Lightning is Striking Again

Last night, on our way to our North Carolina kampsite, the most amazing thing happened. For hours, we were surrounded by heat lightning in the clouds which was really beautiful. It looked like flashes from cameras lighting up the sky non-stop, really a second didn’t go by without more lightning somewhere in the sky. But suddenly, it started to downpour again and the lightning became bigger bolts accompanied by loud thunder.

All of a sudden, the biggest bolt of lightning I’d ever seen seemed to strike the highway a hundred or so yards in front of us, and lit the entire world up with the brightest white light we’ve ever seen. It looked like someone had taken a flood light and shined it right in our faces. It only last a few seconds, but it was paralyzing—I think we both covered our eyes! And then, the loudest crack of thunder—as if the world split in half. Neither one of us could speak for a few seconds, and then we weren’t sure if we could laugh or not yet, in case something like it happened again. For a few minutes, every time a little lightning flashed, I could still see the impression of that enormous bolt, like the flash of a camera that continues to echo behind your eyelids when you blink.

I finally said to Bobby, “I honestly thought that lightning hit us.”
He said to me, “I thought we were dead. I thought we saw the light they always talk about.”

Our biggest challenge on this road trip has been the fight against the elements. It is amazing that in our daily lives we have set ourselves up so comfortable that weather doesn’t really harm us other than making us late for work, occasionally. You don’t realize just how powerful something like weather is until you a rolling down the road in a mobile home and lightning is trying to make contact with your GPS signal.

Comin to ya/On a Dusty Road

Bobby serenades me during
happy hour at a bar in Myrtle
Beach......






So what we’ve learned about Myrtle Beach in the few days that we’ve been here is that the weather is insane. Most of the day is sunny and beautiful, but nearly every day at around five o’clock the sky turns black, the wind picks up, and there is a downpour. The rain usually lasts about an hour or less and is just enough to mess everyone up a little bit. I think Mother Nature gets a good laugh watching all of the hot, sweaty tourists scramble for cover once a day.



Our second night in Myrtle Beach was Bobby’s birthday. I bought us tickets to see the Legends in Concert show, which some people might have seen before, especially in Las Vegas. It’s all impersonators of the musical legends: Michael Jackson, Elvis, Madonna, The Beatles, etc. Our seats were front and center, second row. This would be an awesome seating arrangement under normal circumstances. However, at the Legends show, it’s a little awkward to be up so close to these people who are literally dressed up like a celebrity and have to act like they truly believe they are that celebrity—and they can easily make eye contact with you and hear what you are saying to your neighbor.



I literally felt like the people on stage kept looking at us while they were singing, and both of us were worried they would try to somehow include us in the show…”Martina McBride” pulled some guy up on stage and made him dance and tell his wife how much he loved her….and Jake from the Blues Brothers sat next to some teenage girl and sweat all over her until she was embarrassed to tears. Besides, Bobby didn’t know, but I had told the lady at the ticket counter that it was his birthday, thinking maybe they would just give him a shout out, but after the Jake and Elwood performance, I was starting to worry that they were going to do something to Bobby that would end our honeymoon earlier than planned.



Luckily, they did just give him a happy birthday shout out, but they called him “Bobby Conkon”. We have discovered that down south no one understands the name Conlon. Even after spelling if for them and saying it several times, they will still call us Connon or Colon, like as if those names are more common…



But I digress. Michael Jackson impersonator was unbelievable. He looked, sounded, and moved just like Michael Jackson. The Elvis impersonator who closed the whole show was also really good. His voice sounded just like Elvis, and whether you like Elvis or not, you have to admit that some of his songs have unbelievably difficult notes that he can hold. This guy was great sounding, but was a little goofy looking, so it was hard not to kind of stare. At one point, he began singing a slow ballad, just him alone with a guitar, and I really felt like he was looking right at me. It was beginning to feel kind of awkward, so I nudged Bobby to tell him but before I could say anything Bobby looked at me and said “I think he’s looking at you!” Suddenly, the Elvis spoke right into the microphone: “I’m singing to her, sir, not you.” And the whole audience burst out laughing and they put a spotlight on us and he continued singing at me which was for some reason unbearable.



