The Other Side of the Story

Here are my answers to the same questions:

1. What souvenirs did you buy? 1 shirt from the University of Oregon, robo-keys (it's a key cover that looks like a robot head), and some vintage looking postcards from Oregon and Colorado. I think that might be it.

2. What was the can't miss spot on the trip? Definitely Crater Lake. There's a reason Oregon put it as the design for their state quarter.

3. CD most likely to add to iPod It's so hard to say because I know I'm going to add more than one of them, but I think I'm going to say Dena's. It got the trip off to a great start, and it's music I don't currently have on my iPod. I listened to the cd in my car today.

4. Place you were most surprised by? I think I will say Yellowstone. I guess I didn't know much about it other than oldest national park and Old Faithful. How can you not be surprised by bubbling mud pits and hissing pools of steam?

5. Place to spend another week in? Am I allowed to say Boulder? That technically wasn't part of the road trip, but we started and ended there, and it was part of the overall trip. It just has a little of everything there.

6. Cabin vs. yurt vs. teepee? The cabin and yurt were both pretty similar inside, but I'll say yurt because it had a skylight.

7. Best meal? My spinach, candied walnut, grape, and goat cheese salad at Alibi in Seattle, plus the pizza that I stole from Holly.

8. Favorite activity? Kayaking on Lake Union in Seattle. I saw a seaplane land on the water (or do you land on land and water on water?) out there, which was cool.

9. Road trip advice? Don't plan every single minute of the trip out, but it was nice to have some stuff planned. We didn't have to argue about what to do because we already had a basic idea of what was possible.

10. Things you wish you had packed more of or had packed at all? I meant to bring my headlamp so we could have had some light in the teepee. Also, I apparently needed more than two pens. Both of the pens I brought on the trip died. I guess I did a pretty good job packing if those were my biggest complaints.

11. The thing(s) you were most glad you packed? Two cases full of about 75 cds. They didn't exactly do me much good as the primary item in my carry-on when we were stuck overnight in Charlotte, NC on the way home, but I was certainly glad to have them for the trip. Other than the cds, I was glad that Holly packed Simon, her GPS, and I'm glad we bought pillows to bring with us.

12. Worst place we went / most disappointed by? The worst place we went was definitely the Yakima Wal-Mart. I can't stand Wal-Mart. I guess I wasn't disappointed by it though--it was exactly what I would expect from a Wal-Mart. I was disappointed that we didn't get the do the Street Scramble in Seattle (because apparently nobody around knew where it started or at what time, so we just enjoyed our day in Fremont instead) and that we didn't play disc golf on a mountain in Big Sky (due to rain and cold temperatures), but we made up for it with all the other fun things we did.

13. Things I learned about myself? That the reason I don't lose things is because I won't stop looking for it until I find it. Holly said she would give up way before I do. Also, I'm scared of bison. Did you know they can weigh 2,000 pounds and run 3 times as fast as you can?

14. Things I learned about the other person? I knew this already, but Holly has really long legs. We're not really all that much different in height, but you wouldn't think that based on the amount that we had to adjust the driver's seat and mirrors when switching drivers.

15. Looking forward to at home - not living out of a huge yellow duffel bag

16. Best thing that kept us entertained while driving? The scrabble board that we set up on the armrest in between the driver and passenger. Kidding. The 18 different things that the passenger was in charge of--reading cd commentaries, taking photos, reading the question cards, filing in mad libs, crossing off license plates, getting snacks.

16 Things for the 16 Days - Holly's Version

Here are the questions we said we would both answer:

1. What souvenirs did you buy? 2 tshirts from University of Oregon, a sailboat painting (I bargained the guy and got it for $5!), an Annie Leibovitz book from the vintage shop and mon-key rings.

