All Gone to Look for America

Herding Cattle. Catching King Crabs and Cliff Diving.

2010-08-16T22:34:00.006-04:00

Alright, alright. We know, we owe a huge apology to our blog followers. We did not embark on amazing journey we intended to. Although, we had good reasons.

First and foremost we just graduated college. That equals poor...broke...skint. The exact opposite that Swizz Beatz song "Money in the Bank" and more like Travis McCoy's "I wanna be a Billionaire" but like we would even settle for "I wanna be a 90,000aire". Emily has a job (but most of that money goes to her shoe addiction..think Karen Walker collection size) but sadly Katie doesn't start her job until the end of August and even then she won't be making much working for the Big Cheese. Damn that George Clooney for not lending a helping hand like we had hoped. Well George, maybe we won't go see your new movie, see how that feels!

Second of all, we didn't have the time. Between Emily working all the time and running like a maniac though Pittsburgh at all hours of the day and into the night and Katie taking summer classes, we didn't even have time to go to the most spectacular, cultural experience in Saxonburg....the Carnival, let alone spend a month driving across the United States seeing Giant Beings. If you know Emily and I you know how devastated we were that we couldn't spend time with our favorite carnies, I'm still shocked it only took Emily a little over 2 weeks go get out of bed from the depression of it all.

Now we have many more excuses, but all of you get the gist. But there is hope! We do plan on making this road trip sometime in our lifetime...when we have money to do it (COME ON GEORGE...PLEASEE). We figured that we would keep this blog going, so it would push us to save and do it someday.

We already have a new idea of one of our stops.

2 words. Cattle Drive.

What could be more fun than the thought of Emily and I herding cattle around for a week or so. Living in tents. Not showering. Using the great outdoors as our bathroom. (I wonder if they would let us follow them in our car, you know chase them instead of herd them)

Can you say reality show in the making?

If we save enough money, maybe we will be even able to head Alaska and mush dogs or catch king crabs on the Deadliest Catch Boat. Then we could head to Hawaii and cliff dive.

So many ideas, now we just need the money. So stayed tuned guys. We will give you one amazing travel blog...it may take years...but it will be worth it.

We are going to make this the most kick ass road trip ever. Once again we want ideas, so if you having any let us know!!

-Katie

This could be bad

2010-02-28T21:19:00.007-05:00

Long, long ago, before the time of GPS, I remember my parents sitting at the kitchen table for hours planning a road trip to wherever we may have been going. What were they doing at the table you ask? Staring a big book of maps, commonly called an atlas. Now, I don't know about you, but the idea of reading a map, that most of the time is bigger than me (Katie) gives me a little bit of headache. Following all of those little roads, seeing where they connect, just doesn't seems fun to me. Especially considering we now process the power of a little box type thing, telling us where to go and when to turn, I swear it even gets condescending tone when you don't follow its directions.

The tone that GPS uses people isn't our only beef with this piece of "wondrous technology". In many past travels the GPS has screwed us over, for a lack of better words.

The first awful experience that I have had with it was when my family went to Australia in 2003. Now, if you don't know, they drive on the opposite side of the road over there which was an experience of its own for my father (I still have the image of my father trying to put on the turn signal and the window washers come on, and he swears). So we were there two weeks, and really didn't have much of an issue with the GPS, the only thing there were issues with was my parents trying to work it.

So, it was the last night we had the car rented for. We were driving back from Gladstone to Brisbane, this drive should have taken like eight or so hours if I remember correctly. Well because of the GPS it took about 12. We got lost in the city of Brisbane for about four hours. The car was small, and emotions were high. We kept driving past this one gas station, after third time passing it I began saying "Big Ben....Parliament" I probably said this about 5 times..maybe 6 before my mother turned around and for the first time used the "f word" to me...something like "shut the f up". I was amused, apparently I was the only one. The GPS kept telling us that our destination was in the middle of some on ramp. Yea that's just where I want to spend the night GPS. We ended up going to the airport and getting a taxi to go to the hotel. (Something which scared the hell out of my little sister because earlier in the vacation, some Aussie taxi driver, ran over her foot as she was getting into a cab, her foot still makes a random gross noise haha).

Due to this mishap and other ones we have had, we are going to learn how to read a map. It will be boring, and frustrating, but many have done it and so will we. I will be the map reader since Emily is the driver, hopefully she knows what the "red road connects to the blue road in like a finger tip" means.

God help us.

The Naked Pose

2010-02-02T14:31:00.023-05:00

When my Disney college program was over in August, I wanted someone to help me get back home, so Emily, being the wonderful friend she is (and I think it gave her a reason to get out of Pittsburgh), decided that she would fly down and help me get my car to the train then back to Pittsburgh in one piece.

Emily got to Florida the day after my last day of work, and the train left the next day so we got a room in one of the Disney resorts since I get a pretty nice discount.

