The Adventures of Meg and Mallie

We are still alive but lazy

2011-06-09T19:31:00.000-07:00

I haven't done so well with updating mostly because I have been lax on taking photos. I pormise to write something later but right now my internet connection stinks and I am a bit lazy. So here is a pretty picture of Merimac Caverns.

Stay Slow and steady,

Beck

Along for the ride...

2011-06-07T19:12:00.001-07:00

This little guy has been with us since before Amarillo. I don't have the heart (or the guts) to scrape him off.
At least it wasn't a butterfly,
Meghan

A day in Photos

2011-06-07T18:17:00.000-07:00

Today we spent a lot of time on the road a large portion of it listening to boy bands in the car. Scoff all you like but when you are driving through half the Texas pan handle, All of Oklahoma and some of Missouri you will embrace the company of the Hanson Brothers, Backstreet Boys, N'Sync, and Jessie McCartney. We even added a little Lionel Richie in the mix to do a little dancing on the ceiling.

One of our first stops of the morning along Route 66 was the Devel's Rope Museum in McLean Texas. Unfortunitaly, our early morning start worked against us and we were there 40 min early. We settled for some outside photos.
I couldn't resist some funky framing.

I'm a little upset I didn't strike a pose to show my muscles I think it would have been much more appropriate. Here is a building in Shamrock Texas that was apparently used in a movie. I'm guessing it was the movie cars. Can anyone Verify that.

Does anyone else think that water puddle looks like Darth Vader from Star Wars Helmet.
Giant cross surrounded by the stations of the cross in Groom Texas.

I would like to use this shoe as a Metaphor of the almost dead town of Texola Oklahoma. You can see that it is there but it's not in too good of shape.

Official Route 66 museum in Oklahoma. Gotta love the timer on my camera and my wallet and bottle of sunscreen propping it up.

Elk City, OK
I would like this sign at the front door of my house because of course cowboys are always welcome.

The Blue Whale just outside of Tulsa. This is one of those Route 66 attractions that is interesting an depressing at the same time. it's the epitome of Route 66 because it's still there but everything surrounding it has fallen apart.
Enjoy the pics,
Beck

More from OZ

2011-06-06T20:25:00.000-07:00

We may have been there several days ago but photos like this never get old. Meg seamed to multiply in the magic of Munchkinland.

Time for bed,
Beck

Cars in the Dirt

2011-06-06T20:09:00.000-07:00

Admittedly, I'm usually a sucker for roadside attractions but Cadillac Ranch has been one of my faves from this trip and maybe even all time. Something about the smells of spray paint and cow manure mixing in the hot Texas air is charming. I really wish I could meet whoever came up with the idea and buy them a beer because I think we would be best friends.

I wanted to pet the cow but she was glaring at me and made me feel like the high school nerd trying to sit at the cheerleaders table at lunchtime .

I needed a new facebook photo what do you think?

Smoochie Boochies,
Beck

Don't Mess with Texas

2011-06-06T19:12:00.000-07:00

I'm looking to make a 10 pm bedtime so I will shoot for lots of pictures with witty comments instead of a long detailed narrative about our trip in the Blue Escape today. Photos appear in no particular order.

Photo #1: Becky with an R2D2 mailbox in Santa Fe. This was the coolest thing we saw downtown. Sad? Or Awesome? You decide.

Photo #2: Beck and Meg on the last ladder down from the Pueblo condo many feet in the sky. It's nice having a third person around to take our picture. (Thanks, Timmy)

Photo #3: Cadillac Ranch. A nice lady offered to take our picture. She did a fantastic job...all the cars and that ugly cow got in the picture!

Photo #4: I can't believe how close the cows were to the cars/humans. This black one must be Flick. It looks like the type of cow who would dot its eyes with a heart.
Photo #5: Here is EJ, depicted as a large beach ball here, off-roading.
Photo #6: Tinkertown. Best $3 of our visit. It was a museum of these little figurines set up in elaborate scenes. Pictured below is the circus.

Photo #7: They also had a glass case of wedding cake toppers. The sign said "Wedding figures collected from nearly every state-1840s to 1980s-Remember, as you look, why you fell in love." I looked for one of mom and dad but none of the grooms had plaid suits on...

