That time the roadtrip ended...

We are back for one final hurrah as promised...albiet a bit delayed :) Without delay, on with the show!


The morning after we arrived back in Denver from Vegas, we hopped in the car and drove for a total of 16 hours straight back to Mad-town, with a brief stop at a Courtyard Marriott in Omaha, Nebraska. Mostly, we reminisced and lamented the end of our road trip and we took a few final pictures, the most memorable of which we now post:

Our last Marriott stay in Omaha, Nebraska. We had just finished watching The Bachelorette finale and had indulged in a celebratory bottle of wine. Katie's remark after taking this self-timed picture "Well...ONE of us looks cute" clearly referencing herself since Emmie's eyes are closed and Parm has a wonk eye. Fail.

Our final "take a picture of the unsuspecting person in the back seat asleep against the cooler" photo

After stopping for some Italian food, Emmie drove away with a drink on top of the car (left by Katie) and Parm's bike almost fell off the bike rack going 75 miles an hour. Other than that, uneventful.


Debatably our favorite driving home memory, however, is on the way into Madison, when we screamed and hollered at the top of our lungs as we passed certain familiar landmarks... You had to be there, but it got pretty hilarious ;) 


And now the moment you've all been waiting (and waiting) for...our closing profiles and superlative results!


Parm's personal bits:

Things you will most miss about the road trip:

Doing whatever the hell we feel like during the day – ‘hey want to go for a hike/visit that 300 ft statue of Paul Bunyon, take 376 jumping pictures in a row, do tequila shots at 2p on a Tuesday, lay out at the pool again, etc’ – for as much as we said we were neurotic about planning, everyday was a completely new adventure.

Getting to tell people what we were doing – we got every possible reaction from disbelief to ‘gnarly!’ when we told people that we’d quit our jobs and were jaunting around the Western US for two months. A small handful of folks thought we’d really been fired from our jobs and others asked if we had room for them. Surprisingly, it was our parent’s generation that seemed most excited and encouraging for us while we got some “whoa….really???” questionable responses from people our own age. Thumbs up baby boomers, thumbs up. 

Things you will NOT miss about the road trip:
PACKING AND UNPACKING THE CAR. Oh my gosh, I don’t know if it’s possible to hate an activity as much as I hated shoving all our earthly belongings (ok, two month’s worth) into and out of the back of Snoop every day. I’m not exactly someone who deals with clutter well and I feel claustrophobic by the amount of stuff shoved into that car on a daily basis. I may or may not have had a breakdown or two over having to unload the car after someone (nameless!) needed to access something at the bottom of the trunk less than five minutes after loading…next time I will hire a pocket-sized porter to travel with us. 

As much entertainment as I got out of this blog and for as much as I will forever cherish having the trip documented here, Blogger really sucks and has a pretty crappy user interface. That's right, I found the opportunity to use the term "user interface" in my everyday life. #there'ssomefeedbackforyougoogle

Oh and if I never smell the "cooler smell" again for the rest of my life, it will be too soon. 

Favorite places visited on the trip:

San Diego – gorgeous weather, beaches, awesome Mexican food, family and a rockin hangover…what’s not to love. Seriously though, I fell in love with this stunning and slightly funky city so much that I seriously considered moving here. One day San Diego, one day.

Vancouver – a longtime lover of the Pacific Northwest, I’ve had Seattle and Oregon’s Wilamette Valley on my short list of favorite places since I was a kid so it’s no surprise that I loved Vancouver as well. The city is modern, easy to access, and has a great variety of outdoor activities to be had as well. The mysterious fog that slowly rolls into the bay adds a sense of exploration and adventure to each day. Extra bonus points for having a connection to the Olympics and my new interest in hockey. 

Post your favorite picture from the trip

This was tough but I think this Crater Lake picture wins out for me and here’s why: Crater Lake is stunning. The deep blue water simply takes your breath away as you peer into its mirror-like appearance surrounded by deep green evergreen trees and crisp white snow. This was the most beautiful day as well with ever-so-slight wisps of clouds in the sky as we went on a memorable snowshoe hike with Ranger Emily. I felt like the star snowshoeing pupil as I got to run to the front of the hike to talk with Ranger Emily about her career and then (tried to) laugh as she called her Ranger buddies to rescue us when we locked the keys in the car. 

Three words to describe your favorite thing that happened not detailed in the blog to protect the innocent:

Felon, “those girls”, tie

What's up next?