In all of the tourist spots they always have someone with a camera ready to take your picture and then try to sell it to you. Because after awhile it gets sort of annoying, Bobby’s new thing is to make crazy faces when they are trying to position you to get your photo. They obviously want the best picture they can so that you’ll buy it, and no matter how much they tell us to smile, Bobby will make crazy faces or pretend he’s taking a bite out of my head. All the while, I’m oblivious to this and smile nicely for the camera. The people who then try to sell them to us get a good laugh when we ask them to find our photos and they spot Bobby’s crazy face in the mix.



We are heading to Washington DC for our final leg of the trip. Heading up through North Carolina tonight.

Funny Pics from Knoxville/DollyWood

Old Fashioned photo I forgot to flip.....







Funny sign at Dolly Wood :)








Dolly had a little museum filled with all of her childhood things, this chalkboard was in there that she wrote on and I thought it was very nice.











Bobby's found this crazy t-shirt and we laughed so loud in the store....







At Bob Evans everything was named Bob!

And the Road Goes on Forever

We couldn't figure out why our GPS was saying that it took almost eight hours to get from the edge of Tennessee to South Carolina. When you look at them on a map, they look so close! At about 9 o'clock on Monday night, we figured out why it takes just that many hours to get there.

There is no real high way between Tennessee and the Carolinas. There is only this winding two lane road that twists through the Smoky Mountains for miles and miles. When you are on the road, the tree covered mountains tower on either side of you, and the bends in the road are 90 degree angles. Trucks bust down this road doing 70 mph, but thankfully, Bobby was nice and cautious. Not that I don't have total faith in the RV, but when you see signs warning that there is a hill with a 7% grade (are we supposed to know what that means??) coming up and pictures of trucks at a steep angle on the yellow roadsigns, one tends to get a little nervous. This road was like five hours on a Dollywood ride. Lol.

Aside from the awesome places we are visiting, driving in the RV and camping all over the place has been such an awesome experience. I tried taking pictures of the roads we are traveling and the campsites, but it just doesn't do the scenery justice. I think that even when we are back home, we will make camping at KOAs a habit. It's a great mini-vacation, to just get away from the TV and mail and the mundane. I'll post some more pictures of just funny things we've been doing and things we've seen.

This is space command to Zoom.....

Well, if you're like me then when you read something you hear the author's voice in your head. While we were at Graceland I read everything with an Elvis accent, Wrigley Field signs were all written in an exaggerated Harry Carey voice, Dollywood was a sweet lil Miss Parton southern drawl and this blog has been my sweet singing Shanny voice so far.....until now. First of all, that sign I hit was camouflaged and anyone would have hit it, The Ol' 76 is about 200 feet long and often has a mind of her own and goes wherever she wants. Okay, maybe not, I drive around this great country like Mister Magoo just driving around and bopping up and down singing "On the road again" and "radar love". Sooooo where did she leave off ? I think after the last transmission on Snoop Bloggy Blog we spent a few days in Pigeon Forge at Dollywood. It's like Disneyland but replace the mouse with butterflies and exchange all of the children with sweaty rebelflag weilding rednecks. Lots of rides, food and shows. We went to the Dolly Parton museum and went onto her tour bus. Pardon my french but that day was hot as heck so the surprise rainstorm was a treat. However the flash floods and Tennessee Trash wet tee shirt contest couldn''t have been worse. The rain made the ground slicker than an ice skating rink for anyone wearing Crocs with socks : ) and the rain only accentuated what we were trying to avoid seeing. I'm not writing this trying to be mean or negative but it just seems that people down here are a little slower, a little fatter, just a little dumber and a WHOOOLE lot more racist. Not my first option of crowds to be stuck in wearing transparent, rainsoaked tankinis. Okay anyway, we decided that night driving would be best for the old girl b/c she doesn't seem to like the heat anymore than I do, so we left around 8ish for our 7 anda half hour trip to Myrtle Beach. The original plan was to drive a few, sleep a few then finish in the morning but we were rocking, dancing, texting, singing and guzzling Joe so we kept on keeping on and landed at a WalMart around 4:30. I've loved this whole RV thing so far... driving it, starting it, driving with my arm out the window, talking to other RV guys and especially using RV terms ((okay, I'll admit I bought a book called RVing For Dummies, but I've learned a whole lot of cool lingo)) so that night we "boondocked" which means that didn't have the water/sewer/electricity hookup so we slept with a battery powered fan. We woke up and checked into our Kampsite, which is 1 block from the beach, and went out on our bikes for lunch and beers, which seems to be the only thing we've been doing on this honeymoon aka superlong vacation. We swam, got dressed and wentto Broadway at the Beach which was PACKED so we put our name in for dinner reservations at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville only to findoutthat there was a three and a half hour wait. Boardwalk at the Beach is like a Salem Willows meets Hampton Beach meets Faneuil Hall, lots of stores, food, activities, fish feeding spots, kids, singers and what not... so we did what you'd expect us to do..... we went to the movies and saw Grownups. We've been swimming in 6 different swimming pools so far, have visited 2 countries and have visited 11 states at this point. Today is my 33rd birfday aka Larry Bird aka Varitek aka Rolling Rock aka Carter Estate and I'm thankful for all of the birthday wishes I've been receiving from friends and family. Last night our family received bad news about Cousin Michelle's battle with cancer so please keep her in your thoughts and prayers as she gears up to endure a stronger round of treatments. ++++ We miss everybody and keep listing things that we miss most, usually starting our list off with Chinese food and Sox games on tv only to be followed by Wallace, Flax Pond and oh yeah.... you guys, JK we do miss everyone and can't wait to get home to talk about the wedding and look at pics together...... Elvis Impersonator show tonight and Barefoot Landing..... talk to ya soon - - - Bobby Conlon
*PS- we have an AWESOME bumper sticker collection going on here.

