09/06/12

Headed out of Portland, ME.  Destination:  Rhode Island (to visit Barbara’s mum).

Amazingly enough, we had NO issues leaving, driving, or arriving!!  Unlike my last trip where err’thang that could go wrong did go wrong, this one was so easy!  WHA??!!  Arrived in RI, [CRUSHED] mom, then headed out to investigate what was once Rhode Island’s Enchanted Forest!!!

If you know anything about me, you’ll understand my huge obsession with abandoned buildings/theme parks and having your best friend there with you to tell you what she did there as a child made it so much more amazing!  Everything is overgrown and dilapidated now.  Windows are boarded up, chairs are communing with the ground entwined in weeds, walls are spray painted on, and there were no signs of the characters that once graced this fantasyland.  We walked the path that once many families walked…once we found it…and peered into structures that had become many teen boys’ hideaway. 

Then…on our way out, Barb needed to climb the sign structure and sit by Humpty Dumpty as she had as a child.  Granted, back then there were ladders to climb up, but we’re adults now, right?  We don’t need no stupid ladders!  She got up and tried to get over to Humpty, but…uhmmmm…well let’s just say the Enchanted Forest has been abandoned for YEARS and the integrity of the sign was less than adequate.  HA! 

Have you ever climbed a tree all the way to the top, then climbed back down, but on the last branch you look down and think, “AH MA’ GAWD!  That’s like 20’ between this branch and the ground!!  How did I get up here???!!  If I jump, I’m totally gonna die or sprain something or smash on my face!!!  Maybe I’ll just try and drop while hanging on here…wait…no!  That’s not working EITHER!!  CRAP!!  CRAP!!  I’M STUCK IN THIS TREE FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE!!  AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!” and then you get up the courage to just jump and deal with the consequences and when you land you’re all like, “hmmmmm…I hope no one saw that whole ordeal…” since it was only 3 feet from your feet to the ground…picture that.  Also, picture Amber holding in her laughter until her best friend lands and giggles about it!!  Consequently, I had a hurt belly from laughing and tears running down my face…but not until AFTER Barb was safely on the ground!  Promise! 

Back to town to pick up supplies at the local Big Lots!  Mmmmmmm…Palak Paneer!!  Also.  Mascara.  Then back to mom’s house for some drinks and talking.  Our sleeping quarters tonight will be the back porch in the screened in gazebo in our sleeping bags.  And this is when we begin to rate our sleeping situations.  ;)

So, yea.  I know.  I still haven't finished the end of the last road trip, but hey...it's been over a year!  Do you even really care anymore???
I'll get to it...promise...someday...

Anyway!  A year ago I took a road trip…a 2 ½ month road trip to Alaska and back all on my own.  I followed old Route 66, went up the coast of California, through the Yukon, landed in the most amazing place on earth, then turned around and headed home on Route 40.  I slept in the car, shitty motels, friend’s homes, and a cabin.  It was the most amazing experience I will ever have.  Truly.  And what happens when one goes on a road trip??  One needs to revisit it again and again, so when my best fwend asked me if I wanted to go to Nashville with her how could I refuse??!

It started out with a plane ride into Nashville for the weekend and turned into 2 weeks on the road.  We planned as two crazy girls plan, sipping whiskey and writing on napkins:

-To do-

1.     Riverboat

2.     Opryland

3.     Steal dog (& “papers”)

4.     Fight bears

5.     Overthrow Troll King of Clingman’s Doom

6.     Pick up road-wolves

7.     Johny & Jones gravesite

-To pack-

            1.  Hiking shoes

            2.  Backpacks

            3.  Trowel?

            4.  Sleepin’ bags

            5.  Tent

            6.  Water container

            7.  Camel

            8.  Boots (2-3 pairs)

            9.  Heels for Barb!

            10.  Dresses

            11.  Jeans (2 pair)

            12.  1 long sleeve thermal

            13.  Jammie pants

            14.  T-shirts (8 million or 4…)

            15.  Hoody

            16.  Sox!!  (6 pair?)

Obviously, from these lists, we totally knew what we were doin’!!  We booked a hotel room in New Orleans, plotted our course cross country(ish) and packed…THE DAY BEFORE WE LEFT (and possibly the day we left…but we ain’t sayin’!!).

