Day 1: Shipping Off to Boston

The road trip commenced at le Château Utting. We checked out the dock, ate delicious Buffalo chicken dip, and homemade root beer. When Suavest of the Seas finally arrived (because 1:00 and 3:00 are clearly the same thing.) we
got on the road to stop at our first road side attraction (wait for it) The Pez Factory in orange CT! (We were psyched about it too)There was a timeline with the history of Pez, starting in Austria. There was also an interactive quiz game that proved that Tech Walkin’ and Talkin’ is a Pez genius with an impressive score of 19/20, while Casually Kissing cowboys had a measly score of 8 (although in her defense, she played on expert). After collectively buying enough Pez to host 10 children’s birthday parties, we hopped back in the car to continue our journey north.
When we finally made it to Bean Town, after listening to every song Britney Spears has ever made and the depressing yet nostalgic 90’s summer hits, such as Jumper and Mr. Jones. We found out that we were going to crash a going away party for a French girl we had never met. (rude New Yorkers). We were okay with the idea as long as there was food involved. We became antisocial while we chomped down some food and kept ordering drinks so we could stay at the booth.
At midnight, we headed home after lengthy conversations about hard limits, human eating snakes, and Cuban pride. Our last thought was that we were going to be homeless in Quebec and then decided that we would deal with it in the morning.
See you on the flip side.
casually kissing cowboys
Ps. Don’t worry Ken, we are working on it.

Addressing the concerns of the people

I’d like to take a moment before we hit the open road to address some of the grumblings I’ve heard since we last posted. In the last few months I’ve heard questions:

Did you make it home alive?
Why did you just stop posting?
Whatever happened to that chocolate croissant, it sounded delicious!?

Well listen friends, it ain’t over till the fat lady sings. So until we’ve tasted every authentic, fried food America has to offer and are singing a glee worthy mash-up of country and hip hop, we shall carry on. We will not grant you the finality of a concluding post until we’ve done it all.

The summer is upon us, the uncharted territory is vast, and we’ve been set loose by the DOE. Grab your passports kids because this summer we’re crossing borders!!

Until we meet again,
The Gringo Gaucho

PS: For those of you who have been waiting (Uncle Brian)…

Guess who’s back!

I know that it is 3:00 in the morning but I am suffering from my usual bout of insomnia and decided to try out the WordPress app on my new phone. Tomorrow, (technically today) your favorite roadtrippin’ ladies will be embarking on le road trip part deux to the northeast and parts of Canada. Stay tuned for all of the excitement, scenic pictures, and ridiculous adventures.
-Casually Kissing Cowboys (or Canadians).
*cheers to another successful road trip.

Day 17: Gabrielle and the Chocolate Croissant

The major attraction of the day was the Biltmore Estate, which belongs to the Vanderbilt family and is located in NC. In tribute to the castle like structure, I will use it’s name to highlight the events of day 17.

Bis for the Bravery that Katie showed while driving through the pouring rain as trucks zoomed by.

I is for the Ice cream in the peach shake that I told Randi to stop drinking.

L is for the amazing red Lightening and sheet lightening we saw as we drove through Virginia.

T is for Two trips to McDonalds for drinks and Mc Flurries

M is for the Mountains which were breathtaking.

O is for the Ocho hours we spent on the road yesterday.

R is for Randi’s excitement over the multitude of gift shops she could peruse at the Biltmore

E is for the 30 minute Excursion we took to find a Chick Fil A that was no where near the highway exit.

In addition, we created a band that would be called the title of this post, we drove through Tennessee yet again, we all exhaled a simultaneous sigh of relief when the deer didn’t jump out into the road, and Randi shed skin like a snake.
Tomorrow we head back to NYC! Thanks for reading!
❤ Casually kissing cowboys

Day 16: Mecca

In THE culminating experience of our trip Randi Bivona a.k.a. The Suavest of the Seas made her Hajj to… DOLLYWOOD (insert 2001: A Space Odyssey theme song here.)