Random pics from the road

Driving through Kentucky

The Ol Seventy Six at a KOA campground

For some strange reasaon it had to Be/It Was All A Dream About Tennessee

We are in Nashville Tennessee, the country music center of the world. It is easy to see why all aspiring country singers have to go to Nashville. It is a city like any other except that every single bar up and down Broadway street has 24 hours of live music. The way the bands make their money is just by passing around a big tip jug every hour. We stopped at a bar around 12:30 in the afternoon just for some AC and a drink and there was a young girl singing with a band of old guys playing behind her, and the bar was full--on a Friday afternoon at a place that doesn't even serve lunch!

Besides every bar having music all the time, every store sells Boots. There is probably about ten Boot shops on the strip and one bar that even sells boots, no kidding. We had a drink at a place called Tootsie's Orchid Bar that had signed posters and photographs of every famous country singer you can imagine. Minnie Pearl, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, etc.

The first night we were there we went to The Grand Ole Opry which if anyone doesn't know is a live radio show that they do three times a week at the Grand Ole Opry theater. They have about sixteen acts that come on and sing and tell jokes and stories, etc. Since the Grand Ole Opry was flooded this past spring, they are still holding the show but at the Ryman Auditorium right in dowtown Nashville where it originally was before they built the Opry house. We had such a good time at the Opry, we even got to see Little Jimmy Dickens and Vince Gill who performed at the end of the night and brought his daughter out to sing with him. We could see his daughter and Amy Grant watching him perform in the wings, it was very cool.

We figured that on our way to Myrtle Beach we will make a few pit stops, one of them being Knoxville, Tennessee. Knoxville is the big city right next to a small town called Pigeon Forge which is at the base of the Smoky Mountains. Pigeon Forge is where Dolly Parton is from and we are going to go to Dollywood! Does Tennessee hold the record for the longest state from East to West in the US? It HAS to! Four hours from Memphis to Nashville and four and a half hours from Nashville to Knoxville!

To quote the famous line of Minnie Pearl... "How-deeeeeeeeeeee!"

Ghosts of the Old South are all Around Me

On the way to Memphis, a funny thing happened. The awning on the passenger side of the motorhome suddenly began to dangle in the breeze as we were cruising down the high way. I could see that one leg of the awning had come loose, and both of us thought we could just keep going, but after a few minutes, it dropped down a little bit and was dragging along the highway. We pulled off onto the breakdown lane and Bobby climbed up onto the roof. We couldn’t figure out how to get it to stay on, so we did the next best thing. We tried to tear it off. While Bobby pried at the bolts from the roof, I yanked at the pole from the ground. When we finally got it loose, it began to fall towards the ditch on the side of the high way and… I’ll admit it…. I just let it go. We thought our problems were over, until we realized that without the pole, the awning could come unrolled on our journey. At the next truck stop, we did what any one would do… yanked the other leg off and with a Swiss army knife, cut the awning off the side of the RV and left it in a dumpster when no one was looking. You have to break a few rules when you are living on the road, and as much as it broke my heart to not recycle all of that plastic, the awning had to go.
Lighter and more streamlined than we were before, we headed on in to Memphis.

