Day Twenty-Two: Phoenix, AZ

Monday Francesca and I started our day off at a local Starbucks so I could get up to date on the blog. Obviously that didn't hold. We had plans to go horseback riding with Kevan but he had some last minute things he had to do and we were sort of spending more time than anticipated at Starbucks so we decided to push back the riding until Tuesday.

After the few hours it took to update, Francesca and I decided to try to find a local Mexican restaurant for lunch. We programmed my GPS to find a place and when we got there, it was not in existance.

This happened 4 or 5 times before we actually found a place that DID exist.
It was probably about an hour or so before we got there.
We had the worst waitress ever... the place wasn't even busy and she came to our table 10-15 minutes after we had been seated and asked if we wanted anything.

And all this time I thought going to a restaurant implied that people want to eat.
Won't make that assumption again.

At one point, after waiting 15 minutes after we got our food, Francesca actually had to get up to find someone to get her some guacamole. You know you have a bad waitress if you're forced to get up and find her.

After lunch we went back to my aunt and uncles to grab our swimsuits and then headed out to Kevan's mom's because she invited us over for dinner. We also go to use her pool in the afternoon :)
It was really fantastic to have a home cooked meal.. and to have some relief from the heat.


We drove back to my Aunt Lynne and Uncle Johns and spent a little more time with them, chatting about our next destination, Las Vegas. They told us about this awesome place to stay at and the rate was only $27 a night!

Then I made plans with Jordan, the guy I met at the bars on Saturday.
I suggested we go mini-golfing.
My aunt and uncle were really cute because they got into total parental mode... my Uncle John even asked if he could bring out his gun if he came to pick me up.
So maybe it's a good thing I met Jordan at the place :)

So.. the place is called Castles and Coasters and it's probably one of the coolest places i've ever been to and i'm not ashamed to admit it at age 22.
It has a ropes and zip-line course, an arcade, mini golf obviously, bumper boats, roller coasters, and a water ride.
it was dark out so it was all lit up and pretty.

Jordan and I started the game and decided we definitely wanted to keep score.
After a rocky start, I somehow managed to get a hole-in-one.
Of course this moment needed to be documented.




then... on the very next hole, i get another hole-in-one.
which prompted Jordan to accuse me of taking performance enhancement drugs.


Eventually though, he got a hole-in-one of his own.





interestingly enough, it was on that same hole that I lost my golf ball. I hit it under the windmill where it was supposed to travel down one of three tubes to come out onto a lower green. But it never came out.
I had warned Jordan though that every time I went mini golfing as a kid, i always lost my ball in the water if there was water around. So no water this time, but the ball still disappeared.

After we finished the course I asked him who had won.

he handed me this :





(my test mysteriously disappeared in the lab somewhere and i skipped town before they could obtain another sample... :P )

Day Twenty-One: Phoenix, AZ

Day twenty-one started with a horrible hangover for me.
I did what I could to look and feel okay and Francesca and I headed back to my Aunt and Uncles as we had plans to go to a Swap Meet in Mesa. (kind of like a flea market)

It was a forty minute drive and I had to concentrate so hard the entire time to not get sick...thankfully, I didn't.
The Swap Meet was really cool
We found some pretty sweet wrestling masks, some nice hats with sequins all over them, adult bibs and other really useful things :)

I got trapped into buying a nail art kit because the 8 year old arts and crafts fanatic in me won against the 22 year old hungover me. Can't imagine why. The lady drew a perfect little flower on my nail and that was that. Had to have it, because she made it look SO EASY! (I later found out it is not so easy- hungover, drunk, or sober)

One of the most exciting parts of the swap meet was the watch lady. I got a watch for Christmas and the battery died on the trip. I wasn't about to stop the trip to go find someone to put a new battery in, but i couldn't not wear the watch because I felt naked without it. And because I wore it, i felt compelled to look at it. (It was always 12:40)...

So when I found the watch lady at the swap meet with a sign "watch batteries- $5", I was ecstatic.
I told her she absolutley made my day. She looked at me kind of strangely when she said that.

After the swap meet and after my hangover had diminished to a tolerable level, we went back home.
But on the way.... we stopped at a Quick Trip gas station because my Uncle was raving about these freezoni's (i think that's what they're called?... this is what i get for not updating the blog right away)
which are like big slushies with a ton of different flavors and they're like 79 cents for 32 ounces of sugary, icey goodness.

we also stopped at a local mexican conveniences store where outside was a fry bread stand. Francesca is a huge fry bread fan and had been craving some

Fran and I took naps then... and then we went out to dinner at a Chinese/Japanese Sushi buffet.
I ate a stuffed crab that had eyes which i didn't know about when i put it on my plate.



ew, right?