I’ve moved to Denver! After some soul searching and career delays I realized the call of great friends and beautiful mountains was too much to deny and have joined the crew of Madison transplants here in the West. Katie and I continue to rock out together nearly every day and are blogging together as I type this. I found an awesome old Victorian house on the park here and two even more awesome roommates on craigslist and we’re having a blast together. As much as I love to travel, I am loving being in one place more than anything right now and have been able to commit to volunteer activities with Special Olympics and a homeless day shelter multiple times each week. The job hunt continues as well as the whole “what do I want to do with my life” discussion. Latest thoughts today include Social Work, Project Management and becoming an Olympian. My preferred is obviously the latter but I’m open to additional options as well – let me know your thoughts. The three of us Skype weekly, comment on our long hair growth and miss Emmie dearly. 

Emmie's personal bits:

Things you will most miss about the road trip: 
Ohhh this could take awhile. I'll stick with the big stuff. People's reactions when we told them what we were doing ("Wait...so you quit your jobs!!??...and you just went...for two months...?!"), not knowing what day or date it is because it simply doesn't matter, being surrounded by clean air and majestic beauty, getting into halfdome at night and seeing Katie and Parm nestled in sleeping bags reading with their headlamps on, learning new factoids everyday, getting a sweet tan, writing the blog and re-reading the blog ad nauseum because we think we're hilarious, truly seeing God in nature, playing the game "what meeting would I be in right now?" when we were somewhere awesome, meeting Katie and Parms' extended families, spending time with old friends and glimpsing their new lives, sitting and writing post cards or staring out the window, having time to feel and absorb the big picture as opposed to just thinking about it, snacks in the cooler particularly the snacks from Google, feeling legit and outdoorsy when doing things like fixing our bike rack starting fires, or cooking on our cookstove, verifying Katie Parm and I really are best friends because we did not kill each other, listening to our road trip playlist specifically TPain and IJHS, the incredible hospitality we received, having the opportunity to do an aerobic or outdoor activity everyday, taking pictures of Katie and Parm in bike shorts, the sense at all times that we are young, free, and on the adventure of a lifetime...the surreal feeling that we actually did it.

Things you will NOT miss about the road trip: 
Unloading and reloading Snoop, the smell of the cooler, paying for gas in California (ohhhh wait, I'm still doing that), dealing with other project managers who don't just believe but *know* their way is the only way (oh wait, I'm still doing that too...), the toiletry bag and all the random stuff that exploded in there, being the lightest sleeper known to man and sleeping outdoors with two other people in close quarters, being too tired to function.

Favorite places visited on the trip: 
San Diego because it was beautiful, perfect, and origin of the road trip planning. Notable shout outs to all the national parks, because I've never seen anything as beautiful as Yellowstone, Glacier, Redwood, Crater, Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon. I can't even discriminate.

Post your favorite picture from the trip (JUST ONE!)

This was difficult, but I have to go with our Subaru magazine picture. This captures what I'll remember most about the trip; the three of us, the wild outdoors and Snoop. We may have put some dents in Parm's hood (seriously, that may have been what did it) but this is a money shot. I can almost smell the cooler now. *Tear* 

Three words to describe your favorite thing that happened not detailed in the blog to protect the innocent:
Felon, seal, irish

What's up next? 
I am now in LA pursuing an acting career and being professionally AWESOME. Just kidding. I am in the city of angels but I'm doing a year long service project working at St. Vincent hospital in Guest Relations and Community Outreach with the Vincentian Service Corp West. It's been enjoyable so far, and shocking to see how vast the needs are in this community. I do miss Madison and Katie and Parm and the BBRT! After this, maybe back to skewl...but who knows.

Katie's personal bits:

Things you will most miss about the road trip: So much. Going somewhere new every day, looking out the car windows to new scenery, listening to Emmie’s sweet Road Trip playlist, being surrounded by the most beautiful nature and reminding myself of God’s presence in on a regular basis, cracking inside jokes every 15 min, watching Emmie create campfires, cooking on-the-fly camping dinners, not being hooked up to my computer for the majority of the day, calling my family from the road and telling them about our adventures, taking at least 100 pictures per day, wearing spandex pants most days, living with two best friends and creating amazing memories, sitting with my legs up against the window frame in the back of the Subaru, drinking a glass of wine together for dinner most nights, getting lots of sun, adventuring every day, spending time with old and new friends, my family and Parm’s family, reading the blog on our phones when we were on boring drives, always having a new destination to look forward to...