To put it simply, we got a room upgrade and this place was amazing. Normally it would cost upwards of a grand a night and we go it for around $100! So, we decided to celebrate and get some Mikes Hard Lemonade (very classy we know, no need to tell us)- it was how I left Disney the first time and how I would leave again. And I got really drunk - now getting drunk off that sweet shit was not a good idea by any means.

It was probably one of the worst hangovers I have ever had - plus a 17-hour train ride.

I was in pain, so Emily laughed. She laughed a lot, although she did make me eat, which helped. So we boarded the train, which we probably would have missed if Emily didn't get my ass out of bed the way she did. Now when you have a sleeper car, like we did, you get a car attendant. We were graced with the wonderful presence of a southern gentleman. His name was Dwayne. And Dwayne... well, Dwayne really liked us.

He loved the fact that we were from Pittsburgh and we found out that he had been on the season ticket waiting list for upwards of 17 years or so, and that was the lucky number! So fingers crossed that he got them!! The interesting thing about Dwayne is how he would stand when he would talk to us. The best was we could describe it is the "naked pose". Now boys come on, you all know this pose. You stand leaning against a wall with your hand to support you and you slightly bow your head. Its really effective and attractive.

above is an example of Emily doing the naked pose

Dwayne freaked us out with his naked pose. We wouldn't even leave our little room in case we would have to run into him or God forbid pass him in one of the little hallways have have to rub up against him! Yuck!

Although, in order for us to get our beds down, we would have to let him in. So we told him when we were planning on eating dinner and asked him that if he would lower our beds when were at dinner, that way we would have less Dwayne time.

We ended up leaving and going back to our room without any run ins with Dwayne. The next morning we woke up and realized that we would have to have another encounter with him. So we kept our blinds shut decided that going hungry was going to be better than having a chance run in with him. Well he must have noticed that we didn't eat because he knocked on our door and we answered. He asked if we went to breakfast and we lied and said we had. He told us that he didn't' notice us leaving. He then asked us to step out so he could change our beds back into seats.

That was the last time we ever saw him. I really hope that we don't ever run into him at a Steelers game. He would probably remember us and we would have to see that naked pose again. That is to much to handle.

Morals of this story:

1. Don't drink a ton the night before you have to travel-especially if the stuff you are drinking it sickly sweet

2. The naked pose is not effective and never will be. It is creepy

3. Boys that drink wine sloppily isn't attractive either. I don't like watching red wine being spilt all over a white tablecloth.

4. You can't hide on a train, creepy car attendants will find you.

George Clooney, Hawaii and Saxonburg

2010-01-15T16:58:00.010-05:00

Today I was the phone with Emily and we were disusing the usual: George Clooney, ridiculous pictures people take of themselves and post on Facebook, more George Clooney and, of course, our road trip.

As we got further into the discussion, I brought up a previous experience with a trip that we had planned.

From a very early age, Emily and I determined that we would get out of Saxonburg as much as we could. Don't get me wrong, it was a great town to grow up in, but there really isn't anything to do past the age of finding amusement in running around corn fields. The Pittsburgh Mills mall was built our senior year in high school, which ended up being the second biggest let down in our lives (the new season of Scrubs "Med School" has recently taken first place).

So anyways, back to my story. We would think of countless ways to entertain ourselves. One of them was decorating this club house that is attached to the exterior of my house. This "club house" is rather small, but as a child, it served its purpose. To this day, I can still stand in it with out hitting my head (it's about 2 or 3 inches higher than me).

One day we were sitting in it , cutting out pictures in magazines to put on the walls. This is when I somehow got the bright idea to see if I could jump. For everyone who knows me, you know I don't do physical activity. Hell I include jumping a physical activity. What does that say?

So I jump, high and hard. I smack my head so hard off the ceiling that I fall to the floor. Yes fall. I didn't get up either. I felt like that old person on those life line commercials. Emily being the good friend she was sat there and laughed so hard she almost peed herself.

Shortly after this incident took place we determined we needed to look else where for entertainment. At the age of 15 I think, we came up with the grand idea that the following summer we would got to Hawaii!! What a great idea that two 15 years could come up with! I'm sure we were the first.

We did all the research. We told my mom, and she said, "Well if you can raise the money, I'm sure you can do it." This was said in a condescending tone that as a child and even now probably drives us young people to want something even more. So it was settled. Emily and I were going to Hawaii, and would do anything possible to get there.

The one thing we needed to do for sure was put some money away. We were at the age that we had bank accounts, but didn't have a real way to the bank, due to the lack of knowledge to drive a car, legally. We got a huge shoebox, and wrapped it in duck tape so we could not open open once we put money it. Great idea, right? Each day we would put money in and recorded it in a log book.

Now did I mention Saxonburg was boring? Yes. About 2 weeks after this box was created. We ripped it open so we could go see a movie -- a Clooney movie. It was worth it.