Any Elvis fans out there? Graceland is amazing. We checked out of the Heart Break Hotel early because we wanted to be first in line for the Graceland tour. His house is not as big as one would imagine, but you have to remind yourself that Elvis bought this piece of land when he was only 22 and it was the sixties. Everything was scaled down compared to what we have now.
First you get to walk around the first floor of his house, viewing his living room, dining room, kitchen and “the jungle room” which was like a large sitting room that he’d added on to the house and decorated in such a way that reminded him of Hawaii. There was green carpet on the floor and ceiling and fake fur covered furniture with big hand carved wooden arms and legs. Elvis recorded his last album at his home in the jungle room because his manager was finding it increasingly harder to get him out of the house. We bought the album (called “Moody Blue”) before leaving Graceland.
It is so cool being in the place where he lived. His family pictures are still hanging on the walls. In his basement, you get to see his sitting room where he hung out and watched TV and his pool room. In the backyard there are the graves of his grandmother, mother, father and himself. I can’t lie, we both cried when we got to this part (I haven’t seen Bobby cry like that since the wedding). It is just really moving thinking of how loved he was, how many lives he touched, but that it was probably all of this adoration that eventually led to his death. When you are there looking at all of his glamorous outfits and all of the screens that play his performances over and over again, you can imagine how his icon – the idea of Elvis--grew bigger than any normal person could manage. Elvis wasn’t the kind of guy who could just roll out of bed in the morning and put on his slippers and watch TV all day…every moment he lived people wanted recorded; every thought he had, people wanted to know about it. Can you imagine how that could mess with someone’s mind?
Our next visit will be Nashville. After witnessing where the best blues, jazz, and country musicians cut their teeth in Memphis, we have to see where the current country stars call home.

Pics of Beale Street

the pics don't do it justice--the music, the food, the atmosphere... but it will have to do! having fun in Tennessee!!!

Walking with our Feet Ten Feet Off of Beale

Memphis has to be the coolest city ever. I mean, Boston is cool, New York is cool, Chicago is cool, but MEMPHIS defined cool before we knew the word. As small as Beale Street is, it's influence in the music world is ageless. For two people who love music as much as we do, visiting Beale Street and Graceland is one of the most neccessary things to do.



We checked in to the Heart Break Hotel around 5 and wanted to catch the shuttle to Beale Street by 6, so there was no time to waste. When we go there, it was overwhelming how many places there are to eat on such a small strip, especially for out-of-towners, how do you decide on one blues cafe from the next? Each of them boasting "best BBQ in town" with sounds of live jazz and blues and blue grass coming from inside, it was almost impossible for us to choose. It would be a pity to pick the wrong restaurant on a street that has so much to offer.



First we tried Alfreds, which, save for the delicious pulled pork nachos, left a lot to be desired. We decided not to eat dinner there, and just had a drink and appetizer. Good thing, because we finally landed at BB King's Blues Club which was inspirational to say the least. There was a young kid singing some southern rock, classics like Whipping Post and Midnight Rider, and every single table in the place was hand painted to reflect the Blues Persona of the street. Rufus Thomas was painted on our table and the table and the table next to us was painted bright red and in black letters said "Do you like good music? That sweet soul music?" One table had the STAX logo on it. i walked around taking pictures even though i probably looked like a total amatuer. :) Bobby got the best ribs he ever had and I had something called a "Stuffed Porktato" which you can only imagine how delicious that was.

We also got pretty lucky because it happened to be Bike Night on Beale Street. For a Street that is about two blocks long, there had to be at least a thousand bikes lined up and down the street. Some of them were like nothing i'd seen on the east coast. We will post pics of those coming soon, but we want to make sure this posts because as we drive we lose service. There is so much more to say about Memphis...next blog---Graceland :)

6 Wheeled-Amphibious-Banana-Splits-Mobiole

don't wake the beast while she's sleeping....

