Day 1: South Dakota - Cornparisons

Well, we survived Day 1 with 3 girls, 1 Subaru, 3 bikes and way too much stuff...anyone know someone in western South Dakota in need of some extra tank tops and sandals?

The day by the numbers:

• 10 deer carcasses spotted on the side of the road
• 1 tire-pressure light crisis averted (props to Emmie for knowing how to read good)
• 3 random stops
• 2 meatball subs consumed at Subway
• 14 hours from leaving Madison to arriving in Rapid City, SD
• 2 serious thunderstorms outdriven (props to my Oklahoma tornado spotting signs and Weather.com's iPhone app)
• 40 mile per hour winds along I-90
• 72 Wall Drug signs spotted (ok, approximation, but probably close)
• 1 awesome time at the world's ONLY Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD

If life hasn't taken you through Mitchell, SD to see the infamous Corn Palace yet, let me tell you a bit about it - it's a corny and buttery good time!

On the left we have the lovely palace itself which is covered in corn murals each year.

The palace was originally built in 1892 to allow "early settlers to display the fruits (or veggies) of their harvest on the building exterior in order to prove the fertility of South Dakota soil." We learned this and a number of other facts during an entertaining and informative video presentation photographed below.

Katie and me with our new friend Cornelius. I really can't make this stuff up :)

To the left we have a "Cornparison" (literally, no joke) of the differences between the Native Americans and the settlers in South Dakota.

Above the stage on the left of the stage you can see the farmer with his homestead, cattle and religion. The Native American folks on the right have a teepee, bison and mother nature to cornpare.

Our young tour guide used the term cornparison without blinking and eye and I tried unsuccessfully not to lose it.

Before you read the meet and greets below...

here's the explanation of our matching entries. Katie, Parm and I wrote up a profile/template together that we thought would help family and friends reading the blog who don't know all of us get to know us, and so we could make some predictions about the trip. We filled out the answers separately without consulting each other or our posts- and I personally think it turned out AWESOME. 

Our last post on the blog at the end of the trip will feature who really won each superlative to see which of our predictions came true. Big Bird ROADTRIP 2011!

Meet Emmie

Standing at 5'9'' coming in at a weight undisclosed….Emmie "Brick House" Calland

Nicknames: Emmit, E-Cal, Legs Eleven (google this one for more information), Milk Bandit, E-Cizzle

Best Known Quotes:  "Can we HONS?"(Hang Out Non Stop) "He's tall…" "BAM!"  and various quotes stolen from 30 Rock, including but not limited to "What the WHAT?!" "I want to go to there" and "I heard you singing night cheese"

Porn Star Name (Name of your first pet, name of the street you grew up on): 

Ninja Rocklynn (worst porn star name ever, Katie's is HILARIOUS)

Things you will most miss about Madison: Running the bike trails, driving up John Nolen at night, winter activities (ice skating, broomball), long islands at the Red Shed/dancing my face off, the food in Madison (so many good restaurants!), Noodles and Company, my amazing friends

Places you are most excited to visit on the trip: I haven't been to any of the national parks out west, so I'm particularly pumped for those, specifically Glacier and Yellowstone. I've been talking about going to the San Diego zoo ever since I saw it on a VHS tape at age 6, so needless to say excited for that, and the BEACH in San Diego.  

Emmie's Predicted Superlatives: 

