Once Upon A Time in America

Once upon a time in America...two fools headed out on a road trip imagining they were going to explore the West. And explore they did! And fools they were...Exit? Why do we need an exit? Look at how pretty this canyon is!!! It's like the Grand Canyon in miniature! Isn't it amazing? Let's stop and walk around! And look! Another Scenic Overlook! And Another! We should pull over. So we did. And we stopped for the Welcome to Utah Sign. And we walked back for the Leaving Colorful Colorado sign. (yes Ma, we walked on the highway. Let me save you the trouble. That's so dangerous! I know. We are living dangerously Baby! I was very safe with him. Mom. Don't worry so much.) Also, we started a trend. Three other cars stopped after we did! And it was so pickin' fun and we laughed so hard and we were havin' such a fools good time we...missed the exit. Utah doesn't like to tell you about their roads very much. They like to keep you guessing. So 30 miles later we just figured we better turn around because we MUST have missed it. I wasn't worried at ALL.

List of cool things we saw on the the way:
1. Road sign telling us the exit for No Name was coming up. Poor No Name. Someone give it a name.
2. Sign that said Caution: Eagles on Highway ~ really? I want to see one. That's kind of awesome. And what are they doing there?
3. Back end of a truck. Not the front end. Just the back end. Nowhere near any town at all. Just sittin' there.
4. Guy peeing on the side of the road. Montana refused to write that one down.
5. Random grave. I know, kind of sad, but not like a cross. I mean the ENTIRE grave. Very strange.
6. Awesome cemetery. Couldn't pull over and Montana would have been freaked but it was also in the middle of nowhere and I really wanted to check it out. Shaughnessy would have stopped with me.

Weather report for the day: Noon in Frisco, CO 47*. 5:30pm in Nowhereville, Utah (Sister town to No Name, CO) 107* folks. That's right. 107*. You heard me. That there is a triple digit that will certainly get your attention. Oh, did I mention the driving rain and hail in Frisco? Ha. That was a good time. Then the rental car (totally cute by the way), flashed a large exclamation point at me (which was so not friendly), and I was forced to pull over and get out in the driving rain in my cute shorts and t-shirt. Now let's recap. 47*. It was cold. But it was certainly an adventure and damn fun. And I did what my dad would do. I turned up the radio and the exclamation point went away. Thanks Daddy. Works like a charm.

Montana's phone rang. Random. I said, "who could be calling you?" He said, "must be Daddy". I said, "why would he call your phone? why wouldn't he call my phone?" Didn't even miss a beat. "Because I'm awesome", was his response. I loved it. It wasn't Dad.

The rental car is a cute little Pontiac G5 which I thought really liked me till it gave me the finger.
We did not bring Skosh. Not sure he would have fit. It's a small car.

Tomorrow we head to Yuba City, California. I'm not thinkin' we'll be stoppin' to explore the beauty nearly as much. Just a thought. It is Nevada.

I attempted to upload photos tonight. The internet here heard that the internet at home hates me and jumped on the bandwagon. So maybe tomorrow night at Miss Monica Sue's house.

Our tale continues...

The Big Sleep

Montana and I are ready to head out in the morning. A few last minute touches to our packing jobs~ the ice in the cooler, the toiletries in the bags and such. I'm feeling really beat tonight and if you know me at all that is rather unusual. I am never tired at ten o'clock. I am expecting my second wind any moment now. There is a great movie on the television and it would be awesome to follow while I try to do those little things for the trip you don't expect to get done. You know? The things you file away in your head as 'if I have time I'll do that but I'm sure I won't'. But my body says I need to sleep.

I was ironing some shirts for Sean today and he was surprised. He said I absolutely shouldn't be worried about that...don't I have way more to think about?? Way more to do?? Yeah, not really. I did my laundry but that's it. I'm there. Montana is there. We just have to pick up the car in the morning, stop at the bank and head out.

I packed a box of snacks and drinks and told Montana we were stopping at the bank and taking some of his money out for souvenirs and such. If he wanted something to snack on that wasn't in that box, he would have to pay for it himself. He was outraged! "What? That's a ripoff! Why should I have to spend my money?" That is life, Baby.

I had a great day with my kids today, had them all over for breakfast and they stayed for dinner. all of them. Even the tagalongs were there! Can't beat that with a stick!

All that's left is to begin the adventure. See you all tomorrow~

~ I wonder if I can get Skosh in the car without anyone noticing...

Great Expectations

After countless hours at the computer reconfiguring this route and that route I have come up with what I hope will be a great road trip. We will be leaving Monday morning the 13th of July. Can it be a luckier day? If I have done the math correctly we will have covered 3,354 miles when we reach our house again in 8 days. There was a bit of a lovelier direction to go, but it took us a few extra hours out of the way. After I had a few family members give me a look that said, "wow. That's a lot of driving" and then they SAID, "wow. That's a lot of driving". I got very nervous. The more I thought about it, the more driving it was. Sort of like the longer you look at a spider the bigger it gets, you know? But I wasn't backing out now right?...in for a penny. So I reworked the drive a little, took a slightly less scenic route and I feel much better having cut two hours out of the length of our journey~:)

Meanwhile, I've mapped and printed every step of the way, even the interstate through Wyoming, something I've driven countless times and could do in my sleep. By the end of eight days I might be. From our house to each and every hotel. I've purchased tickets to events ahead of time, I've shopped for snacks, I have confirmations printed. I have a small pharmacy in case, well, in case. I have a small list of things I still have to do in order to head out the door but we're pretty excited. Sean looked at all of it and said, "why aren't you this organized when I go on trips with you?" I told him next time I would be. But now that I think about it, all we ever do is go to Montana. I'm heading to seven states for eight days by myself with a twelve year old. I don't want to screw this up.

Periodically Montana gets a little nervous about what it entails, but then he gets sidetracked by all the good fun he has planned. He has, after all, 5 seasons of NCIS. Yes, that's right folks. 5 seasons. When I was little my dad drove us to San Francisco and to this day we remember him muttering, with his daughters in the car, "thirteen HUNDRED miles" with a heavy sigh. Yeah. I have FIVE seasons of NCIS. *sigh*

We expect this to be a long drive~ with a lot of NCIS~ and more than our share of trees (the giant kind you can drive through), ocean, mountains, prairies...all great examples of America. In a perfect world, we'd see the world's biggest frying pan and the world's biggest ball of yarn but man, can life really be THAT good? This is what a road trip is.