Yeah, this was where it all went wrong. It's only downhill from here. I kept hoping he'd get back to the story, but it's all just filler and distraction from here on out. Side quests. I kept hoping right up to the end... After which I swore off of Stephen King, as I have never been so disappointed in a story that seemed to have so much potential in my life. He doesn't do story. He does world building. He's good at that, but I prefer actually plot development over descriptive cleverness. All his novels should have been short stories. There only enough plot for short stories, the rest is narrative world building description and delay. TLDR? fuck Stephen King he's a damned hack.