• First person to successfully change a bike/car tire (or first girl to flag down a man to help her with this task by showing skin or batting her eyes): Well, seeing as how I don't know how to do either, and Parm and Katie recently went to a class about how to change tires, either one of them would probably be first. Don't worry, I would "supervise" by sitting in the car and eating our snacks out of the cooler. But if their efforts were not successful, I could help with the flagging down a man part. 
• First person to burst into tears: Memorial day weekend + patriotic music + Mt. Rushmore a la the movie National Treasure II= Parm crying tears of sentimentiality and joy.
• Person who wins the award for campfire chef du jour: Parm prides herself on her culinary creations when she doesn't have much to work with and they are pretttty tasty, so I'd say Parm. Although she has also been pushing those instant meals  I think are disgusting, so subtract points for that.
• First person to ask for directions when we get lost: Me. Parm would likely be trying to reference a map of some kind, Katie would be project managing, and I would probably get frustrated and just ask someone. 
• First person to find a "lovely gentleman suitor" (that's for you Mom and Dad): McGuckin, with her bubbly personality and looks, picks up men in very unlikely places. I have several examples, but I won't list them here to protect the innocent. 
• First place where we consider turning around and going home: It took me and Parm about two hours to figure out the bike rack situation the night before we left, and it was wobbling all over the place during the test drive. As we pull onto John Nolen, the subaru weighed down with 5X more stuff than we need, and the bike rack listing into the outside lane, Parm looks at me and says, "What the hell are we thinking?" So, we hadn't left Madison before we considered turning back. But if we are only counting AFTER we left, then probably Yellowstone when it is FREEZING at night.
• Person most likely to suction herself like a barnacle to other campers when it gets cold at night: Me. I am typically not a cuddler. I cherish personal space while sleeping. But if I get cold, you better believe I will be all up in your grill. Katie experienced this first hand when the heat went out over New Years. 
• Person most likely to get seriously Injured: Katie McGuckin. Hands down. She gets injured walking to or from the capitol square on a monthly basis, so when you throw in hiking, biking, and other semi-dangerous activities, injuries are unavoidable. 
• Person most likely to request a "gold star" anytime she wins a competition that she made up and neither Katie nor Emmie agreed to participate in in the first place: For those of you reading this who don't know me very well, this is clearly a superlative I wrote to make fun of Parm and her competitive spirit. So…Parm. 
• First person to totally freak out: This is a toss up between me and Parm. If I don't get food in a timely manner, I completely freak out. If Parm doesn't get alone time, she completely freaks out.
• First person to touch the Pacific Ocean: Probably me, I usually just plunge in. 
• First person to inappropriately use their can of mace (thanks Mr. McGuckin!):  Katie loves to "practice" spraying the fake mace by having Parm attack her, and I'm pretty convinced that at some point Katie is going to accidentally use the real mace for this exercise and I'm going to have to take Parm to the hospital and bail Katie out of jail. 
• First person to get pirate coded: The logical answer is Katie, but I'm going to say Parm when we can't drag her away from Mt. Rushmore. 
• Person most likely to meet a celebrity in L.A.: Parm won't be there, and I have been known to meet some B-D list celebrities in my day (Jamie Foxx, Rob Lowe) so I'm going to say me. Hopefully it will be Tina Fey. 
• Best blogger- YOU BE THE JUDGE

Meet Katie!

Standing at 6'2 (or 5'5, depending on who you ask) coming in at a weight undisclosed…. KATIE MCGUCKIN.

Nicknames: K-Tizzle, McGooks, Gukes

Best Known Quotes: "BTW's," "your guys'" (ex: What is your guys' favorite city in the Western United States? Equivalent to y'all's, and a useful phrase for us Midwesterners)

Porn Star Name (Name of your first pet, name of the street you grew up on): Fluffly De La Rosa. That's right.

Things you will most miss about Madison: The people, the view of the capital from John Nolen Dr., cooking dinner with farmer's market buys, walking through the farmer's market on a sunny summer Saturday morning, seeing people I know everywhere I go, walking up State Street and perusing all the random gifts at the shops, having Noodles & Co. within walking distance, concerts on the square, cheese curds, spotted cow beer, dancing to live music at the union terrace, ice skating on the lakes and the way that we relish the short and glorious summers.

Places you are most excited to visit on the trip: Banff!! Every person I've talked to that's been there has said that it is a place you MUST visit. The glacier exploring and kayaking on Lake Louise sounds like it will be quite the adventure. And to think that Emmie and Parm wanted to take this off of the itinerary...