Photo #8: The museum walls were made of bottles.

Photo #9: I guess they are trying to make the walls more current...Corona!

Photo #10: Outside of the museum was this Art Car. Looks like Dad's Wrangler needs some glass eyes. Mom, don't you have a set upstairs?

Photo #11: A close-up of the penny decorations on the Art Car.

Photo #12: For a quarter, I could find the perfect career for me. Doctor? Really??? I really was hoping for Love Pirate.
Night,
Dr. Meg

I want to live in Tinkertown

2011-06-06T19:09:00.000-07:00

Along Route 66 near Albuquerque there is a magical place called Tinkertown. It's one of those things that you know the person who started it was was the perfect mix of genius and crazy. For example here is what meets you after you pay your $3 to get into the museum.

The only cowboy I have been able to find this trip to be in a photo with me.

If it wasn't $100 in the gift shop I would have bought it for sheer weirdness.

The fortune teller machine that looked like the one from the movie "Big" said I was going to be wealthy. Can't argue with a vintage arcade machine.

More to come,
Beck

Going up Ladders

2011-06-05T20:34:00.000-07:00

Our day long stop in New Mexico has come to an end and with it a few photos of our excursions. After attending church with my big brother (yes mom he got me to go to church), Tim suggested we head to Bandelier National Monument to do some hiking and check out the ruins. After 3 days in the car (2 with Meg 1 by myself) It was nice to stretch my legs and get my hike on! Below are some pics of the ruins and the ladders Meg, Tim, and I were climbing around on.

I really wish I know the specific stories that led to the creation of this sign. Also, why are there carvings on turkeys on the sign?

Meg and I were neighbors at Valpo but Guild Hall was a little less rocky.

Halfway down that ladder I decided I did NOT like ladders

Meg making her way up to the ruins.
Brother sister fantastic-ness.

Tomorrow we are picking up Route 66 from the Turquoise Trail and heading to Amarillo Texas.

Until Tomorrow,
Beck

There's no place like home

2011-06-05T07:34:00.000-07:00

We stopped in Liberal, Kansas to see Dorothy's house. It was a bit sad how rundown the Munchkin's Playground was.

And Dorothy...what a lovely thing she is...Dad, why didn't you tell me you had a diner in Hooker, Kansas?Also, check out the pack job on that white pick-up. I'm glad the white plastic chairs were considered important enough to pack.

-Little Burger

Flint Hills Rodeo

2011-06-05T06:56:00.000-07:00

We stayed at a lovely Super 8 in Emporia, KS on Friday. Though I could not understand everything the guy at the front desk asked as I checked in, I was impressed at the customer service. He called 5 minutes after we got to our room to make sure we had found everything okay. I informed him that we did...it wasn't hard considering our room was the first one at the top of the stairs, which you could see from the hotel desk. My favorite part of our stay (well, second favorite since the first had to be the mini powdered doughnuts at breakfast) was this sign that was posted in the bathroom:

We left our hotel at about 4:45 for dinner at Bobby D's diner. We were 2 of 5 people eating at such a time. Yes, perhaps the rest of them were over the age of 70... Anyway, we each had a pulled pork sandwich with cheesy potatoes, a house specialty the menu told us. The food and my root beer were phenomenal! And we were leaving the restaurant by 5:13. Now that's a good dining experience.

We stopped at the glorious Super 8 to get Becky's camera equipment and then we were off. EJ pulled up to the Flint Hills Rodeo at about 6:15 and kept driving. There were not nearly enough cars in the parking lot for us to go in yet. I attempted to kill time in the surrounding towns. That took 15 minutes so by 6:30 we were pulling into the parking lot. That gave us 90 minutes to check out the "trade show" before rodeo time. Little did we know that the trade show would be 4 booths of cowboy artwork sketched on washboards. I bought us some cans of beer (it was hard to resist buying a coozie for an extra $1) and we took our places. Since we were there so early, no one took our ticket when we entered the "reserved" bleacher area with our "general admission" tickets. So we parked ourselves at the top of the bleachers so we'd have a backrest and then attempted to people watch until show time. I say attempted because, as you will see from the following video, there weren't many people to watch.