Things you will NOT miss about the road trip: Deciding what to do as a group (as previously stated, we’re all a bit Type A, but learned to compromise well), having a different pillow most nights, the cooler smell, all my road trip clothes, sleeping in a sleeping bag, fast food, being forced to listen to a certain music video.... oh wait, Parm still makes me watch pretty much every day here...

Favorite places visited on the trip: 
EVERYWHERE! My favorite drive was probably through Big Sur for the dramatic contrast of lushly green mountains and ocean crashing into lava rocks; favorite mountain destination was Banff for the majestic and snow-capped peaks that were nestled amidst untouched and dense pine forests; favorite beach destination was San Diego for the beautiful weather, newly learned skills of surfing and sea kayaking, and wonderful and fun hosts in both Coronado and Carlsbad; favorite day was probably Parm’s b-day in San Diego.

Post your favorite picture from the trip (JUST ONE!)

Chillin illegally on a dock at St. Mary's Lake in Glacier - We were actually supposed to be able to take a boat tour around the lake from this dock, but apparently those don't start until July. I can still feel our relief to finally be enjoying the mountains from the water's edge after about 4 hours of travel rife with frustrations. For me, this captures the spirit of the road trip - if there isn't a boat tour, no big deal, enjoy soaking up the sun on the dock!

Three words to describe your favorite thing that happened not detailed in the blog to protect the innocent: Tie, Lucky Charms, Incubus

What's up next? I moved back to Denver after the road trip, where I was joined recently by Parm. It’s been so peaceful and heartening to have wonderful friends and my parents within just a few miles of me! Except Emmie, who’s coming to visit in just a few weeks. I’m looking for consulting project management jobs, and volunteering at a homeless hospitality center in the meantime. I feel like I'm really in the right place with the right people right now, and am so happy with where I'm at :)

Stats: 

Total number of pictures of all three of us taken: Approximately 3,000 (seriously.)

Total mileage driven: 10,438 miles...agh! doubled Snoop's mileage - but hey, it's a car :)

Estimated number of bug deaths via Snoop windshield: 1.25 million

Total number of "gold stars" awarded (via the blog): 22

The breakdown of camping versus hotel versus friends and/or family: 7 camping, 23 hotel, 30 friends/family... it was really cold, and there was crazy wildlife, so the camping number is lower than planned.
Estimated number of hitchhikers: 20... we were counting at one point, but lost track... 

Superlatives - OUTCOMES!!!
We each answered a few of the questions - the ones that Parm answered are in green, Emmie's are in pink, and Katie's are in blue. 

• 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): Somehow we actually made it through the entire trip without a single flat tire on either the car or our bikes. The bikes however were a pain in the ass to me and I’ll say it again – if I did this trip over I’d just rent bikes whenever we wanted to ride instead of toting them across the entire country. Not being able to open the back of the car was a pain (as is chronicled in my “what I will NOT miss about the roadtrip” section).
  •   First person to get pirate coded: Thankfully I’m the one writing this section or you might get the wrong answer. There was one VERY, VERY BRIEF moment when it looked as though Katie and Emmie were going to Pirate Code me. ME! The purveyor of Pirate Coding itself! Ah, blasphemy! The alleged incident occurred in Vegas when Katie and Emmie ran away from me to go see the MGM Lions. I was happily singing along to Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler” as I played the themed slot machine of the same name when I looked up to see no one in sight. Thankfully I had a 6^th sense that the lions weren’t even out in the cage and the girls came back. #whopickslionsoverkennyrogers?
  •   First person to totally freak out: Ah, such a good question - I could go through a few memorable freak outs from the trip - Katie swearing her life was in shambles when she was preoccupied on the dance floor in Vegas while Emmie and I took a mini photo shoot in the club, me dropping my bag like it was on fire when I'd had enough of loading the car, Emmie giving the mean stink eye (no, it wasn't just her face) when she was starving for food in Yosemite. I did command my alone time when needed, Katie got a few massages and Emmie ate when instructed so I'd say we managed our freak outs well. My favorite freak out of the trip must go to Miss Katie for her insane and 180 degree Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde freakout in Telluride over the missing pullout couch. Homegirl went crrrrazy!
  •   Person most likely to suction herself like a barnacle to other campers when it gets cold at night: One of our only true cold camping experiences was in Yellowstone near the beginning of the trip with 35-40 degree temperatures overnight. If you remember, this was also the same evening where Katie’s prediction of meeting three gentlemen suitors came true and I nearly peed in my sleeping bag out of fear for the grizzly seen traipsing through the campsite. I’d say Emmie and I suctioned ourselves together when we awoke to me saying “I am paralyzed with fear” and ran like the wind to the bathroom together where we collapsed into laughter at 3am.
  •   First person to ask for directions when we get lost: I honestly cannot remember this for the life of me however I'm going to give the award to Katie as she's always the one most likely to ask for directions, smile at a questionable man giving us the creepy eye and ask a lengthy question right when she's ready for a date to end...I'm often nearby rolling my eyes as she asks the middle-aged skate instructor for a lesson at the roller rink and then ends up holding hands with him during the couples skate as she looks bewildered that he's asked for her number. #reallykatie,really? In all honesty though, Katie's outgoing nature seriously saved us a major headache on Day #2 when she chatted up Ranger John Brooks about the drive into Yellowstone. And no, I'm not referring to her letting him know she went there once as a kid - he informed us that our planned route was closed due to snowfall and rerouted us 200 miles north. 
  
