"I miss camping!" - T*Star

Good morning from Gilroy, California which you might recognize as the Garlic Capital of the WORLD! (You're jealous, right?)
Well, actually, we're not there anymore but that's where we were this morning! We decided to sleep in today because, why not? We packed our bags into the car while our hotel boyfriend stared at us, first from the top of the stairs and then while he smoked his cigarette near his truck. Can you blame the man? We're beautiful. We rolled out of the hotel around 11 or so and made our way to an In-N-Out burger place. It was pretty delicious, though I was not a fan of the fries, I'd rather have Five Guys, ain't gonna lie.
Then it was off to Santa Cruz, California where we attempted to walk the boardwalk but discovered that there is NO parking by the Santa Cruz boardwalk. After a little driving we decided that our heart wasn't in it and made our way to wine. That's where our hearts were. We sampled wine at 4 different local tasting rooms and enjoyed every one. Our servers loved us and the story of us. For those of you who don't know, Colleen, Trish, Eva and me (Nancy) met 10 years ago next month. We wowed the servers with our traveling stories and camping stories. They loved us!
We ended that night at a local brewery and sampled a few different beers. It was a great day!
Sadly, we didn't leave the brewery until after 9 and the camp sites we looked at were booked, so after a little driving we decided it was a hotel night again. But the best part of the decision was hearing T*Star utter the phrase, "I miss camping!" This is NOT a joke. It was only made better by her later quote, "I miss camping and breakfast burritos a'la'pants." (That's me! I'm Pants! I make breakfast burritos!)
So that was our day! I'm the only one awake enough to blog, these ladies are tired! I'm off to bed myself, I hope everyone is enjoying the blog!
Love from Santa Cruz!
Pants (Nancy)

Okay, NOW I feel like we're in an episode of Full House

Two blogs in one day?! You're welcome!
As Tumbles said, we were just waiting to have electricity/internet to post the blog, so we thought we'd follow through on that and write about today and last night separately!
What can be said about last night?
Well, setting up camp was fairly easy and only took 30 minutes! We're getting faster everyday and though that's awesome, that's not the best part about last night. The best part was the view. We set up camp atop a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean and proceeded to watch the sunset. Cue jealousy, go on. The night ended with hotdogs, sangria and roasted marshmallows while listening to the waves crash nearby.
The dewy, chilly morning went quickly with a view from atop a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, I know I already said that but I wanted to say it again. We started the morning with breakfast burritos and a quick take down of the tent then off we went. We arrived in San Francisco around 2 in the afternoon and drove across the Golden Gate Bridge. We then found our way to a parking garage with an amazing view of the bridge and Alcatraz, aka THE ROCK for only 2 dollah fo' every 20 minutes! We took some time to enjoy some Ben and Jerry's near Ghirardelli Square and then made a wish in the fountain in the square. Then off we went on an old fashioned cable car and ended up near Chinatown. We had to walk a little bit up hill both ways in the snow (probably) and had some delicious Chinese food for lunch. Then Tumbles and T*Star used their rockin' map skills to lead us to another cable car to get back to our starting point. That alone would be a great end to the afternoon but there's more. We got to dangle out of the cable car, yup, DANGLE! We ran up to the cable car and the driver yelled one person here, here and HERE! So we jumped on and held on tight! It was kind of a big deal. (Think Full House and imagine our butts dangling over cars.)
The afternoon ended with Tumbles and Pants buying San Francisco hoodies and then off we went. It was a little late so we opted for a night in a hotel! Hooray electricity! So here we are in Gilroy, California, the Garlic Capital of the WORLD!
That's all from the Chicas!
See you tomorrow, maybe, we'll see if we have electricity!
Pants (Nancy)

Catching Up...

I just want to start this blog with a quick disclaimer that we have had such spotty cell phones and internet connections and battery charge that this little wrap up has been patiently waiting to be posted just for you :) Enjoy as much as you can, pictures will follow soon as will the recap of today...

Tuesday
Our morning in Seattle began with breakfast with Sara and Ark at a cute little organic restaurant. Once our bellies were filled our tour guides kicked it into high gear. We made it to the top of the Space Needle, giggled at the fish throwers in Pike Place Market, sat with the troll under the bridge, meandered through the sculpture park and then bid farewell to our Washington hosts and the wonderful city of Seattle.

