We are not slack. We ran into a case of No Internet!

Tonight we shall catch all you eager beaver blog followers up on our travels!! I know that all day you've been refreshing the page, just waiting and hoping that our latest blog would load. We are sorry to keep you waiting...but here it is Ladies and Gentleman, BLOG NUMBER 2-0!

Yesterday (Friday) we left Kalispell after grabbing some coffee at one of Kyle's local favorites, bypassing the 35 small drive-thru coffee shacks with clever names such as Cowgirl Coffee, Kangaroo Brew, JoMama's Coffee....The list goes on, and every time you blink you are passing another one.

Took us all day to get to Yellowstone National Park...but we made it! In case you did not realize, Yellowstone is HUGE. We thought we'd just drive around, stop by Old Faithful, and get to where my two old roommates work before dinner time. Wrong. Upon entrance to the park, we found out that Old Faithful was faithfully 52 miles away. And those aren't interstate miles, pal. But, like true tourists, that is what we wanted to see. So we began our trek to the famous geyser, stopping every now and then to see some of the craziest things we've ever seen.

1. Buffaloes 3 feet away from us!

2. Boiling puddles of water....everywhere.

3. Buffaloes 3 feet away from us!

4. A giant bubbling puddle of mud.

5. And my personal favorite, BUFFALOES 3 feet away from us!

Oh and did I tell you? Emily could have practically grabbed a buffalo! Okay, maybe we were a little excited about the buff's (Go CU!) But they are incredible creatures. And they were 3 feet away from us.

Look how close they were!!

Foggy glasses as a result of hovering over the boiling puddles.

Bubbly Mud Puddle.

We got to Old Faithful about 7 and saw a sign that they predicted it to go off around 7:58. Starving, we started rushing around the little shops located at Old Faithful, woefully discovering that most of them were not serving food. We finally made it over the still open cafeteria (only after purchasing my very own Yellowstone Fanny Pack) and were devouring our Bison taco's and lasagna when we spotted a lady pointing out the window...Old Faithful was a-spewin'!! We saw it, rushed outside thinking that it would last a few minutes like the other, smaller and less famous geysers we had seen that day...but nope, Old Faithful was done. So we did get to see it go off...but unfortunately we have no photographic proof of our presence at the event.

My Fanny Pack.

We tried to imitate Old Faithful. Click on the picture to make it bigger and check out our faces.

Lots of snow even though it was warm!

But we do have some shots of us from the live webcam that updates every 15 seconds from my dad! My dad and Em's whole neighborhood saw us live! It was pretty neat.

The saved webcam image.

Spent the night with Lander and Jill, the aforementioned roommates.

___________SATURDAY_____________________

For some reason, we thought it would take about 8-9 hours to get to Mt. Rushmore. Try 12. ish.

Okay, so we took our time leaving the park, partly by choice when we stopped to see the giant waterfalls, partly because you have to go soooooooooooooo slowwwwwwwwwww especially when you get stuck behind some real eggtimers (ref to Christmas Vacation).

So after FINALLY getting out of the park and going down the road some...we stop in Cody, WY, home of the Buffalo Bill Museum and more! It was the first sign of civilization, and we needed a caffeine fix for our addiction we've developed throughout this road trip. We stop at Peter's Cafe, just a local little deli/ice cream shop/etc. and realize it's about lunch time so we decided to get lunch. After accidentally opening the door on a guy using the bathroom, we order some yummy sandwiches with great names: Emily got a Buffalo Bill and I got a Calamity Jane. When we placed our sandwich order, the girl working asked us about drinks and mass confusion ensued. Emily asked for a Fountain drink, which apparently she interpreted as a cappuccino. Emily then speaks us, explaining she didn't say cappuccino, but a fountain drink. The girl even repeats "Fountain Drink" and says she'll bring our drinks out to us. I watched her as she struggled to understand that I ordered a simple iced coffee...and Emily finally just got up and got her own Mountain Dew. A couple minutes later, homegirl comes over with a cappuccino in hand. My only guess is that she just couldn't understand southern talk. We just pretended that we did order instead of confuse her even more. The sandwiches were delicious though!

At this point we also realized that we had left Yellowstone about 4-5 hours before, and had only gotten barely 200 miles east. 

Wyoming is just what we imagined it to be. A combination of Montana and Colorado would be a great way to describe it...and you could throw in a little of Arizona nothingness and red color. But I felt like I was riding through cowboy country with the wide open spaces and the fact that a high percentage of men we did actually see were wearing boots and a cowboy hat.

We almost ran out of gas today. The light came on when we were 40 miles away from the next town and 30 from the last that we passed. But we did ride through Shell, a tiny town with a population of 51...so we turned back around, hoping that somehow Shell would have a pump. Thank you Dirty Annie's Gift Shop for also selling gas! I filled up, walked in to pay, and the lady told me that they didn't have a reader so they ask people to just tell them how much they pumped. I loved that they depended on honesty. Shell people are good people. They were also having some sort of happy hour with assorted fried foods on the porch.