  
  
  
• First person to burst into tears: You can't see this, but I'm giving myself a pat on the back. My prediction that Parm would tear up at Mt. Rushmore was dead on. As soon as they asked any veterans or active military to join the ranger on the stage during the evening display, she was toast.

• First person to find a "lovely gentleman suitor" (that's for you Mom and Dad): Well...I'll say this. We didn't meet any gentlemen. We met plenty of boys, none of whom were gentlemen **wink** Shout out to Katie McGuckin for her predictability, and you know what incident I'm talking about. Parm, it was like "a backlit canopy with holes punched in it", and I discovered they don't sell lucky charms in Ireland..so there you go.

• Person most likely to get seriously Injured: I don't even take much delight in reporting it was Katie, because I knew that would be the case before we ever left Madison. Katie, though she made it to Denver with only minor injuries, met her match on "Screaming Mimi" a.k.a. "Screaming Katie." So Parm and I were both right.

• First person to touch the Pacific Ocean: I'm glad I was assigned to this one, because Katie and Parm disagree about who was first based on technicalities. Parm may send me hate mail for about a month, but I will concede after three months of staying quiet that I agree with Katie and that touching the water in Vancouver counts. But it should be noted that it was NOT me as everyone predicted.

• Person most likely to meet a celebrity in L.A.: WELL this is pretty incredible/ridiculous. So we are driving back through Nebraska, with only a few hours left in the roadtrip and we were recounting some very amusing events in vegas, most notably when our shuttle broke down in the middle of the Vegas strip. But anyhow this reminded me that I thought I saw Linda Hogan, wife of Hulk Hogan, in our hotel lobby as we were leaving, but that I got distracted by the shuttle drama so I forgot to tell Katie and Parm. Parm immediately whips out her cell phone and confirms that while Linda Hogan lives in Florida, she was in Vegas that day hanging out with the Hoff, no less! UMMM CLUTCH! E list celebrity sighting by Emmie. So Parm's prediction was dead on, although it was in Vegas not LA.

• Person who wins the award for campfire chef du jour:  This would have to be Parm. She made many a campfire creation to go with our Mountain House main dishes, such as cous-cous with stewed tomatoes and spices (although that one was a little spicey), PB&J sandwiches with marshmallows, honey and PB,  Parm’s Secret Surprise #1 (consisted of toffee, cereal, and something else I can’t remember), and good pairings of random soups/stuffing with our Mountain House goods. 

• First place where we consider turning around and going home:  I think the only place we considered it was the night before we left, when Parm and Emmie took Snoop the Subaru out for a spin with the bike rack and it swayed back and forth quite a bit (we discovered that this was normal throughout the road trip). At our Yellowstone campsite (the third night of the trip), Emmie and Parm may have considered turning around, or at least ditching the whole camping idea, when we heard that there was a Grizzly Bear cub wandering around our campsite in the morning. I maintained that we were ok because we had bear spray. 

• 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:  Well, we all actually ended up subscribing to the gold star way of thinking throughout the trip, as evidenced by us awarding gold stars on the blog. Although I will say that I think Parm requested the most gold stars, especially when she won Bananagrams.