Wednesday
We arrived in Portland to the abode of Kurt and Hannah just in time for a late dinner. Kurt slaved over a chicken for hours while we played with Hannah and then we all had the best night ever, just ask Hannah. We busted a few moves in Just Dance II, the highlights including Rasputin of course, and got Nancy caught up on the West Wing, Season 1, episodes 1 through 5 :) We were up bright and early the next day and went to Hannah’s favorite coffee shop, the Funky Monkey, and then VooDoo donuts where we indulged in Portland Cream donuts and Maple Bacon donuts. It was as heavenly as it sounds. We made sure to wander down the aisles of Powells Books before spending some qt with family. At precisely 6:24pm, the amazing T*Star arrived in Portland and we picked her up in style: with a Welcome to the New Hilton, East Coast Road Trip oh-9. Yup, you read that right, we were so excited to be on our second gianormous road trip that we forgot where and when we were :) The sign rocked T*Star’s world as Pants artisted it up with a beautiful tent and a half cooked pink marshmallow. It was epic, though I do have to say, the back of her sign is going to be ridiculous. We brought the starved and sleepless T*Star home immediately and ate another fabulous Kurt concoction: homemade pizza with white sauce. Within an hour T*Star was up to speed on how to communicate non-verbally, it was as though not a day had gone by since East Coast Road Trip oh-9, again, you can see how easy it was to forget where and when we were. It was a super fun trip to P-town and we’re thankful to our Portland hosts, Kurt and Hannah, for showing us how to have a good time :)

Thursday
Before departing Portland, we couldn’t resist revisiting the breakfast of the day before and so we hit up the Funky Monkey and VooDoo donuts before blowing Oregon a kiss goodbye. On the road to the Redwoods we made several new friends, some creepier than others, and our favorite by far was a woman we now refer to as our Aunt Girlfriend. We met her while gawking at a giant Paul Bunyon and Babe the Blue Ox (of which there are approximately 7 million of in the US, you can google that). She was in the redwoods with her niece and made sure to give us a heads up on Bacteria Bear, the gray whale in the river, how not to be a lemming, and which way to look for campsites. We then initiated T*Star into the certified campers club, setting up the tent and getting dinner on the table in under an hour. Our poor cooler was a bit overloaded and so we did our best to empty it of beverages before hitting the hay… theoretically. Some classic moments of the evening include “Tumbles, NOOOOO!”, a lesson on how to pee in the woods, “this baseball bat suddenly feels ridiculous”, and a campfire that T*Star built the crap out of.

Friday
We awoke in the tent to the realization that we had set up camp on an incline. T*Stars feet were above her head and Tumbles spent half the night pulling herself and her sleeping bag out of a hole and onto the sleeping mat. The redwoods perked us right up, and our campsite girlfriend Carolyn (who btw was not to be messed with) gave us explicit instructions on where to go to see the corkscrew tree and the biggest tree in the world which was something like 22,000 miles in diameter. Before we could get that far, though, we took a quick detour THROUGH A TREE. It’s called “Tour Through Tree”, and we’ve got a fabulous video on it… though I have to admit, recording life in 3D is hard… Since I’m not that tech savy, you only get to see pictures, but be really nice and buy me chocolate and I will share the video with you.

We then drove about a mile away to a bridge over the Klamath River where a sad mama gray whale was hanging out. The area has seen several gray whales en route to Alaska, but this is the first time a mama and a baby had been spotted this far up the river. The baby whale had found her way out to the mouth of the river, but somehow the mama hadn’t gotten the memo and was very anxiously circling for weeks in the river, waiting for her baby to return. We learned much more about it from our Tour Through a Tree gatekeeper, but we’ll spare you the details. We did get some amazing pictures of the mama whale as she was directly under the bridge and would come out and blow some water in the air for her adoring fans (also known as lemmings as they would run across the highway if they thought she was going to cross under the bridge). We made sure to stand close to but not touching the bacteria bears on the bridge before heading towards the recommended trees. We marveled at the corkscrew tree, which you could incidentally climb inside of, and the amazingly large 22 feet across tree. I lost count of how many times one of us would sigh and say I love trees. We aren’t even serious nature fans and the trees wowed us to no end. As we type, we are en route to our next campground somewhere nearish to San Francisco. We hope to report back soon on how amazingly quick we were able to set up the tent and roast hot dogs. Go ahead, be jealous ;)

We hope you now understand why the blog is behind, and now that we’re all certified, our efficiency can only increase. Happy Trails with love from the New Hilton.

