Long Lunch

Driving home from work a couple weeks ago, I called in on a radio station giveaway and won 4 free burritos from Chipotle. Sweet.

Then, the bad news: You had to pick them up from the station. On a weekday. Between 10-6. Oh, and about 40 miles from where I work.

I was going to plead with them to just mail it to me, when I happened to call in the same station two days later and won an Alexander Ovechkin "action figure." [Technically you're not supposed to win more than once in a 30 day period, but the guy interpreted that as the same prize, not "winning" in general.]

That prize was not going to fit in an envelope, so I definitely would have to go pick it up. I decided to take a long lunch. Amazingly, I was there in about 40 minutes (out the Toll Road, up the Beltway, up 270, Montrose Road, Rockville Pike, BINGO!). With no parking to be found, I put on my hazards and left it in a "No Parking" zone. I spent 15 minutes waiting on the prizes, just hoping I wasn't going to get a ticket (or worse, towed).

All in all, the trip took about 2 1/2 hours (stopped for lunch at Chick-Fil-A, and at 2pm on a weekday afternoon, the drive-thru took almost 15 minutes). The Chipotle coupons turned out to be two free pizzas from Papa Johns (they gave me the wrong prize). The Ovechkin figure sells for $10.99 at Toys 'R Us.

With tolls, gas, and mileage, I probably came out on the losing side. But, I have a story to tell, I can now say I've been to Rockville, and the pizzas were pretty good.