10 Questions

Friday July 21, 2006: Day 6 ~ Rapid City, SD to Rochester, MN

Today was just a traveling day. We started off with the best free continental breakfast @ the HoJo we stayed at in Rapid City. They had cereal dispensers and a timed waffle maker just like in the dorms! Yummy!

We had a 9 hour drive ahead of us so again we had to keep ourselves amused. So, we watched some Sex and the City and we decided to answer the questions that James Lipton of Inside the Actors Studio always asks his guests @ the end of their interview. I later found out that these 10 questions originally came from a French series, "Bouillon de Culture" hosted by Bernard Pivot. Here they are:

Leia's Answers:
01. What is your favorite word? stellar
02. What is your least favorite word? ignorance
03. What turns you on? a guy who can move well on the dancefloor
04. What turns you off? bad breath
05. What is your favorite curse word? fuck
06. What sound or noise do you love? hearing my mom laugh
07. What sound or noise do you hate? Tin's clapping. Hahaha! jk ate! sirens
08. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? professional musician
09. What profession would you not like to do? garbage collector
10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? "Ready for more?"

Larnie's Answers:
01. What is your favorite word? funny
02. What is your least favorite word? retarted
03. What turns you on? ambition
04. What turns you off? lack of courtesy
05. What is your favorite curse word? shit
06. What sound or noise do you love? the tearing of tape
07. What sound or noise do you hate? Tin's snake laugh
08. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? peace maker
09. What profession would you not like to do? politician
10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? "Wanna play"

Here is what the drive looked like:

While driving, Larnie has to keep herself amused in order to stay awake on the long stretches of hwy because I have a tendency to fall asleep early in the morning. SO, here she is singing along to one of her songs on her acoustic playlist & strumming away on her air guitar. You're supposed to keep 2 hands on the wheel @ at all times Larnie!

During our trip we ate @ this roadside stop twice: once leaving SLC and once during this leg. We coudn't get enough of Perkins (like CoCos but w/ much better food) & their good old homestyle food.

We kept on seeing pictures of their oreo cookie pie on the table so we couldn't help ourselves and decided to split one. The waitress brought each of us a slice and Larnie and I both looked @ each other because we thought we ordered only 1, but the waitress was so nice that she split up the 1 slice onto 2 plates! I love great service in restaurants!mmmm yummy!

MISSION 6 ACCOMPLISHED! 2263 miles traveled

Cheap Asses

Thursday July 20, 2006: Day 5 ~ Cody, Wyoming to Rapid City, South Dakota

We had a 7 hour drive ahead of us and Larnie took the first shift. There wasn't really much to see along hwy 90. But, we came across a town called Emblem which according to the sign on the hwy had a population of only 10 people. How is that possible? We saw 8 houses within their town and one of them had a family of 4 outside. I think they need to update their stats a bit.

During our drive Larnie was stuck driving 20mph through the Bighorn Mts because cyclists had taken over the road. There must have been some sort of race going on so Larnie had to drive cautiously around them. At one point I think the cyclists were going faster than us on the road!

To pass the time we pulled out the Sex & the City DVDs and we watched my favorite episode "The Good Fight." Larnie and I recited the lines of Aiden and Carrie's fight. If you haven't seen it before, take a look because it's a classic. And then we bumped some Tamia and had our own kareoke session. We were belting out "Falling For You" as we drove into South Dakota. And when "This Time It's Love" came on Larnie blurted out, "I want Tamia to sing @ my wedding!" So, to her future husband out there, that is her request.
The gas station we stopped at sold lifesize land ornaments. Here are a couple of em:


Since we arrived in Rapid City early, we decided to head on over to Mt. Rushmore. As we were driving up the mountain we see the monument & decide to pull over to take some pictures.

Those are the faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

We decided not to pay the $8 entrance fee into the park because it was raining and all we were planning to do there was to take our picture in front of it. And since that mission was accomplished… we didn’t see any need to pay in order to do the same thing. I know, we’re cheap asses but, that money went to some good needed beer. We decided to head to Firehouse Brewing Company in downtown Rapid City for happy hour. I found this place on the Food Network website and it was featured on $40 a day. We had some pints of their own Eagle Pale Ale along with some wings & rings and their calamari. We chilled there for awhile and some great conversation. It was good way to end the evening.

FAVORITE CONVERSATION OF THE DAY:
Since Larnie and I have so much time in the car together, it’s a great opportunity to make up some pretty good stories. We decided to create fake personas for the road. Just in case Larnie starts talking to some random dudes while on the road. While traveling my name shall be Chloe Cruz (CC for short) and Larnie is Lelaini Fanoi. Here are our bios:

Chloe Cruz:
27 year old half Italian and half Filipina from NYC. She works as a hair stylist in Irvine, CA @ John Paul Salon. Her goal in life is to work as a stylist @ for the Jonathan Antin Salon in Beverly Hills so that she can gain exposure on Blow Out on Bravo network. She currently lives in Laguna Beach with her boyfriend Steven of 3 years. She loves to ride her Vespa on weekends and enjoys playing pool for fun.

Leilani Fanoi:
25 year old female from Maui, HI. She works as an athletic preparadora for an international volleyball team. (I know we made up more for her, but I can't think of them right now. Email it to me Larn and I'll post it.)


MISSION 5 ACCOMPLISHED! 1688 miles traveled

Mother Nature

Tuesday July 18, 2006: Day 3 ~ Salt Lake City, UT to West Yellowstone, MT

We weren't able to see any polygamists running around SLC, but we did see potential polygamist compounds (ya know, the lots w/ more than 2 houses on em) & lots and lots of churches.
It only took us 5 hours to reach W. Yellowstone and along the way we got a taste of the beautiful scenery Yellowstone National Park has to offer.

