Chicago Trip - April 2010

My sister is convinced I need to blog about my trip to Chicago to see her. Knowing that her and a few of her close friends will be the only ones to read it makes me less motivated...but anything for my sis! :-)

When I was in the Salt Lake Airport Sunday morning, waiting to board, they called out my flight and said it was overbooked and were looking for people to give up their seats. I called Meg and went to the counter to find out more. “You’ll get to Chicago about midnight after a layover in Denver and then one in Cinicinati”, you’ll get $200 plus a free on-way flight anywhere in the US. ‘Sweet” was my response! But Megan was less interested in picking me up at midnight than I had hoped, so I boarded the plane and let someone else have my $200.

One of the first inner-city lessons I learned from Megan was to ‘stay off the grass’. Now to me, the lush, green grass overgrowing (or at least getting mowed) everywhere didn’t really warrant the harsh (and constant) reminders to walk on the sidewalk. Had a seen a dirt patch that looked as if seedlings were sprouting that would’ve been different, but supposedly you won’t walk on the grass in the city – it is just for looks :-) I also liked the nice 'face lift' part of the buildings where they would 're-brick/re-model what the front of the structure looked like, and then have a completely different look on the side!



And there's a western song that talks about a 'red-neck woman' who 'leaves her Christmas lights up all year long' - this is evidence it ain't just for rednecks!


Pat of the reason Megan was reserved about the midnight pickup was because we had to go to her camp in Michigan and be there by 8 am the next morning. We decided to drive down that afternoon (after she took me to a original Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza restaurant!).

It’s about a 2 ½ hour drive so that took up the rest of our ‘first day’.


Monday morning and afternoon encompassed her attending her business meeting and me sleeping and watching some Parelli Videos. One of the highlights of the Michigan Trip was the drive back to Chicago. I had packed a few sugar snap pea pods which provided immense entertainment. It’s hard to explain and one of those ‘you just have to be there’ moments I’m sure so I won’t bother going into much detail on the instance…but I will inform everyone that there is a new saying on the block. You’ve possibly heard of ‘two peas in a pod’ which (I think) refers to a two things that are very similar to each other. After some pea exploration and evaluation, along with references to the famous geneticist Gregory Mendel, we decided that it can also be said ‘6 peas in 2 pods’. (yes, I suppose you had to be there) :-)

When we got back in town we decided to rent a movie from Redbox. Here I learned a couple more ‘inner city’ rules. I told her I’d pay for it when we pulled in so she told me to get my credit card out of my wallet while I was still in the car. This idea sorta made me laugh as everyone at the Redbox has to have a credit card, and if they want to rob you, they will. But I obliged and got it out. When we returned to the car Megan noticed my wallet was sitting in plain view on my seat. “Do you want my car to get broken into or what?” was her initial response. “Well if you hadn’t have told me to get my credit card out it would’ve been in my pocket! I didn’t think about the wallet after I got the card out – which I guess could’ve ended badly for both of us.

That night we played canasta - which is a rather involved card game that our grandma taught us growing up. Here's a shot of a standard hand...the winner is the first person to 5,000 points. Megan won. Let's leave it at that.



Tuesday morning we went for a walk in the park with one of Megan’s friends.


Yet again, there were many things I obviously didn’t know. Like if you wanted to take a picture of the park, make sure that there were no actual people in your shot. Supposedly, taking pictures of people is considered rude and disrespectful (although it’s a freedom/right given to us in any public environment). So I took pictures of dogs and flowers instead. This dog made me laugh as he was obviously in a ‘yard’ but it was complete concrete. You’d think with all the grass we couldn’t walk on they’d be able to get something a bit more comfy going for the poor pup.



Then we headed off to the Museum of Science and Industry. We learned all about some very cool things, like the farm! Timed our ability to hook up a diary cow to a milking machine, learned about how much manure gets produced by 1 cow, learned about where pork comes from, saw baby chicks hatching (again no grass – just a heated metal/glass see through cage).







We also learned about nuclear engineering, old fashion tools, the US 505 Submarine, and ‘YOU’ (which was an exhibit all about the human body!) There was also a very cool display about inventions of the future. One of which talked about ‘printable food’. You bought ‘flavored paper’ from the store, then ‘ordered’ online from the restaurant, and printed off something that ‘tasted’ like that (cookie, pasta, soup, etc). They are also working on 3-D ‘fake food’. Interesting…Also ‘hugging clothes’ that had heat/pressure spots where most bodies come into contact during a hug. It can be text activated so I could signal it to give you a hug!!! (I am sure there are some guidelines on use and such, but cool idea none the less). Lots of laughing and exploration at the museum. We both came away with a shirt that read ‘Pluto – revolve in peace’ …which my sister made sense of before me – took a minute.



I bought some ‘astronaut food’ in the form of a dehydrated ice cream sandwich. It was an ‘experience’ that reminded me why I didn’t want to go into space any time soon!



