Yoo 354 - The Smells Of A Roadtrip

Lest you think gallivanting around the country is all frills and fun, our Jeep smells like feet. And we have about 6 hours of driving left today.

We've now been sleeping in our little oasis away from home for 5 days and the luggage pile behind me is steadily growing.



If you were considering buying a Jeep Liberty...I would endorse it. Love this car! It turns on a dime and the back is plenty roomy for sleeping at night. We threw a foam pad down, laid the sleeping bags on top, and dreamed blissfully every night.



I think bang braids, or braids in general, are really popular right now. At least in Ohio. Every. Girl. Had. Braids. I gave it a try while waiting for my oatmeal to cool at McDonalds.

I can't pull it off.



We went to the Mall of America today. What you see there is a ginormous Optimus Prime made of Legos. And a helicopter. No big deal.



Also, a wall of build-your-own Lego set pieces. I loved the Lego store. The rest of it was just a really big mall.



Minus the part in the middle where there were roller coasters and other amusement park rides.

That was cool.

We're in Wisconsin again now. I still need to buy some cheese before we leave. We sampled cheese curds this morning. They were squeaky. And salty. It was interesting.



I've decided, for the umpteen hundredth time, that I love traveling. Road tripping in general. Waking up and not caring what time or day it is and having no specific plan and endless possibilities?

Not that I'm complaining about being a corporate slave or anything, I'm very thankful for my job, but if this paid...this I would choose.

A girl can dream. (the kyoo parents are now rolling their eyes or developing an ulcer...probably both...)



I get to plan a wedding when I get back. But for now it's pretty fun to procrastinate that while crossing state line after state line and smelling feet.

If you love yourself you'll go listen to "G.T.O." by Ronny & The Daytonas right now. And sing really loud to the chorus of wah-waaaah's. It's our road trip song.

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 353 - Drugged Up On Dramamine

"What do you think would happen if the seat came off the sled? How horrible would that be??"

"Hopefully something would impale you right away and you wouldn't have to experience the free-fall strapped into a seat..."

"Ahhh! Don't talk about it! That's not going to happen!"

"The worst would be getting flung into the lake while still strapped into the seat!"



(pardon the post-roller coaster hair and sun squinty faces...)

That was pretty much the basis of the conversation the Alishafriend and I exchanged as we nervously waited in line for Millennium Force at Cedar Point.

It scared us silly. That and the Dramamine was doing weird things. We both felt rather drugged.



But it was effective.

(we're getting old...)

Cedar. Point. Is. Amazing. Best roller coasters in the world? I was sure impressed. Millennium Force and Top Thrill Dragster were my favorites. We were both kind of scared and prefaced each big ride with apologies for any dropped expletives or peed pants.

We escaped without either.

I wanted to ride Millennium Force all day!



A nap in a Cici's Pizza parking lot preceded a very sleepy, late drive up to Ludington State Park in Michigan.

We wanted to see a lighthouse.

Also, it should be noted that we called ahead to ensure that we'd be able to access the campgrounds after hours.
They said it was no problem. But then this welcomed us.



A stop sign and gate at what we thought was the entrance to the campground.

We kind of panicked. And tried to off-road around it. (trail-rated jeep...we were feeling pretty confident...). But then we realized it was all sand. And we were stuck.

That's when we really panicked. Locked in 4WD, Alisha floored it while I pushed and we escaped.

Only to, seconds later, find a map and notice that wasn't actually the entrance to the campground.

So we sheepishly went off-road around the sign again (a bit more prepared this time), and found the right entrance.

Apparently they are open 24/7 and actually quite helpful.



We spent the rest of our time worried that the state park police would be approaching us with questions about Jeep tire tracks around a certain barricade. And exploring a lighthouse!



The map said the hike was 2 miles. We thought "No problem!" Until we realized it was all in sand! Game changer! Thankfully we found the easy trail for the hike back...







The climb to the top is not to be disregarded. I'm scared of heights! And you can see all the way to the bottom! Needless to say, I was clinging to the rail and trepidly conquering each step.

Alisha was bounding up laughing at my constant vocal reminders to breath.





I made it! But forgot to take off my scared sick face, obviously...





Fav number!



The rest of the day was spent experiencing rush (3) hour(s) in Chicago and cursing the Michigan state sign. We missed it!

Going to have to work some Photoshop magic there...

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 352 - Betting On Horses

First, Happy Memorial Day yesterday. A ginormous thank you to all who have served or who are serving our country!


We just spent our first night in the Jeep (safely tucked away in a KOA campground) and it was less than amazing. Hot, sweaty, and not entirely comfortable. I left my pillow at last night's hotel. It's never a good night when you "naturally" awaken at 5:30 am. The Alishafriend is some how sleeping thru it all so I'm blogging. And watching squirrels. Such are the adventures of a road trip!

I'm so thirsty...


(isn't our rental jeep hot??)

HELGA took an interesting turn yesterday. We found ourselves in Kentucky. Louisville to be exact. And do you know what's in Louisville?

Just about everything!