7/27/11

Back in Wasilla, AK!  And there are MOOSE on the side of the road!!!!!  Just hangin’, yo’!  Just there!  And Stella doesn’t know what to do with me when I see them…

Highlights!  Again!  GO!

1. Real shower that’s big enough to fit 10 people!!!  Cue Nickleback
2. Lotus snuggled up on me on the couch
3. Looking through all of Nick’s belt buckles (<3)…and nooooooo, I didn’t steal any!!
4. Hanging out with Delia,  Robert’s blind crazy dog…that I was SO close to stealing.  I won’t steal belt buckles, but blind, crazy dogs?  Yes.  Yes, that I will do!
5. Saying goodbye.  Ok, so that wasn’t really a highlight.  That was more of a, Imma loosing you somehow and I want to stay, but I can’t because I have this other life.

Dear Alaska,

I love you.

Heart Panda Pants.

7/25/11

It’s almost April now…2012…and I still haven’t finished this!!  AMBAH!  Come on now!  Alright, so now I just have to try and remember err’thang because there’s NO WAY I’m going back through all my Facebook posts!

Hmmmmmm…unless…

Hold on a sec.

Ok.  I did it.  I changed my FB to the timeline.  (sigh)

July 25

So, here I am in a commune, in the middle of nowhere with the Draper family and lots of other people!  Highlights…GO!

1.    

1. Drinking Knob Creek with Nick
2. Hooping in the rain
3. Peeing in the woods and loosing my phone
4. Eating the most AMAZING scramble evah
5. Drinking at 10 in the morning…WHA??!!
6. Finding out there’s a REAL toilet!!!!!  With running water!!!!  WHOA!
7. Sleeping fully clothed.  With my belt still on.
8. Waking up to find Lotus (Stella and Nick’s daughter) cuddled up next to you
9. Playing on ribbons…which are long pieces of fabric that you climb up and twirl about on
10. Holding LIVE CHICKENS in my arms
11. Being taken by the hand by small children who desperately want to play with you
12.  Staying awake until 5 in the morning

That was for three days.  Three days of awesome.  Three days I will never, ever forget.

07/23/11

UP!  Coffee in the main office?  YES!  OH!  And it’s actually GOOD coffee not some watered down crap that is disguised as coffee!  Outside soaking up the sun and the view of the mountains.  And Alaska (heart).  And today?  Well, Amber Pants is angry because her best friend from 19 years ago is right down the street somewhere and she can’t visit him and his wife and his 3 kids.  Nope.  Supposedly I’m some sort of threat.  Tsssssssssss.  Lame.  Maybe I’ll distract myself by driving the coast and looking at glaciers.  OR!  I can distract myself by talking with this older gentleman from New Mexico who is also on a road trip!!!  Bill Baggett!  And noooooooo, he’s not a hobbit silly!  Two hours!  We talked for TWO HOURS about life and stuff and it was amazing!!  Best quote I am taking away with me:  “It’s not how many breaths you take, it’s how many times your breath is taken away from you.”  Yes.  Perfection.  In all aspects.  Thank you Bill and I hope you are still having amazing and awesome adventures!

And now I drive!  Anchorage Coastal Trail for a walk.  I’d like to call it hiking, but it was paved and flat and there were people using it to exercise and ride their bikes to work, so yea, it was a walk.  OMG!  I’m in ANCHORAGE!!!!  AH!!!!!!!!

Now we will drive down the coast toward Girdwood and see what all this hub-bub is about………OH!  Um.  Yea.  Breath.  Taken.  AWAY.  It is indescribable!  Amazingly big and gorgeous and, AH!!!  Give me adjectives!!!!  How is so much beauty packed into this space??!!!  It’s real windy though!  I can’t even drive the speed limit because I’m worried Leeloo is gonna get thrown off into the ocean!  Somehow I made it all the way to the turn off to Girdwood and I get the call!  Coast is clear.  Come hither!  YAY!!!!  Gimmie Draper family now!  GO!  Oh…crap…that means I need to get away from Girdwood FAST!  DOH! 