But don't worry, we will make it this time. I mean think about it - we have cars to drive the the bank now...

Maybe we should put some money into a CD so we can't get to it....that might be for the best this time.

Or maybe George Clooney could now fund our trip to the islands, since we at one point, like many other points in time, helped fund his movie.

We need you! ...for money

2010-01-14T16:26:00.004-05:00

Now that we have a multitude of followers spanning dozens of countries, Katie and I feel that we need to move on to the next aspect of our planning: We need a sponsor. Whether you're a small business owner or the CEO of a huge corporation, we'll be willing to discuss your sponsorship. In order to not become huge sell-outs, Katie and I have compiled a list of things that we like and would be willing to promote through out multimedia documented road trip.

In no particular order:

1. Salt and vinegar potato chips, particularly the ones that Snyder of Berlin make that are British style.
Pennsylvania Macaroni Company in the Strip District (in Pittsburgh) - We specifically enjoy those spicy green olives that you can buy from those giant buckets between the cheese and deli meat.
Ice cream - at least I love ice cream..Ben and Jerry's is a great brand. Katie hates ice cream in general, but oh well.
To list something that Katie enjoys: tequila. Any brand will work for her I'm sure.
TLC - We've both noticed that you like making shows about little people. Katie's only 4' 9," so feel free to document our adventures across the country. We'll have to negotiate something.
Travel Channel - We will be doing a lot of traveling...
Smartcar - This would probably be a great way to prove that the Smartcar would work wonderfully all over the country and hold all of our supplies. Plus, they are super cute. We are proposing that we get one to use on the trip...blue's a good color.
Shoes - If you make shoes, we're willing to talk to you.
Camping supply provider - We are by no means "outdoorsy," but we plan on doing a lot of camping on this trip. There will be tents and sleeping bags involved. We have no idea what we're doing from this aspect, but we will be needing supplies...and help.

Well, there is a brief list. I'll probably be adding more, the more we think about potential sponsors. If anyone would like to contact Katie and me, please feel free to e-mail us at thepeons@gmail.com.

To see Dick

2009-12-16T23:16:00.007-05:00

I (Katie) am writing this blog with out Emily's permission. (Yes, Emily I do feel that I need your permission or approval for a blog idea or a blog in general haha).

So this past summer, when we drove to Canada to see Coldplay, we noticed that Buffalo, York was much closer than we thought. Now this is important because one of my good friends that I meet in Disney lives there. We haven't had the opportunity to see each outside of Disney since we meet. So this gave me an idea. Over winter break, Emily and I should drive up to New York to see him! (Actually Emily would be doing most of the driving because she criticises everything I do when I drive.)
I brought this idea up to Emily today, and she shot me down. She said that there is nothing to do in Buffalo, that it was like Pittsburgh- but worse. Yes those were her words.

So, in order to prove her wrong, because that is what we do. I did some research and found gems of Buffalo.

1. Frank Lloyd Wright's Darwin Martin House
Apparently this is some house that was built by Frank Lloyd Wright, and it has cool stuff like ceilings and stuff and its like 10,000 feet long. And you have to have reservations. I would say this is a must see.

2. Niagara Falls State Park
I have always wanted to go to Niagara Falls!!! Wait, Emily and I have both been there many times. But never in Winter!! What could be more fun than riding the Maid of the Mist in freezing temps! I don't think I could think of anything else. (Wait I was wrong, when doing some research today, I found some water cave in PA that we could go see. I don't think that you could top Emily and I fording cave rivers in freezing water, that is what I call fun!!)

3. Buffalo City Hall
O my God! I have always wanted to go see the City Hall in Buffalo! City Halls are so much fun. If I could only tell you the amount of cities halls that I have been too......that would be maybe one...maybe. But the website I am on does that that you can see Lake Erie from the 28th floor! I have always wanted to see Lake Erie!! hmm damn.. I have see that too....

4. Buffalo Zoological Gardens
All I am going to say about this is that it is the oldest Zoo in the United States! Come on Emily! Oldest Zoo in the US!! What could be cooler than to add that to our list of destinations!!!

5. My Friend Dick!
The main reason to go to Buffalo! I would put that I heart Dick- but I have a feeling that would be taken out of context times like ten, so I won't. Dick is pretty cool. Although since he is from Buffalo he is a Bills fan..and he hates the Steelers. But he has a lot of good qualities too! Like he would fight me when we would party in Orlando. I would always lose of course. But I would fight a good fight.

Now after reading all these amazing gems of Buffalo, I need your help in convincing Emily to drive with me up there. So if you would like to see us visit these places--let Emily know! Also if you know of locations around Buffalo or in Buffalo that you want us to visit--let Emily know!!!!!

Thanks for your time! Good luck on finals if you have them!!!!