-Tumbles (Colleen)

A Wee Bit Tardy...

We’d like to issue a quick apology to all you faithful fans, we were so excited to see our wonderful Seattle hosts, Sara and Shoham, that we didn’t remember to blog last night. In order to make it up to you, we’ve also decided to add pictures to the past posts. It’s a win win scenario!

We started the day Monday by collecting a biker boyfriend who had stayed in the hotel room next to us the night before. He must have really liked our smiles or he thought we were drunks because as we were loading the car he called out to us “Hey… do you ladies like beer?” It turns out he didn’t have enough space in his cooler for his 5 extra Coors, so he gifted them to us. How sweet J That motel really was a friendly place from our Glacier Motel girlfriend, Florence, who greeted us and showed us to our room to our biker boyfriend making our departure so happy.

We then took Kirby to the car doctor for an oil change, hit the road and said goodbye to Montana and hello to Idaho! Idaho was quite exciting, we had a moment in the sun on a boat… ok it was a barber shop in the shape of a boat, but still, it rocked. Pants then represented all Hispanics in Idaho… For real. She walked into McDonalds and thought to herself: “am I paranoid or are these people all looking at me?” She wasn’t paranoid, they were looking at her. There were no non-white people to be seen. Seriously, even the workers at McDonalds were white… it was surreal. She represented Hispanics well. I was a little jealous, but she told me not to worry because my shoulders are totally brown. See, I’m part Hispanic now too! The shoulders part… Pants’ cousin told her not to worry because some gringos like the tan look :D That really had us cracking up!

Then we kissed Idaho goodbye (figuratively of course) and moved onto Washington!! Our first stop was a giant radio flyer in Spokane. It was so cool, you could slide down the handle!! (You can see it in the picture, right?) Then we walked around the cute little carousel and park where Pants picked up a sno-cone girlfriend. This chick seriously rocked, not only did she give great sno-cone flavor advice, but she promised to replace the one Pants tentatively chose if she hated the flavor. What a rockstar girlfriend! We scooted around town to get another photo-op, this time in front of a fabulous giant milk bottle/hamburger joint. Giant bottles totally me smile, so I happily posed for the pic. Enjoy.

Our next pit stop just so happened to be in George, … Washington. Seriously, that’s the name of the town. We loved it. In front of the gas station, they have a gianormous bust of George for camera toting tourists such as ourselves. It was a great day on the road!

We rolled into Seattle just in time for a late dinner with our fabulous Seattle friends, Sara, Shoham and Ark and laughed the night away. It was a great change of pace from camping and motels, and our hosts even upped the ante and volunteered to be our tour guides the next day in Seattle! Stay tuned for our amazing Seattle tour…

Over and out,
Tumbles (Colleen)

There must be nature here!

The morning began with Pants proclaiming...
*achu* It's as if my nose just thought to itself, wait a minute, there must be nature here! *achu*! *achu*!

Followed later by the first of many witty conversations:

Tumbles: I wish I would have found my nail clippers sooner.
Pants: Why didn't you ask me? I have some.
Tumbles: Of course you do, you have everything! Do you have a midget too?!?!
Pants: I AM a midget!

