tip o' the hat

Hello! It has been officially two weeks since me and Jackie started touring, pilgrimage-ing, traveling, tasting, etc the country. It has been so awesome to see how different each areas of the U.S. are! We are in Albuquerque now... at a Super 8. And it is indeed super! You know you are in a super hotel (on a budget) when there are two of the three: 1. Free breakfast 2. working TV and fridge in room 3. fitness center or pool. But I mean... if you have ANY of those, you pretty much struck gold.

So last time I updated I was... in... Sacramento? Perhaps... time has been kind of melting together recently. Well a few days ago, we decided to ditch Sacramento because it didn't seem as exciting so we went to San Francisco instead. From what we saw it was pretty meh. Construction, getting lost-ish kind of neutralized our cool experience by the bay eating yummy noms at the farmers market. Here are a couple pics I had to take just so there was proof we were actually there...



So... two phrases we have adapted over our journeys have been "Tip o' the Hat" or "Wag of the Finger." Jackie was familiar with these sayings from the Colbert Report and we have applied them to situations, restaurants, and places requiring some sort of judgement. "Tip of the hat" is what you say when you approve of something and "wag of the finger" is what you say when you disapprove. It is even cooler if you act out the phrase (which is really explaining the action) simultaneously. This creates a double effect and makes your opinion really credible. It is EVEN BETTER when you are actually wearing a hat and can LIT-RULLY tip your hat. Oh my... it gets me excited just thinking about it. In case you were curious... San Fran got a "tip of the wag of the fing-hat."



So after San Francisco we headed east where we discovered we liked eastern California MUCH BETTER. Yosemite and Death Valley were AWESOME! Although sandy... but still awesome! Marvelous sunsets... wonderful mountains. Just breathtaking. Definitely in my top 5 favorite areas. Unfortunately, my camera was stuffed in my bag somewhere so Jackie has the Yosemite pictures but I do have one our Yosemite campsite and one of Death Valley  (side note: IT WAS HOT AS THE DEVIL'S BUTT!)

 

So then was Vegas! It was just as hot as Death Valley and was in the 100's even into the night. This was a shock to us because we had been on the northern leg of our journey for the most part up until California. But we decided to make the most of it and we saw a Vegas show. Kind of... it was a hypnotist show at a night club with an open bar! Very fun. I wanted to volunteer because as many of you all know I don't mind having the attention on me at times ;) but I'm glad I didn't because... it being vegas and all.. it got a beeeet raunchy and it would have been quite embarrassing. But! I did have fun none-the-less... especially seeing all the flashing lights! Jackie even gambled away $5 on a machine she didn't know how to work and we saw the water show at the Bellagio for a bit! And then we walked home... haha probably not the best decision of our lives but hey what doesn't kill you makes you stronger...? OH AND what totally made Vegas a "tip of the hat" was that it had a Marie Callendar's and I finally got pie. DA BAYEST. I love me some sweets. I recently decided with a friend that my last meal on earth would consist of 3 main courses and 9 courses of desserts. I don't just have a sweet tooth... I am a walking talking sweet tooth. 

cheesing it up at the water show you can't see 

 Jackie struggling at Harrah's

 hahaha I found this funny

PIE PIE PIE PIE

Awwh... so then was our last day of camping. We went to the Grand Canyon after Vegas in time for sunset but alas, overcast. So up until this point I have been a solid Type 2 outdoorsy person (see my second entry). But after completing today, Jackie has hereby dubbed me a Type 1.65. I am so proud of myself! I can set up a tent, light a stove, go without showering for days, and hike an elevation shift of 1300 ft in 1.5 miles. Yes! We hiked the Grand Canyon today (man that was a good segue). 

Mather Campground in the Grand Canyon

 yay someone offered to take our picture!

 I ooh-ed and ahh-ed for sure

Ah, a sight for the soul

It was so big and I am so small!

 Jackie's winking unintentionally because her blue eyes are sensitive haha

yay hikinggg!!

 So I mentioned earlier that eastern California was in my top 5 favorite locations. I'll add on to that now. What I like about our trip is that we are just getting little tastes of places all over the country so we know where we want to go back and spend more time. I could spend weeks in certain places or never go back to others. For example, Las Vegas... I'd like to go back when I'm older and have a wee bit more money so I can stay in a hotel nicer than a Howard Johnson, gamble a bit, and see a Blue Man Group show or something. I now know that I don't really care all that much about Kalamazoo, Michigan. But... my top 5 places are ones I'd like to go back to and explore more! So here they are:

1. Gallatin forest, Montana
2. Rapid City, South Dakota
3. Inyo national forest, eastern California
4. Grand Canyon, Arizona
5. Chicago, Illinois

So there is the list for now! Hopefully after seeing Austin, Houston, New Orleans, and Nashville in the next few days that list will grow!

Back to right now... Albuquerque! We have waited until New Mexico to get Mexican food! We did our research and ended up going to straight to a place called "The Frontier" for some cheap New Mexican food. Mm. Green chiles. YUM! Here is my final picture of this post.. me being a cowboy:

Welp, game plan for the rest of the trip...Tomorrow is going to be a longggg day of driving 12 hours to Austin. It is the drive we have been dreading since we first planned the trip...more insanity may occur. Watch out. Random text messages are appreciated haha. The day after tomorrow will  make up for the drive though. We're going to explore Austin Sunday morning and afternoon... then drive to Houston and stay with my friend Kelley (and possibly go two-stepping!?).  Then on Monday we're driving to N'Orleans for CAJUN NOMSSS and Tuesday we're going to Nashville for some Honkytonkage :). Wednesday we drive to make a stop in Boone, NC where Jackie is moving to and then back to Harrisonburg later that night! I can't believe the final leg of our trip is here! So crazy! I probably wont update again until Monday night after Austin, Houston, and New Orleans but hopefully y'all were entertained by this long post! Thanks for reading and keeping up to date with my adventures :)