omfg almost forgot!!!11

After reading beans’ post and sniffling and being a baby for like 15 mins.. i looked down and saw my pretty lil ring.  We picked these up while gallivanting around Wall Drug and declared them as our Adventure rings!

It was only after we passed thru Iowa and were back in South Dakota that Beans declared “OMG WE SHOULDA GOT MARRIED IN IOWA!!!!” I think thats the one thing we regret…. and only cuz we didnt think about doin it :(  

 

I misses you my chimi.. bring your brownness up to me for pirate day for more adventures!!!!!

Back to everyday life

I awoke this morning with no clue as to what city, time zone or hotel I was in. It took a few minutes for the fact that I was actually back at home to register. Yes, I was in my bed with my cats next to me. I arrived at a VERY ridiculous hour, (this trip has been one of constantly losing hours). I did my best to unpack as much as possible before I passed out. Woke up and had to manage to go to yet another day of work. I ended up finding it rather hard to actually concentrate on work. So many good memories. It was a day of constant giggles, which honestly isn’t too far off from everyday.

Ok, so let me try and recap some things that maybe I forgot to write down. The prize for the geekiest comment goes to me (it was an Optimus Prime comment while a semi truck passed us…imagine that). Although the prize for least morning person goes to Jo. Biggest time suck goes to South Dakota, so much to do!! I might have to go back, just for kicks. All the shows were awesome, but I think as far as performance goes, the Indianapolis show wins. Everyone just seemed to be into it. Although while we were enjoying NIN this was happening:

The adventure cookies were a great was to start off the trip. Street Sweeper has become one of my new favorite bands. I’m so glad that I was able to see them. The EPIC moment though, has to go to the Indianapolis show where Dave Navarro told Jo that he loved her!! Seriously dude…OFF. MY. WOMAN!!

This was a great trip. I learned how to play shanghai rummy in South Dakota. I was able to see my favorite band with my favorite person. I saw a VERY entertaining band up close and personal. I was able to witness the awesomeness that it Tom Morello. I learned that Jo does not like it when the gas tank goes under a 1/4 of a tank. I saw a lot of the U.S. that I had never seen before. I learned that sometimes I can be entertained for hours with puns. We ended up spending $600 on gas and $575 on tickets and driving a grand total of 3,820 miles, but I would do it again in a heartbeat. (Thankfully we didn’t have a run in with any police officers and have to pay for any other tickets.)

I have one more NINJA show to go to…but it won’t be with my Ritz so…so it won’t be the same. We’ll see if we can have more Ritz & Bean adventures and let you in on them.

The beginning of the end.

Unfortunately our amazing trip has to come to an end.  Both of us are QQpanda. :( We both decided that if we could we would totaly do this forever.  Anyway one of the things we did every time we entered new states was take photos of the Welcome to blah state sign. 

Heres Wyoming:

 

Then South Dakota:

And Minnesota:

Wisconsin:

Illinois:

 

Indiana:

Back thru Illinois:

Iowa:

Then we headed back thru South Dakota and Wyoming and finished up in Colorado:

 

And hereeee is a map of the routes we took!

View Larger Map

Almost certain doom with NIN

Oh. Em. Gee. It’s almost over. I don’ think that I can take it…nooooooo!! Ok…quick recap. Saturday, May 30th, 2009: We awoke from our scary hotel in Chicago and drove to an uber nice hotel in Indianapolis. Somehow we inexplicably lost an hour between Chicago and Indianapolis. Apparently at the state line you also change time zones…we were oh so not aware of this. We seem to be completely losing hours and days. We left our very scary hotel and got into a very very nice one in Indianapolis. We were just a tad late getting to the line because of that whole time zone thing. That’s ok though, we still had fun in line.

We weren’t right on the rail, but we were just as close, 2nd ones in. And as usual, AWSOME show. I still really want to steal Boots Riley’s dance moves…take a look at them:

On another note, it was also Tom Morelo’s birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOM!!!! Hope all your wishes come true. Being on this trip has made one of mine come true.

