Trip in Reflection ...

What an amazing experience. I have to say that everything worked out in the end. We had so much fun, and saw so many new things. Here is the short list of the best of the best.

Best View ... Bryce Canyon, Utah
Most Scenic Drive - Route 1, California Coast
Most Boring Drive - I70 Kansas
Craziest Road - Lombard Street, San Francisco, CA
Best Party ... New Orleans
Best Bar ... Falling Rock Tap House - Denver, Little Woodrows - Houston
Best Meal ... Spotted Dog Cafe - Zion, Utah, Yardhouse - San Diego, CA
Funniest Purchase ... Bullhorns, Busts, Kimonos
Best Hotel ... The Cheshire Inn, St. Louis
Best Hike ... San Dune Arch, Arches National Park, Utah
Biggest Trees ... Muir Woods, California
Best Baseball Game ... L.A. Dodgers
Best Baseball Stadium ... San Francisco Giants
Best Shopping ... Chinatown, San Francisco, CA
Most Odd Stop ... Prairie Dog Town, Oakley, Kansas
Hottest Known Temperature ... 105, Nevada
Coldest known Temperature ... 42, I can't remember which park in the mountains, Yosemite maybe
Highest Elevation ... 10,000 ft - Bryce Canyon,Utah
Biggest Laugh ... Hacky Sack Panda - the car, Kimono Fighting - San Francisco Hotel
Biggest Blunder ... Falling on my ass in Los Angeles on the Sunset Strip, Wearing and the losing Rx sunglasses in the Pacific Ocean, San Diego
Friendliest People ... Everywhere!
New foods I tried ... Buffalo, In & Burger, Craw fish, Steak and Shake Chili, Red Robbin
Foods I haven't had in a very long time ... Kielbasa, beef, milkshake
Best Purchase for Trip ... National Park Pass, New Sneakers
Most Entertaining Car Game ... Person, Place or Thing, Who's Driving That Car?
Best Decision ... Stop in Tuscon to get some sleep
Best Random story by Stranger - Coconuts
Celebrity Sighting - Hed PE in the next room over at the Safari Inn, Los Angeles, CA
Biggest Disappointment - Not getting in to the Conan Show
Biggest Regret - Not doing this before.

This was the coolest thing I've done. Greg and C.J. are the best buddies a girl can have. I got to take part in something that will change my life forever and I will never forget the things we saw, place we went and adventures we had. Even better; I only gained 5 lbs back. I think that's pretty good considering I ate and drank myself silly.

Heading Home

Bourbon St. Was just as fun as last time. Ate a lot, drank a lot, got hit on by 70 year old guys. Lol. C.J. tried to buy a squirrel. Our fave bartender Victoria wasn't working. :( the same band was playing: I only remember this because I thought the singer/guitar player was super hot. Lol. On the way home now. Back to reality. :(

Memphis

Walking in Memphis with my Blue Suede Shoes! We drove in and headed to the Loraine Hotel, which as you may know is now the Civil Rights Museum. Of course it was closed on Tuesdays but we took pictures anyway. We then made our way to Graceland. Again we just took pics from the outside because tickets were 28$ seriously there are so many people making money off of a dead mans house. Everything was named/themed after him. We checked into our hotel stopped by Pei Wei so I could eat then we headed to Beale St. It was like a mini-Bourbon St. Lots of good music everywhere, lots of homeless people too. We went to rendezvous for bbq because it was on man vs food. The guys said it was awesome. Then we wandered in and out of shops with out "big ass beers". 5$ for a giant woodchuck. Never heard of back home. Maybe I can find that tonight on Bourbon. This is the last day of the trip. Tomorrow we head back home to reality. :( I have to get a job for the rest of the summer, but I may have some out of town company and I may head to colorado for a bit and then september; cruise 09!

The Cheshire Inn ...

This was the coolest hotel we've stayed in by far! It was in an odd location in St. Louis. It is an Old English lodge. I can't wait to show off the pictures. They had a tavern with cider. Wow yea we we're drunk. So the bartender told us that they have been filming a George Clooney movie there. It was supposed to be Wisconsin chalet. They used fake snow and painted the walls pink. The movie is called up in the air. Needless to say, CJ and I went on a treasure hunt looking for movie props. I will just say this ... Score! The desk clerk was odd. He told us a strange story about coconuts in his trunk. We saw the last of the ball games last night Cards lost to San Fran 10-0. Booo. So much for rooting for the home team. We also went up to the top of the St. Louis Arch and wandered the park during the day. Today we head to Memphis home of Elvis and BBQ. None of us have ever been there, so we're pretty excited. We just had to make a pit stop because I'm on my last pair of clean panties and I have no clothes that actually match, nor does CJ. We are all good now after our encounter with Loretta and Tiara. This place was crazy. We actually set the whore (gps) to take us to wal-mart and it was closed to a Big K. That's probably the only time I've ever seen a Kmart take over a walmart. On to the land of peanut butter and banana sandwiches.