--Katie

Forks, Washington

2009-12-09T14:19:00.006-05:00

I remember distinctly two summers ago, sitting in my little room in attic of my host parents' house in Dublin, Ireland, browsing through Facebook bumper stickers out of boredom. Much to my dismay, I had no idea what half of them meant, so there was no amusement there, and on top of that some of them were disturbing to say the least. What would you think when you saw a picture of a pale guy with the words: 'I'd let Edward Cullen bite me,' written above the picture?

After several minutes of looking at the bumper stickers flash in front of me as I scrolled through them, I noticed that my friend Christie was signed online and immediately sent her a message: Who the hell is Edward Cullen and why does everyone want him to bite them?! She was just as disturbed as I was immediately, both thinking we had missed some psychotic cult that had emerged from who-knows-where. We were sort of right about that part, actually.

Finally, Christie copied and pasted an entry from Wikipedia:

Edward Cullen (né Edward Anthony Masen) is a fictional character from Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series. He features in the books Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn, as well as the Twilight film, and the as yet unfinished novel Midnight Sun - a re-telling of the events of Twilight from Edward's perspective. Edward is a vampire who... (I deleted the rest so that nobody can blame me for ruining the end of the series. You can search Wikipedia if you want to read on.)

Ah...okay, so he at least wasn't real and biting people, but there was definitely a cult forming. Reading the entire entry, I was determined to never read these book, which I decided were not worth my time and were probably the most mindless, melodramatic teenage soap opera stories ever written. This declaration to avoid all things Twilight was completely successful -- until about two weeks ago.

I'm now almost done with the fourth book and seen both of the movies that have been released. It's kind of ridiculous how absorbed I've become in all of this. Half of my friends are thrilled I've joined there side, the other half are completely disgusted with my choices (My choices were mostly to read...that's all I can say back).

After seeing the second movie and having the mental images of Edward and Jacob going through my mind, I've decided that Forks, Washington is the place to be. (Katie was among the trilled group of friends.) After researching the area, it looks like a really rustic and the scenery looks gorgeous...not to mention, if some shirtless guy looking like Taylor Lautner comes walking out of the forest at any given time, who wouldn't want to go there?

Not to mention Edward. Sigh. Team Edward all the way.

For anyone in Forks, we'll be seeing you sometime this summer. Let us know of any good places to grab something to eat or stay.

With a little help from the Mouse

2009-12-08T19:35:00.008-05:00

Many of our blogs up until this point have been from the travelers’ point of view and honestly why wouldn’t they be, this is in fact a blog about 2 people planning a cross country road trip. Although, yesterday while I was sitting in my Film and Philosophy class, my mind began to wander from whatever mind draining topic we were discussing. (If you know me at all, you know how little my attention span really is. In fact, just yesterday I was on the phone with Emily, and she stated how much she hates being on the phone with me because of my low attention span). But anyways back to the point….

So I was sitting in class thinking about this blog and what our plans were for the summer, and being a hospitality management major I began to think about the things that I would like to expect service wise out of this trip. But that was shot down quickly in my mind when I remembered that this was a very low budget trip. Example a Motel 6 will be considers luxury. Our bed will be the back seat of my Scion XD. If we are lucky we will get to spend the night at a campsite that way we can at least shower.

As I was thinking about all of this, levels of service and such. I thought about Disney. Now if you guys don’t know this, I work for Disney. I did the College Program in the spring of 2007 and stayed seasonal up until this August, I am now a Campus Rep., in this position I try to get more people to go down and work for the mouse. I thought that I would share some of the “magical” situations that I encountered in my few years with the company.

My program started on January 15, 2007. When I first moved to the Kissimmee area, I am not going to lie, I was scared to death and all that I wanted to do was come home. Here I was, fresh out of my first semester in college and now I was 800 miles away from home with no car, pretty much on my own. The Disney College Program offers a Living, Learning and earning experience. (I really won’t get into this too much; I am just programmed by them at this point). In a nutshell, this program offers you a place to live (for rent of course), a job on Disney Property and the opportunity to take classes taught by Disney Leaders (managers are considered leaders there).

My role in the company (yes, with Disney you are a cast member in the “show” and you have a “role”, all of these words are supposed to invoke a feeling of importance in the cast member, and I’m one of those suckers that it works with) was a operations cast member at the attraction Mission: Space. Mission: Space is located in Future World in Epcot. The description of the attraction is as follows: Mission: SPACE Attraction is a 5.5-minute motion simulator ride for big kids, teens and adults that realistically mimics what an astronaut might experience during a space flight to Mars. This was taken from the Disney website.