We arrived in a fit of glee, singing Jolene and jumping up and down like the line of 6 year olds waiting to see BubbleMan. After scouring the parking lot for license plates we determined that while people from Vermont are not Dolly Parton fans, people from Montana most certainly are!! 3 minutes later we pulled up to the entrance to the greatest place on earth:

We immediately ran to the roller coasters where we found ourselves behind a group of boys enthusiastically chanting in call and response form “whats my name?” “Big Daddy!” and singing My Girl. We estimate they ran out of steam about 45 minutes later.

Unfortunately the clouds rolled in, the thunder bellowed, and they closed the rides. This allowed us some time to learn a few valuable lessons in Dollywood:

1. We are VERY bad teachers who apparently break a lot of rules.

2. Dolly has a cousin name Heidi Lou who puts on a nice show but who isn’t quite as awesome as Dolly.

3. Dolly is Miley Cyrus’ godmother.

4. Dolly grew up in a one bedroom cabin with her parents and 11 siblings!!

5. No one can do Dolly better than Dolly.

Being the magical place that it is, we found many references to other points of our trip which only confirmed our suspicions that Dollywood is the happiest place on earth. See here the second gulch of the trip:

And the THIRD rainbow (and also the theme of our roadtrip):

Apparently it’s Dolly’s theme too and was the name of her museum in which we spent a significant amount of time gawking at Dolly’s costumes (and their measurements!)

Finally the clouds broke and the rides reopened. Randi practiced her Lamaze breathing on the Tennessee Tornado while I gave myself stomach cramps laughing at her. Also amused was the guy watching the video of us at the end of the ride pointing and asking “is that y’all?”

Famished from roller coasting and our physical expression of love for Dolly we decided it was time to feed ourselves, and the ducks.

Sadly, it was time to call it a day and head onto Asheville. After settling in Katie, Randi and I hit the town to find some Appalachian influenced tunes. I felt right at home walking past the hippie troubadours with their howling dogs and all the eateries boasting vegetarian and vegan options. One such establishment was also featuring a live performance by The Willows, a folksy band that played some originals and many covers of Randi’s favorite Gillian Welch songs. After an exciting day and a relaxing evening we turned in to our scratchy sheets- a stark contrast to what we were about to see at the Biltmore. But that’s another tale for another day.

Until then,
-the Gringo Gaucho

License Plates

For those of you who have been holding your breath waiting for us to see license plates for all 50 states, you can finally exhale!

The final tally includes:
48 Continental States
2 Non Contiguous States
6 Mexicos
1 Guam
2 Cherokee Nations
Dozens of Ontarios
1 Nova Scotia
1 New Brunswick
2 Quebecs
1 Manitoba
1 DC
1 Unites States Government (which came with 2 kinda strange employees of the US Government who stared us down as we passed then)

Day 15: There’s a Finger in My Boot

So, I have included a series of pictures that depict us going about Day 15:

1. Tori vs Bread Pudding: Ordered with the main course so Tori couldn’t back out. It was a close battle but
Final score
Tori: 0, Bread Pudding: 1.

2. Randi vs. Urban Outfitters: While Tori and I read this

Randi scored some sweet new shoes. Final score
Randi: 1, Urban Outfitters: 0.

3. Gabrielle vs. Colorado
Picked up Gabrielle from BNA.
Final score
Gabrielle: 5 for a good time at the wedding
Colorado: 50 for the next day 🙂

4. Roadtrippers vs. Gatlinburg
We made it to Gatlinburg, which is amazing! Randi looked like this

This is where we stayed

Tori found these awesome specs!

Gabrielle was hit on by a fellow tourist as his son stood by. He stuck his finger in her boot! (supposedly to guess the price of them but I don’t know…)

Katie finally got a steak!

Final score
Everybody wins! We wake refreshed after falling asleep to this:

Sorry about the long delay and check back later for Dollywood! Lots of ridiculous pictures! We are currently on an 8 hour drive to D.C. so there is nothing else to do!
– Techtalkin’ and walkin’

Day 14: “That just be what it be”

While Gabrielle was taking a vacation from our road trip, we took the opportunity to create a change of pace. The theme of the day 14: FOOD.
After sleeping in (which made Randi happy), we tried to find the Gulch, which is an up and coming commercial and residential area in Nashville. It was decided that Gulch must stand for Green Urban Living Community Housing, but it was later discovered that gulch is just another fancy word for ravine. (Nashville, if you are interested in using our acronym, leave a comment on the blog and we will let you use it for a reasonable fee)
We didn’t find the Gulch, but we did find Whiskey Kitchen, which was the culinary find of the trip! As Randi said “I can’t decide if I want a salad, a wrap, it a pizza. After ordering our food “with no regrets” we selfishly eyeballed other food, secretly wishing we had two stomachs.