2. What was the can't miss spot on the trip? Oregon! Especially Crater Lake. It was too gorgeous to describe.

3. CD most likely to add to iPod Aly's, I already added it!

4. Place you were most surprised by? Tillamock Cheese Factory. I gave Jamie such a hard time about it and in the end, it was the best icecream of the trip. And Project Vote Smart, it was a beautiful property and a great cause.

5. Place to spend another week in? The entire state of Oregon

6. Cabin vs. yurt vs. teepee? I loved the cabin, but the yurt had the bunk beds!

7. Best meal? The organic sandwich shop in Freemont (Seattle), great sandwich and gold star logo

8. Favorite activity? Kayaking on Lake Union. It was very cool seeing the Space Needle why we were on the water.

9. Road trip advice? plan before you go, seriously

10. Things you wish you had packed more of or had packed at all? Sure Holly, bring 4 pairs of socks, that will last you 3 weeks.

11. The thing(s) you were most glad you packed? I am glad Jamie brought Bananagrams, I glad we brought Lil Mac (for blogging purposes), I was super happy with my dorky (yet practical) camera bag, and all my hoodies. It was cooler than I expect everywhere we went.

12. Worst place we went / most disappointed by? "Big Pine" and the Lapine National Park in Oregon. Seriously, that was the largest ponderosa pine in Oregon? I highly doubt it. Sorry Kelly, but I was also disappointed with the Yakima Walmart. (or maybe just disappointed that we had to go there)

13. Things I learned about myself? I fell in love again with cruise control and found out that I am very afraid of Bison. We saw one in the field and I wouldn't let Jamie walk by it. She read to me in the brochure that you have to stay at least 25 yards away.

14. Things I learned about the other person? Jamie is a walking map. She has a great sense of direction.

15. Looking forward to at home - my own bed

16. Best thing that kept us entertained while driving? umm, each other?! the CDs were great!

No bull about it, we had a great time at the Rodeo

For every day in June, July and August, Cody, Wyoming has a rodeo. I kept calling it the Codeo. No lie, the rodeo made me feel very proud to be an American. Some of the highlights included the rodeo clown who we discovered is a high school chemistry teacher. During his 15 min. dance routine in between the festivities, Jamie and I just kept thinking about how he teaches the youth of America, just like us. We were also impressed with the barrel races and the pee-wee round that included a 5 year old!! Every time a guy would fall off the bull I closed my eyes and winced. I just didn't want him to get stepped on. A special thanks to the 3 little cowboys that sat on the fence in front of us, they provided some great photo ops for us.

We're not quite done yet

Here you go blog fans, 3 new posts and more to come...

Let's all read Organic Squirrel Gets a Bike Helmet

Once we got back to Boulder it was kind of like the trip was over and we were home again, but the trip wasn't really over and we certainly weren't home again. It was just that we were in a place we had been to before with people we knew and that the road trip portion was over. We cooked dinner, or a team effort with Bob and Aly and Sandor led to a tasty dinner on Friday night. On Saturday we had pancakes for breakfast, courtesy of Brother Bob. Then we rode bikes and met up with Aly, Ruthie, and Joel. We rode down the Boulder Creek Path and came upon this rope that swings out over the water and that Bob had always been wanting to try. Other people were doing it and it seemed relatively safe, so Bob and Joel took turns. The girls (wisely, I think) stayed out of the cold water though. We went to the Boulder farmer's market for lunch and key lime pie and a pretzel as big as Bob's head, then to 7-eleven because it was free slurpee day! July 11th, 7-11, get it? You get a free 7.11 ounce slurpee, or if you're Bob and I you go more than once and get two. We were a bit limited because Boulder only has one 7-11. In Williamsburg alone I can think of 6, and I think there might even be more, but one was enough this time. We hung out at a pool with Aly's brother for a while, then headed home to change for dinner. For my birthday dinner Bob and Aly reserved a little room with a table recessed into the ground at Sushi Zenmai. We got a boat full of all different kinds of sushi--the number 9 roll was definitely the tastiest. Then we happened upon the Boulder Big Wheel Rally. I wish I had a picture of this...just imagine adults in costumes riding big wheel bikes. Not big wheel bikes meaning bikes with big wheels, but big wheel bikes meaning those bikes little kids ride, just made for adults instead. It was weird. Then we got gelato to conclude the evening.