The Mississippi Delta is Shining Like a National Guitar

We're going to Graceland, Graceland, Memphis Tennesseeeeeeeee

The alarm went off at 8:08 a.m. which is really 7:08 in the Central Time Zone. I sat up too fast and whacked my head on the ceiling of the RV since we have been staying in the bed above the cab. It's the second time I've done this, and Bobby laughs hysterically all day just thinking about it.

We got off to an early start this morning to make it to a Hertz rental car in Tennessee. We had to leave the Old Seventy 6 in Clarksville for a few days because as we learned in Chicago, there's not much of a place for her in the big cities. This makes the most sense because we are going to shoot down to Memphis for a night's stay in the Heart Break Hotel and then zip over to Nashville for the weekend, and then back up to Clarksville, which makes a perfect triangle. We are going to buy about a hundred postcards in Graceland, don't worry baby.

So, Bobby's favorite thing about this "road-life" is to flash the lights at big-rigs trying to shift into our lane. Truckers will give you a little flash of their taillights as a thank you, which Bobby calls "A Light-Show". My favorite thing to do is watch Bobby flash the lights, even at trucks that aren't trying to get over, and then watch his face as the trucks give him a thanks ((big smile)) or don't give him a light-show, which causes him to pout a little when he thinks I'm not watching.

We are listening to nothing but The King today in our little rented Corolla. Bobby actually asked the guy at Hertz if the car had brakes. I told him we didn't want to accelerate through Graceland and bust up the Heartbreak Hotel.

Bobby wants everyone to know how good the Lime-ade is at Sonic. It's funny how different the restaurants out here are. You are hard pressed to find pizza anywhere since Chicago, but there is a Big Boy, Sonic, or Steak 'n Shake on every block. Hope you like corn dogs and tots.

Yesterday, we drove for about a half hour down a farm road thinking we couldn't get over how bad it stunk. Not regular manure smell, but really rancid...like Bo was holding a poop in his hand in the car. After at least a half hour of this, we realized...dum-dums....that we'd been following a truck that was full of pigs. Literally...full...of pigs. I mean, these pigs were like, layered from the floor to half way up the trailer. I'm guessing there were maybe fifty pigs in that trailer. And we were downwind. These are the things we are learning on the road: Don't sit up too quickly in an RV, and never ride downwind of a Swine-Mobile!

So, Graceland tour tomorrow, Beale Street tonight.
The Conlons have left the building....or blogspot...for now...

well the south side of chicago is the baddest part of town... but where we were we got plenty o'pics!

Our Reflection in The Bean

The Bean in Millennium Park

On This Lonely Kentucky Backroad

We left Chicago on Monday morning, refreshed from a weekend stay in a hotel and ready to enjoy the company of our friends Heather and Bryan and enjoy some homecooked Ohio meals. It took us about about five hours to get from Chicago to HP & Beez because they live just about a half hour north of Cincinnati. We drove from the southernmost part of Illinois and made a big diagonal, cutting Indiana right in half to get to the southern part of the Buckeye State.
HP and Beez were awesome and grilled us some filets wrapped in bacon (yummm), corn on the cob, and potatoes that were baked with onions and rosemary seasoned olive oil. I am pretty sure we will not see another homecooked meal like that again for a few weeks more. The other cool thing was we got to just chill out in some air conditioning with our pals and watch The Red Sox (Bobby and Beez) and the Bachelorette (Shanny and HP). ((I have to admit, I was having a little anxiety about missing this episode in Tahiti! ))
Tuesday morning brought Cracker Barrel breakfast and a little restocking at Kroger which is the midwest grocery store. Then, we hit the road. Our aim is for Tennessee, and we are hoping to be there by Wednesday afternoon. We drove all day through Kentucky which is absolutely beautiful. I never realized how lush and green Kentucky would be, I think I always assumed it was more farm land than anything else.
We drove past the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln and a place called Dinosaur Land which we really wanted to go to but just didn't have the time. Another thing about the midwest that is really cool is the flea markets. Unfortunately, they are only open on the weekends, so we haven't been able to go to any this time around, but they are enormous. They take a lot about tthe size of a football field and cover it with barn sides and enormous tin roofs and they put gigantic billboards all down the high way that say things like "Worlds Biggest Flea" and "Most Awesome Flea Market".
Now, we are camping in Bowling Green. Bowling Green is the kind of place you hear of your whole life but never think you will see. A great thing about the KOAs (Campgrounds of America) is that they have swimming pools that are about 70 degrees and stay open til nine or ten at night. Tonight, as we were about to hop on our bikes to ride over to the pool, a guy pulled up in a vehicle that looked like 6 wheel amphibious banana splits mobile. Okay, that's what Bobby called it, but be more specific, it was like a four wheeler (but it had six wheels) and it had big metal roll bars going over it and instead of a steering wheel it had these two levers. The levers could make it go forward, backward, or spin in place. So, this guy offers us a ride and then proceeds to zoom all over the campgound, off roading, knocking trash barrels over, flying up to the water's edge and then spinning suddenly in place and zooming off in another direction. Turns out, he's the guy who runs this KOA and his name is Rico, so no need to worry about the toppled over trash cans. I thought I was going to die, or at the very least wet my pants, so everyone got a good laugh out of me, but we are both here to blog about it.
Goodnight East Coast :) Its only ten o'clock here, but eleven o'clock where you all are.
PS--Most of my blog titles are lyrics from songs about the places we are...if you know the song, post it in a comment!! Some of them are obscure!!

