova looked at the pictures they had taken on Nathan’s computer. Inspired by their recent success the three set off to accomplish another mission and take a swimsuit picture on a carousel outside the grocery store. It was about 6 am at that point and the three were met with some strange looks from the people trying to get their grocery shopping early in the morning. Despite the cold and the awkwardness of the situation, the mission was a success.
The three then decided to wrap up their eventful night by going to bed.
That was by far the weirdest night in their lives. The author would also like to add that at no point during the night was any one of the three drunk or on drugs. For some mysterious reason Lana, Nathan and Vova just thought doing all of that stuff would be amusing.
Story by Vova