Saturday Holly and I actually went our separate ways, so here's my recap of my time without Holly. I'll try to make it sound not-so-fun so she won't be jealous. We (me, Bob, Aly, Ruthie, and Joel) went for a hike near Lyons, then got lunch at a place in Lyons, and then tried to go tubing nearby, but a rain downpour during lunch cooled things off a bit, so only Bob was willing to get in. The look on his face when he sat in the cold water in his too-small tube was quite entertaining. So we gave up on the tubing and went to watch Dan's bike race in Longmont. Then came the best part of the day...outdoor movie night at Kim and Ken's! It was a group effort to set up a sheet hanging from the house and attached to a pole somehow, a projector and speakers, a snack table (did you read that Holly? a snack table!) with popcorn, beer, Ruthie's homemade apple pies, vanilla ice cream, red vines, m&ms, and junior mints. Eleven of us sat outside and enjoyed Bedtime Stories under a clear, starry sky. Very nice.

And then our time in Boulder was pretty much over. Holly returned from her trip-within-a-trip the next morning. We packed up, got the best sammiches in Boulder to take with us as our lunch, and arrived at the Denver airport. But that's a whole other story...

When we got tired of doing all the driving...

We never got tired of listening to all of our mix cds though. I think this was definitely one of our best ideas ever, right up there with blogging and that time when I was holding a loaf of bread and Holly said "Why don't you slice it?"

--On the morning of my birthday as we were leaving PVS, Holly surprised me by downloading the Away We Go soundtrack on her iPod and having it all ready to listen to that morning. It's mostly by Alexi Murdoch and tends to be pretty laid back. I enjoyed it muchly. Now I just hope that I get to have a copy of it and my present wasn't just that I got to listen to it once.

--Matt Robinson, another one of our many friends named Matt (I think Holly calls this one Captain Quay) made us a good mix of 90s music.

--Our student April had a good mix with a variety of songs on it, from Beatles to more recent stuff

--As we left Big Sky and headed to Yellowstone on day 15 of the road trip, we listened to track star Michelle's mix. It started off with some interesting piano music and then had all kinds of things on it. Holly remarked that Michelle might make a good wedding reception DJ because there were a number of good danceable songs in a row on there.

--When we got to Yellowstone we thought to ourselves, what would be most out of place to listen to here? And the answer was Uncle Ed's Jimmy Buffett faves. We particularly enjoyed the final song on the mix, an unreleased song about Jimmy's thoughts on a driver that cut him off. We thought of this song later when we encountered a few not-so-great drivers ourselves.

--Amber made us a mix called 21 Female Vocalists for 2 Female Roadtrippers, which I quite enjoyed.

--Tina's grandpap made us several cds, complete with cover art and track listings, and we listened to one of his while driving up to the Old Faithful visitor's center. I actually sang along with a few of the tunes.

--Holly was getting a little sleepy at this point (not because of the previous cd, just due to it being her naptime), so she told me to put in something upbeat, so since it's hard to predict if someone's mix is going to be upbeat or not I put in a mashup cd I recently downloaded called Feed the Animals by Girl Talk. If you don't know what a mash-up is, go here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JBAxkZun3s&feature=PlayList&p=5D5E3471964CE94A&index=0&playnext=1 and watch the video for the first song on the cd. But don't watch it if you have sensitive ears and might be offended by the language.

--Then we put on Matthew's cd (how many Matts is that now...I've lost count). His wife Heather works with us at GHS. It had music on it that I recognize like Neutral Milk Hotel and that I think was new to Holly. It's kind of predictable which songs Holly or I will be able to sing along with. If it's country or rap, those seem to be Holly's domains. I'll take the alternative pop rock indie whatever you want to call it.

