Monday, April 4, 2011

Comin' Round The Mountain.....With My Eyes Closed

April 4, 2011
Rock house we saw along the way....


HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, SISSIE (oh ya....and BRADY too!! hee heee)

We made it off the windy-windy mountain in the motorhome.......whew......after much prayer, a couple of "hands over my eyes"....a little holding my breath......we made it!  Then a very very long 3 hours of 40 mph gusty winds the rest of the way home.....
One of the many mountain roads....

But thought I'd share several of my "favorite" photos from the weekend...
Chuck was so GRATEFUL to Joe for taking him for a ride on his Harley, he gave him a kiss.
I don't think Joe will be taking Chuck for any more rides.....

Woke up Sunday to camping in the clouds...

Our good friends, Joe and Jackie...


Chuck shakin' things around a bit for Joe..
Joe...after shaking!
My new friend Betty with a Bouffant I met at the gas station...

Chuck swears he didn't break it.....uhhhh.....ya, okay.

We were sure to keep the Coffee Rules at our breakfast hangout

And what's lunch if not at Pam's Hateful Hussy Diner??
Chuck after a LOOOONG day....sound asleep against my helmet
Not an easy picture to take while going 50 mph and scaling the mountains on a motorcycle!!

Saturday, April 2, 2011

So......Did You Guess Where We Are????

April 2, 2011


Good Job........most of you!!!  I was SUPER impressed and surprised with how many of you loyal followers of Murphy's Mom Blog knew right where we are......And for those of you who didn't know, we are at.......

Queen Wilhelmina State Park in Mena, Arkansas

This is the coolest place......its only about a 3 1/2 hour drive from home and is the closest mountain range us East Texans have.  I know my Colorado friends would call this a "hill", but to us, this is considered the Arkansas Pikes Peak!

We are camping at the top of Rich Mountain in the Quachita National Forest which is accessed by taking the Talimena Scenic Drive; a 54 mile stretch of eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas.  Today we drove from Mena to Magazine Mountain, about 125 miles away, which is the tallest mountain in Arkansas; all 2,700 feet of it.

Now, I must confess none of the pictures you're looking at are mine; unfortunately, I left the cord to download pictures from my camera to the computer at home, so you're looking at "borrowed" pictures from the internet.....but we actually DID see these sites!

But can you imagine driving a 40' motorhome pulling a motorcycle trailer up these hills..........and how much gas that sucks out of it?? Well, thats just what we did yesterday.  But tomorrow ........ tomorrow, I must go down those same steep hills.......My trusty Jake Brake (air brakes) and I will be praying most of the way down.

Our friends, Joe and Jackie, who also drive a trike (although their's makes much neater sounds cause its a Harley) are camping with us at the top of this very windy-windy mountain.  (Yes, I know I said "windy-windy" but that is because it is a "windy" road and it is very "windy" up here...)

Tomorrow....I will provide proof that we actually were physically here......(if the jake brakes don't fail.....)  And if the Jake Brakes DO fail; well....you'll hear about it on the news!
Talimena Scenic Road

Friday, April 1, 2011

QUIZ TIME * * * * * WHERE ARE WE??

April 1, 2011


Wellllll........we are on the road again.....but this time, we're going to see if you can tell where we are with just a few subtle clues......Ready??

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Trip to the Outback SNAKEhouse.....

March 29, 2011


This was colonoscopy day for Charlie......it was his Birthday present.


After an explosive 24 hours which included a nuclear laxative that tasted like goat spit and urinal cleanser, we were on the road for our 2 hour trip to Dallas.  I was busily taking pictures of my unhappy :< Charlie with my cell phone when I got this fantastic picture of him......unfortunately, the face was due to a deer running out in front of me as I was driving and taking the picture.......

But this was the look he had most of the trip to Dallas.....For some reason, it was MY fault he had to have a colonoscopy...

And this was his face when I asked the nurse for a mark-so-lot to draw a smiley face on his butt before surgery......

And this, my friends, is Charlie AFTER the procedure.....We were the last ones to leave since Murphy and I insisted he "dispel" all extra "wind" prior to riding in the car with us for two hours.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

"Want To See The Statue of Liberty? Google-Image It Instead...."

March 22, 2011, New York, NY


DAY 7

I must admit, this hasn't been one of our "better" days..........at one point this morning, we started "turning" on each other.....and I must also admit, it was mostly my doing.

The day started off just dandy....we actually saw sunshine coming through the window and were charged and ready to get the most out of our day.  While we were waiting on the tour bus to leave, Jacque and Debbie decided to scoot into a pharmacy across the street to buy Jacque some gloves while Ellen and I stayed on the bus drinking our coffee and eating our bagels.

Within just a few minutes, we hear the engine of the bus start up....then the bus started moving....then I see Ellen running down the aisle of the bus yelling, "Stop the Bus....Stop the Bus...." since Deb and Jacque weren't on yet and we had their tickets.   As the bus came to a quick halt, I spilt my coffee on myself, my bagel bite fell out of my mouth, my gloves hit the floor and slid under the seat.......then I hit my head on the low ceiling as I tried to get up....things were going downhill quickly.  About the time I got halfway down the aisle with all my crap, we see Debbie and Jacque running across the street towards the bus.....
See any Happy people in line for the ferry??  Nope!