4:00 pm:

This is the point in time where I meet the two most amazing people on earth!  Nick and Stella Draper!  And of course their aweshum daughter Lotus!  Nick is the best friend of my best friend (from 19 years ago) and I have also never met him (Nick) in person…until…NOW!  YAY!!!!!  And they’re letting me into their home.  They don’t even know me.  Who ARE these people??!!  <3

Off we go to Chickaloon (?) to a commune thing where we will proceed to hang out and play and have drinks and be happy!!!!!!  YES!  I also got to ride in a VW camper van.  Yep.  Mines!

Late:

Sleep.

07/22/11

Today.  I’m sad.  I hafta leave Fairbanks and ALL of the amazing people I met here.  How does that happen??!!  I’ve been here for what, 3-4 days?  BAH!  So connected.  So quickly.  And I wish I could have more moments with them to sit and talk and laugh.  Next time?  (sigh).

I’m going to Denali and either sleep in the hostel or in a campground…OK!  GO!  Before you change your mind and never leave!!

BUT!  No.  Amber just keeps drivin’.  Denali is packed and I just need to move and think.  I’m not supposed to show up in Wasilla until Saturday after 4 pm.  Yea.  It’s like that.  Schedule conflicts we’ll call them.  Somehow…even though Wasilla is 8 hours from Fairbanks I end up there.  WHA??  How did this happen??  Alright then.  Shhhhhhhhhh!!!  Don't tell anyone I'm in town!  I'll get in trouble!!  Shhhhhh!!!  Let’s find a hotel and sleep in a real bed!!  Wheeeeeee!!!  Ooooooooo!!  Shower!!!  And CRASH!  Sleep!

07/21/11

I’ve been pretty much landlocked for weeks now and this Panda needs water (specifically ocean) in order to survive.  That and sun and crushes and laughter.  Today?  We will go to Chena Lake…and when I say “we” I actually mean me, by myself. 

76 degrees in Alaska today.  Hawt.  First things first though:  vitamin water and energy drink thang in a can!  GO!  I end up at the corner station, go in, get ma’ stuffs, walk back out to get into my car.  Yea.  You know where this is going, huh?  Jacked up red hot truck pulls out from the pumps with 2 dudes in it…rolls over behind my car.  Passenger dude leans out and says, “I love you.”  HA!  WHA??!  I smile and do the stun gun laugh (it didn’t work—he’s still talkin’).  Dude:  “That’s not a bad opening line is it?  How ‘bout I follow it up by taking you out to dinner tonight?”  Well, dude.  That’s pretty good, but Imma busy tonight, sawreee!!!  Truck pulls slowly away (thank goodness, because I couldn’t get out with yer big truck in back of my wee lil’ Honda Element). 

Ok then.  Let’s do this lake thang!

It’s beautiful here.  There are small lakes all aboot and each one has different things going on.  I pulled up to the first one and there are 3 military dudes fishing and a family in an RV having lunch.  Hiked a wee bit on the back dirt road, then drove around to the swimming lake.  And lakes here are pretty much pond size…GAH!  Swimming lake covered in a blanket of screaming and running children!  AH!  No!!  The beach part is fairly small too so it may be awkward for me to just plop down by a family and run into the water, huh?  Plus………..the children………..they are EVERYWHERE!!!!  GO!  I found a path that went through the woods and connected to another small lake.  Took some pictures, walked back, got in my car and drove to the first lake!  This un’s quiet and if I sneak through the woods area here no one will even know that I am here!  I sat on the edge of the lake at a picnic table for…ever!!!  It was amazing and quiet and the military dudes completely ignored me!  YAY!!!!!

Back to the cabin!   Hanging out on the deck with a PBR and some sunshine!  AH!  Eat Amber!  1 cheese stick, a bread roll, and ½ bag of single serving Fritos do not constitute a healthy diet!  Stop it!!! 

Today is Thursday.  I’m pretty sure Ryan came home after work and then we went out?  I don’t remember…AH!  It’s not written down anywhere and I didn’t log anything on the Facebook.  I’m gonna assume that we went to the Marlin again.  Hmmmmmmm…(shrug)

I do know that we were up late again because the sun was still out, but it was midnight.  Awesome. 

WAIT!  NO!  Phineas Gauge was THIS night!!!!  We did go to the Marlin!  Ryan played!  Phew!  I remembered!!!  YAY!!!!!  Duff dude was THIS night.  Ok, so the last part of 07/20 was wrong...please re-read as if it's the 21st.  Gosh!  Probably should have done this earlier, huh?  Whoops!