2012 Roadie Awards Vol. 1

Alright, I will finally end the suspense and first announce the MVP for our road trip this year.  Drum-roll, please.....

And the MVP goes to.....

Cindy and Luke!!

I seriously can't say enough about how awesome they are in the car.  They can hold their bladders like champs, they pretty much obey when we say stay out of the cooler (which was every 15 seconds),  and even when they get car sick they just puke and move on happily with life.  Sure, they have their teasing moments and Luke can stink up the car like a full-grown lumberjack, but overall, they are completely pleasant!  These facts have pretty much ensured that we will continue to do road trips together.  Go kids!  I love them :)

Which  makes the MVP runner up-  Our GPS!  That thing was amazing!  I can't imagine doing a trip without it.  Jill took us to all the temples, found us Wal-Marts, found our hotels, showed us our elevation, made us breakfast, okay, not that, but I LOVE the GPS.  I highly recommend Garmin.


Best Name for A Gas Station:  Toot n' Totem  
I can't remember where this was, Oklahoma maybe?  But really, what does that even mean??!  So weird.


Best Temple:  Manti
Trick question!  All the temples are the best, but look at this picture I took myself with my little $100 point and shoot camera:

I rest my case.  The grass was almost glowing it was so green.  Irrigation goes such a long way in Utah.


Temple that could most likely double as a giant drill bit in some sort of excavating emergency:   The "Reorganized" Church Temple in Independence, MO


Take a look, I do not lie:

It sits directly across the street from the LDS Visitor's Center.  And not in the merry old land of Oz as some people think.


Best Covered Wagon Driving:  Luke

Cindy was such a backseat driver....


Best moment of brutal honesty: Cindy


Cindy was not particularly enthusiastic about going to the Independence Visitor's Center.  She didn't want to get back in the car again to drive there from our hotel either.  So when we finally got there and got out of the car she exclaimed, "Finally!  I have never been so happy to get somewhere I didn't want to be!"


Weirdest Time My Children Chose to be Happily Photogenic:  In front of the Prophet Joesph in Liberty Jail

Cindy is a terrible photo subject about 99% of the time.  I found it odd that the one time she chose to cooperate, completely with flirty pose, was in front of Joseph Smith in the Liberty Jail replica.  Interesting juxtaposition....

Most Awkward Brush With Nature:  Luke @ St. Louis Temple
The best part of having a little boy that suddenly needs to pee is that if you can find a secluded bush, you are in business.  But when we stopped at the St. Louis temple and Luke suddenly had to go, I felt a little guilty taking him to go on Temple grounds.  (It was Sunday, nothing was open.)  Total blasphemy!!!!  But he was going to go to the bathroom one way or another, so I trudged with him to the furthest possible piece of land in the very corner of the temple grounds, behind the distribution center and up against the fence.   He dropped his drawers to start to go and when I looked over into the forest on the other side of the fence, I saw this guy 5 feet away:

And yes, his eyes were glowing like that because he was actually a robot from the future sent to use lasers and kill anyone that tried to relieve themselves on temple grounds.  At least that is what Luke seemed to think because he was not happy to have this guy hanging around :)

Best Roadside Attraction We Happened Upon:  Superman Statue, Metropolis, IL

This is simply marketing genius at work.  A town called Metropolis, super close to a major freeway with millions of captive travelers just looking for some giant piece of Americana to take a picture of. We, of course, could not resist and also visited the gift shop and museum.  Anything that mentions "The American Way" is alright with me.

Hubba, hubba!

Most Unique Hot Dog:  Chris' Spiral Surprises

While staying in Tennessee with my brother and his family, he mentioned he was going to make for us "something he saw on Facebook."  I was certain he was going to feed us strawberries he grew in Farmville, but actually it turned out to be these bad boys.  Spiral hot dogs!  Put them on a shish-ka-bob stick, slice around, then George Foreman those bad boys and voila!   Your 5-year-old nephew will refuse to eat a regular hot dog for the rest of his life :)  (The point is to have more edges to char.  They were very tasty!)


Best road trip haircut: Cindy

We got her hair cut by Aunt Molly's first counselor in the Relief Society and her cousins got to come with and watch.  Awe-some!!


Supposed Best Food We Ate:  Oklahoma Joe's BBQ, Kansas City, MO

So anytime we road trip we always have to work some good food into the equation.  I always want to stop and visit those greasy spoon type places you see on Food Network or Man vs. Food, but usually we don't have time to really stop and waste time on food and it never happens.  However, since we took 6 days to drive to Utah, we had the time in Kansas City to seek out some good BBQ.  According to Tripadvisor, Oklahoma Joe's is THE place.  It was in a gas station and this place was PACKED.  At 2:30pm.  We almost left because we thought we would be there forever, but as we rounded the corner in line, there, on the wall, was a newspaper clipping of an article by Anthony Bourdain listing this place as one of "13 Places You Need To Eat Before You Die."  Wow.  Okay, so we stayed :)

So the reason I say "supposed" best food is that unless you are a real connoisseur of BBQ and eat it all the time looking for it's equal, you really can't compare it and declare it THE BEST, you know?  It was definitely good, not a sweet BBQ like the south, the slaw was good and a little spicy, the pulled pork was great, the turkey was REALLY good and the fries were delicious.  So it was definitely tasty and not even too expensive but at the same time we were thinking, "Sonny's is still pretty good too."

One more day of this torture coming up.....