Did you like that music? It kept rotating from country to some random 80s rock song and then the last song before rodeo time was....you guessed it...The Black Eyed Peas "I Gotta feeling." Fitting, right?

Yeehaw,
Meghan

Destination Tacos

2011-06-04T20:34:00.000-07:00

Another long day in the car but at least it started out with waffles at the complementary breakfast in Kansas. Meg and I shared the breakfast nook with 2 fantastic individuals of the senior citizen variety. If I had to guess I would say their names were Charlie and Irma. They were traveling from Arizona to Illinois so in exchanging pleasantries they asked us about construction along the roads up to Illinois, while we inquired about the forest fires in New Mexico. We then wished each other well and were on the road.

We traveled westward through the rest of Kansas, the Oklahoma pan handle, and into our destination state New Mexico. Among the highlights were driving by the John Dillinger hideout and a visit to Dorthy's house in Liberal, Kansas which I would describe as a hole in the wall tourist trap but there were a few fun things to photograph.

Also at a gas station in I believe Greensburg Kansas I saw a mom putting aloe on here red haired kids sunburn I felt bad for the kid, my ginger self can sympathize with him.

For the most part, Meg and I passed the time reading allowed from Cosmo, playing a very interesting and slightly disturbing game of marry date or dump, and passing the same guy along a 2 lane highway 4 times.

Most importantly we arrived safely in Los Alamos, found out there is a Hooker Oklahoma, and got to eat delicious Mexican food for dinner with my brother.MMMMmmmmm delicious tacos.

Here is a bonus photo I took on my phone at the rodeo yesterday Check out the upturned pinkie...now that's class.Adios,
Beck

One Last Rodeo Photo (for my photo people)

2011-06-03T21:17:00.000-07:00

I had to take a photo of this kid you can't see it now but whenever a rider came out she was crouched down in the dirt taking photos between the bars. A little Photojournalist in the making, always looking for the right angle. It made me smile. It also made me want to run up to her and tell here she would have a better chance at being Hannah Montana than a Photojournalist with the way the newspaper industry is going.

Some Rodeo Photo-ing

2011-06-03T20:31:00.000-07:00

I have been looking forward to going to a rodeo since my last rodeo outing. I love them, I don't know if it is the atmosphere, the animals, the beer, or the incredibly attractive cowboys. (Actually I lied I do know...it's the cowboys but the other stuff doesn't hurt) but something about it makes life perfect.

Meg and I saw a drunk old lady being helped up the stairs by a friend. It's good to know that taking care of drunken friends never goes out of fashion. Since we are getting up at 6 tomorrow and have a long Drive to New Mexico we stuck to one can of beer each.

Time for bed, I'm super stoked to visit my brother Tim in New Mexico tomorrow and Sunday I haven't seen him in 10 months.

Happy Trails,
Beck

Em-por-ia (sung like "Notorious")

2011-06-03T13:56:00.000-07:00

We are almost 8 hours into our drive. I took the first driving shift from 5 to about 10:20 when my stomach was ready for PB & J. We stopped somewhere just over the border in Missouri where gas was $3.55! While I investigated the travel plaza, Becky cleaned the bugs off the windshield. Her efforts were for naught though since 10 minutes after being back in the car, the bug blood and guts were baaaaaaaack.

After we lost US 99.5 somewhere in IL, we popped in the scavenger hunt cd the soon-to-be-famous Jennie made us. For each song, she challenged us to take a picture according to something mentioned in the lyrics. It'll be fairly simple to get a pic of a Geek in Pink from the Jason Mraz song (as I believe I packed a shirt in the pink family.) However, the “take a pic of a summer boy you'd like to get” might prove to be tricky. The license plates for Kansas have said “America's Heartland” not “America's Hottieland.”

Best decision of the trip thus far: Packing Hershey's miniatures for the cooler. Nothing like a cold Mr. Goodbar to go along with your 1 o'clock DP.

TTFN, folks.
Meg

P.S. Check out this license plate. Jealous?