NIN was AWSOME, again. Trent was rockin’ some spiffy cut offs. Personally I think they should have been shorter, you know, Daisy Duke short. Out of all the shows that we have been in, they appeared to have been REALLY into this one.

Apparently while we were in heaven during the show, we were close to certain doom. There was a tornado that came within 10 min of us. Since Jo and I were under a canopy and were in front of the speakers we had no idea. After the show we decided to do a bit of tailgating. We made quick friends with our slightly drunk neighbors. I think they made up for some of the not so cool fans that we have been in line with on some of these shows.

We eventually made it back to the hotel room after quite a bit of laughing. We eventually made up our minds to head back to South Dakota for some eggs cut up in squares. During the drive back I learned that my driving limit is 13 hours at once. After that I am of no use. We drove thru Indiana, Illinois and most of Iowa. Right outside of Nebraska we decided to have a picnic. It was at that perfect time before it gets dark. The weather was great and we had some sammiches and watched a storm start to brew. I think at this moment all I had was love. We drove into South Dakota and stopped outside of Sioux Falls in Canista (or Can of Soda if your Jo). And then, some more driving until we eventually reached Rapid City. While there Jo took me on a tour.

Tomorrow it’s back to Denver to drop Jo off :(. I don’t want this to end.

Trip photos!

I went ahead and made a flickr so you guys can see all the road trip pics we took!  lots of boring road stuff.. a few neat ones.. like the jolly green giant and the corn palace! they are all aqui enjoy!

Black hole of doom...

ate my fricking cable to get pics off my camera and onto my lappy :(  so no pretty pics till we go to frys then find more internets!!!  

Show last night was fantastic per the norm.. altho ive decided that im too old to be smashed between 3098673 people... its the rail or gtfo of the pit.  Beans should be posting more about the show cuz shes amazing like that!..

Drive from Chicago to Indy was interesting... we failed to realize we were changing time zones and managed to lose an hour to the black hole of doom.  

It's now time to head back west and to Denver.  We're gonna go thru Illinois, Iowa, and back up thru SoDak to see momma again! XD  It's a 16 hour drive from Indy to Rapid so we should be there monday night, just to dash out the door Tuesday to make it to Denver for my flight.

If only me and ma beaner could do this forever...... I would so be up for it.

Chiiicaaaaagoooo

Another day, another show!!

Per what appears to be the norm for us, we got up, got ready and drove off to yet another city in yet another state. On the way to Chicago I saw a sign, and it was heaven sent:

And then he said, let there be lunch!!

OMG!!! *drooools* That was oh so omnomnommy!! Jo on the other hand appears to not be enjoying it as much as I did :( but I guess that her payback for me not loving Taco Johns the way she does.

And then…we hit Chicago traffic!! And this is some serious traffic, not a tractor decided to take his time on the highway shit that I’m used to.  We EVENTUALLY got to our hotel and the moment I walked in I almost walked out. Ok, imagine opening a bag of Ramen Noodles and sniffing it, this place does not smell that good!! We appear to be cutting it close for most of this trip. We had enough time to unload and head straight back out to the show.

Unfortunately I was not able to get pre-sale tickets to for this show, so we had to wait in line and get seats with the rest of the common folk. The good thing about this venue is the awesome view of the Chicago skyline. This show was only Street Sweeper Social Club and Nine Inch Nails, no Jane's Addiction to make it extra entertaining. Street Sweeper was fantabulous again. Boots Riley is ridiculously entertaining plus Tom Morelo plays the guitar like no one else. I think they’ve managed to get pretty up there in my favorite band list.

The NIN performance was FANTASTIC again. This time they played “We’re Afraid of Americans” (YAY!!). Trent decided to re-write the lyrics to “Terrible Lie” (fyi). Seeing them perform makes me a little sad in knowing that this is their goodbye tour. Trent Reznor was very into this show, he decided to do a bit of crowd surfing, which makes for a great performance.