Pics of The Bean and Wrigley

some pics of wrigley field and the bean that we were telling you about. it's hard to post more than a few pics at once, so they will come in spurts! We took a bunchc at the Bean because the effects weere so cool!

Monkeying around

The funniest thing about the monkeys at the zoo was when one came right up to the glass wall and started humping it. I said "Eeew gross! Look what he's doing!" and a little girl turned to her mother and said, "What's he doing, mom?' and the mother said... "Ohh, he's just saying hello." and then hurried her daughter away.

In the Heat of a Summer Night, In the Land of the Dollar Bill

So we have successfully made it through Chicago! We are on our way to Ohio now to visit Heather and Beez, but we have to tell you about our awesome weekend in The Land of the Dollar Bill and Leroy Brown.
Saturday night we hadn't quite figured Chicago out yet. We decided to get a hotel outside of Chicago because all of the nice ones in the city were booked, and we couldn't park the big rig anywhere on those city streets anyway. We settled on Hammond, Indiana, and thought we'd take the train in on Saturday night for a nice dinner and to sort of check out what's what in the Windy City. Well, Transformers Three had the nerve to be filming on a Saturday evening on Michigan Avenue which is comparable to Newbury Street or Downtown Crossing in Boston. So of course, everything is busy and backed up and our train was a half an hour late.
However, our luck started to change once we made it into the city. We had a delicious steak dinner at a restuarant called Foulton's, which was right on the river, (Thanks Ma and Pa Conlon!) where we told them it was our one week anniversary! :)
On Sunday we headed into the city again to be touristy and see the sights. We first went to the Navy Pier which is a big pier with music, restaurants, and a huge ferris wheel. There are also a bunch of hot shots in expensive boats showing off up and down the pier, which is kind of cool too.
After lunch at the pier we headed to Millennium Park which has a bunch of huge art sculptures, some of which you can catch in Kanye West videos. There is one in particular called "The Bean" that we will post pics of. It's like a huge silver kidney bean, and all of the contours in it reflect the city in awesome ways, sometimes crunching the reflection up, sometimes spreading it way out. Tons of people take pictures of themselves or the reflection of the city in the bean. If you google the bean you can see all kinds of artsy pics of it. We took our own. :)
After The Bean we took a cab to the Lincoln Park Zoo which was a little disappointing. It was too humid for any of the animals to be out in their outside habitats and the ones we saw inside were sleepy and lazy! It was pretty funny to see the apes sleeping though, because they are so much like us. Pics of that too, I believe.
Our last stop of the night was a baseball game at Wrigley Field. The Cubbies were playing the Phillies, and Bobby hates the Cubs but kind of likes the Phillies--so I bought a Cubs tank top just to pester him. We ate some deep dish pizza and drank some Old Style beer (Illinois local beer) and took a cab home around ten. I still can't get over that it stays so light here into the night. At nine o'clock the sun is just setting. It is great.
We are cutting Mount Rushmore out of our trip due to engine troubles with the RV. We just don't want to push the Old Girl too far on her first big trip. Maybe we will see Mt. Rushmore on our 1st anniversary. We can't wait to get to Ohio to have some Coneys and hang with HP and Beez and their lil boy Connor. We think we might be back in the bubble. Hoping the pics post!