Good morning Montana!
Would you like some breakfast? Mmmm... breakfast was again some awesome egg burritos cooked on the best stove ever. Followed quickly by the tent take down which was extra easy, we worked quickly and efficiently to cut the time in half. Then off we went!
Today consisted mostly of driving across Montana, which is a huge state with not a lot to see in terms of attractions. Who knew? Okay, lets not kid ourselves, we all knew. But talk about GORGEOUS nature! ...and lots of "NO METH" signs. Yup, drugs are BAD! But Glacier National Park is GOOD.
There aren't too many adventures to write about today but lots of interesting moments, no doubt!
Where oh where to begin?
Well...
1) "Buffalo, it's like a less exciting moose." This one might need a little explaining. On East Coast Summer Road Trip Oh-9, moose were a huge highlight of trip. We spent all of the northern part of the east coast waiting to see moose and THEN we finally saw one! Well, we haven't been looking for moose on this trip but we did see a buffalo!!!
B) Do you love hay?!?! Our road trip is for you! Just follow our tracks! There is hay as far as the eye can see! True story. Want to know more? Dial 1-800-Twins-Hayyyy (T*Star gets it. Did I say reindeer?)
iii) How does a rest area keep its grass so green? With a sign that reads "Rattlesnakes have been observed. Please stay on sidewalks." ...Really?!?! Seriously?!?! For those of you who don't know, Pants is afraid of snakes, like even thinking about them scares her half to death. Going potty was never so scary.
IV) Lets talk about bears! Tumbles is afraid of bears! Thinking about them scares her half to death. No lie. So as we were driving around Glacier National Park we spotted a bear in the first two minutes! Lets just say Tumbles metaphorically/metaphysically/figuratively crapped her pants. But we're strong and we kept on driving! UNTIL Tumbles spotted something large and black in the distance, imagine the SHRIEK she let out. She had crapped her pants again, only this time it was because of a cowbear. Yup, a cowbear. What is a cowbear you might ask? It's a cow in Glacier National Park posing as a bear. It's a real thing, look it up. For migration patterns, call 1-800-Twins-Spotcowsinthedistanceandbegingreferringtothemascowbears.
Cinco) That's five in Spanish.
:::) Pants: Look at that cross made of rocks. That was random. (Say it out loud.)
Tumbles: Baby rocks?!?!?! That WAS random.
Pants: What?!?!?!
Sometimes out twinship involves being a 95 year old couple who can't hear each other in the car.
Sept) Listening to "Fire Burnin" and singing along at the top of our longs to forget about cowbears while sadly gazing upon burnt trees.
Lastly) Seeing as we got out of Glacier National Park a little late, we opted to find a hotel or cabin or something of sorts. After several no vacancies, we collected our newest girlfriend at Middlefork Motel. Though we definitely overpaid, our tiredness and her niceness made spending the money worthwhile! Thanks Florence!
Well, that's all for tonight! It's time for bed!
Thanks for reading!
- Tumbles AND Pants

Twinlicious = Sharing and Caring Plus Teamwork

Day three started off with the best egg and cheese burritos, also known as baleadas (according to a certain Honduran twin *cough*Tumbles*cough*) cooked on the best camping stove EVER! Then it was a slightly clumsy, yet somehow efficient tent break down.

A quick shower and a quarter mile drive later, we were at Wall Drug! What's Wall Drug you might ask?? Well, it's South Dakota's version of Wal-Greens on crack. No fo'realz, Google it! There were shops and side shows: we got to ride a jackalope, listen to a gorilla play the piano and sing, and ride off the side of a non-moving horseless drawn carriage. It was, in a word, fabulous, and you really should google it at the very least. Just before noon we headed to the car but not before taking a quick pic of the outside of Wall Drug where Tumble posed with the official sign. Mid-pose we collected our latest human suveneir: a Wall Drug boyfriend, before dashing off towards the Enchanted Highway.

Not to give you too much homework, but the Enchanted Highway in North Dakota is a lovely stretch of highway that a local turned artist was inspired to create in order to keep his beloved town of Regent thriving. It was indeed enchanting as Pants was allowed (and in fact encouraged) to climb aboard a ship in one piece entitled Fishermans Dream, and Tumble boarded a wooden horse drawn carriage. It was by far the highlight of the western edge of North Dakota for these two Travel Bugs. We then charged into Montanta where we marveled at the big sky and found a lovely camp ground before dark. Pants made sure our tent building was improving as she set her timer and in 40 minutes flat we had the tent set up, filled with our stuff and water boiling for fettuccini alfredo. We are quite satisfied now as we climb into bed. I’m sure we’ll get the set up time down to 10 minutes by the time T*Star joins us!

Lots of love from Montana, Tumble (Colleen)

"Ummm if God had intended us to camp he wouldn't have invented Hiltons." -T*Star (2009)