This attraction is intense, there is really no other word to describe it. There are currently two different versions of the rid, a more intense version and a less intense version. With the more intense version, you a get about 2.5 G-forces, this is created by you being spun at 35 miles an hour, but because of the “Disney magic” you really have no idea that you are being spun. With the less intense version you get the same visual effects as the more intense version does, but you don’t get the G-force sensation. When the attraction first opened in 2004, there was only one version and that was the more intense version. Okay, there are warning signs everywhere at this attraction; I mean every five freaking feet there is a sign or an audio warning. One thing that you quickly learn when you are a cast member with Disney is guests leave their brain at the gate. It’s almost as if they expect Disney to think for them, and because of the money people pay to vacation there, who could blame them. But for goodness sakes if there are signs warning if you have motion sickness, heart problems or are pregnant etc. don’t ride, you better damn well listen. After many protein spills (Disney’s cute work for puke/urine/shit) and a few incidents, it was decided by someone high up to convert half this attraction to a non motion sickness version. This was done overnight sometime in 2006. This provided everybody a chance to get to ride this attraction.

Due to there being two versions of this attraction, They had to figure out a way to let both the guest and the cast member know what version they will be traveling to Mars on. The launch ticket was born . A launch ticket is either green or orange, you are asked as soon as you enter the line of the attraction what version you want. More intense or Less intense? Spinning or no Spinning? Green or Orange? You are asked these questions by a cast member, who normally stands out in the 90+ degree FL sun, for 45 minutes at a time, asking the same question over and over and over again. So you can imagine that this cast member can get quite cranky at times. Especially when you asking “Spinning or no spinning?” and they ask you “well what is the difference?” I think after I was asked what the difference was for the 1000 time in a week, I actually spun in a circle and said this is spinning, then stood stationary and said this isn’t spinning. The guest looked me and replied they still didn’t get it. I wanted to throw all my tickets on the ground and walk away. We also got the reply “ I don’t speak Spanish”. To which I would reply, “Neither do I “and they would say “okay so what did you ask” and I would say “SPINING OR NO SPINING” once again they would say “I already told you I don’t speak Spanish, _________ (insult)” they then would walk way.

Speaking of insulting (this happens all the time to every cast member daily), some of the most interesting insults took place when I would check the height of children. The height requirement at Mission: Space is 44 inches. We leave no leeway on this, and it all boils down to safety. So I would be checking heights of children, and letting people in line or not in line depending on the height. It’s a pretty easy job. On more than one occasion I would have a guest that child would not be tall enough and politely I would explain “ I’m sorry sir or maim but your he or she didn’t isn’t tall enough, you are more than welcome to do a rider switch…” I would be cut off with this statement “Well you aren’t very tall….you shouldn’t be judging my child by their height.” I would start to apologize again and state that it’s not my rule and there are other rides they can experience and once again they would hound me on my height so I would state “Well, I maybe short, but I can ride, I meet the requirement” and I would walk away from them or ignore them until they got pissed off enough to leave. This still makes me laugh that a 30 + year old would me insulting me on my height or at least trying to. Come on people.

I look young, I know this, and this often was pointed out to me down there by guests, acting if they were the first to think of it. Another great story took place when I was loading people into a rows to watch the first safety video of the attraction. I was loading people on the green side, and a man from the orange line started yelling to me. So I went over to him and he was like “How old are you?” I told him I was 19. He said “Well you look about 12 I told him that I get that a lot, but I’m not, even laughing while stating it because I know it’s true. He then said “No , I mean you really look 12, like you look 12, not anywhere close to 19” I laughed again. “No, I don’t understand why you are laughing, you look 12, is Disney violating child labor laws, where is your mommy? You need to go back to the 7th grade.” At this point other guests and cast members started to listen. I just smiled. His wife told me that I could say what I wanted to him, I wanted to be like “No I can’t lady, your fat ass husband is standing there harassing me about my young look, and I can’t say anything because I would get termed”. He continued on and I let him. He even asked to see my ID at one point. Unknown to my knowledge my coordinator was nearby this whole time and saw this happen. After the man was in the room to watch is video, he went in and spoke to him about harassment and how he won’t have it at his attraction and if he does it again he will get kicked out of line. I was amazed. I really didn’t care about this man demanding to see my ID and asking where my mommy was. But apparently my coordinator didn’t see it this way. While he was getting talked too about harassment of the cast members, the other guest cheered for me and told me I handled it well. He ended up getting sick on the ride anyway. Karma is a bitch.

Another fun thing for a cast member to do is to have to kick people out of line. I went back down to work over Christmas break in 2007. This is one of Disney’s busiest times of the year. Working six 16-hour shifts in a week is not uncommon at this time. I was working a 14-hour shift, and luckily was towards the end of it when this situation happened. The line for the attraction was 4 hours. 4 fucking hours. The fast pass line was over an hour. You can imagine the level of crankiness the guests possessed. So we are getting ready to load the next 40 people into the orange side of ride. When the ride breaks down. These 40 people are fucked over, and I have to tell them that they just waited 4 hours for pretty much nothing. I mean I could offer them a fastpass, but that is another hour wait. I am the one to tell them this. So I walk around to all 10 teams of 4 people, explaining the situation. I told them that they could sit and wait, but I wasn’t sure if it would work or long it would be. Everybody but one person understood. I’m sure I had approached every person with absolute fear in my eyes and on my face, I wanted to cry for them. This one person was a man of about 50 years old. To put it in a nut shell he called me a “magic stealing little bitch who enjoyed ruining his vacation, and I should go to hell and I was short and he wanted my name and he thinks that Disney sucks now because it happened to him at the Magic Kingdom the day before….” And on and on and on. I called my boss to come talk to this guy. Because of all the other situations that were taking place, It took my boss about 45 minutes to come talk to him. So for over 45 minutes I was standing here with this guy yelling at me to the point of where I was in tears. Luckily I had a tough old lady from New York City working with me and she put him in his place as best as she could. “Merry Fucking Christmas “was the man’s parting words to me. To which I replied “same to you.” I wish I would have “stole more magic” from that asshole.