Toilet Graffiti Philosophy

2011-06-03T13:54:00.000-07:00

I never expected our road trip to get political and I really didn't expect to find political discussion scrawled on the walls of a ladies room stall in the middle of nowhere Illinois, but that is precisely what happened today. Glancing at the bathroom stall walls was like a public forum on immigration laws.

It looked like it all started with an incredibly insensitive non PC racial slur followed by a plethora of comments telling the original poster why they were wrong. Most just pointed out that the original public property defacer was in fact racist and that she(I'm assuming it was a she since it was a Ladies's bathroom) should keep opinions to herself or leave the country. What I found most interesting were the comments that went into some detail as to immigration policy and the legal stuff behind it.

After taking this in, a few thoughts came to mind. Were the responders to the vandalism frequent gas station bathroom laureates? and more importantly did they wash they hands before leaving.

Just some thoughts.

Peace love and Dr. Pepper,
Beck

On the Road again

2011-06-03T05:27:00.000-07:00

Putting some miles on the car through the land of Lincoln. A 4:15 AM wake up call isn't so bad when you know that by the end of the day you'll be enjoying the sights of cowboys in Wranglers at the longest Consecutively running rodeo in Kansas. We are looking for some road side attractions to stop at over the next few days. Suggestions would be helpful (that means you ma ma Birger) Todays plan: Valparaiso, In to Strong City Kansas.

2011-06-02T20:18:00.000-07:00

Two years later and the dynamic duo of road tripping is at it again. This time it is from Valpo to New Mexico then back via Historic Route 66. We leave at 5AM. Which is less than 7 hours from now. Must get some beauty sleep there will be cowboys tomorrow. We will update sometime after coffee in the morning until then feel free to review the posts from our last trip.

Sunshine and lollie pops,
Beck (aka Mallie/Thelma take your pick)

Videos, Videos

2008-08-09T20:33:00.000-07:00

Bull Riding at the Rodeo!

We could have had our picture taken on a real live bull outside the rodeo doors for 10 dollars. For 5 dollars, I would have risked my life for a picture that may have turned out terribly but not for 10.

Bikers, Bikers, Everywhere!

Scavenger Hunt!

2008-08-09T19:18:00.001-07:00

Before our road trip, we asked friends to burn us some good tunes for our long hours in the car. Jennie took that request to another level and made us a Scavenger Hunt Road Trip Mix. The hunt ideas came from lyrics in the songs and we were to document everything on the list with a picture. Here are some of the better ones..

Song: Life is a Highway
Task: Get the directions, traveling goggles(sunglasses) and juice boxes ready before cranking the music.

The GPS held our directions.

Song: Gold Digger
Task: Take a picture with a lot of cash in your hand, with your bling and traveling goggles on.

My bling is on my sunglasses. Check out those rhinestones!

Song: Our Song-Taylor Swift
Task: Take a picture of the driver with "one hand on the steering wheel and the other on my heart. (*'my' can be the driver's own heart)

I actually have my hand AND my phone(that is leaving Jennie a singing voicemail) on my heart.

Song: Put Your Records On
Task: Take a picture of both of you letting your hair down.

We went with letting our hair up instead.

Song: Wagon Wheel-Old Crow Medicine Show/Jug Band
Task: If you see a jug, play it. If you see a washboard, do your best to be as good as Jeffery.

Yup, those are WASHBOARD Abs Becky is playing.

Song: Play My Music- Jo Bros
Task: Find a (some sort of) guitar and rock out!

Our guitars of choice--a hairbrush and a toothbrush.

As long as we got each other

2008-08-09T07:31:00.000-07:00

Update: We are now reporting from separate states....

Meg will be posting more pictures from Jennie's Scavenger Hunt tonight when she gets back to her base computer in Indiana.

Beck will hopefully work on getting sound to go with the video we made for our fans(It didn't work on my computer either, Thelma.) while she spends her time in Bel Aire. Then, perhaps that can be posted for your viewing enjoyment as well!

Oh, yeah

2008-08-07T08:29:00.000-07:00

We successfully made it to Missoula last night around 11:15 and we're adding it to the list of places we visited that smell bad.