I would go back to Louisville with a family. Baseball (louisville sluggers!), a Six Flags, a gorgeous river, museums, what looked like the KFC colonel's house, Mega Caverns, a zoo, and the best...Churchill Downs.

Churchill Downs!


Home of the Kentucky Derby!


Guys. This was my first horse race. Oh it was exciting! The bugler! The green and white! The announcer with the English accent! The way all the employees greeted you by wishing you luck!


It was just great.

We both put a couple dollars into each race. The first race we bet based on name. I wanted Geometry to win.

Fail.

He got last.

The second race we went based on color. Kyoo threw another $2 on green. The Alishafriend went blue. And won!


One dollar and forty cents.

She's not quitting her day job soon but we both decided the horse races are a pretty fun place to be. And if we were rich and not LDS and lived in Kentucky we'd probably blow a lot of money there...

Other excitement from the day?

Well, we didn't pick up anymore strangers but we did stop at a Nike outlet and try on 13 pairs of Jordans. And drove a lot.
The Kentucky and Ohio state signs were both over heavily trafficked bridges and hard to get. We had to be super creative! Can't wait to share those with you.


Also, if you drive a lot and have an iPhone, WAZE is the app to get. We were racking up points plotting wrecks and speeding traps all day...

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 351 - You Did What??

We found ourselves at the Indy 500 yesterday. In the stands at turn 2. Where all the crashes happen. Surrounded by a bunch of the funniest most generous drunk men you could meet. Weirdly experiencing an adrenaline rush watching fast cars. Loving our lives.

It's a long story.

Before we dive into this post, let me preface it by saying that I fully realize what we did could have been a very serious, dangerous situation. And stupid. So so stupid. We did all the things single, traveling girls shouldn't do. But the whole time we both felt so right about it, like it was something we were supposed to do. That's that and this is what it is.

We picked up a couple guys. In the car rental place. In Chicago. We were about to leave but were still standing there debating about whether we were going to be honest about the extra driver or not.

We chose to be honest.

We had just walked up to the counter to sign the final rental papers when they walked in.

Rami and Scott.

There's was a long story too but essentially they were stuck in Chicago trying to get to Scott's mom's place in Indianapolis in time for the Indy 500 the next day.

Since they wanted to only rent the car one-way it was going to cost them an extra $500 on top of their rental. Indianapolis is only a 3-hour drive!

I overheard all this and thought it was crazy. That's when I started thinking...and Alisha was on the same page. We were going south...and they seemed like nice guys...and we both felt like we should offer.

So we did.

We offered them a ride. They were super grateful and all of a sudden all of these awesome things were raining on us. They kept us laughing throughout the drive with exploding licorice straws in Coke and cheesy pop sing-a-longs. Then they insisted we at least stay for dinner.

"Mom, throw a couple extra steaks on the grill, we've got two Texans coming to dinner."

We got to their house, a two-story home on the end of a hidden cul-de-sac with a heavily forested, adventurous backyard. Scott's mom was a gracious host, their St Bernard was a bear and I fell in love with her immediately, and his nieces were adorable. One swore Harry Potter and Justin Bieber were her boyfriends. (harry would win in a fight though).

(the biggest, friendliest dog you ever did meet...with the most animated of eyebrows).

Essentially, after dinner we found ourselves watching Kung-Fu Panda 2 and staying the night in their guest room.

They had offered us their extra tickets to the Indy 500 the next day. How could we pass that up??

Since we were going with "the locals" (scott's been every year since he was 6...) we got to roll up just an hour before the race with a parking spot reserved in some guy's backyard and experience this race in the midst of all the other rednecks.

It's really the only way to go.

The actual race was cool. And there was an F-16 flyover! The first 10 laps = awesome. The last 10 laps = awesome. The crashes = awesome. Everything in between wasn't quite as exciting. But Scott showed us around the museum and inner track and Rami followed along like a tickled little boy (he loves cars) and we sweated and cheered and soaked up the experience. The once in a lifetime experience because we're probably never going again.

The end came and a hike back along the railroad tracks to our Jeep (free upgrade to a Jeep!) ensued. Time to say goodbye to the guys! Rami pretty much cleaned out his wallet for us buying us lunch and car chargers and gas and such. Scott was his happy go lucky self. We were kind of sad to leave them and their crazy antics behind but ready to get back on the road to somewhere else.

They left us with some advice too.

"Now don't go picking up any more strange guys now girls, you hit a home run with us...leave it at that. No striking out!"

Pretty solid advice. It was a weird, extenuating situation we got ourselves into. And we would have dropped them off and gotten out if we ever had the slightest prompting to do so. But we never did. And it led us on a pretty fun adventure. (i am not suggesting this to anyone...do not follow our example!)

And I leave you with some footage from the track yesterday.

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 350 - Packing Rules and Early HELGA Shots

We're in Chicago. Laying in bed. In a nice hotel. (i want to steal these pillows!) The same hotel that the touring Lil' Kim is currently calling home, actually. (we haven't seen her yet).

The point of this trip is to pretty much do whatever we want and go wherever we want. And right now, laying in these cloud pillows debating just when we want to saunter downstairs for breakfast is just want we want.