A man almost hit me once, because I wouldn’t let him stand in an area that we had to keep clear because of fire codes. Yes, no joke, almost hit me. He has his fist up and ready to go for it. I was alone at this position so I was pretty much screwed if he did. So I stated “Sir, if you don’t put that fist down right now, so help me I will call security on you, and you will and I repeat will be banned from all Disney property for life. Gives yours kids there a great reason to look up to you huh, “my daddy punched a Disney cast member”. He looked at me and lowered his fist and apologized. The heat and lines get to people. I understand this, But don’t take your anger out on me.

For all the bad things happened, there were so many good, but those are nearly as fun to write about. Almost every shift you would leave happy, knowing you made somebody’s day or vacation. A guest would come through that would just bring a smile to your face. You really got to meet amazing people. I even met Dwight Howard on my program when I was working. He asked me to ride the ride with him and when he got off the ride the acted like he was dizzy and fell on me for support. No joke when I say this, I didn’t even come to his waist, so that was a fun sight to see.

I miss it a lot. I miss being able to help people experience their vacation better. I miss talking to the kids about seeing Mickey. I miss being able to know that I made a difference for their vacation in a positive way.

Moral of the this: I don't know if there really is a moral to this. But if you ever go to Disney and get pissed of a Cast member for whatever reason, step back and think they are most likely working a very long shift and they aren’t taking glory in making your vacation suck...well..most of the time at least.

-- Katie

Sorry

2009-11-12T18:25:00.001-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I'm currently getting over the swine flu plus complications. I'm fine. We'll be back up and running in no time.

Emily

Eight Cities with the Ugliest Guys

2009-10-27T22:39:00.009-04:00

The Official List

So, a Web site called Total Beauty, which seems to me to be one of the most legitimate sites possible (Who doesn't want to find a Web site that pinpoints what's wrong with your intellect, appearance and personality?), has published a list of the eight cities with the ugliest men in the country based on their teeth, hygiene, average level of obesity and education. I have no idea how they figured out which cities had the men with the worst hygiene and teeth, but they somehow did. Naturally, Katie and I felt we needed to check this list out to know what we should be avoiding on this trip. The results were...I'm not sure. A little disturbing may be the best way to phrase it.

Counting down...

8: Houston, Texas Evidently the men here are smelly and obese. Not to mention, according to the Web site, 15% of those 25 and older have less than a 9th grade education. That's not really too cool. Get an education... maybe you'll learn better hygiene habits in school.

7: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Right on the other side of the state, these men evidently have bad teeth. I'm not really sure what that entails... crooked teeth? Bad breath? Generally dirty teeth? Cavities? Like I said before, I'm not sure how they decided this about all men in Philadelphia, but bad teeth are a big turn off. Nobody really wants to lean in to kiss a guy with a mouth full of gross teeth.

6: Detroit, Michigan The men of Detroit evidently have a low amount of education and are part of the highest obesity rate in the country. Education really is the key to places like this. Smart men are hott. That's right, double-T hott. Graduate from high school, at least. It's free.

5: Mobile, Alabama and Huntington, West Virginia, for a tie And I quote, "terrible teeth," which as I said earlier could mean anything... missing teeth even... and "unhealthy, inactive and obese men." Believe me, I'm not a fan of exercising. I get bored with it, but I walk about 3 miles a day to and from school... maybe some days just a mile and a half if my boyfriend, Frank, picks me up or drops me off. I still get bored with that, but then I'm committed to finishing the workout, or I don't get to go home. Maybe try that. It will save you on parking and gas costs, too.

4: Greesboro, North Carolina Thanks to totalbeauty.com I now know that this lovely town is not all that sexually active. Once again, how do they know this? Did representatives from the site knock on the doors of all these houses and ask about its inhabitants' sexual activity? What is considered an average amount of sexual activity? Anyone know? Anyhow, if this is true, it makes sense to assume there are some ugly men, and probably ugly women, in this city of no sex.