After Jo and I left the concert and were discussing the plans for tomorrows show we got hit with the realization of what exactly we are doing. We are following a band around. WE. ARE. FOLLOWING. A. BAND. AROUND.!!!!! This is something that I have wanted to do since I discovered concerts. It’s amazing to me that I am actually doing this. I still can’t believe it. Even as I sit in this stinky hotel room and discuss the show far from the comforts of my rural life. This is one of those major events that can be crossed off of my “bucket” list. The best part of this whole trip is that I have someone that is just the right amount of crazy willing to go along with it.

Well, tomorrow is another day and another concert. Off to sleep now, it is currently waaaay past my bad time. Nighty night!!

OMG….Ketchup!!

Phew what a whirlwind of driving!! Ok so, let’s get you caught up before we hit another show. We left Denver and headed straight for Rapid City, SD to meet up with the wonderful woman that gave me Jo. We arrived as a great surprise to her (YAY!!), which was awesome because we thought that we had given ourselves away a few times. I got to meet Jos’ nana and see 3 generations of wonderful ladies interact and I’m going to have to admit, it was a little eerie. There is no denying the relationship there. We unwound a bit and realized towards the end of the night that we were waaay more tired that we thought we were. We went to sleep and I woke up to this: Omnonnommy goodness!!! Eggs cut up in squares. yuuummm…pardon while I wipe away the drool.

Through out the entire drive through Wyoming heading towards South Dakota we kept seeing signs for Wall Drug and Jo kept stating how odd it was because it’s just a tiny place in the middle of SD. Well after we left Rapid City we HAD to stop off at Wall Drug and I have to say, I was greatly amused. We continued on our scenic tour through South Dakota and took advantage before we hit nothing.

  After some more driving we ended up here:  Ladies and gentlemen, the Worlds Only Corn Palace!! Needless to say the endless puns kept me entertained to quite a while. 

And then we drove…and drove…and drove! If I never see another construction site in my life, it’ll seriously be too soon. But we eventually had to stop and feed our faces and look at what we found:   After some more driving and some more construction work we ended up in Wisconsin. As Jo has mentioned, we ran behind and I think that was my bad. I thought it was a 6 hour drive and not a 9 hour drive so I decided that we could take our time leaving Rapid City, oops. Well, on to Chicago, cross your fingers we don’t run into Oprah but that we do run into John Cusack.

omgsobackedup!#!@!!

Sooooooooo we're in Wisconsin.. its late i need sleep will post more later kthxbai :D

Afternoon with NIN!!

Ok…so FINALLY some time to sit and go over the show, which is WIN btw. We got to hear NIN sound check “I’m afraid of Americans”, not see just hear (but I guess beggars can’t be choosers). We were front row in the pit, per the Brenda usual :D!! Just an FYI, Street Sweeper Social Club has the BEST stage presence EVER!! Boots Riley has some of the BEST dance moves that I have ever seen, I’m thinkin’ about stealing his moves. After their set Tom Morelo was backstage watching the NIN show and…OMG he waved at me :D!!!!! (That’s one what I’m sure will be many squeeeee moments!!) NIN was awesome, per the usual, they performed “Reptile”, my fav!! I didn’t realize until the drive to Rapid City, SD that even tho they sound checked “I’m Afraid of Americans” they didn’t actually play it. It’s was still a ridiculously awesome show! While I was pointing people out backstage to Jo I realized that I stalk NIN waaaaaay too much. Rob Sheridan came out a few times and Jo took some awesome pics of him takin pics of NIN.

We stayed and watched Janes Addiction and realized that Dave Navarro is a MASSIVE attention whore!! He saw that we were takin pics and we could not get rid of him for the rest of the night. I’m not a huge Janes Addiction fan, but man where they ever so entertaining!! Dave Navarro kept staring at me, I think he wanted the bow on my head…aaand he kept hitting on Jo and telling her that she had pretty eyes. I was 2 seconds away from telling him to stay away from my woman!! Perry Farrell and Dave Navarro are quite the entertainers.

Jo got some ridiculously awesome pictures that you need to check out.

First show!

Was amazing!!! All the photos i took are here.  They’re a little out of order but turned out amazingly! Beans should be posting a lovely review of the show soon.

