No sleep for the wicked

My Dear Navigator and Samitch Maker, (And whoever else, but mostly them)

I can't sleep for whatever reason.  My schedule lately has been staying up until 2 am and sleeping until noon, but tonight, well morning, I can't seem to go to sleep.  And it is because I have been scheming lately.  My brain just cannot let this idea go.  My body is dying for another adventure.  I have been thinking about this since I was in Asheville last week and Aly made an assumed innocent comment.  Little did she know that she was planting a seed of evilness.

I WANT ANOTHER ROAD-TRIP!!!!  And this is how my brain thinks that it will happen.

I know that my wonderful Dad will let us take Bessie/TT/Gert, that will not be a problem, it will be the gas money.  The last trip took a pretty huge penny, and I know that Dad would love to give us that experience again, but I also know that he can't.  So here is my proposal:

START SAVING NOW LADIES!!!

I think that if we actually fully plan this, it can happen.  Ideally it would be nice to come up with, please don't panic over this number, 2,000 between the three of us.  That is 666.67 per person which is like 200 a month if we go in May, which could be manageable right?  Or is Wilkes-by-God county just getting to me?  Is it making me think that the impossible is possible?  Giving me delusions-of-boredom so that I think we can have another adventure?  Because that nice figure above is just for the gas, not the food, truck stop showers or the zillion sweatshirts, just gas.  But if I can approach Dad with a sum that we can give he might give the rest.  We just have to be able to give him something to make it happen again.  He can't foot the whole, or even most, of the bill this time.  I really want this again.  This one will be planned out better, knowing where we need to get to each day and all that jazz.  (Oh, and I will be more lenient with my music selection.  Promise.  No RENT (musicals of any sort actually) or Aquabats.  

I know that I am asking a lot, but come on girls, it was the trip of a lifetime last time, and this one will be even better.  I know that Aly has summer school, and I am not sure about Kris10, but this could be 100 times better.  We could film this one, we now know all the aches and pain of Bessie/TT/Gert and what to do if the sink breaks.  I know to watch the curbs better to not get another flat (But what is road-trip without a flat?).  We could actually do this.  Let me know what ya think.  I will be calling, don't you worry.  Just setting the spark first.  

And seriously, no musicals... except for maybe some Buffy....

Out West Day 2 pt 2 and Day 3

Day Two part 2: Monday May 19th

So we continued driving into the night, and then Kristen and I see this sign.  A road sign that made us both squeal.  But before I can explain the excitement, I need to tell ya'll about a part of my friendship with Kristen.  

When Kristen and I were juniors in college, we started watching a cheesy television series that lasted a year in the early 90's.  Roar was a Celtic show that starred Heath Ledger.  It was amazingly awful, but it started a trend with us.  We next moved on the X-Files and then Kristen got to pick a show.  And she picked a show that was currently on TV and in its' second year.  It is the next generation of X-Files. Supernatural suddenly filled our lives.  Supernatural is a show about two young brothers that hunt the supernatural to make the world a safer place for the clueless to the paranormal.  The family in the show, the Winchesters, are from a small town in Kansas.  And we drove through Lawrence Kansas.  We got to be in the place that was the birth place of two of the sexiest hunters alive. 

Kristen is a Dean Winchester fan, while I love Sam.  Kristen likes the bad boy while my heart goes out to the sentimental smart one.  And we got to drive through the hometown of our Hollywood husbands.

Why, Hello there Dean.

Oh Sammy.

Day 3: Tuesday May 20th

I got up early yet again to continue driving.  Kansas was beautiful, nice rolling hills and lots of cows.  Which Aly and Kristen found highly amusing.  The quote "Julie, I gotta go, we've got cows" from Twister was quoted throughout the trip.  We stopped at another truck stop to shower, this time it was 10 dollars and Kristen and I shared the cost and shower.  Girl bonding at its' finest.  

Pretty Kansas Picture.

While in Kansas we saw several signs of the highway screaming at us to get saved and that abortion was a sin.  Nice conservative state, which we found highly enjoyable.  Kansas was beautiful until we were close to Colorado, and then the hills became flat prairie.  

After the shower, Kristen wanted to drive, and then the GPS got us lost again.  It got us lost early by directing us to a nonexistence truck stop.  Then it told Kristen to take a right to the highway when the highway was on the left.  We ended up a straight road out in the middle of nowhere.  The GPS kept telling Kristen to turn onto these dirt roads that ran through cornfields.  She would not do it, so I took over.  Kristen was convinced that we were all going to die at the hands of some back country farmer.  It was fine, although Aly swears that she saw a rabbit that could have eaten us.  

The rest of the trip was just driving to Boulder.  

Our first shot of the Great Rocky Mountains.