Katie's Predicted Superlatives:

• First person to successfully change a bike/car tire (or first girl to flag down a man to help her with this task by showing skin or batting her eyes): Parm to actually fix the tire, me to call AAA (thanks for the membership, mom and dad)
• First person to burst into tears: No one! This is a no-tears trip.
• Person who wins the award for campfire chef du jour: Me! Although both Parm and Emmie are excellent at making good things out of random ingredients, so this will be a close one.
• First person to ask for directions when we get lost: Emmie. Parm and I have too much faith in out navigation skillz and iPhones.
• First person to find a "lovely gentleman suitor" (that's for you Mom and Dad): All three of us at the same time! I think we'll meet a group of three strapping young men while camping in Banff.
• First place where we consider turning around and going home: Mount Rushmore if there isn't a cave of gold underneath it (Parm really has her hopes up after watching National Treasure 2 about 100 times).
• Person most likely to suction herself like a barnacle to other campers when it gets cold at night: This is a toss-up. I would say me, but Emmie has been known to do this on occasion. However, given that I am a more habitual spooner, I'm going to go with me.
• Person most likely to get seriously Injured: No one. This is an injury-free trip. Also, there are no sea urchins where we are going, so I should be safe. (I stepped on sea urchins when we were all in Greece two years ago and went to the Greek ER, where they prescribed soaking my feet in olive oil)
• Person most likely to request a "gold star" anytime she wins a competition that she made up and neither Katie nor Emmie agreed to participate in in the first place: Parm. Nuff Said.
• First person to totally freak out: Probably all three of us together when we get attacked by a bear. Good thing we have that bear mace (thanks, dad).
• First person to touch the Pacific Ocean: Emmie... She has the longest legs so can probably out-sprint Parm and me.
• First person to inappropriately use their can of mace (thanks Mr. McGuckin!): Emmie. She didn't get to practice with the fake mace!
• First person to get pirate coded: My goal is for this to not be me :)
• Person most likely to meet a celebrity in L.A.: Emmie. She knows way more B-list celebrities than Parm and me, so has a bigger pool to draw from.
• Best blogger: Emmie for most humorous posts, Parm for most consistent blogging.

Meet Parm

Standing at 5'6" (5'9" with Katie's measuring tape), coming in at a weight undisclosed….EMILY PARM.....!

Nicknames: Parm, E-Peezy, Em, and the new Young Thunder (or YT for my street folks)

Best Known Quotes: Pirate Code!

Porn Star Name (Name of your first pet, name of the street you grew up on): Miss Tabitha Terrace

Things you will most miss about Madison: The terrace in the summer, amazing bike paths, farmer's market, finding new hobbies each summer

Places you are most excited to visit on the trip:

• Oh my gosh, I am so pumped to see Mount Rushmore! My freakish love for the National Treasure movies will not be able to be contained when I see those big stone heads. Look forward to future blog posts of my photo shoot with me picking their noses, squeezing some prestigious heads and adding my own face as the 5th one. I may or may not be planning a Cibola scavenger hunt…and to think Katie and Emmie considered removing it from the itinerary! I'm also thrilled to see Vancouver as it's been on my list for a long time along with sea kayaking in southern California.

Parm's Predicted Superlatives:

• First person to successfully change a bike/car tire (or first girl to flag down a man to help her with this task by showing skin or batting her eyes): Well as Katie and I went to a bike tire changing class last week to shore up our skills, I think we'll win out over Emmie for sure. I'm going to give the advantage to me out of sheer competitiveness. However, I do think Katie would succeed in attracting help from a qualified member of the opposite sex first and am going to leave it at that but you could ask her why she was given a flyswatter last week if you're curious…

• First person to burst into tears: I think Katie's going to get sentimental about leaving Madison when we roll out at 6am on Monday and we'll see a few misty teardrops

• Person who wins the award for campfire chef du jour: This is actually an interesting one - Katie's excellent at planning grand meals but excels at focusing on a single meal at a time while I'm better at imagining the things we can compose from the random items we have. I'll give Katie the win at the beginning and I'll finish strong with the scrappy leftovers as evidenced by how the three of us ate for the past two weeks on $45. (Props to Emmie for frugality as well)

• First person to ask for directions when we get lost: Emmie - especially if she's hungry at the time. There's no messing around with trying to find where we're going when she needs to eat. I'll try to persuade the group that my internal compass is right while Katie fiddles with her iPhone for a signal.