We're not the jet set we're the old chevorlet set

So, it has definitely been a funny couple of days, but I have to notify everyone that right now, we are sitting by a camp fire, listening to Bob Marley (Redemption Song) and drinking a couple of cold ones. Steel Reserve for Bobby, Mich Ultra for Shannon. How could it get any better?

And, Bobby rode his bike two miles to get the cold boys and when he came back, he cooked us a delicious bertolli dinner and we ate like kings.

No, we're not the jet set...

But that's ok.

Border-line Behavior

I apologize if this blog posts twice--a little issue with the wireless connection.

So, everyone tells stories about crossing borders---how long it takes, how annoying getting searched is, etc. This "Crossing the Border" story is a little different. I think by the end of it all, the Border Patrol officer was hoping we would leave instead of the other way around.
When we approached the bridge, there was about 20 cars in front of us. If you figure each car has about a 3 or 4 minutes interview, longer for the RVs who all need to get searched, we surmised that we had about an hour wait ahead of us. This presented a bit of a problem for The Old 76 because she was running a little hot and we really wanted to get into Michigan to get some fresh oil in her.
When we finally got to the toll, the woman was very nice and pleasant, asked us normal questions and then asked us to turn off the car and hand her the keys with the bright orange chicken wing hanging from them so that she could get in and do a little search. Worst. Idea. Ever.
After the search, she told us we were all set. Bobby turned the key and absolutely nothing happened. She asked us if we'd had trouble before and just as Bobby said "No", I nodded my head "yes". Isn't that exactly what you're not supposed to do when the Border Patrol asks you a question?? Lol.
Bobby explained to her a little trick we learned back in Buffalo and she said she would let us try it. They are very cautious at the border; they don't want anyone to get out of their cars, especially not with a hammer and a screwdriver! But she let Bobby try his trick but unfortunately nothing happened. If there’s ever a place you don’t want to break down it’s on a bridge, in the toll, with a hundred angry and hot Canadians behind you. Or in the ghetto of Buffalo. Take your pick. I can’t imagine how ridiculous we must’ve looked to this very serious officer.
We were brought to a mechanic in Michigan where we spent the rest of the day waiting for The Old Seventy 6 to get a new battery, a new starter, and some fresh oil in her veins. At some point during this five hour wait, I took off the tiger’s eye charm that I’d purchased at Howe’s Cave, thinking it might be bringing us bad luck. I didn’t tell Bobby because these are the types of things he usually thinks are crazy. Sure enough, when he noticed and I explained it, he called me silly. I didn’t care, I wasn’t taking any chances.
When we finally got her back and in the best shape ever, we headed to a Walmart superstore, which was bigger than two Costcos put together. Walmarts in the Midwest mean business. We stocked up on motor oil, fresh bread, and a nice bottle of Sauvignon Blanc. As we were leaving the Walmart, it began to absolutely downpour. The wind was unbelievable and a woman next to me said they’d seen funnel clouds in Kapec (?) about 45 minutes away. Okay—which direction is that and where to I drive to get away from it?? If you know me, you know that I’m afraid of two things= 1. Grizzly bears. You can’t outrun them, outswim them, or outclimb them. 2. Tornados. Wizard of Oz anyone??
We decided to camp as soon as we could to avoid driving through the rain. Luckily there was a KOA campground only 5 miles away, and it was beautiful. As Bobby was turning off the camper, I noticed the buffalo wing keychain had gone missing.
“Do you think one of the mechanics stole it?” I asked, thinking any guy would want a chicken wing key chain.
“No,” Bobby said, “I took it off at the border…thought it was bad luck.”

A bout of bad Luck?

On Wednesday, we woke up in the Walmart, rode our bikes to McDonald's and had some breakfast before getting back on the road. Our destination was Buffalo--at least to try the wings from the anchor bar, the place that claims to have originated the Buffalo Wing.








First of all, the wings were awesome--best wings we ever had.





Second of all, the bar was cool. Lots of Buffalo stuff to look at and Bobby's two favorite things are wings and the Bills. He even bought a key chain that looks exactly like a chicken wing. It's pretty funny.