We made it to Denver just in time for rush hour, but then it was only a short drive to Boulder.  We tried to find a campground in Boulder, and the GPS took us to a country club and a dead end street.  After using two driveways and taking out a mailbox (joking, about the mailbox anyways) we made it to a KOA in Longmont, just outside of Boulder, we made camp.  We stayed that night in the wal-mart across the street to save money and go to camp ground the next day.

We drove to downtown Boulder and parked at a hotel and ate at a wonderful Mexican restaurant.  It was nice and peaceful.  Then we walked to the main campus of my school on Arapaho Drive.  It was a collection of building and homes and very artsy.  Then we went back to the wal-mart to sleep.

Out West Day two pt. 1

Day Two Part 1: Monday May 19th

So I got up early, at about 6:30 to take a shower and start driving.  I wanted to get to Boulder on the 20th, since my appointments were all on the 21st.  I really wanted to experience Boulder, since that would be were I could be living for three years.  So getting as many miles driven as possible, and during the daylight, I had to get up early.

So around noon, I stopped to let Kristen take a shower.  She has to have a shower everyday, and shave for that matter.  I had the generator running so that Aly and I could watch TV while Kristen showered.  Then Kristen started yelling about the water still being cold, and that the water stopped.  I get up from the couch and walk over to check the pump and I step in water.  Not just a little, but a puddle, and it was gushing from under the kitchen sink.  I open the cabinet and water gushes out all over my feet.  I jump up and turn off the pump, and Kristen gets out of the shower, only a little wet.  

The next hour I spent trying to reach Dad and try to fix the sink.  The hose had popped and the hole was right at the top of the tube and the sink did not have a shut off valve.  I tried stopping it, and it kept leaking.  After going through almost an entire roll of Teflon tape, the leak would not stop.  By this time I had to get back on the road, and the RV fix-it place we called could not see us that day.  

Trying to fix the sink.  Aly was relying Dad's instructions to me.

St. Louis, the Arch to the West.

I did not enjoy driving through St. Louis.  The highway took us straight the heart of the city, which was nice to see, but the traffic was horrendous.  I am keeping to the right hand lane so that I can drive slower and have a shoulder to use if I need to; and then there was a car on the shoulder.

This guy was on the side of the road and the driver decides to open his car door right as I am going by.  I slam on my breaks because his car door goes over the white line.  So when I put on the breaks, a 5 pound coffee mug full of pens and pencils falls from above my head and almost knocks me out.  And a flying pen barely misses taking out Kristen's eye.  That was the only incident in St. Louis.  I cussed the guy on the side of the road and then kept driving.  

Kristen, after not having her shower!!!

Kristen is the shower Nazi.  She showers and shaves everyday, and to not be able to made her slightly irritable.  The above picture was taken in jest, but it is true.  She was curt the whole day.  So I stopped at a truck stop to dump and replenish the water for when we did get it fixed in Boulder.  And Kristen being desperate for a shower went to ask the truck stop if they had public showers.  Even if I had not gotten a shower that day, I can survive three days without a shower.  But Kristen was determined, so her and Aly took a 6 dollar shower together.  Kristen was much happier after that.

It was Aly's job to dump, since she never drove.  Kristen was at least willing, so Aly took the dirty job.

Kansas City

One thing that needs to be said is that I had a dream, a dream of listening to Kansas in Kansas, and I got to live that dream on the second day of this trip. It was at dusk, so Kansas City was beautiful. We rolled the windows down and Carry on my Wayward Son blared from the speakers. Then we got lost.

We got lost in downtown Kansas city and I had to drive through the ghetto on roads that I had to do a five point turn to make a right turn at an intersection. But we eventually made it to the high-way and kept driving. I was not tired, so this was my first night driving experience.  

To Be Continued....

Out West Day 1

So, I guess I should start by saying that I went out west this summer with two of my best friends.  I needed to go out west to visit a grad school, and I have always wanted to take a road trip.  My parents have always been supportive of this, and now that college is almost over and I have yet to have my grand adventure, I wanted to take it with the women who have meant the most to me over my college life.  

The destination? Boulder Colorado to visit Naropa University, and to have as many adventures as possible together before the three of us go our separate ways for grad school.  The trip encompassed 12 days, over 1500 miles and 14 states.  It was amazing.

Day 1: Sunday May 18th, 2008

So we left Wilkes-by-god-county around 1.  Dad went over everything with the three of us on the RV one last time, packed up and then got lunch with the wonderful parents before setting out.  I drove the whole time, and we made it to Frankfort Kentucky before nightfall and stayed the night in the Wal-Mart.  The day was just driving, singing, talking and laughing.

Before we left, in front of the coffee house with Dad.

During the trip, we each had a new name for the RV.  Aly called her TT, Kristen, Gert and I called her Bessie.  We all had ended with a love/hate relationship with her.

Livvie, the Driver and Trip Planner

Aly, the Navigator and Token Gay

Kristen- the 'samitch' maker and shower whore