W. Yellowstone is a charming little tourist town where everything is within walking distance of each other. That night we decided to have Chinese food for dinner. I know what you’re thinking… Chinese food in Montana?! But we were craving some rice. I guess it wasn’t meant to be because when we got there a busload full of Asian tourists were crowding the sidewalk outside the joint.

So, instead we ate @ Old Town Café a few doors down. I ordered the Rainbow Trout (yum) and Larnie got her usual Chicken Fried Steak. When the waitress brought my dinner she accidentally dropped one of my pieces of Montana toast (yummy cheese bread) onto the table. I didn’t say anything because I thought, “Oh, she dropped it, she’ll bring me another one.” But she never did and the dirty toast just sat there on the table as she brought Larnie her dinner and refilled her soda. And then after a good 5 mins, bitch, grabs both corners of the dirty piece of toast and tries to gently place it onto my plate! I look up @ Larnie in disbelief & turn to the waitress (w/ an evil Leia look) and say, “No, that’s ok.” And THEN she proceeded to put the dirty piece of toast back onto the table, as if I was still going to eat it! What the?!?! Larnie and I couldn’t stop laughing during dinner.

Here’s Larnie’s re-enactment of the Montana Toast incident:

FAVORITE QUOTE OF THE DAY:
Larnie: Wow! That's a huge bird!
Leia: [puzzled] That's not a real bird Larnie! Can't you see it's connected to a pole?

MISSION 3 ACCOMPLISHED! 1044 miles traveled


Wednesday July 19, 2006: Day 4 ~ West Yellowstone, MT to Cody, Wyoming

This was our day to explore Yellowstone National Park. We saw Old Faithful, hiked some trails and drove through the park. Here are just some of our photos:








After the Yellowstone drive we headed towards Cody, Wyoming, land of Buffalo Bill Country. The town was actually pretty hip for a Western town. It's downtown district had a bunch of restaurants, bars and shops that actually sold normal looking clothes. They are big on trading posts here in the Midwest. Wyoming is known for their meat so we decided to have ribs for dinner @ Wyoming's Rib & Chop House. We each got a half rack of baby back ribs and they were really tender and had the best BBQ sauce, sweet and tangy with just the right amount of kick. We would have taken a picture of the food, but we devoured them so quick we forgot to take pictures.

FAVORITE LARNIE MOMENT OF THE DAY:
Larnie had her shirt inside out the whole time we were at breakfast:
Oh MaLa!


MISSION 4 ACCOMPLISHED! 1194 miles traveled

And so it begins...

I've finally set up a blog. I know I should have set one up years ago with all the traveling we do but better late than never. So, here we go...

When Larnie told me she was offered a position as a fellow at the New Hampshire Musculoskeletal Institute, I was so excited. 2 things popped into my mind: 1) it would be an awesome opportunity for her & 2) it would be the perfect opportunity to take a cross country trip (something I've always wanted to do in life). And so it begins...

Sunday July 16, 2006: Day 1 ~ Los Angeles, CA to Las Vegas, NV

Thanks for seeing us off everyone! I think momma Boquiren shed a lil tear for her baby girl and Andrew wanted to cry because he was going to miss his lil sister SO much! Hahaha... ya right!
OK, so Larnie took the 1st leg of the drive... BIG mistake! Since there we're about 15 people in the front of the Boquiren house I think she got a bit nervous backing out of the driveway. Not only was she a tad close to the fence on the driver's side, but she was backing out just as a car was coming down the street. But Larnie did a good job and backed up ALL the way across the street to the other house's driveway. I looked @ the lady in the other car and she was just laughing cuz she saw all these people outside the house just looking @ Larnie drive.

And so we headed to Vegas. Alvin took the 2nd leg of the drive and we made pretty good time. We got to Vegas in 4 hours. Here are our gracious hosts for our first night. Alvin & Minette were so kind to let us crash @ their house for the night.

It's such a cute house... With the best sweet tea ever!
Thanks for being so hospitable guys!

MISSION 1 ACCOMPLISHED! 290 miles traveled

Monday July 17, 2006 ~ Las Vegas, NV to Salt Lake City, UT

We decided to start off our second day with a hearty meal @ good old IHOP. Alvin worked from home and was able to have breakfast with us. Breakfast was on Poppa Boquiren this morning!

ARIZONA
Driving through the beautiful canyons.


Ok, so why the walmart picture? Well, I thought about how long we we're going to be in the car together and figured that I should buy a portable dvd player to help pass the time. I can always use it for future trips, so it's a good investment for me. So, we stopped by the local vegas walmart to pick one out.
So, we tried it out in the car while I was driving (I know, not a good idea... but I'm a good driver and you can only listen to music for so long in the car) and we're like, "Is that the highest the volume goes"? And we get this brilliant plan to connect the tape adapter we use for the ipod to the dvd player and TADA... SURROUND SOUND!!! AWESOME! So, we watched Friends all the way up to Salt Lake City.

UTAH IS ON FIRE!!!
We got freaked out when we saw black smoke up ahead. Apparently it's fire season and there was a huge fire this past weekend on the 15N. They just opened up the highway today. Lucky us.
And if that wasn't scary enough we had to drive through another fire!
We arrived safely in Salt Lake City in about 7.5 hrs. Not bad.

MISSION 2 ACCOMPLISHED! 720 miles traveled


FAVORITE QUOTE OF THE DAY
(talking about our caribbean trip) Leia: Yeah, at our apts in tortola we were supposed to take Navy Style showers
Larnie: [pause] Like Together???
Leia: [rolling my eyes & laughing] No, not communal showers Larnie!

Good times!