• First person to inappropriately use their can of mace (thanks Mr. McGuckin!):  Although we did have our can of bear mace made handy at all times while in the mountains, we were lucky enough to never have to spray either people or bear mace throughout the trip. Although there were some close calls in the tent. We did a bear mace check nearly every night we camped out to make sure that it was easily accessible and we all knew where it was. The close calls went something like this: “So… if a bear were to come, how would I spray the mace again??” 

In summary, we'd like to give a major shout out and GOLD STAR to each and every one of you all, our loving readers. Your support, messages and vicarious living allowed us to have the time of our lives this summer and entertain ourselves by our own wit in the name of keeping up with friends and family. Let us know when you head out on your own roadtrips...we have a spreadsheet that might help with planning. #bbrtforever

Days 60 - 62: What happens in Vegas...

Stays in Vegas.

(except for a few pictures - enjoy! Love, Parm)

Blogging on the plane and enjoying one of our last first class upgrades.

#idontwannaloseelitestatus

If the library is another word for the madness known as Las Vegas.

We stayed at the Venetian - thanks Scotty for the upgrade!

View from our room overlooking the Venetian pool, the Mirage, and the Strip

Don't call me Shirley

don't ask

Kenny Rogers seems to find us everywhere, although we had less luck with Kenny in Vegas than at the snazzy Ho Chunk Casino in The Dells, WI where we played blacklight bingo.

KA by Cirque du Soleil - highly recommended! Also note Katie's Water World injury, a snazzy accessory for the requisite LVD (little Vegas dress).

Requisites for a good day after going out until 6am.

Correction to previous posting - thanks to Mrs. McGuckin for the recommendation to keep our mouths shut about Emmie getting married to that Irish guy and Katie being arrested for counting cards with the felon, it was a much better idea to just include some pictures. Wouldn't want readers getting the wrong idea (and good call from a parent's perspective).

Look forward to one final wrap-up blog post where we go back through our initial superlatives! We'll get there...I promise. :)

Days 54-59: Denver - In Memory of Pooh Bear

Well dear readers, the time has come. My last individual blog post other than the grand finale! You can't see this but a single tear is rolling down my cheek.

Our last official destination on the road trip was Denver, Colorado, the home of the incomprehensible and adorable Katie McGuckin, her sister Kelly, and her parents, Pat and Margaret McGuckin.

We drove north from Telluride (see Telluride blog post) to Denver and it took us a little over 6 hours. I always forget how far East Denver is within the state of Colorado. It should also be mentioned that I forget where certain states are entirely, so my geography is not stellar. We wanted to arrive in Denver in late afternoon so that we could meet up with our good friends Meghan Wons, Curtis Franklin (brother of Mike Franklin of Grand Canyon post fame), and Collin Hoffman, most of whom worked with us in Madison before moving to Colorado.

Notables on the drive:
1. We stopped at Cindy Bread at the foot of Mountain Village on the way out of Telluride for some delicious breakfast sandwiches and I forced everyone to listen to Allison Krauss for the first part of the drive because she is awesome.
2. We kept lamenting that Colorado was our last official road trip destination and were extremely dramatic  (e.g. "Guys, this is the last time we will play the lonely island single "IJHS"on the way to an official road trip destination in Snoop....waaaa!)
3. We were really bad about taking pictures, so I have no official documentation of this day whatsoever other than the evening portion.

When we arrived we were greeted by Mr. and Mrs McGuckin (sorry Parm, I can't call them by their first names, it just feels wrong now) who had made us some lovely appetizers. We are no strangers to the McGuckin household. Katie has brought huge groups of people to the casa de McGuckin over the last three years or so for numerous group trips camping or skiing in the Rockies. In fact, we used about half of Mr. M's camping gear for this trip. Thank you!! The McGuckins always cook the most wonderful food and are such thoughtful hosts, so it was no surprise that they had a delicious appetizer spread laid out for us. We also had our own rooms which was especially amazing since more than one of us was still fighting the cold that had lingered since San Diego.

Around 7PM we headed to Madison Street to see the house where Katie will be living at the conclusion of the road trip with ND grads Meghan Wons and Sarah Glatt. Katie hadn't seen her future diggs yet, so we took a brief tour. The house is adorable, has a great backyard and is at a great location. Katie was just thrilled until we found out that...BUM BUM BUUUUUUMMMMMM...she does not have a closet. Katie reaction was stone-faced exclaiming "I don't have a CLOSET" in the same tone and with the same amount of incredulousness as "You slept with my BOYFRIEND!" Parm and I found it slightly humorous because Katie has a lot of clothes... we'll just leave it at that :) We agreed that this necessitated an IKEA excursion for a standing closet.