The Cheshire Inn ...

This was the coolest hotel we've stayed in by far! It was in an odd location in St. Louis. It is an Old English lodge. I can't wait to show off the pictures. They had a tavern with cider. Wow yea we we're drunk. So the bartender told us that they have been filming a George Clooney movie there. It was supposed to be Wisconsin chalet. They used fake snow and painted the walls pink. The movie is called up in the air. Needless to say, C.J. and I went on a treasure hunt looking for movie props. I will just say this ... Score! The desk clerk was odd. He told us a strange story about coconuts in his trunk. We saw the last of the ball games last night Cards lost to San Fran 10-0. Booo. So much for rooting for the home team. We also went up to the top of the St. Louis Arch and wandered the park during the day. Today we head to Memphis home of Elvis and BBQ. None of us have ever been there, so we're pretty excited. We just had to make a pit stop because I'm on my last pair of clean panties and I have no clothes that actually match, nor does C.J. We are all good now after our encounter with Loretta and Tiara. This place was crazy. We actually set the whore (gps) to take us to Wal-mart and it was closed to a Big K. That's probably the only time I've ever seen a Kmart take over a Wal-mart. On to the land of peanut butter and banana sandwiches.

Kansas con't

So Kansas ... A lot of driving. We stopped at Prarie Dog something or other in Oakley Kansas. Is was like a sad Nature's classroom. It was cool though. Great gift shop. C.J. bought a rattlesnake. Don't worry, it's stuffed. Fed some animals, took some pictures, then got back on the road. We had dinner at Red Robbin in Topeka and then did a big loop trying to get off the interstate at our exit is Kansas City, MO. We are at the Days-Inn now and heading to St. Louis tomorrow. The boys will OD on some BBQ. I know that for sure.

Denver ...

We got in about 4 and checked into the worst ghetto ass motel. Omg it was bad. We decided to drive downtown and check out 16th street mall. Had dinner at Chipolte. After that we went to Falling Rock Tap House. Btw meade is not good. Yuk. I had strongbow and ace pear cider. The boys trid a million weird beers. Bean and Leslie from NCCC met us there. That was awesome! We went to the downstairs area and some guy was having a bachelor party so we gave him shit but it was pretty funny. Something about touching his belt buckle and he was a champion, I don't know. I the beat CJ at cricket!!! I never do that, but I was feeling the old school darts. I left with the girls to go cruise around and the boys went to the Buckhorn and ate balls. Lol. Rocky Mountain Oysters and rattlesnake. I told them to take pics, which they did, because I didn't think I could watch them do it. I guess its a man vs food spot too and they have the oldest liquor license in the country. At any rate Bean and I ended up back at the taphouse for another round and then she dropped me off at motel hell where I crashed because we have a 9 or more hour drive today.

Arches and whatnot

Arches was cool! We saw balanced rock, delicate arch, double arch, and hiked out to sand dune arch and broken arch at sunset. The sand was red and felt great! Greg and I were dumb and wore flip-flops to dinner and I guess forgot we were going back to the park if the rain cleared out. Thankfully it did because it was amazing! I think we hiked about 3 miles after dinner. Arches was great though. We stayed at the Apache Motel in Moab. I guess John Wayne stayed there or something. It was old school kitch. It had wood beams on the ceiling. The lady that ran it had some serious spray on hair. It was hard not to laugh. I would have just gotten a wig if it were me.
We had breakfast at a place called Love Muffin lol. I had a gluten free, vegan pumpkin chocolate chip muffin and an omlet with spinach, onions, mushrooms and goat cheese. Delightful. I'm full! We are about 180 miles from Denver now. I get to see Bean and Leslie from NCCC and Greg and CJ are going to eat some Rocky Mountain Oysters hopefully if we can find them. I will be documenting it for historical/hystarical purposes. :). Gross! I was thinking, going home is going to be such a let down :( this trip has been amazing. Hopefully ill have funn stuff to do for the rest of the summer. I did find out, thanks to Lynne that we get paid Tuesday which will really help. And funny note ... I stopped at a roadside jerky stand and got sopme buffalo jerky for Sarah today per request. I just have to make sure the boys don't get into it before we get home.