• First person to find a "lovely gentleman suitor" (that's for you Mom and Dad): Katie, see flyswatter reference above.

• First place where we consider turning around and going home: The Canadian border gives me a bit of worry – I have a daily reminder set to make sure everyone remembers to bring their passports and wouldn’t be surprised if there are at least 5 points where we go "doh, I forgot…"

• Person most likely to suction herself like a barnacle to other campers when it gets cold at night: Emmie's "little radiator" qualities are appealing and Katie always has gloves so I'm going to try to position myself between them in the tent. I'm thinking I can use the angle of goldilocks - this one's too tall (E) and this one's too short (K) that I can be just right in the middle to stay warm. Probably shouldn't have posted that for them to read now.

• Person most likely to get seriously Injured: Oh man, Katie takes this one – I'm immediately reminded of the sea urchin experience in Greece.

• Person most likely to request a "gold star" anytime she wins a competition that she made up and neither Katie nor Emmie agreed to participate in in the first place: No comment on this one other than just wait until it's raining and the two of them get board…guess who's going to be the hero with thinking up sweet games then? A few I have in mind already: fastest person to set up/take down camp, unpack/repack car, practice those bike tire changing skills mentioned above...

• First person to totally freak out: As someone who is an only child and lives alone...I'm going to need some time away from these two. If I forget to "use my words" and tell them this, I could easily win this one. Thankfully, they know that too and I'm sure will remind me of this :)

• First person to touch the Pacific Ocean: Emmie – the girl has long legs and can run fast

• First person to inappropriately use their can of mace (thanks Mr. McGuckin!): Thankfully the mace came with practice canisters which we immediately used for a water fight..well maybe not but those things have an intense shot. I don't think Emmie got as many practice shots in as Katie and I did so we might have a leg up here.

• First person to get pirate coded: As this is one of my favorite sayings, I must explain - Pirate Code is "all who fall behind are left behind" and works wonderfully at getting folks moving when threatened. I've been trying for 20 years to become more patient...I still suck at waiting for people when it's time to get moving. Unfortunately, Katie does not share my love of being on time :) I can guarantee you she'll get pirate coded at some point in the trip. At least once. We did make a deal that if she's late in the morning after our agreed upon departure time, she'll buy Emmie and me coffee. I'm looking forward to the smell of fresh brewed coffee as we roll into small town diners each day.

• Person most likely to meet a celebrity in L.A.: I'm going to miss this part of the trip due to a weekend family reunion in Nebraska (shout out to the Starks!), so while I'm living it up farm-style and river tanking in horse troughs I'm going to expect some good stories to come out of the weekend in LA. I'll go on the record and say that Emmie will meet some D-list music celeb that only she knows about from her bizarre memory of one-hit pop wonders.

• Best blogger: Here's how I expect this to go down – Katie will be super gung-ho about the blog the whole time and an excellent photo poster but may get overloaded trying to keep up with Facebook too. Emmie will do it out of principle and while not as enthusiastic about is as Katie, will think of great one-liners to add along the road. I think I'll get freaked out by how much personal information is out here on the internets about us and then say what the hell and keep blogging.

Why Big Bird you ask?

When this crazy brainchild was hatched last summer, Emmie and I initially listed out a number of places we wanted to visit in Google Maps and a natural shape started to appear. After adding a few of Katie's must-see locations, it was obvious. We were Sesame Street geniuses.

Here's the map of our route:

A snap of everyone's favorite large yellow avian friend:

Need I say more?