We realized we weren't going to get to Mt. Rushmore until at least dusk. But, we were still happy because one of our friends had actually advised us to go at night. So for hours we pressed on, looking forwards to an illuminated carving of 4 of our Presidents. We got to Mt. Rushmore in the rain a little after nine...and it was all dark on the mountain front. We saw nothing. Oh wait, we did see the profile of who we think to be George Washington's nose. What can ya do I suppose.

Staying with some Castaway friends Chris and Sharon close to Rapid City, SD....and heading to Castaway tomorrow!

Glaciers and Grizzlies and Goats....oh my!

So we decided to stay an extra day in Kalispell. One, because we realized we just needed more hang time with Kyle and Emily Jamison. Two, because we were just wore slap out.

 

We slept in until 10 this morning (I’m pretty sure I could have slept until like 1…or later). Then Kyle took us to Glacier National Park!! So incredibly beautiful. We did a 2 mile hike (4 total) to Avalanche Lake. What a sight! When we got there, these two old men were sitting on a bench on the shore of the lake chatting away and pointing and looking through binoculars. They were looking at a Grizzly Bear and her cub!! FYI Glacier has the highest concentration of Grizzlies! So they let us borrow their binoculars to see the bears. Pretty awesome, considering Emily has been saying she wants to see a bear since…I don’t know…Colorado! Also, good thing we had stopped and got our bear spray and bear bell!! Bear Spray is like mase on crack to deter bears from attacking. And apparently loud noises keep bears away…but you have to put up with feeling like Santa Claus is right behind you the whole hike when you bring a bear bell. I suppose it’s worth it to not get eaten.

 

Unfortunately we did not have time to visit the House of Mystery, a vortex! Bummer.

Kyle had to run off to football practice, so Emily and I went to Moose’s Saloon to eat a late lunch. They had some amazing pizza. If you are ever in Kalispell, you should definitely go. From the outside, it looks pretty abandoned, but it’s delicious!

We got back to the house and realized we didn’t have a way to get back in the house. So instead of taking the nap that we had been looking forward to, we utilized the time to completely repack Mitch and get organized! My oh my it looks so good. We even took Mitch and gave him a bath!! Mitch is so fresh and so clean, clean!

The rest of the evening consisted of dinner time, taking a nap (while Emily read and spent 30 minutes trying to convince the cat to get out from under the porch), and riding around looking for WiFi. We ended up sitting outside of a closed coffee shop mooching their internet.

Headed to Yellowstone tomorrow!!

Huckleberry's aren't imaginary!

Well today we drove. A lot.

Kicked off the day with some coffee from Tully's, a suggestion we got from Julio in Seattle.

We hit the road by 6:45 am with our sights set on Kalispell, MT where our pals, the Jamisons, live (Kyle we know from Castaway and Emily who I know from UNC). Our early departure got us out of Seattle before traffic!

Here are some highlights of the 9 hour drive:

1. We stopped in George, Washington. Yes, there is a town called George.

2. We got to take 3 state line pics today! To get the Idaho and Washington signs (coming into WA there was a dinky sign in the middle of a bridge) ended up taking us an hour! hahaha. We got the Idaho one, had to turn around to be able to get a WA pic, but the exit was like 3 miles down. As we approached the WA sign, we realized it was right after a bridge so couldn't think in time to figure something out. So turned around again, drove the couple miles to the next exit and planned to try to take a pic out of the window and try and stick our hands and the back of my head in it as we drove by. Emily was crammed on top of all our stuff that is now chaotically strewn in the back seat and right before we got to the sign her camera went crazy! Yes, we are so dedicated to the state line pics that we turned around AGAIN. We stopped close to the bridge where the WA sign is close to and ran over to it, setting the camera on the guard rail and snapping away! Was the extra hour worth it? Definitely. Don't worry, the Montana sign was in a sucky place too...but we figured that one out as well.

3. Huckleberry ice cream from a random place on the side of the road in Montana. Apparently Huckleberries are all the rave out here. They are wild, so people pick them and are really protective of their secret walks they take to find them. I really always thought they weren't a real thing, just the name of a boy in one of my favorite books.

4. A delicious home-cooked meal with the Jamisons!!!!! The meal was so delicious and the company oh so enjoyable that we've adjusted our schedule to stay a little longer here in Kalispell with our friends.

5. Montana. North Carolina is and always will be our favorite state. But Montana. Oh how I love thee! It seriously is beautiful. I know I've said that about a lot of places...but Montana is in a league of it own.

PS Next time you have the pleasure of Emily's company, request that she does her troll impression. It will change your life.

Shout out to Muff.