Bryce Canyon

Bryce Canyon was absolutely amazing. I've never seen anything like it. I have always wanted to go there, well at least since the days of NCCC anyway. This was probably the most unique, natural wonder on Earth.
We bid goodbye to the Best Western Zion this morning, and saw some Big Horn Sheep and Buffalo on our way to Bryce. After the buffalo sighting, we stopped at The Buffalo Grill and clearly, we ordered buffalo. C.J. had a fancy ass buffalo burger, Greg had a Philly cheese steak with buffalo and I had a salad with buffalo. I know crazy ... I ate meat, and buffalo at that; and it was good too. I've actually eaten quite a lot of meat on this trip so far. No one pass out now.
We also stopped at a rock shop and I saw some really cool glass and stones, etc. I want a geode, and well everything there. I've seen some beautiful citrine, fluorite, azurite, and tiger-eye just to name a few. What sucks now is that I am super broke, tapped out the cc today and down to about $300 cash to last the rest of the trip, which is about 7 more days. Sorry guys- no more souvenirs for you.
Anyway, we headed to Bryce and drove through Dixie National Forest and Red Cliffs, I believe they were called. It was really pretty. Like I said earlier, Bryce was outstanding - I loved it. I did some hiking and lots of picture taking. I haven't had cell service for a few days, so if anyone has left any messages or sent any texts, I haven't received them.
Anyway ... Bryce = spectacular - I can't wait to upload the pictures for everyone to see.
We stopped at a weird grocery/camp store/gift shop and got supplies for the night. We are camping at the Bryce Valley KOA. It's fairly nice here. I had a weird dinner of bacon, pepperoni, and cream cheese on brioche that I got from the sensitive baker in Culver City. I did also have some Frito's and I made a smoke with the most delicious chocolate I have ever had. Greg bought some earlier in the day somewhere we stopped and it was amazing, so when we saw it at the store, I picked up a bar. It's huckleberry chocolate. OMG it's so fantastic, I've never had anything like it.
Now we're sitting around the campsite, listening to music, watching the fire, drinking, etc. The boys are playing football and are looking silly being their uber competitive selves. Every park we've been in, they've had rock throwing contests. I have pictures of this, but of course they have pictures of me with my ass up in the air hunting for cool rocks in the dirt, but it's all in good fun.

Fire is good btw! This is fun. Also, WTF? Michael Jackson died today. That was crazy. I got a text about it and we turned Sirius to an entertainment news channel. Anyway, getting dark now, can't see and quite drunk, I will write the rest later.

(Morning)
OK so... rain last night. Cold this morning. I feel like crap, but that may have to do with eating bacon from a skewer right before sleeping on the ground and the amount of rum I drank. Boys are sleeping, I'm in the car because my shoulder is killing me and I thought I would sleep better in here. Stupidly I thought I would take advantage of the free wifi at the koa and then get some sleep. I wrote this entry the first time on paper because I didn't realize there was wifi here and I figured I would type it somewhere else.

On to Arches today. I have been there, but it's been a long time. Hopefully I get some more sleep and I start feeling better. I definitely feel my age today, maybe older, lol.

still on the road ...

Yesterday we were in Vegas. I was exhausted because we drove all night. I got maybe 2 hours of sleep. We started the morning at slots of fun! lol, then we headed to the cracked egg for breakfast. mmmm skillet. After that we drove out to Red Rock Canyon. It was beautiful; hot, but beautiful. I am of course, collecting rocks from everywhere. I know, I'm a dork. After this, we had a fun trip to wal-mart and then finally to the hotel; Circus Circus. When we got there and finally got checked in (took forever), I crashed. I got maybe another two hours and then we headed out to cause trouble. I was still tired, so I actually didn't do much. The boys had all you can eat prime rib and then we went to gamble. I won 37$ which bought my dinner at P.F. Changs. I think that it made me sick, because I was sick as a dog all day today. It really sucked. This morning we left for Zion National Park. The thermometer was up to 105 as we drove through the desert. Zion was hot, but super amazing. I can't wait to see all of the pictures. Zion was cool because they had this shuttle-bus thing that drove us all around the scenic route of the park. We stopped and hiked a little and went to see some hanging gardens and water, etc. I left the boys to hike a long trail, so I could go pass out in the car. I really felt awful. We finally left the park around 9:00 and headed to the hotel. This is the coolest Best Western I have ever seen, by far. We went to dinner at the Spotted Dog Cafe and we're totally surprised when we got inside. It was fantastic. I spoke to the check and she knew right away what Celiac and Gluten-Free were and suggested a few things. I had Talapia with mashed pots and veg, and creme brule for dessert. Wow, it was so good. The sauce was amazing. The boys had buffalo and elk meatloaf wrapped in bacon. I think if it we're gluten free I would have tried it. We found the coolest shop after dinner and I got some bumbleberry jam amongst a few other things. I had some bumbleberries on the creme brule and they were outstanding. Anyway, that's about all for now. headed to Bryce Canyon tomorrow... we are camping. I'm excited.