Place 1:

Welcome to Sioux City where it smells like poop.

Place 2:

Wall Drug didn't exactly smell bad but the free ice water that they advertise for hundreds of miles tastes like booty and is lukewarm at best.

Place 3:

The smell by the geysers near Old Faithful can best be summed up by the overheard words of a little girl. "It smells like eggs...sunny side up."

Super 8 Shout-Outs

2008-08-06T23:16:00.000-07:00

Tonight's update is random. Be prepared.

Katie, I scoped out the playground at the Cody KOA. It is NOTHING like I remember. MUCH cooler now. Look at this thing…

After the delightful all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast for two dollars...

we tested out this contraption (after reading the posted rules) to make sure it was safe for the kiddies, of course.

Shoot, if I had known about the effects of this playtime effort, I would have tanned my belly.

Next random shout-out goes to MOM.

Nice Google finds! You’re becoming so Internet saavy these days.

Can’t shout-out one parent and not the other. That would be parent-ist. Ready, Dad?

Perfect pump!!! You’re proud of my random luck, right?

And, another picture for the donor of my height(?)

Thanks for the hat and the tip to go to the Badlands.

Your shout-out is next, Jennie! Becky may have had to use the bathroom before we made it out of the mountains and to indoor plumbing. Luckily she packed her own toilet paper! Tis a shame I found the toilet seat covers after she was already in the potty house.

I did remember the wet-ones for her hand-washing though!

Oh, Matt, you can have a shout-out, too. No picture though. We stopped at an A&W for dinner last night. I was worried when we pulled in and I didn’t see any workers but I am happy to report the A&W slowness is a unique characteristic of the Chesterton one. We got our food within 7 minutes, not 17.
Oh wait, I lied. I do have a picture for you.

The Yellowstone Park Ranger I talked to assured me that you pronounce Butte as if it had no e and a short u(Is that right? I was never good with phonics). And, I’m closing my beautiful brown eyes so as not to distract from my beautiful behind. Obvi.

Lastly and adding to Becky’s blog, I thought the kid who showed us how to pan gold was funny. He was a teen testing out the sarcastic waters. This first stage of sarcasm is exhausting for some around him(Becky) but is appreciated by those who’ve been there(Me). On that note, here’s the lump of gold found by the person who didn’t get made fun of by a fifteen year old kid. : )

No WiFi Means Late Updates Sorry...

2008-08-06T22:28:00.000-07:00

As we are on the road to Yellowstone I figure I’ll take the time to do a quick recap of yesterdays activities. The day started in Custer South Dakota where we saw Crazy Horse from afar (we didn’t want to pay the fee to get into the park so that’s where a zoom came in handy).

We also met a sweet old man at the gate who came out to hand us pamphlets about crazy horse, to show us what we missed. He could have been good ole’ Iowa Earl’s long lost cousin.

Then it was on to Mount Rushmore where there was an awesome goat, and I finally decided it was time to take out my good camera. After doing a few drive bys and shooting out the car window we stopped at the side of the road to see if I could get a picture of Meghan picking George Washington’s nose. Unfortunately, I failed and my flip-flop fell off, but some 14 or so year old kid grabbed it and placed it on my foot. It was a very Cinderella like moment.

Mount Rushmore was fairly cool, but it made me wonder what one has to do to secure a mountain to carve.

Our gold panning experience was all right. I think I hyped myself up for it too much, but we each got a little vial of gold for our efforts. Plus, I got made fun of by the little young punk who was trying to teach us to pan. I really hated that kid.

Yesterday was really the day of bikers though because we saw them EVERYWHERE. I figured out something too, bikers do not look like Uncle Jessie from Full House. They are not attractive, and the less attractive they are the more likely they are to not wear a shirt.

After leaving the Mount Rushmore area we drove straight to Cody in order to get to the rodeo in time. Let me tell you rodeos are fantastic. I’m not really the biggest fan of some events such as calf roping, but it is sooo made up for by the bull riding.

Of course the cowboys don’t hurt either.

That’s my favorite part.

All in all it was a pretty good day for the two of us, and who knows I may someday have a career as a rodeo photographer.