From Little Washington to Big Washington!!

This is the point in our trip where we are finally turning around and heading east! It's just seems so crazy that we are in Washington state and all of Em's fam is in Washington, NC across the entire country!

Today was a long day of driving from Chico, CA to Seattle. Oregon is beautiful to drive through. Oregon Trail as a childhood computer game anyone???

We hit mile 5,000 today!!!!! With that feat also came the necessity of an oil change for Mitch. So we stopped in Portland and ate at the subway in Wal-Mart and read about the Jon and Kate Plus Eight scandal is US Weekly while waiting for Mitch. Sadly, no Tammy episodes. All we could get out of the Portland Wal-Mart was a short verbal altercation between two high school girls about a boy (I think...I was trying hard to eavesdrop as a munched on my veggie sub and chips...Emily was too wrapped up in Us Weekly). I guess Tammy was a rare gem.

We FINALLY got to Seattle about 7:30, though it took me like 20 minutes to find our friend's apartment even though the whole time I was literally 500 feet from it. Oh Seattle and your skinny little parallel and forking roads!

Our Castaway buddy Julio picked us up from where we are staying and we headed over the Pike Place Market (though everything was shut down for the night). I also met up with my friend from back home Joy!! who moved out here a couple years ago and her boyfriend Kyle who we know from Castaway as well. It's a small world.

We walked around a bit, walked into the FIRST Starbucks ever!! Then headed towards the Pike Place market area (where they throw the fish) to eat at Iver's. We walk into the restaurant and everything looks really fancy. We were seated next to window with a beautiful view of the pier and the water. I was a little surprised that my friends brought us here (I mean they all work for Young Life) because looking at menu things were way expensive. I love seafood, but in my head I was thinking I don't love seafood this much. As I glanced up from such astronomical figures on the menu, I could just tell no one wanted to be there and pay that much....so we just up and left in a rapid manner while the hostess wasn't looking. 

We went outside and realized that the Iver's my friends are used to is the Fish Bar beside the fancy restaurant...we just didn't see it at first! Oh what a relief! Ivar's is a fastfood fish and chips types place. They also have a couple kinds of clam chowder, including a red kind that Emily and I both got in sourdough bread bowls. Yummy and much more wallet friendly. Oh, and we ate outside and the picnic tables directly below where we were in the fancy restaurant. I guess you can consider it the peasant section.

Then it was SPACE NEEDLE TIME!! None of our friends had ever actually gone up in it (and Kyle has lived here his whole life!) so it was a first for us all. It was incredible seeing the city at night. Definitely worth it!!

The last thing we did was ride by this giant concrete troll that is under a bridge. It's creepy, but funny.

Our camera batteries are dead so we couldn't upload pics from today, so we will add them to this post tomorrow sometime.

Official Groupies of the Band!!!!!

The Kevin Reid Project from Chico, CA. Top: EmCoch, Kevin, Jason Matel, Greyson Bottom: Little Jason, Jacob Gardner Ried, Miss America Julia Hartsell

Today was Chico day. Kevin grew up in Paradise...but now he lives in Chico, where he attends California State University at Chico...or as everyone else calls it Chico State.

Kevin was sweet enough to let his southern belles sleep in (we stayed up late laughing and rhyming) until about 11. After dragging ourselves off of the air mattress that Kevin purchased just for our comfort, we were given the grand tour of Chico! We lunched at Burger Hut, a local place, with Jason Matel and Kevin's new fellow band member Little Jason. Good burgers and crispy fries.

Emily and I somehow landed backstage practice passes to attend The Kevin Reid Project practice!! Check them out if you don't already know their tunes. Sweating in drummer Greyson Collins's garage, we got to experience magical musical melodies so sweet to our ear drums.

We spend the rest of the afternoon just hanging out with Kevin, relaxin all coolin' all watchin some bball up on the tube. In the evening we "had a barbecue" as Californians would say (back home we say grilling out or having a cookout, naturally) and Kev grilled us up some yummy grub while we played Bocce Ball in the yard. I attempted to juggle the Bocce Balls and hit injured myself in the shoulder, falling to my knees causing itching irritation to my legs for the next hour, even after hosing off.

Being Monday night, we watched the Bachelorette!! We both are pretty disappointed in Jillian's early generosity with her kisses...but that won't stop us from being faithful watchers!

We played a game called Loaded Question with everyone (Emily's friends should all know how hilarious this game is). I won't explain it, but next time you see either or both of us, we will be happy to teach and/or play with you!

It's after midnight here in Chico, so we are going to sleep soon...early rising in the morning for departure!

Just another day in Paradise

Emily, Chris, Rachel, Theresa, Julia and Kevin at the bottom. We are just missing two bro's Jacob and Andrew (and his new fiance Amber!)