Day Twenty: Phoenix, AZ

Saturday we woke up at Kevan's and got ready for the day.
We drove about a half hour to my Aunt Lynne and Uncle Johns to spend the day with them.

We spent some time chatting and catching up... and they had fresh strawberries and grapes for us to snack on which was wonderful after weeks without fresh fruit.

Then they took us up into the mountains that are practically in their backyard

The road was really windy and Fran and I were both really nauseous but it was totally worth it when we got up to the top

After we got back we chatted some more and I found out some pretty interesting stories from my aunt about my dad... also dug up some embarrassing pictures of him when he was a kid.

Then my aunt and uncle took us to a really cool Soup and Salad Buffet place.
They knew it was the kind of food we had been craving so we loaded up on our fruits and veggies when we were with them.

After dinner we headed back to Kevans with plans to go out for the night.

We went out with a bunch of his friends.

The first place we went to had a bunch of pool tables so we did that for a bit.

I, personally, am terrible at pool.

I play with the 10 year old girls I nanny for with their mini pool table and I'm fairly certain they're both much better than I am.

Kevan and me

Keenan and Francesca

the crazy roadtrippers

Can't explan this one.

After that bar we went across the street to another bar which was very, very cool. It was half outdoors (I guess you can do that in Arizona...)  It was at this bar that I a) met a super cool guy and b) got way too drunk.

We stayed until bar close and came back to Kevans where we crashed for the night!

apology

I apologize for getting behind on my postings.
It's been so difficult to find time to update without sacrificing the experience of what's currently around me.
I just paid 9.99 for 24 hours of internet access in our hotel in Vegas so I had better update by the time I go to bed tonight or it will be a waste!


much love :)

Day Nineteen: Drive to Phoenix, AZ

As comfortable as the room was in Lawton, I didn't sleep very well.
I had taken a 5 hour energy drink pretty late into our drive into OK because I really needed it but the adrenaline from that and the excitement of seeing an old friend made me not very tired.

When I did fall asleep, I awokened several times to sneeze. I realized my allergies had come back and I felt miserable but my allergy medaction was in the car. I treid to will it away and just sleep but I was literally a wreck.

I looked in the mirror and almost burst out laughing. My eyes were red, my nose was red, my hair was a disaster, I looked like a zombie. I knew I needed to go out and get my medicine if there was to be any hope of getting some sleep.
So at 5 something in the morning I went downt the elevator and out to the car. On the way back in a worker from the hotel looked at me cheerfully and said "oh good morning!!!"

I mumbled some sort of greeting back before trapsing back to the room, taking the allergy pill with a shot of warm water and crashed.

About an hour later, the alarm clock started beeping... yeah... didn't take long for Francesca to rip the whole clock out of the wall.

And then at 8 something, there was a knock at the door with the stereotypical exclamation "housekeeping!"

I shuffled to the door, opened it, and told the lady we were still there. and sleeping.

By then it was pointless to try to go back to bed. I knew we needed to get a start on driving as it was likely to be a 14-15 hour drive to Phoenix.

We got up and went to get some breakfast.
They actually had a good breakfast and I had some scrambled eggs :)

When I went up the first time I noticed a huge basket of granola bars... probably about 20 or so Kashi granola bars. So after I finished my breakfast I figured i'd go and grab a granola bar to save for the drive.
So i went up to the counter and noticed that the basket was empty...which confused me because 10 minutes ago it was full.

Puzzled, I walked back to the table and took a look around. There was a huge Mexican family scattered about the dining area and I noticed granola bars on all the tables. I saw the Mom passing out granola bars to all her kids looking super guilty, looking around to make sure no hotel employee saw her. The kids would stash the granola bars wherever they could find.

I was more amused than anything, and considering I had a similar plan I couldn't be upset.
Though I promise I was only going to take one.....or two.



We headed out and realized that if we thought Louisiana was boring to drive through we had no idea what we were about to get into today. Western Oklahoma is a lot of this:

and this

and then we finally got into Northern Texas and it was a lot of this

and little towns with buildings that look like this:

Somewhere in Texas Francesca had to... go to the bathroom.

But she did not want to stop at a gas station, or a rest stop for that matter.