--This is getting to be a really long post.

--I guess that's why we should have posted before now and not waited 5 days to do it.

--We ended the day with GHS English teacher Matt's second cd, this one a themed cd entitled Travels, Transportations, and Destinations. It kept to the theme quite well.

--On day 16, our final day of driving, we listened to student Amber's mix, then student Kevin's disc 1 of 4, student Jenni's, student Daniel's, and finally student Laura's disco dos. They were all a little of this, a little of that, and all were quite enjoyable.

--I think we finished out the trip by listening to road trip mixes #2 and 3 by the Staabs. We were on #3 as we pulled into the parking lot of the Jamba Juice in Boulder, thereby concluding our road trip.

--But did that conclude the music? Why no, it didn't! As we speak I'm listening to Karen's Ridiculously Good Songs Vol 1, which was waiting here for me when I returned home. So it didn't make it on the road trip, but I can listen to it from the comfort of my own home or car. She included personal commentary with every track, which a few people did and I have found I quite enjoy. It's interesting to see what people have to say about the songs they pick, especially if you're as funny as Karen.

--So that's it. That's all the music we listened to. We got through at least one cd from every person who gave us one (a few people submitted more than one disc, and we didn't quite make it through every cd in the case). I think the only one I didn't list on here was Steve's screamo music, which he gave to me just so I could find out what screamo was. I did put it on at some point, and no offense Steve, but screamo isn't my new favorite kind of music. Oh, and I don't think I listed Megan and John's cds because they wouldn't work in the car. I guess something went wrong in the burning process. I'd say we listened to about 70 cds total though and can now provide people with killer road trip mixes for their future road adventures.

Have you ever slept in a teepee?

Yeah, I've slept in a teepee. I don't know if Holly can say the same thing or not. She spent the night in a teepee, but I'm not sure there was a whole lot of sleeping going on. You'll have to ask her, but I think she had a rather cold, uncomfortable night. I think at 5:30 am she was done trying to sleep in the teepee. She left the teepee around 6am, so she was definitely done at that point. Me, on the other hand, I slept more than I expected to.

We rolled into Cody around dinner time, found our teepee, got some dinner, and headed to the Cody rodeo. In the morning, after our night in the teepee, we headed on back to Boulder, Colorado. Seven and a half hours later and we were done with the road trip. It was during those seven and a half hours that Holly got a little punchy and asked me to give her a pep talk. She said she needed some vocal caffeine. Then she made me announce all of the items in our food bag as if I were presenting them on The Price Is Right. She criticized my first attempt, but was pleased with my description of the pita chips as being "mint in bag" (they hadn't been opened yet). You can draw your own conclusions from all of this as to our mental state after all those hours on the road with limited social interaction with other people, but I will say that those seven and a half hours actually weren't too bad. They passed rather quickly and we were back in Boulder by 3pm.

I'm gonna get me another pickanick basket

Yellowstone was crazy. It was like going to another planet at times. There were mountains, a giant caldera, streams, rivers, lakes, bison crossing the street, tourists stopping like idiots in the middle of the road to take pictures of said dangerous bison, bubbling mud pots, pools of water with steam rising off them, water that was clear blue, water that was orange from bacteria mats, water that smelled like sulphur, geysers, and the second most traffic that we've been caught in on the trip (first place for traffic: driving into Seattle, but that one I kind of expected). Quite an amazing place. And our nation's first national park. Congrats, Yellowstone.

High Bison Alert at Yellowstone

We left Big Sky and were on route to Yellowstone National Park. When we arrived at the park we saw signs that announced it was a "High Bison Alert" on the roads today. And that it was. Jamie read some information about the wild beasts and we knew that they were not cute and cuddly animals and that we were not supposed to get within 25 yards of them. There was some traffic in the park, especially when the bison were trying to cross the road. (that sounds the start to a good joke . . . )