Peace Love and Rodeo Clowns,

Beck

They Should Have Sponsered Our Trip

2008-08-06T06:40:00.000-07:00

Bah dah dah dah dah dah I'm

New posts later today we promise.

I hold the key to Becky's eye sight

2008-08-05T06:53:00.001-07:00

My favorite green Old Navy flip flops just became even more amazing as Becky documented in her blog. Woot.

Also, I hope the people of South Dakota like the smell of Garnier Fructis shampoo and conditioner. I neglected to bring bar soap/body wash on this trip(I never travel with it because I like to taste test(not literally) other people's when I stay there). So, I've been body washing with shampoo and leg shaving with conditioner. At least my elbows smell good and my legs are SUPER silky.

To the dead president heads!!!

I could have been Blind

2008-08-05T06:36:00.000-07:00

Well it's sarly on day 3 and we are in Custer South Dakota. Todays plan is to visit Crazy Horse Mt. Rushmore, go gold panning, and possibly see what Flinstones Bedrock city is like. Of course seeing anything would be impossible without the help of Meg and her magic flip flop. You see in the bathroom this morning I accidentally dropped my contact on the floor. Instead of having to wear glasses until I could call my eye doctor get a prescription and fill it in Missoula, Meghan's magic flip flop was stepping on it. Don't worry though I cleaned it very well and haven't put them in yet. No pink eye for this gal.

Onward we shall march today.

peace and love

Beck

Photo phun

2008-08-04T22:11:00.000-07:00

Four score and 14 plus hours ago, Meg and I embarked upon day two off our road trip adventure. Conceived in bodaciousness and dedicated to the proposition that even states like Iowa and South Dakota had something to offer.

I found myself in the passenger seat for the first leg of our long strange trip. We left my little brothers place around 7:30 this morning. A special thanks goes out to Jim, Katie, and the gang for putting us up for the night especially since they had papers to finish. While in Iowa we listened to a little gold digger thanks to Jennie and her amazing road trip scavenger hunt CD! I feel like I could be one of the most ghetto people in the state of Iowa right now. Word.

We didn’t make out first planned stop until reaching Mitchell South Dakota, which is of course the home of the worlds only corn palace. As far as corn palaces go this was the best I’d ever seen. Of course all it really consisted of was a basketball arena and some souvenir shops. Don’t worry I took a butt load of pictures anyway.

Next came the badlands on the suggestion of Meghan’s parents. Even if I had a better vocabulary it would be impossible to describe .

Of course coming out of the badlands the forces of nature took over and a bird flew into my car. Which is horrible for the bird but that sucker bounced off the front of my car like a jumbo super ball. Talk about bye bye birdie.

At this point we were a bit worried about getting to our campground in time so it ended up cutting our time at Wall Drug a bit short but not before we were able to take what I will probably use as my facebook photos for the next five years. If you’ve never been to South Dakota then wall drug may confuse you but basically it’s a tourist trap that you see hundreds of signs for as soon as you enter the state. Of course you get there and it’s sort of the caliber of fun as a decent playground but with lots of gift shops.

And eventually we made it to our little cabin at Custer Crazy Horse campground where we bunkered down for the night.

Aint it cute

until tomorrow.

Hugs and Kisses,

Beck

Crank that Soulja Boy

2008-08-04T21:42:00.000-07:00

This is Meg of Beck and Meg fame reporting in from Mile Marker 370 on I-90 West. I have just awoken from a much needed power nap. I say much needed because this road tripper has gotten about 8 hours of actual sleep in the past two nights. Six solid snoozing hours last night so that leaves two hours to be had after THE wedding. Everyone else slept just fine while I just laid there wide awake all night long. Perhaps I couldn’t sleep because I had images of Wedding Date Number Two dancing in my head. I bet you’d like to see what those images might look like…

In case you didn’t recognize his voice, that was Andy providing the music/lyrics. Yes, that's Weekend at Bernies on in the background.

