Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Where in the world..

have my blog posts gone? I don’t really have an excuse haha, some time's it is just nice to escape technology somehow.

More like where in the pacific northwestern/eastern midwest/western side of the continental divide have we been? got that? whatevs, me neither.

I can tell you, not likes it’s that big of a deal or anything. It was just all sorts of amazing to be outside of the narrow Rexburg bubble.

My sister and I drove back to Washington to surprise our parents, we literally just showed up at their house and they were shocked! I loved surprising them, the weather was beautiful Washington weather. I even got to see my best friend Chantel more than once, which is always a treat! When we drove through Spokane, we stayed with my brother Brandon and his wife, Genevieve and got to see my sweet niece Vivienne! I absolutely love Spokane, Brad denies it but we’re settling down there someday on our own farm *wink

So, the Geographic's- we lived in Wyoming and Nebraska for about two months. We drove through parts of Montana, and let me just say there are parts of those states that are beautiful! We drove through the Star Valley, Wyoming area and it is breathtaking! My sister and I actually got lost and weren’t supposed to go through there in the first place but I’m glad we did!  The church just announced they are going to build a temple there, so it will be even prettier now!

We lived in four different hotels. More like two really nice hotels, one motel, and one certifiable dump. As in, homeless-man-washing-his-clothes-in-the-hall-dump…mold-in-the-fridge-dump…afraid-to-shower-without-flip-flops-on. dump.

Cheyenne, Wyoming was great. AKA there was a tj maxx AND a health food store, but we weren’t there long enough for me to get my health on before we moved again.

Torrington, Wyoming was not as great. We stayed in a Days Inn, which the one’s I have stayed in are typically decent, but we struck out on this one. The front desk staff was NEVER there, and the 90’s phone they left at the front desk to call if needed was NEVER answered. When they did decide to grace us with their assistance, we were greeted with a bad attitude in pajamas and flippy floppies, who had seemed to have misplaced their teeth..a long time ago. Around the same time every night we were hit with a wave of cigarette smoke from the room below. Pot smoke often filled the halls frequently, along with the cleaning women who swore and were all around annoying, dirt filled the (supposedly) heated pool, oh and we weren’t within range for wifi…if only we were two doors down the hall, then we would have gotten full bars. This is from someone’s Yahoo review, “The entire down stairs smells like someone urinated in a jar of peanut butter, used it for an ashtray, stuck it in a microwave for 10 minutes, and dumped the contents in the hallway.” Hit the nail on the head.

When we finally left that dump, hoping for something better, we got something worse. The whole drive from Torrington to Alliance, Nebraska I was anxious and slightly cynical. I knew we were going somewhere worse. But then I saw a Holiday Inn Express and I got excited! Yay! Those places are nice! And then we got in the turn lane and turned into the parking lot across the street of the Holiday Inn Express. The AmericInn. From hell. It looked like a gray barn. And the inside was even worse. We were introduced to the Hotel Manager who spoke hardly any English and had wire-y hair coming out of his ears for three inches. The place smelled of mold, and moistness. We didn’t have a fridge or a microwave. He finally got a fridge for us and I had to sanitize the heck out of it because there was green mold, red spots and white fuzz everywhere. I was not  happy. We checked for bed bugs, none. I was a little disappointed that I couldn’t throw a toddler sized tantrum over bed bugs and move across the street. The staff all wore nursing scrubs and lived there. They used one room to leave the dumphole, specifically out of the ground level window, that they left open all day/night. Flies would appear out of thin air, and beetles would somehow crawl through the AC. My sister and I would check for crickets on each other, like monkeys every time we came back inside. The washer would only do a rinse cycle, and no one on staff “knew.” The hairy man who wouldn’t give me my quarters back generously let me finish my clothes in the industrial sized machines. Yeah, this is the place that I would shower with flip flops on, if it weren’t obvious. Want to know something funny? All the doors and keys were the same, so brad would always call me and make sure that I locked, dead bolted, and chained the door if I was alone. Oh, and not to answer the door. Not funny.

Did I mention the grasshoppers? two to three inches long, black crickets that were vicious, and praying mantises (manti?). Every time we’d walk off the sidewalk, or in a dark parking lot, it was like parting the red sea. Crickets and Grasshoppers just went nuts. And I would freaaak! I have a video, but I might just be too embarrassed to post it. There was an unplanned freak out and mix that with running and it’s quite the fuzzy video. Needless to say, I’ll feel blessed if I don’t have to go to Nebraska ever again. Plus, the devil grows his corn there.

Sheridan, Wyoming was awesome. There was a Safeway, Super Wal Mart and an Albertsons. Brad did really well there so we have fond memories of that place :] We went swimming almost every night, there was a nice laundry facility and a gym.

Anyway, we’re back in Rexburg now. Brad is a little bummed he didn’t really get a summer, I felt bad for him. He loves summer. While he was out selling all day, I stayed at the hotel working out and dreaming of food. Summer sales is not good for your health, throw in a modified diet and it’s cry worthy. Literally, I’d stand in front of the freezer section trying not to cry. I ate very simple while we were there- granola, coconut milk, almonds, whatever allergy friendly snack bars I could find, fresh fruit and veggies and some Amy’s Organic meals (if I could find them.) After a few weeks of doing hard workouts everyday I noticed I was in much better shape and seeing results much faster than I was before. I was curious as to how many calories I was getting a day and on average it was 1300! When we moved into our new apartment in Rexburg, my sister stayed with us for two weeks, (and so did my parents! I loved it!) My sister used my scale and said it was wrong because she thought she was heavier than that, so I weighed myself too and it was definitely wrong. Turns out it was right, because she weighed the same on another scale at her in laws! She called me up and we laughed at the fact that both lost weight because there just wasn’t anything to eat! Turns out I lost  five lbs, which was nice because I plateaued in the early summer and couldn’t get past it.

Brad and I cannot wait for next summer! He did so well, and Vivint was good to us! Since he is on track during the summer season, he’s going to take online classes to keep his student status so he can sell the whole summer. Who knows where we’ll be next summer, I’m just glad it’s not Rexburg!

Coming up next is a major phone dump of pictures and vids. I have a ton!

1 comments:

Stephanie Vogel said...

Ummm I think I might just link up this blog post to summarize my summer haha this is amazing and perfect! You rock at describing this summer lol

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