After a heartfelt rendition of I dreamed a dream from Les Miserables over bread pudding that never got ordered, we continued to the Country Music Hall of Fame, where we created costumes for country music stars, discovered that Bakersfield CA was home to country music, and that Chet Atkins looks like Prince Charles.

On our way to Broadway, we passed the old train station that is now a swanky hotel,

Dick’s Restaurant, which is famous for their staff’s rudeness ( yes that’s their gimmick), and tons of bars, boot shops and live country music.

We also made an attempt to continue our “Capital Tour” by going to the the Nashville Capital building, which was under renovation and where camping is not permitted. (sorry folks, there will be no Occupy Nashville)
There was an opportunity to reenact a statue for Walsh, which I seized.

We culminated the awesome day with some Domino’s Pizza (thanks to Katie’s new app), some Mean Girls watching (we almost gave in to True Blood but decided against it, despite the remote’s insistence that we do).
All in all, a fantabulous day!
Laterz baby 🙂
Casually kissing cowboys

Day 13: You Ain’t Nothing But a Bearcat

Sorry about the delayed entry, I’m Doin’ The Best I Can.

So yesterday, we woke up Down By The Riverside (actually, the grand Mississippi, which flows right by Memphis). We had a lot of plans before moving on to Nashville, first and foremost being to see the March of the Peabody ducks. We walked over to the Peabody Hotel into a lobby lined with tourists getting ready for the ducks to walk the red carpet. For those who don’t know, the Peabody hotel has ducks that hang out in the lobby fountain during the day. At night, they have their own room in the hotel so every day they take the elevator down to the lobby. We happened to catch the show from the balcony and in what seemed to be a Change of Habit, the ducks didn’t march so much as run the red carpet to the fountain.
Running Peabody Ducks

Then, we went over to the National Civil Right ls Museum at the Lorraine Hotel, to see the balcony where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.

Then, we began our Elvis part of the trip. We started by going to Sun Studios, the tiny label where big names like Elvis, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis got their start. We had a great tour guide who told us about the history of the studio and then took us into the actual studio space, where people still record. He even allowed us to take pictures with the same microphone that those former artists used. We even set up our own band shot, which is so embarrassing I’m not sure I’ll put it up.

Alright, Okay, You Win, so here we have for one night only:
On Lead Guitar: Suavest of the Seas
Our Lead singer: Casually Kissing Cowboys
Upright Bass: The Gringo Gaucho
And on Drums: Techtalkin’ and Walkin’

Farther Along, we drove past the Heartbreak Hotel over to that Mansion Over The Hilltop, Graceland, in order to see where one of the legends of rock and roll lived his life. I never knew much about The King, but I learned a lot from his house (and the audio tour that went with it).
Living room:

Billiard room:

Jungle room:

Stables:

We found that the day was getting late; it’s Funny How Time Slips Away. We got on the road to Nashville and arrived in the early evening where we saw another double rainbow (to add to our Pocketful of Rainbows). Of course we had to check out the local music scene so we headed over to Music Row (for tomorrow you better Look Out Broadway) and had the unique experience of being some of the oldest people in the bar while being the youngest-looking.

Day 14 sees our very own Gringo Gaucho take a vacation from her vacation as she leaves us for Colorado and the rest of us try to find the motivation to leave the hotel room (good news, it happens!). Anyways, I Got a Lot of Livin’ to Do so until next time
-Techtalkin’ and walkin’

P.S. Managed to insert 11 Elvis songs into the post, have fun identifying 😉

P.S.S. The title of the post comes from a parody song by Rufus Thomas, which he wrote in response to Big Mama Thornton’s Hound dog, which of course was popularized by Elvis in 1956.

Uh oh..

Mel’s coming to get me….