Nap time again!!!

Questions and adventures….

So after leaving beautiful sunny (amazingly) Portland, I arrived at DIA at 1130 am.  I was greeted by this!! XD  

After our hugs, giggles, and excitement dwindled(barely) we asked each other; “k now what”

Ritz - “I want nachos!!!”

Beans – “I want Chipotle!!”

Ritz – “nachos for lunch… Chipotle for din din”

Beans – “ok deal!”

So we were off to Westminster!!! After getting thru the clouds of impending doom we made it to Raliberto’s. I shit you not.. they have THE BEST FKN NACHOS YOU WILL EVER HAVE IN YOUR LIFE!!!!111 I think my plate lasted for about 3 mins… tops. Ninjo even got in on the action and defended my messican coke!

After shoving as much food as possible in our faces.. the questions started again.

Beans - “k now what”

Ritz – “ummm I need sunglasses sooooo … to the mall!!”

Up the road we went to Westminster mall wandered around.. and prolly paid way too much for 2 sunglasses. Then the question again..

Ritz – “k now what?”

Beans – “SLURPEEEEEEEE”

Off to 7-11 for teh slurpeeeeee. then that pesky question AGAIN.

Ritz - “k now what?”

Beans – “Do you think maybe we should find directions to where the show is and maybe find a hotel near there?”

Ritz – “Ya thats prolly a good idea… Lets go leach some wireless internets off some place!”

So for the next 45 mins to an hour we drove around trying desperately to find some idiots wifi to lurch to find directions. We failed. I miss you portland and your wifi EVERYFRICKINWHERE. We ended up getting directions by Beans txting google (she's amazing and knows things). When we make it down to Fiddlers green amphitheater, I still had my laptop out so we drove around for another 20ish mins to try and find wireless to steal. AMAZINGLY!! We found some lil bakery that had free wifi!!!!  Beans made reservations online then we drove over and checked in.

After unloading all our shit, and settling in, the question came back.

Ritz - “k now what?”

Beans - “Chipotle?”

Ritz - “mmmmm ok!! And after that lets go get groceries at the king soopers.  It’s kinda near the hotel… I think.”

Off we went to shove more deliciousness in our faces.

Then came the expedition to find the king soopers. We drove around in a giiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiant circle for like an hour and a half. I hate suburbs..

We eventually found it, got what we needed and headed back to the hotel. After we pulled in at the hotel beans says “bahahahahahahahaha!!!! look!”   I look out the window and don't see wtf she's laughing/pointing at. She says “there's a Safeway RIGHT THERE!!!” So yes, the whole 2 hour excursion could have been avoided… but then we wouldn't have had an adventure would we?!?

I’m sure more amazingness will happen tmr…..

I'm ready for my friggin nap now.

Let the mayhem begin…

Ok, so maybe I should explain this little adventure…just a bit. I love music, road trips, Jo and NIN (among other things). When NIN announced their farewell tour I thought…well, lets combine all these. So far,  a lot more driving than anticipated…considering that we have yet to leave Denver. We’ve been awake for far too long. We got up waaaaaay too early, and if you know either one of use, we are neither early risers nor morning people. A 3 1/2 hour flight and a 4 hour drive and we meet up at DIA. We immediately went to a small out of the way Mexican restaurant with the best super nachos and burritos. After we had our fill, (we inhaled every last bit), we realized that we had not planned anything past lunch. It was after this that the insanity began. (I’m sure Jo will let you in on it.) At the moment I am wondering how I’m going to survive this…day one and  I am beat. I’m sure that I’ll find a way though, don’t you worry about that. 

The day!!!!

Finally at the airport!!!! Beans is in her truck on her way to Denver. Its way too friggin early, and I’ve been up since 4am. Horray for naps on the plane!!!!

 

DENVER HERE WE COME!!!11!!

1!!!!!

tmrtmrtmr!!!!!1!!

2...

just making sure the truck will make the drive

3...

omg 3...

4...

4...

5...

5...

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