The title of our blog today comes from East Coast Summer Road Trip 2009 and was uttered by the very awesome T*Star while roasting marshmallows at a CABIN in New Hampshire. Coincidentally, T*Star will join our travels next week in Portland, so stay tuned from more!
But tonight, it's the real deal. Hello from an amazing tent/house in Wall, South Dakota! (HUGE shout out and big thanks to Rob and Jessica Heap for providing the tent and literally everything else.) It was a rough evening at first because we didn't roll into town until around 9pm and it was obviously dark and unfortunately windy. While Tumbles (Colleen) has camped before, I have to say this is my first time ever in my entire life of being on this earth that I have EVER been camping or used my sleeping bag for it's intended purpose. Having been taught to set up the tent on Tuesday and hoteling-it yesterday, today was the first day we set it up. Needless to say it was a struggle and may have taken us the better part of an hour. haha! Give us a break, it's a big tent! But we did it and we're sure we're pretty much certified campers now, got any questions? Call us at 1-800-Twins-Camp. We wrapped up the night by grilling up some hotdogs, throwing back a beer/wine and roasting some smores. It was great! But lets rewind a little, why did we get here so late? Well... how many ways can one say AWESOME?
Lets begin:
The day started off in Cozak, Nebraska! We headed east towards North Platte, where we stopped at Buffalo Bill's Trading Post and Museum. It wasn't on our original plan but how could we pass it up? We've now seen a stuffed two headed cow and squirrel tighty whities, have you? After that adventure, Tumbles earned the right to wear the Tiara of Awesomeness for phone Googleing to find us a pretty great deal on glass repair for our CRV a.k.a. Kirby. Huge props to the receptionist and technician at Front Street Auto Glass. They were nice, friendly, helpful and quick. We were in and out in less than half an hour and on the road again!
Our next stop was Car Henge in Alliance, Nebraska, which is exactly what it sounds like. It's Stone Henge but with cars. We know you're jealous! Onward! Next we headed towards South Dakota and into the Black Hills. Talk about narrow roads but beautiful scenery! Gorgeous to say the least! We had a little run of bad weather but it was brief and we made to Mount Rushmore in no time at all! Well, you may know it as Mount Rushmore, we kept forgetting though, so should we refer to it as "the faces," "stone henge?" or "you know, that one place we're going," it's probably Mount Rushmore. I have to say, it was pretty grand and I'm very glad I got to see it!
What would 2 travel bugs do next? How about a Dinosaur Park in Rapid City, South Dakota? Yup. Lets just say that with the 10,000 stairs to climb up, you had to really want it. Us girls really wanted it. That's just how we roll!
Bur really, what South Dakota adventure would be complete without a visit to Sturgis??? So on we went! This is the weekend before the Sturgis biker rally starts. There were bikes as far as the eyes could see! Tumbles wouldn't let me get out of the car to ask: "Pardon me sir, are you a biker doctor? Yes? Can I get yo' numbah??" But whatever Tumbles, whatever! She also didn't let me kick it at Full Throttle either, TruTv?? Anybody?? Anybody?? Fo'realz. So who's coming back with me next year? :)
In order to avoid too many crowed, we opted to find camping a little further way from Sturgis which turns out was all the way in Wall, SD. Fast forward to 9pm and setting up camp in the dark. It's okay though, Wall was our next destination! Tomorrow we'll explore Wall Drug and head up the Enchanted Highway in North Dakota. Intrigued?? Want to know more?? Well, you'll have to wail until tomorrow!
It's time for bed.. I mean sleeping bag! Good night from our awesome tent!
-Pants (Nancy)

West Coast Road Trip 20-oh-11 has officially begun!!

Pants got off to a rocky start this morning after a sleepless night and packed the car in the rain. It wasn’t too annoying until the power went out and she was forced to use her head flashlight L Then she did a quick test of her new car power converter… which promptly blew the fuse for the cigarette lighter. It was a painful morning for pobrecita Pants L She made it in time to pick me up from my overnight bus and together we followed Jill’s horrible directions which lead us into not one but two train parking lots. Needless to say, we weren’t too upset when Jill died and so we took the old fashioned route and asked at a gas station for a mechanic. Wally World was option number one and the cute lil old door greeter, Robert, was a great help. He listened patiently to our problem and told us to look it up in the car’s manual… We were a bit hesitant at first, but within a good half hour Pants had found both fuse switchboards and replaced the blown fuse. We are now both officially certified mechanic twins, so if you need any help, feel free to call anytime 1-800-TWIN-MECHANICS. The other bonus of Wally World was that we collected our first boyfriend of the trip J He told us that he saved one fan for the prettiest girls in the world J Yeah Wally World Boyfriend!!

We then went on to conquer all of Kansas (it took a long time, let me tell you!) and part of Nebraska!! The car wanted to get all of its bad luck out in one day, and it took a stone to the windshield for us. The chip almost looks like a rainbow, or a frown depending on your outlook on life ;) Keep your fingers crossed that we can find some help fixing the chip before it spreads! It'll be a fun way to start day #2... Or just a way to start the day.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's excitement: Carhenge. If you’re picturing Stonehenge done with cars, you’re our kinda gal :)

- Tumbles (Colleen)