We arrived at our first destination.....Statue of Liberty Ferry.  I wish I could find the words to describe the lines to this attraction.....but let me just say that there were two lines:  the "HAVE'S" and the "HAVE NOT'S"......We were in the "Have Not's" line.  Even though we had tickets purchased days ago, we were considered in the "non-reservation" (aka..Have Not's) line which meant it took us 5x longer to get to the boat.  We stood in a frigid, biting, bone-chilling and shivering line for 2 1/2 hours before getting to the boat.  This is where things started going downhill quickly between us girls.   After being passed by for the fifth time by the "Have's", I thought we should move the barricade that was preventing us (the Have Not's) from moving forward.  I was, unfortunately, alone in this assessment with my sisters.  However, all 1,000 people BEHIND us thought it was a great idea......we would have been heros if we had moved forward with this idea!

I was getting more deranged by the minute.....I was COLD, FRUSTRATED, IRRITATED....and really couldn't have cared less to see the Statue of Liberty by this point.  It was incredibly unfair what they were doing to the "have not's" and I just wanted to leave....but we already had too much time invested in this fiasco.   We finally did arrive at the Statue of Liberty, but only after going through security, taking off our coats, scarves, watches, bags, cameras, belts, jewelry.....then getting redressed.  We spent all of 15 minutes at the Statue of Liberty.

I would just like to take this opportunity to "thank" our radical muslim friends for all the "fun" you caused us to experience today.........

Once we were back on the tour bus, we had Ms. Dragonbus as our Tour Guide.  Here is what she said, "Ky është vendi i ndërtimit të parë kryeqytetin e Amerikës, kuXhorxh Uashington u inaugurua si president."  Yep, we had no idea what she said either......but we did hear the words "George Washington" somewhere in there....Forgive me for thinking I lived in America and expected American tours to be in English......errrrrrrrrrrrrrr


Anyway, we did finish up the day with a fun ride in a rickshaw with Ellen sitting in my lap to the theatre to see "Chicago".....It was outstanding and we laughed the whole way as we dodged past the taxi's, red lights and 10,000 pedestrians.........or, as Ms. Dragonbus would say it, " là tuyệt vời, anh yêu ..... chỉ tuyệt vời!"

Monday, March 21, 2011

DAY 6: The Tour Bus Nazi......

March 21, 2011 - New York, NY


HAPPY BIRTHDAY,  MY SWEET HUSBAND


IT SNOWED TODAY!!!!

Seriously, this morning we woke up to see it snowing....Didn't slow us down one i-ota!!
We decided since it was c-o-l-d.......s-n-o-w-i-n-g.......r-a-i-n-i-n-g, we would jump on a "Hop On/Hop Off" tour bus and see the town from the comfort of a nice heated bus where we could get on and get off wherever and whenever we wanted.......
Nazi Tour Guide

Scary Helen Thomas....
What we "actually" got was a double-decker bus with us on the top and the back totally open to the elements and a NAZI tour director that kept yelling at us....SIT DOWN......SHUT UP......DON'T TALK....and kissed the microphone every time she talked......she reminded quite a bit (looks-wise) like Helen Thomas, a White House Correspondent.....S-C-A-R-Y.....

The highlights of the day were the toy store, F-A-O Schwarz where we enjoyed hanging out at the piano you play with your feet (pictures to come later);

A ride past Central Park;

And the VERY best part???  Tickets to the Phantom of the Opera theatre tonight!!  Too awesome for words....we enjoyed it SO much that we want to do another show tomorrow night too!


We also toured the Guggenheim Museum of Modern Art.......

In case you're wondering what these three chicks are doing with their hands, we have decided to use a replacement to the "saluting".......we have no idea what it means but it looks cool......

Sunday, March 20, 2011

SALUTE......"SNAP"

March 19 and 20 - Washington DC & NYC

Lincoln Memorial

Have you ever tried to tour the entire Washington DC area in 14 hours?  Well, we did........and I must tell ya, don't ever do that!  We walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked...........my feet hurt so bad that I just wanted a shot of novocaine to put them out of their misery....these web-toed puppies of mine were screamin' for mercy...........which explains the reason for No Blog yesterday.......
1st Try at Saluting....

Our brand smackin' new Lieutenant Lance started our day off teaching us how to properly "salute".  He taught us that you place your "booger" finger on the tip of your eyebrow, elbows parallel with your body, heels together and then salute, all the while saying, "SNAP"........go ahead....try it......I'll wait.

We practiced our saluting everywhere we went.......on the escalators, in front of monuments, fountains and important landmarks...... everywhere.....including the White House!!

He taught us rules like never going anywhere without a "buddy"......unfortunately, my sister Debbie learned this lesson the hard way by falling out of line and wandering off......so for her punishment, Lieutenant Lance had her do 5 pushups on the sidewalk in front of the Capital building......

He taught us things like "things aren't always as big as they look"......

And that we should always respect our "colors" (flag)....

And once we had learned all he thought we needed to know, it was time to go our separate ways......He back to Quantico for another 6 months and us girls on to NYC for a few days......so we said a difficult and sad goodbye at the train station as we boarded trains going in opposite directions.......

We will never forget our time with our new Lieutenant and all that he taught us......like how incredibly priceless our family is............



So this evening we arrived in NYC via train.....check out our view from the 33rd floor hotel room........Tomorrow??  Tomorrow we tackle RAIN and VERY VERY COLD temperatures......BURRRRRRRRR......Look for us on Good Morning America as we are right across the street!!!!


Goodnight, folks