Nope, she wanted to go in the middle of the desert.

So we pulled off on the first dirt road off the highway we could find and drove to where no one could see.

The whole thing went just fine...except for her poor favorite sandals which looked like this after.

So she threw them out the window and they're probably still off the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, TX.

We did stop at a gas station so I could go to the bathroom because I wasn't feeling the whole desert situation... and when I asked the lady where the restrooms were she said "around the corner, under the buffalo" which i had to laugh at. And sure enough there was a huge buffalo head above the bathroom entrance.

So after a boring OK, and a boring TX I was falsely excited to get into New Mexico.

I will NEVER EVER EVER EVER go to New Mexico again in my life.
I hate it.

First of all, It was no less boring than any of the other states.

At one point we had ONE radio station and it was spanish music.

ONE STATION. one. I hit the "seek" button and it went right from 96.3 back to 96.3.

Around Amarillo we stopped to change drivers and so I could get something to drink.

Now I was driving and I was getting excited because there were some good radio stations...oldies music actually which reminded me of Saturdays growing up when we'd listen to oldies music all day

So I'm feeling refreshed and ready to jam to some nostalgic music and the speed limit is 75.

Then there's some construction and the speed limit goes down to 65.

And then 55.

And by then there is a single lane of traffic.

So I'm stuck behind a large semi-truck, of course.

And I really can't see much aside from the semi-truck.

But all of sudden I see two things at the same time because they're in the same place. And I see them as I'm crossing them both..unable to see either ahead of time because of the semi.

What were they?

One was an orange sign with a curve and a 45mph posting.
The other was a cop car sitting perpindicular to traffic right where the sign was.

So before I even had time to process the 45mph sign, I knew the cop could have gotten me at the 57mph i had been going when the speedlimit was still 55.

So i put on the brakes but up ahead a few hundred feet is another cop on the left hand side of the road...which of course pulls out behind me and puts on it's lights.

And I am the ONLY one to pull over, even though the cop didn't end up right behind me because of traffic

And all this time I thought that everyone needs to pull over if there is a cop behind you with it's lights on...

If he DID mean to pull me over I wasn't about to get an additional ticket for evading the police.

So whatever..the cop pulls up behind me and comes to the passenger side window.
He tells me he pulled me over for speeding and asks me if I know what I was going.
I told him 57 in a 55.

And he's all "well actually, you were going 57 in a 45.

And I politely but firmly tell him I didn't even have time to register the new speed limit sign because of the semi in front of me and the fact that the cop was sitting directly next to the sign.

He mumbled some BS and called me "mami" ( i kid you not) and told me to get of the car.

So I get out of the car and he makes me stand on the side of the road where he interrogates me on where we're from, why we're here, where we're going, where we've been, whose car it is etc.

Then he goes up to francesca and I hear him ask her the exact same questions and I realize Officer Chavez wasn't just trying to make small talk... he was making sure our stories matched up.

Now while i'm standing out in the middle of the desert, I notice there are two other cars pulled over right next to where I was pulled over and there are like 3-4 other cops just lingering around the area.

So if that wasn't a total intentional speed trap, I don't know what would be.

So obviosuly our stories match up and he goes and runs some stuff in his car and comes out and tells me he's going to give me a break on the speed and give me a ticket for going 45 in a 50.

Which i GUESS was nice of him but I was still fuming that I was getting a ticket at all because I WASN'T SPEEDING.

I'm a pretty calm, collected person and if had gotten pulled over and I would have actually been speeding I would have sucked it up and accepted the fine. Because I know that when you speed, you run the risk of getting pulled over and fined for it.

But i literally had to remind myself to not be rude to this officer because I was not about to spend a night in the New Mexico jail.

So my ticket is for $85. and New Mexico will never receive another penny of mine. 

(and by the way, traffic was NOT light)  

I kept driving... until Francesca saw a sign for Fry bread. She really likes the stuff so we got off on the exit and sadly found that the place was closed




pretty sad.

I really can't remember much else about the drive after my speeding ticket because I was so furious.

But after a 14 hour drive and being ONE MILE from my friend's house who we were staying with we hit traffic.

ONE MILE AWAY FROM OUR DESTINATION.

That mile took us a half hour to drive through.
It was awful.

I wanted to park the car and just walk to his house.

Somehow we made it through, hung out with Kevan and his cousin Travis for a bit and then slept :)

Day Eighteen: Drive to Lawton, OK

Thursday morning we said goodbye to New Orleans and embarked on what turned out to be a twelve hour drive to Lawton OK.