We rented another DVD that night called ‘Everybody’s Fine’ in which, of course, no body was fine. Good news is I was able to not only get my credit card out before exiting the car, but I also took my wallet with me! And when we got back to her apartment, I walked on the sidewalk! I can be learned! :-)

Wednesday we went down town and rented a trolley tour for the day that we could ‘hop on and off’ throughout the day to various locations. We went to Millennium Park, Navy Pier (where I learned my sister was afraid of heights and Ferris wheels…but not until we were on the way UP on the Ferris wheel lol), and then to the Water Tower shopping mall.



On the drive on the way home, we randomly decided to stop at the ‘Container Store’ which showcases organizational tools for everything from your kitchen, to office, bedroom, bathroom, and beyond! It’s the perfect place for people are organized…perfectionists…and OCD :-) Meg and I spent about 3 hours going up and down every isle and discussing the cool gadgets (some of which we were discussing because we were trying to figure out exactly what we would be organizing with it! One of them we decided could only be used for one thing…a holding box for the tooth fairy! :-) )

We headed to the airport about 7 am the next morning and I flew home. Sat next to two a people who own Harley Davidsons…the man (in his 40’s) was carrying a stuffed dog. I also used this time to learn how to make money origami into windmills –something I have probably already forgotten :-)

Megan wanted this to be a really funny blog…because we spent a good majority of the time laughing. Most of it was laughing at with Megan –at Megan. :-) But most of the things are either ‘you had to be there’ experiences or just too wordy to put in a blog. “Too Wordy?” you say, “how can this blog possibly get any wordier?”

Trust me…I condensed ;-)

Other Funny things:
The little / old buildings in the middle of sky scrapers


or sky high walk ways that are...questionable at best.


buses with pretend mammoth fur


a beer garden?



crystal gardens...indoors (aka pretend you are in Hawaii)



a building with its own zip code


art? a giant jelly bean shaped mirror thingy...


safe/functional parking (don't worry, you are not allowed to park your own car!)


If you want to see more photos go to my facebook page :-)

The Trip!

pictures are a pain to post with these - so right now it's just words - becuase i'm not very motivated to sit in this truck stop and post pictures - maybe later - words are good too :-)

there are things i keep remembering about the trip - i wrote most of this blog along the route, but here's a story i forgot to include...

we had just drove past our first time zone change. Dad looked down and noticed (sorta) and said "Hummmm, well the pickup changed but my cell phone still hasn't switched over."

"What?" i said, a bit confused. He repeated. I laughed, then explained. No dad, your cell phone changed but the TRUCK - the 1990 GMC truck needs to be manually changed. Here, let me shut off the music and do that. Yeah, your cell phone...that's the one that changed." Haha, he quickly agreed.

I’ll try to keep these stories short, since there are quite a few of them that I’ve gathered the past few days.

We took off Wednesday, Nov. 4th at 5:45 am and reached Kanab, UT around 2:45 that afternoon. It’s nice to arrive late afternoon so the horses are settled in before dark and such.

In Kanab we met (like met for the first time) the family we’d be staying with for the night. Marty and Ann Hepworth and their 3 children ages 11, 9, and 6. They were a very kind and generous family and we had a great time. That night I went with Ann to her church to watch her teach a pie crust baking class. Which meant that the other ladies all brought a pie they’d backed and we ate them while Ann stood in front and talked. It was great! Meanwhile, my dad headed off with Marty to a town council meeting. Marty was just elected to the town board.\

Day 2 we headed to Gallup, NM and met another family. Navajo decendents Lyle, Fawn, and Jessica Benally invited us into their home and we had another wonderful time. Fawn taught my dad and I how to make Navajo Fry Bread which we later used to make Navajo Tacos. Since I’ve made tortillas a couple of times I had a relatively easy time shaping the bread in a beginners fashion. Dad on the other hand, wanted to skip beginners world and tried tossing the bread between his hands like Fawn was (similar to tossing pizza in the air). Soon, his bread was on the ground.

Later that night, Fawn’s mother (who was full Navajo Indian) stopped by. I loved listening to her speak in her native language and she even taught me how to say a few words. After she left, I convinced Fawn to say them again while I recorded on my camera so I could practice them! AND, Lyle even took my laptop and worked on it throughout the night (since it had given me the blue screen of death).

The next morning we woke up to Fawn making blueberry muffins and BLT sandwiches. She sent us out the door with a bag full of muffins and 4 sandwiches! We felt like royalty!

The next day we took off for Amarillo , TX. A couple of driving mishaps happened that day. The first, and only, interstate onramp we took that day…we also missed. Well, maybe we didn’t miss it, Dad just happened to get on the ramp headed the wrong direction! Pulling a trailer negated the option to turn around so we entered the interstate and hoped there was an exit close by. It ended up being aobut a 10 mile detour at 6:30 am.

Later on down the road Dad also had a hard time finding an off ramp for a gas station while in construction, so we took it a little bit fast. And then when we finally arrived in Amarillo we were told to take the frontage road off of the exit to the hotel. Since we thought it was on the south side we took the south frontage road. BUT as we approached the road I told dad that it had a white line, meaning it was a one way road. (Yellow line = 2 way / white line = 1 way) He disagreed at first but was soon being waved at by passer-bys and turned around. Let’s just say, if it wasn’t his birthday and I wanted to drive the rest of the way, I’d fire his services…but I decided against that.