Then we headed down the street to Madison's for a dinner with Meghan Wons. It was a reunion long time in coming, and we got to catch up with Meghan about her new job, future plans, and of course dish all the gossip and juicy details we couldn't post or completely down played on this blog. Toward the end of the dinner, Curtis joined us and we regaled him with additional road trip stories. We ended the night at  Katie and Meghan's, Collin and Sara joined us, and we spent time just catching up with one another. It was a really good night seeing old friends.

Madison girls reunion! If only Pohl, Canavan and Wons 1.0 were here

Meghan, Collin and Curtis were headed off the next day to go on a two week white water rafting trip through the grand canyon (I know badass right?) so we would not see them for the rest of our time in Denver.

Day 2
I'm going to keep the next day brief simply because there isn't a lot to stay. We did the following in this order:
1. Roused ourselves sometime between 10AM and 12PM. Did laundry.
2. We sat on our butts watching approximately 6 episodes of KUWK (Keeping Up With the Kardashians) In case you are wondering, there is a growing rift between Kourtney and her brother Rob because Rob does not like Kourtney's live in boyfriend, but when Rob gets appendicitis, they realize that they need to come together as a family. #rottingmybrain (that was for you Parm)
3. We made brownie batter and ate it...and never cooked actual brownies. I don't know whether I am sad or proud to report that this was a common occurrence at the Renaissance apartments in Madison.
4. We blogged because people were yelling at us for being about 4 entries behind.
5. We had a delicious dinner with Mr. and Mrs. McGuckin and Sarah that evening. My favorite part of the dinner were the artichokes steamed to perfection with delicious dipping sauce, followed at a close second by the delicious steak. Yesssssssss.

Sarah (the new roommate), Mr. and Mrs. M, Parm and me. Please note the delicious appetizer plate and tasty wine...McGuckin staples! 

But the best part of the whole day was undoubtedly when we took these pictures in the traditional tribal hats that Katie's mom has on the table for decoration:

They are as heavy as they look. Princesses Parm and Emmie...Parm is holding up her arms like an egyptian although they are being blocked by flowers. I had to hold my crown because it was too small for my head.

One of my favorite pictures of Katie to date. Queen Margaret and Princess Katie. If only we'd put one on Mr. McGuckin.

Day 3
I have been complaining this entire trip that we do not go to nearly enough amusement parks so on day three I talked the ladies into going to Water World, which is a water park near downtown Colorado where Katie spent some of her childhood. We packed ourselves some nice lunches and got there a little after noon. Lessons learned about water parks:

1. The demographics are very different than we remembered. The park was filled with teenagers and their friends on summer break who are attempting to flirt while simultaneously looking incredibly insecure and self conscious in their bathings suits OR couples on a date OR mothers/baby-sitters with children. There was almost no in between. Seeing as how we were three twenty-somethings alone trying to scope out sweet innertubes to use on rides, we did not exactly blend in. We received looks from several groups that translated to "What are you doing here, you must be losers without jobs..." To which we had no rebuttal.
2. Pavement is hot. Wear sandals or you burn your feet.
3. Wave pools waves are way less intense than we remembered, especially after spending the summer in a real ocean. But the level of physical danger is much higher than we remembered- the pool is so packed that there are bodies in tubes flying everywhere, drowning small children, smacking people in the face.
3. Speed slides are just as fun as I remembered, if not FUNNER (I am aware that is not a real word)
4. Do not go on the ride "Screaming Mimi" or you end up like this

The first aid station at Water World, manned by a 17-year-old who clearly had very little first aid training.

That's right ladies and gentleman, our prediction that Katie would be the first to be seriously injured was accurate. Katie and I took a topple on "Screaming Mimi" (which we obviously renamed to "Screaming Katie")where you are supposed to glide across the water on a water sled into a large pool after speeding down a big hill. Katie scraped her right leg along the bottom of the pool as we fell. It was bleeding quite a bit and she had some major scarring on her knee! We all felt very bad for her because it looked painful :( but once we knew she was ok, we were amused that our prediction came true. She was a trooper.

After Katie got bandaged up, we headed out to dinner with the McGuckins at one of their favorite Italian restaurants. We especially loved the truffle that was sprinkled on several of the dishes. Delicioso!