We stopped on our way out to get our oil changed.
About an hour into our drive we noticed some real dark skies and we were driving right into it.

Sure enough we found ourselves in the middle of a HUGE thunderstorm... it pounded out rain for at least 45 minutes.
This was the type of rain that has your windshield wipers on extra extra fast and you're squinting to see the road with white knuckles gripping the steering wheel.
I had a pretty bad headache by the time the rain let up because i was concentrating so hard on the road. It of course made it more difficult being in an area I knew nothing about... didn't have the familiarity of the curves of the turns or anything.

But we made it through just fine, aside from the headache. It did push us back a good half hour time-wise because nobody was driving anywhere near the 70mph speed limit.

I really don't remember too much else about the drive itself, other than that it was long and pretty boring. We both got pretty giggly around the 8 hour mark... we stopped for dinner somewhere near Dallas if i'm remembering correctly.

Laughed at how everyone in Texas drives trucks. And I pulled a muscle in my butt trying to change sitting positions in the cramped car. Sounds so stupid but i'm prety sure we laughed for awhile about that one.

We made plans to stay in Lawton, OK because I have a friend from high school who was recently sent there for the Army. He had been up since 2am and had to get up at 4:30am on Friday and we didn't get into the town until midnight... but he and a friend met us at the hotel and hung out for a little bit which was really nice :)

Day Seventeen: New Orleans

We decided to stay one more day in New Orleans.
We are still a little ahead of schedule and love the city so we figured "why not?"

We slept in Wednesday morning considering it had been a late night.
Our first stop of the day was the vodoo museum in the french quarter.
It was only $5 for students and pretty cool to walk around.

the museum honestly kind made me uneasy.

can't really explain why though...

After that, we went to sign up for a Ghost/Haunted History tour at 8pm.

We had plans to meet our friendly bartender for a late lunch so we just hung around the french quarter until he was able to make it into town. We stopped at a coffee shop just to get out of the heat.

We each got a small drink and paid with our card (trying to save cash for when we really need it)

and I don't know what it is but this city HATES people that use cards.

It was not the first time that someone was super rude about taking our cards.

"you don't have ANY cash?" they ask.

We had lunch at this place called Johnnie's, which is sort of a fast food, sit down place.

Very casual and they have a million different types of po-boys on their menu.

I was told by my friend to try a Mufaletta sandwhich.
I was unsure because i'm not a huge olive fan but tried it anyways.
...and ended up scraping off ALL of the olive junk.

Which i had a feeling I would do.

Probably should have just gotten something I knew i'd like.

We finally got a picture with our new friend :)

After lunch we came back to the hotel and took naps.
We're both super tired lately, i think the trip is just taking more out of us than we choose to realize.

We woke up and got ready again and then checked out this Concert on the Square just a few blocks from our hotel which made me happy because it reminded me of Madison :)


                                                    (couldn't get a picture where I could actually see the band...)

We headed out after not too long because we had to make it to our Ghost Tour.
the street was PACKED with people taking this tour.
It was about twice as much as the tour in Salem was and maybe just as good. Definitely not twice as good.

Learned a lot of interesting, dark history about the area which I was hoping for.
There was a mom and daughter in our group from Texas. The girl was probably 12/13ish and if she had been any older, I may have punched her.
SO. ANNOYING.
She ran up and interrupted our tour guide to go "LOOK! MY MOM JUST TOOK THIS PICTURE!"
and the guide is like... yeah... thats the reflection from the plexi-glass in the window.

and then we stopped in front of this haunted restaurant and he started talking to us about it and the girl goes "then WHY are we standing in front of it?"

....um. because you're on a ghost tour?


Anyways. Her young age saved her from any rude remarks from the rest of us.
Lucky girl.


The tour did last about 2 hours.

We stopped at a chinese place on the way home so i could pick up some dinner.
My body is seriously craving fruits and vegetables.
absolutey craving.
all i want to eat is peaches in cottage cheese and green beans. .
instead i settled for steamed chicken, white rice (which i hardly ate) and broccoli.

Gonna have to get some fruits & veggies soon. Don't want scurvy! :)


We came back to the hotel, I updated the blog and then we both passed out.



Today we're headed to Oklahoma!
Gonna be a long two days of driving ahead of us.
LONG days.

but its okay, 'cause my feet kind of hurt.