We stayed at “The Big Texan” which is a hotel/restaurant/stables combined so we settled our horses in and headed to the restaurant. They have a famous ’72 ounce steak’. If you eat the entire steak plus 2 sides in 1 hour or less, it’s FREE! There was one on display when we walked in, and both of us decided against trying to eat (and later pay for) the college football size slab of meat. I did find a buffalo burger on the menu that I tried (didn’t honestly taste much different than beef to me). There was also a choice of an appetizer that include a ‘fried tater hull’ or even rattlesnake!

On the beds in our hotel room was a note accompanied by two mints. The note read “Thanks! You’re worth a mint to us!” Ummmmmm, well maybe it’s a Texan thing, but that note accompanied by two peppermints seems a bit more like an insult than a compliment. :-)
I also saw some cool road signs. Some very original thinking from a town that must’ve produced sulfur called itself Sulfurdale. More excited was “Casa Blanca” (even though I’m not really sure I’ve seen the movie) and “Historic Route 66” (which I did see a funny musical of once).

We headed out around 6:30 the next morning headed for Dallas. I’ll be keeping my horses with a friend south of the big city and then we’ll be visiting my brother, Matt, who lives on the north end. We’ll get in tonight (Saturday) and spend Sunday and Monday in Dallas, taking off EARLY on Tuesday for Pensacola, FL – about a 13 hour drive!

Oh, and we’ve listened to two books on tape. The first, Outliers by Malcom Gladwell, is on my recommended reading list from Parelli about success and how it’s viewed. The second was a novel by John Grisham called “The Last Juror”. Close to the beginning of the story I asked dad if he enjoyed listening to it. He said ‘yeah, but I can already see the end’. I allowed him to listen for another hour or more before I asked for his prediction. He was wrong. :-) But that’s the best way to be when it comes to the endings of books/movies!

Tuesday we left Dallas at 5 am – headed towards our new destination of Montgomery, AL. Our connection in Pensacola, FL called the night before and said that there was a hurricane headed straight for them and that we should ‘find’ another route. Thank goodness for Map Quest! It’s easy to change your driving route, but not quite as simple to find a place to put horses up for a night! But she called again the next morning and said that we were clear to come, it ended up being just a ‘tropical storm’ and wasn’t too bad.

About 4 pm that afternoon we tested our lights and realized both our truck and trailer didn’t have any clearance lights! Still a good 2 and a half hours from our destination, we knew we’d need the lights in order to keep going. We found a local Home Depot right off the next exit and found some information on local trailer sale/repair shops. Dad was able to find a blown fuse in the pickup and buy the correct replacement part. Soon we were on the road again.

When we were talking though the time we had left before it got dark, dad brought up the ‘side’ of the time zone we were on. It was 4:30 and had been getting dark around 5:30 pm. Dad argued that as we drove we got closer to the next time zone, so we will have more light in this time zone. I didn’t agree and asked him to explain farther – and he realized as we drove farther EAST, since the sun sets in the WEST we actually lose time.  “I guess I got it backwards” he said. “Just like my math teachers, I ask and once they start explaining – they figure out that I’m right!” :-) OK, not always.

We got into Pensacola about 7:30 that night, and after a couple showers we were soon asleep in a beautiful Victorian style mansion (at least that’s what I think a beautiful Victorian Mansion would look like!) I met Mirka and David Pitts there and we were so happy to have a place to stop for the night!

Left at 6:30 am on Wednesday for our last day of driving! It was straight forward and simple and almost painless. Got the horses settled in nicely, then made it to our house (yes house) that we’d be living in for the next few days.

took a tour of the ranch with dad - broke a few rules as well. Got dad to the airport - got a bit lost getting home - only a 120 mile detour :(

anwyays, that's all for now :-) Check in 2-5 TOMORROW!!!

Pack Rat meet Johnny Appleseed!

This will be short because a) i have packing and organizing still to do before we leave at 5:30 am tomorrow....did you catch that ...tomorrow! b) i just recently blogged (who came up with that word anyways?! BLOG? makes me think of Blob - which leads me to picture the scary green monster on Ghost Busters.)


Anways...i was packing yesterday...packing today...packing tonight -and actually got to the point of actually putting suitcases in the pickup! I'd been working pretty steadily and was pleased with my progress and thinking that this might not be too stressful of a night.

Dad came out - opened the truck door - threw in 2 magazines - and walked away. Almost as if to say 'well...i'm ready!' 50 hours on the road and he has 2 magazines?! Well, i have DVD's and a car charger and a laptop (if only it was behaving itself!)

This all wouldn't have been nearly as bad if i hadn't found out that his 'luggage' for the trip consists of a 'carry on'. i think this is mainly due to the fact that the airline he's using to fly home charges $25 for each checked bag...so he just has a carry on!



So there's me...with a horse trailer, tack room, pickup bed, tool box and back seat full of stuff - and him with a napsack! :-) Jonney Appleseed meet the Pack Rat!