Throughout my college years, a recurring treat was the late-night milkshake run. It was never clear who exactly had suggested we drive to Cook Out to get milkshakes in the wee small hours, because the idea spontaneously arose in all of our minds at once. We would pile into someone's car, pump some tunes as we rolled down the road, and often discuss the relative merits of different flavors of milkshake. The stuff memories are made of. So you can imagine my joy when a friend and I happened to be driving late this past Saturday night and we looked at each other and asked, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Yup, it was Cook Out time. Cook Out is a drive-through chain around here that has fast food and is open late at night. The important thing about Cook Out is that they have so many flavors of milkshakes, and they're all really good. If you're in the mood for a strawberry cheesecake shake, they can do that. If you'd prefer a simple banana fudge (my all-time favorite and standby), they can do that, too. This particular Cook Out run was somewhat vexing, but I'll hasten to say that even a vexing Cook Out run is still pretty great. It was vexing because I did not get the shake I had ordered. I asked for a plain chocolate one, and was handed one that was chocolate but with a bit of a coffee flavor and odd, crunchy candy-like bits in it. My friend and I spent the better portion of the ride home passing the mystery shake back and forth attempting to decipher its flavor (possibly chocolate Heath bar crunch). Although it was not what I had asked for, the entertainment value of trying to solve the mystery more than alleviated any disappointment. And thus came to pass another excellent milkshake run.