3: Miami, Florida Complete shock. When I think of Miami, I think of the South Beach diet, which I'm assuming originated in Miami, but I could be wrong, and people walking around in swim wear all day. This is completely ignorant, but it's what I think. Although, based on the site's finding it may be accurate. Evidently 21% of men over 25 never made it beyond 9th grade and they're lazy. It makes sense. They quit school to lay on a beach all day. I don't know if you can fault them for that. (Really you can, but okay.)

2: Hagerstown, Maryland Here's something we haven't touched based on: Evidently all of these guys smoke. GROSS. Like I said before, nobody wants to kiss a guy with a gross mouth, and tasting like a cigarette is gross. Beyond that, nobody wants to die from their boyfriend's second hand smoke. Tonight one of my friends actually said that her boyfriend is giving her the best birthday present of all time because he was going to quit smoking. I think that says it all.

1: El Paso, Texas This Lone Star state city suffers the same vices as its neighbor, Houston. I guess Katie and I made the right decision to spend 24 hours driving straight through Texas.

While I'm pretty sure these sweeping accusations are pretty bogus, they bring up some valid points with the smoking and education and unhealthiness. I don't know what I can add about Pittsburgh. I guess all I can do is be thankful that I have Frank, who pretty much scores 100 where all of those listed above lack... Although I'm not too sure I can say that about his general smelliness, which can be sketchy at times.

I would just like to mention that I don't believe these bad qualities define all men in these areas. I'm purely basing my comments on this Web site, which I mentioned earlier, is less than the height of sophistication.

One hour in traffic is one hour too much.

2009-10-25T13:58:00.004-04:00

Last night Katie and I went to Phantom Fright Nights at Kennywood, which is an amusement park in Pittsburgh for those of you who don't know. Well, from my apartment it should take about 20 minutes, at most, to get there, but because of traffic and the stupid road construction in Pittsburgh, it took us over an hour to get to the park. I thought I was being smart and going a back way to get there too.

Well, as we were sitting in almost standstill traffic we were stuck behind this car of teenage boys who were obviously dancing around to music on the radio, so Katie and I started flipping through the radio to see if we could hear what they were so intently listening to, which we did. It was Paparazzi by Lady Gaga. They were bouncing around in the car and bobbing their heads and eventually swaying in sync with their arms around each other. It was a great distraction for about 20 minutes.

So after we had decided we had been in the car for 2 hours we realized we had only been driving for about a half an hour. We realized that our completely lack of time perception is going to be great from our nationwide road trip this summer. Just imagine when we have to drive through Texas for 24 straight hours... we're going to make it an hour in and think we're to New Mexico.

At least we can buy Lady Gaga's CD. That seemed to make the teenage boys' journey to Kennywood more than tolerable.

Giant Beings

2009-10-22T11:15:00.004-04:00

So Katie and I have decided that we need to see all of the giant things this country has to offer. There is an entire Web site dedicated to "Giant Beings" that can be found all over the place, and there are a surprising amount of them that can be found. There are almost 100 through out the country, with most of them located in Minnesota and Illinois.

How did the construction of huge... bizarre... sculptures of people ever actually begin? Especially when you look at sculptures like the one shown on the left. Who was sat there one day thinking that making a giant creepy-looking guy hold a giant hot dog like a baby would be a good idea? I can't get over the look he has on his face... he's sort of staring you down, challenging you to take that giant hot dog away from him. It's just weird. I guess we'll let you know what it's like in person.

Overall, I think we should be able to hit up every single of these freakish statues, except for Santa Claus in Alaska. I don't know if we'll make it up there. We'll make a little road map with cut out of these big guys taped all over it to make sure we don't miss any of them, because that would be quite the travesty.

Because of midterms, this is pretty much all of the planning we've accomplished this week, but we're meeting up this weekend to brainstorm and discuss all of the ideas that everyone has thrown our way so far. Keep them coming. They've been great.

Best Pizza...Pittsburgh?

2009-10-19T11:59:00.003-04:00

I find it hard to believe that the best pizza in the country is located 10 minutes from my apartment, but okay. Katie and I will stop at Village Pizza in Shadyside, PA. Somebody has to think there is a better place for pizza...anyone want to make any suggestions? Anyone from Chicago or New York want to dispute this, or even Memphis?

I love eating. It is my favorite hobby, so believe me, there will be not shortages of stops for claims of the best food in the country. Keep the ideas coming: Ice cream, hot dogs, hamburgers, fries, sandwiches (although I'm not sure how many sandwiches could beat one from Primanti Bros. or Peppi's in Pittsburgh)

You get the idea. If I could eat my way across the country, I would, so I need your help to know where and what to eat.

Best Burrito in the Country, Here We Come

2009-10-14T17:33:00.003-04:00

Thanks to Hannah Limbaugh, I think we know have a first officially listed destination for the trip: Flaming Amy's Burrito Barn in Wilmington, North Carolina. Who can pass up a place with allegedly the best burritos in the country and a slogan like "Hot, Fast, Cheap, and Easy"?