Here's where the bad luck comes in.... we get out to the Ol Seventy 6 and the old girl won't start. I mean--nothing! Not even small grumble from the engine or a tick from the starter. Both of us know a little bit about cars and we figured it wasn't the battery since all the lights were working perfectly, so it had to be the starter or some kind of a problem with the ignition. Good the we are Good Sam's Club members (it's like the AAA of RVs). But actually, we didn't end up needing them, because, we have Billy Martin.





Wild Bill to the rescue. We called him and he had few ideas that we tried and nothing worked. The GSC sent out a kid to jump start us, even though we knew it wasn't the battery. The next step was a tow, when Daddy-O called back with a few new ideas.





One of these crazy ideas included touching the end of one screw driver to a bolt in the selonoid (sp?) and touching another screw driver to another bolt and crossing the metal parts to make a spark that could link the battery to the engine. God help us, it worked. We basically hot-wired our car!





We drove it straight to a mechanic who said we were probably all set, and so, we were off again.


we crossed the border into Ontario made it to a campsite in Woodstock.





We truly thought all of our worries were behind us. Unfortunately, it's what was behind us that we should've been looking at. When we got to the campground, the lady asked us to 'back up'. BAD IDEA. Bobby backed that Pawnee straight into their "Slow, Children at Play" sign. Then, to make matters worse, he drove forward and wedged us in real good. I'll be honest, the two of us couldn't help but laugh. It really wasn't funny....but after all we'd been through that day, it kind of was.

Once the business with the sign was taken care of, we set up camp at a beautful spot and had a fire, a homemade meal and some PBRs. We also roasted the biggest marshmallow ever, thanks to Kellyfromwilmington, and it was a great night. Hopefully the rain cloud over our heads is clearing up!!!

Nothing Makes a Road Trip Special Quite like Chili Dogs from Jacks

Our first stop had to be Jack's in North Adams where Bobby spent five years living off of their famous chili dogs. They really are something to marvel at--the only problem is that they aren't bigger. Thank goodness Jack's hadn't changed at all since Bo graduated, because it would be all he could talk about for the next three weeks. Anyone remember the Lil Stevies crisis?

Anyway, after stopping for lunch we continued heading out west. Our route into New York took us to a place called Howe's Cave, where we decided to stop for a little spelunking. We took an elevator 150 feet into the ground and then went on a walking/boat tour of a deep, dark cave. Of course, the guide told us not to touch the calcite on the cave walls and Bobby had to touch everything. :) We were actually with a family from New Hampshire, and the dad kept talking about the family that went in the cave years ago and two people never came back. It reminded me of my dad.

That night we stopped at Applebees for dinner and saw a few RVs parked in the Walmart across the street. We had planned on finding a campsite, but we'd heard that you can park in Walmarts anywhere in the country for free, so we decided to take the risk and just do it. We figured we'd never learn the ways of the RV-people until you dive right in.

Two problems:

One, we parked right under a street light. It didn't seem like a big deal until Bobby woke up at three in the morning and thought it was time to go.

Two, even the slightest bit of wind rocks the Pawnee right out of her rims. Trying to fall asleep, I could've sworn there were a bunch of teenagers trying to mess with us. Bobby went dashing out into the Walmart parking lot shoeless, shirtless, with a hammer in his hand and stalked around the camper looking for hooligans to scare off.

classic.

Our First Day on the Road

Well, after an amazing wedding weekend, we are off on our honeymoon. Most people know that we bought an old 1976 Dodge Camper to explore the U.S. after getting married, hence the title of this blog. Our original ideas for places we definitely wanted to visit included Nashville (since we are both country music fans), Memphis (since we are both Elvis fans) and we knew we wanted to inlcude a lot of Americana on our trip as well. We only recently got the idea in our heads that maybe we could even get as far as South Dakota and witness the sunset on Mount Rushmore.

So, we are going to see how far the old girl takes us. She is decked out with new curtains by JoAnn, a nice bike rack stocked with refurbished bikes from Anthony, and a really smart new radio by PJ and Riley that allows us to charge our phones, iPods and computers (which the original model of this vehicle did not come with). Here's where I have to apologize to my friend Cherilyn who so graciously came through with 8Tracks when we thought that was all we would be able to listen to. I guess we wont be needing them after all--although there was quite a nice selection!

So we will be posting updates and pictures and videos from our travels. If we emailed you this link and you are at all interested in keeping track of us across the country, make sure you follow this blog by adding yourself to that list over to the right ----->

See you soon!

Bobby and Shannon