Dinner crew!

We also did a preliminary celebration of Mrs. McGuckin's birthday! Happy Birthday round 1!

To close out the night we headed to downtown Colorado to the new rooftop bar in the Hilton which had a beautiful view of the city as well as the mountains and had a draaaank. We attempted to take some pictures, but they are very dark. We did get a nice one of Katie and our lovely hosts though!

Day 4
The next day was Saturday and we went on a great bike ride with Mr. and Mrs. McGuckin downtown along the riverwalk...without Katie due to her knee :( The scenery was beautiful and we stopped at the ginormous REI downtown which amazed us- we are in Colorado after all! Then we headed back and stopped at Whole Foods for delicious brunch supplies which Mr. McGuckin expertly carried/toted while biking. We ate like kings once again! Here is a snapshot of the delicious breakfast cooked by the McGuckins!

Fruit salad, delicious eggs

Candid shot of the biker gang

That afternoon, we did some shopping for necessities with Mrs. McGuckin very close to where Katie grew up in Denver, and then we went to mass at their parish. After mass, we went to dinner at a local burger joint per Mrs. McGuckin's request that was absolutely delicious and many of us got milkshakes. More good food!! One of the servers had gone to school with Katie, so that was a cool coincidence. The capstone on the day was when we went to blockbuster and actually rented HomeWard Bound, the movie we have been non-stop referencing throughout the blog. We actually watched it on Sunday, but it was as good as I remembered and I'm pretty sure I saw both Parm and Katie crying at the end when Shadow comes limping through the backyard to Peter! Oh wait, that was me...

Happy Birthday to Mrs. M!

We also had a brief celebration for Mrs. McGuckins birthday that evening. Parm baked some scrumptious angel food cake and we sang Happy Birthday. We need to take a moment to recognize that Katie's family dog, Pooh Bear is in this picture, because when we arrived back in Madison we received word from the McGuckins that he passed away :( Rest in peace Pooh Bear. I'm glad this happy family moment is captured on the blog.


Day 5
We chilled, we watched Homeward Bound, we gave Mrs. McGuckin some birthday gifts which were lovely, and then we got ready to head to Jazz in the Park to meet up with Katie's high school friends in the evening, more specifically Tim of Glacier post fame! In preparation Mrs. McGuckin helped us make some chicken salad among other  items to take for dinner...which we left in the fridge. Luckily, we were able to eat from other people's picnic supplies, and we had brought some "beverages" as well. We couldn't really hear any jazz from where we were sitting, but it was fun to hang out and see all the "Colorado chicks" (uniform: no make-up or very little make-up, sandals, pants or capri's made out of cargo or other linen, non name brand tank-top, chocos (sp?) optional) and we made note that there were a lot of dudes around. Always nice.

Chicks in the park. Note the lack of chicken salad

Tim whose birthday is soon approaching!!

Afterwards we headed to a bar and played some Connect Four which Katie and Parm won. It should be mentioned that they got into a fight while trying to figure out which move to make. Competiparm! They took this victory shot which Tim and I hijacked being the sore losers that we are (we're #1!!)

That's Tim's hand indicating that WE are #1 and I cut Parm out of the picture. Muahahahaha

The most important development of the night, however, was that we decided we weren't ready to be done with the BBRT. We just weren't! The road trip had been so fun and we wanted to go out with a bang. So we decided with the help of Tim and Katie's other friend "Scram" (yeah I don't know how that name came about) that we should take a last minute trip somewhere tomorrow. Anywhere. Yeah. Are we serious? people kept asking. We quit our jobs and went on a two month road trip, hell yeah we're serious! We're CRAZY b*tches (censoring for you mom). So we started listing locations on a paper plate and we came up with the following.

Good idea, whoever decided to take a picture of this plate (wasn't me)

Of course price is a factor. So, which did we choose? Are you dying to know? Only the next blog post will tell! Or, spoiler alert, you can look at our facebook pictures. But don't! We dropped off Tim and woke up the next day to get ready for the last leg of the trip!

To end this post, a huge shout-out and thank you to the McGuckins! You are always the most thoughtful and wonderful hosts. Particularly in that when we are at your home you don't treat us as visitors, you makes us feel like we are at home! Thank you thank you thank you for everything you do for us from food, to trips, to beds/humidifiers, to great company. Oh and for Katie too. She's pretty great :)

Till the finale blog readers, and our mysterious and truly FINAL road trip stop!