We'll let you know just how good the burritos are when we get there. Anyone want to combat the location for the best burrito or have any other best restaurants?

Tips for Active communication

2009-10-12T19:37:00.000-04:00

Now although Emily and I have been friends for around 16 years or so, we still lack the sense to listen to each other, which results in many disasters. One of my personal favorite stories that exemplifies this point was on a trip to Washington D.C.

In order to fully understand the hilarity of this story, I must start from the beginning. Emily and I decided that we wanted to go to D.C. in the beginning of January before the spring semester started up. We both like historical things, and it had been a very long time since either of us had been there.

Our original plan was for us to wake up really early in morning to drive there, spend the whole day, leave late that night and drive back. This idea was quickly thrown out by my mother, who booked a motel room for us on a military base right outside of D.C. (My mother is retired from the Army).

So they day of the trip comes and there are winter storm warnings everywhere. From Pittsburgh to D.C. – it was going to be bad, but it wasn’t going to hit until a few hours into our trip, so being that Emily and I are stubborn, much to the dismay of my father and later we found out Frank, we decided to risk it.

While I was getting my last few things packed, I gave Emily the Tom-Tom and told her to program the address that the motel. She then told me that I had written the address down wrong because it was not showing up in the GPS system, but she had figured it out.

We got to D.C. safely, luckily we out ran the winter storm. Now here is a little fact about myself – I have a very small bladder, and on road trips I have to stop a lot. A little bit outside of the city I told Emily that I had to pee and that if we saw a place, stop. Well as we were passing a gas station I told her to pull over, she thought that I was saying this so we could ask for directions because of a road closure that Tom-Tom refused to detour us around, so she said “No, we are fine,” and passed the gas station. I then yelled at her that it was because I had to pee, she claimed that she forgot but would pull over at the next place we saw…little did she know that there wasn’t a place for over an hour.

When then drove around lost (because guess what, military bases do not show up on GPS’s, a fact that was unknown to us, but in reality makes a lot of sense) for what seemed like forever, looking for a place for me to pee. It came down to us sitting at a light in a traffic circle and me spotting at hotel. I turned to Emily and told her I was going to run to the hotel and for her to try and stay on the traffic circle and I would meet her at the next light.

Without a jacket on and shoes half off, I ran for the hotel. Finding the bathroom in the hotel was like a mouse finding a piece of cheese in a maze. Crazy. After I found the bathroom and came outside in the sleeting freezing weather, I call Emily on her phone asking her where she is. She is laughing so hard that I can not understand here. So I get frustrated because while she is sitting in heated car, I am freezing my ass off. So I yell at her where are you and she tells me to start walking south, so I do just that but instead of walking I start running because I’m cold.

One again She starts laughing to a point where I can’t understand her, while she is telling me to slow down I think she that she says speed up. So I keep running and she keeps laughing. I am about a block away before she finally stops and says turn around and come back. Frank meets me half way and takes me to where they are parked.

Moral of the Story: Emily needs to learn how to listen and remember little facts such as Katie needing to go the bathroom so we don’t have to drive in circles around DC for two hours looking for a place for Katie to pee.

Finding Ourselves in 'The Lost Generation'

2009-10-12T11:41:00.003-04:00

A few days ago Business Weekly posted an article (The Lost Generation) on its Web site about the growing concern over 16-24 year-olds simply not being hired and not being given the chance to make a name for themselves.

This is why Katie and I are going to make our mark in our own way and not spend a summer hopelessly waiting for someone looking at stacks of resumes to decide our fates.

Getting Everything Started

2009-10-10T13:50:00.003-04:00

Hi everyone, this is Emily typing. Katie and I, who have spent the last few years planning every possible way to go on vacation, taking spontaneous, ill-conceived road trips and making an uncountable amount of visits to Disney World, have decided to broaden our horizons. With college graduation insight and the prospect of being a "real adult" in mind, we have decided to take this summer to travel the country and explore the unknown, at least to us.

If any of you know us, our past traveling adventures have resulted in a stalled car, broken GPS, ice storms, etc. You name something that could go wrong, and it has gone wrong. Not to mention, despite the fact that we have been friend for the better part of our lives, Katie and I tend to fight constantly out of severe stubbornness from both parties, mostly about ridiculous subjects like whether flies have feet. (A fight that I won, based on the findings on page 19 of the book "Flies" -- "Flies have sticky feet.")

Our intension is to document the entire trip with photographs, blogs, videos, etc. We are currently in the process of creating accounts with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr, in addition to our blog of course, so that we can post as much as we can.

Over the next few months we will be planning exactly where we will be going, what we will be doing and how we are getting there. The one thing we do know for certain, though, is that we are doing this without a GPS, because we haven't had much luck with them in the past anyhow. We are completely open to suggestion and would, in fact, love to hear about must-see places wherever they may be. Hopefully you enjoy and stay tuned for what lies ahead.