I will now share with you an image from our actual road trip. While I was driving earlier today somewhere in Iowa, we came across a sign that said “Scenic View 1 mile.” Being the curious individuals that we are, I pulled the Malibu over despite Sha Nay Nay’s(We’re trying out names for the GPS system. What do you think of this one?) directions. For this scenic view, we had to walk up about 5 flights of wooden stairs and got to see a beautiful Iowan landscape. Nope, that won’t be the picture below.

The picture below comes from instructions on Jennie’s Scavenger Hunt CD. Song Number Two is Burnin’ Up by the Jonas Brothers. Jennie instructed us to take a picture of a thermometer because the Jo Bros are “burnin’ up” for us. Guess what was right outside the bathroom door at the Scenic View...A thermometer(!) and a rest area bathroom attendant(!!) who was the perfect guy to help us cross another number off our scavenger hunt list.…

As you probably noticed, the photog(we named him Earl) had some trouble with the camera but it makes for a hilarious picture I think. (The thermometer is the white half-squarish shape by my face, fyi.) It said 80ish degrees(in the shade!). Earl said his car thermometer said 106 degrees when he left the jobsite yesterday. Wow! Nice work, Earl. We appreciate you!!!!

Day One

2008-08-03T21:12:00.000-07:00

We made it to Grinnell, Iowa! Yay for a free stay with Beck's brother. We started off the road trip with a Matt Mix. Becky has since started her search for a man to check her for ticks. We are staying in cabins the next two nights. It just may be necessary. Then, we listened to two themed cds. Oh, how we love songs about butts and boobies!

Tomorrow we travel to the CORN PALACE, WALL DRUG and MOUNT RUSHMORE. Can you feel the excitement? What are we not especially excited about? The 11 hour car drive. Of course, having the prospect of seeing hundreds/thousands of bikers excites us a bit. You can bet your belt buckle we'll be tipping our cowboy hats at them as we pass.

And, since we'd like to have McDonald's sponsor our journey(after the fact?), at the end of every blog post we will state our Mickey D's Consumption Tally.
Double Cheeseburgers: 2
Sweet Tea:1
Coke: 1
Deliciousness: Priceless...except for the stale buns and unmelted cheese....

Today is the day!

2008-08-03T12:31:00.000-07:00

We're leaving in a few!!!!!!!

We shall report in from Grinnell, Iowa in about 8 hours or less(I'm giving us time to eat/rest before we blog, of course.)

Treasures in the Attic

2008-07-27T19:45:00.000-07:00

These great additions to our road trip can be accredited to my Dad's time at Texas Christian University. Mom says he wore them to pick up ladies....

Becky and I will wear them to pick up...bikers? rodeo clowns? The possibilities are endless!

How the West was Fun

2008-07-11T19:48:00.000-07:00

How would you like it if we based our Montana road trip off of an early Olsen Twins movie?
Meghan is obviously the one with the red bottoms(Ashley) and that makes Becky(Mary Kate) the one clad in denim.

I hope the Malibu has high enough ceilings so we can ride with our cowboy hats on!

51 Days

2008-06-13T20:07:00.000-07:00

We depart in the amount of days it says in the title(duh) so it is probably about time we scheduled somewhere for us to lay our heads in the West.

Before we get to where we are staying, we need to share a minor detail with you. The week of our trip happens to fall on the same week as a really big biker festival in a city called Sturgis. Some of you may have heard of this legendary place from Meghan's mom: ) What does this mean for our trip? It means we'll be seeing a lot of leather and tattoos and beards. We should probably make a BINGO game but call it BIKER instead. Some of the squares could be Harley Tattoo, overweight rider, leather chaps, handlebar mustache, bandanna, cut off shirt...well, you get the picture.

With Sturgis happening(and KISS playing the night we want to stay near Mt. Rushmore), all hotels are booked/really, really expensive. Will you sleep in your car then, Beck and Meg? We might, but only if our cabins are not conducive to our high maintenance personalities. Ha.

We'll be staying here on Tuesday, August 5 in a cabin with a double bed and bunk beds.(Becky called top bunk...Meghan than called double bed...) Why did we book this specific campground you ask? It has a FREE shuttle to the nightly RODEO. The $2 all you can eat pancake breakfast and free wifi are enticing as well.

That's all for now. Look for more updates closer to and after our departure date(August 3).