Guest blogger here, Kevin Reid.  In this picture, I am the one gripping the chair as if the roller coaster is about to begin.  The only roller coaster I'm a part of right now though is the roller coaster of emotions that these fine ladies are putting me through.  They showed up last night and waltzed into my apartment like ostriches ready to mate.  Like Sailors from Deadliest Catch starving for fresh tuna.  Like legless unicyclists. I've known Emily Hartsell and Julia Cochran for years now but our relationships are primarily only executed by phone.  No phone conversations today and none tomorrow because its all about face time right now.  I am very blessed to have these fine gals in town and they seem to be having the adventure of a lifetime.  Right now we are watching The Hills and Stephanie is crying because Lauren had to fire her.  Stephanie is a baby.  Speaking of babies...

NVM

Here is Julia, your regular host.

Isn't Kevin a gem??? Today was all about hanging out in Paradise, where Kevin grew up. Chris, Kevin's dad, cooked us awesome breakfast (for real-pancakes are one of my favorite things to eat, and these were the best chocolate chip pancakes I've ever had) We went to his church with his fam, including Aunt Beth and Uncle Dave! Kev's mom had smoked a turkey all day...and it was delicious! 

The rest of the afternoon consisted of just hanging out on the back porch with his family and Kevin taking us on a tour de Paradise. We all grabbed some dinner at a local Mexican restaurant. 

I had my first tennis playing experience today, Emily and I vs Kevin and Bobby (his friend that could totally fit in in the South). We did not end in victory, but it was a good ol' time.

Our evening was spent around a fire, hanging with his family and a couple of his friends and making s'mores.

It's so fun to be able to spend time with the loved ones of somebody you love so much! The Reid's are pretty much some of my absolute favorite people on the planet. Today has made us want to just stick around here for at least a week. It's almost like a fairy tale hanging out with these people, they just love each other and love other people. Did I mention they are all super talented (artists, musicians, etc etc!) so we were treated to some music that Kevin and his brother wrote. They are just the kind of people you wish you could live next door so you could spend endless amounts of time with them.

Who knows what's in store for tomorrow...good night!

I left my heart in San Francisco!

We lovvvvve San Francisco.

A guy on the cable car told us that Mark Twain once said the coldest winter he'd ever experienced was summer in San Francisco....and we surely do believe it! Going from almost having a heat stroke, sweating through our trek across Hoover Dam, to freezing cold weather was a little rough.  We layered up as best we could (considering us Southern girls are used to flip flopping and tank topping through our summer months, we packed minimum amounts of warm clothes).

We ate brunch with a family friend of mine Katie Troxler in the North Beach area at a cute little cafe. Perfect place to warm up with some coffee drinks!

Katie was also sweet enough to take us around they city for a while. After momentarily forgetting where we had parked our car, and also after seeing some GIANT black dogs that were definitely bigger than Em, we drove out across the Golden Gate bridge! It was super foggy today (as Marlene, one of our amazing hostess's last night informed us that the locals call it May Gray....something about the warm air from the other side of the mountains and the cool air from the water...) but we could still see Alcatraz and the got a good view of the "International Orange" wonder. 

After the bridge, and after paying the $6 toll to go back across it, we went to....drumroll, please....... GHIRADELLI SQUARE! Oh chocolately heaven on earth! Did you know they gave out free Ghiradelli treats?! We got a free peanut butter one and a caramel one. We also went to the ice cream shop they have there and got their famous, to-die-for-i'm-being-serious-it's-so-good sundaes! Check them out below... They are mint chocolate, caramel, and peanut butter sundaes:

Katie had to jet after treating us to ice cream and dropped us off in front of the cable car ticket booth where Emily and I got one way trips on the famous Cable Cars of San Francisco! We ended waiting almost an hour (memorial day weekend brought a lot of tourists apparently)...but we decided it was well worth the wait. We did have the enormous pleasure of listening to a local musician play guitar along with some karaoke background tunes to some popular songs....of which he probably knew about 35% of the lyrics to (Free Falling started out "She's a good girl, crazy 'bout Elvis, Loves Jesus"....) Once it was finally our turn, the cable car brake worker yelled out "All the single ladies can ride on the back with me!" Well you bet that is where you found us! It was the best place to ride because it's the least cramped since there is a limit of two people standing on the back with him, it's blocked from the wind, and you can see everywhere. Cable Car=worth the wait and the 5 bucks for sure!

We left San Francisco about 6, driving across the Bay Bridge (on the bottom leaving SF) and through Oakland.

Took us about 3 hours or so to get to Chico. I'm tellin' you, 3 hours driving is like a blink to us these days.

We're staying with our super friend Kevin Clayton Reid in Chico, CA for the next few days. He interned with us at Castaway 2007. 

His roommate Jordan has a pet snake named Ruby. Tonight, I put Ruby around my neck. My heart rate definitely increased the first few moments...