Did you know there are rules when the Alishafriend and I vacation together? There are rules. Mostly revolving around what you can and can't pack.

Make-up? Off-limits. Leave it at home!

All of your crazy handkerchiefs can come though. As long as you promise to tie them around your head in the most ridiculous of ways.

This is a T-shirts only trip, too. The kind of T-shirts that you got from state volleyball in high school and a myriad of road races and oyster reclamation projects.

Basketball shorts (or pants) are to be the only bottoms. Extra points if they have pockets. Jeans are forbidden! (though i had to break that rule, heading straight to the airport from work and not packing a change in easy reach...).

Aviators and adventure bracelets round out our look.

Essentially, comfort and low-maintenance is key. It's a vacation from work clothes too!

Where has this bag been all my life?? Kyoo mom...add that to the Christmas list.

It's tradish when I fly Southwest to turn to the back of their seat pocket magazine and follow their dollar bill folding tutorial. This month it was bow ties!

(yes, alisha is wearing my ring...but i can explain! a creeper guy with a huge, bloody gash in the side of his head sat next to her and started laying on the (not so) charm. It was our only option! and it was my turn to sacrifice since i stole window seat...)

I still have the armadillo I made whilst flying to Portland last year. It took me all 3 hours of that flight to finish it...the directions get complicated fast!

We sat outside Chicago Midway with our copious amounts of luggage taking up an entire bench while eating cookie dough, people watching, and wondering if we'd recognize our hotel shuttle van when it came by.

(ps, do we look over 21? yes?? we definitely got carded while trying to claim free VIRGIN drinks at the hotel bar last night...the lady didn't believe us and made us trek back upstairs for our ids. then. then! she had another guy double check them because she was sure they were fake. hello lady! shall i point out all of my gray hairs individually or will you give me that sprite now?)

We might eventually get out to explore Chicago. Probably at noon checkout. And we do have to pick up a rental car and get somewhere before tonight, hopefully nabbing a state sign. But right now we don't know when or where.

It's kind of the best thing about our road trips.

In other news, the Tinadoctor is currently performing surgery on Harold.

His tail fin started falling off and he was losing a lot of blood stuffing. She's already given him two transfusions and he's taking it well so far. I'm hoping she can patch him up so he's ready to join me again on my next adventure! (he can come on the honeymoon Gregbeau, right?)

Don't worry though, the Alishafriend brought her fish, named Dlorah (harold spelled backwards), so we still have a scaly counterpart to start conversations with and make a scene.

(thanks again tina for taking on harold as your newest patient!)

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 349 - My Favorite Engagement Responses

This engagement has already brought a few noticeable changes.

For one, I actually have a reason to lock my gym locker...

For two, I can't stop playing with this ring. Does that ever go away??

For three, I just love all the people that get really excited and let me act like a girl for two seconds.

For four, the Gregman and I are not stellar wedding planners. We haven't made any decisions. ANY.

Hopefully we can nail down something soon, but until then, let's enjoy these engagement reactions that made me laugh!

Facebook chose this gem of a photo to chronicle our relationship status change. Of all the pictures of us uploaded to that site, the one of us "sleeping" during conference was chosen.

Our sweaty, wreck-of-a-marathon-finish photo was second.

Classic.

In case you can't read that, the Dylansister posted how she was excited for me. And then the Kyoobrother, a whole day after this happened, moseys along with "Which one and why?".

Oh dear. Boys.

More facebook. Suddenly my sidebar is inundated with these ads.

And then there were all the ladies at work, upon hearing the news, descending on my desk whilst I was stuffing a heavily cream-cheesed bagel into my mouth.

"Fank you I'm fo echfided!"

That and parading my heavily gnawed on fingernails before everyone has made for a really fun last few days. Hopefully they just noticed the ring...

Big thanks to everyone sharing this excitement with me! It makes it all the more special.

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 348 - And So Begins HELGA

The Alishafriend and I set off on HELGA today. It's our once a year, state sign road trip photo quest.

Last year it was EASST. The Eagerly Anticipate State Sign Trip.

We flew into Philadelphia, rented a car (dubbed tanger prime, a sparkling new toyota camry), and then traveled all along the East coast (of course). State sign acquisition was around 15 and trip miles on the car hit over 4,000 after 10 days.

It was a success.

The year before that it was the Florida road trip.

We only got 6 state signs on that trip. But we camped on the beach for a week and saw a night space shuttle launch. Also a success.

This year we're flying into Chicago, renting a car, and trying to touch just about every state north of I-80 or around the Great Lakes.

It's dubbed HELGA.

HELGA doesn't stand for anything yet. It's just a name the Alishafriend blurted out under the influence of a pizza high and it's stuck

Though the Gregfiance (fiance!) insists it stands for "Highly Energetic Losers Going Away". He's not real thrilled to lose me for a couple weeks. Can you blame him? But I got him a nice little surprise to open once I leave and I'm hoping that softens the blow.

And that's that. Here's to hoping HELGA's a safe, memorable adventure!

Have a great day :-)