WE FOUND IT!!!!!!!!!!!

HOLY RANDOM CHANCE BATMAN!

WE FOUND IT! WE FOUND JACKSONS LOST AIR GUITAR!

I honestly didn't think that she would, and I REALLY didn't think she would find it in the car, in Idaho...but sure as the spuds in the ground [I want to pick a potato] The song Holy Mountains came on [By System of a Down] and SHAZAM! Like magic from the heavens it descended into her hands so naturally that she didn't even realize she was playing it! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

I went to take a picture of it and she looked at me like I was crazy until I told her she was playing it.

It was completely unprovoked, completely natural instinct, and it was AWESOME :D

So yea, the Lost Air Guitar was in the car the whole time. However, she did not have this car when she lost the air guitar. So when she lost it, it made its way to whoever owned the car at the time, then got left in the car when it was sold to the last guy that owned it [he had no knowledge of the air guitar being in here] and then sold to Jackson. This trip was one HELLUVA way to find it!

Worth it? Definitely! Would we do it again? WE PLAN ON IT!

*that guy: “How can you have a trip for a lost air guitar if you already found it?”

Well, mister party pooper, We learned a lot on this trip, including the importance of being happy. While we don't have to find Jackson's lost air guitar, we can still help other people find their own lost air guitar. I have come to understand the lost air guitar to be the embodiment of happiness. When you feel so happy that you don't care what the world thinks and you can just jam out on your air guitar. When you are filled with the happiness from your childhood, before problems, before worries. It's pure bliss, and it is the greatest thing in the world. It's something that you can't buy, but instead something you have to find in yourself. Once you find it, your life will change forever.

I found mine a few months ago in a gas station. Ever since then I have been sharing this positive energy with everyone I come into contact with. Positive energy attracts positive energy, and the only thing worrying does is spread negative energy. Whenever something bad happens just think “hakuna matata” and there are no worries! You lost your favorite ring? Think of this as an opportunity to find a new favorite ring. Did you lose someone you love? That just means now there's change in your life. It doesn't have to be a bad change. When I die, I don't want anyone to cry. Not my significant other, not my family or my friends. Instead of a funeral, I want there to be a celebration of my life. Why waste a perfectly good opportunity to have a celebration? It's not like I'm going anywhere. Life is short, why spend it worrying about insignificant things? Go out and do something you usually wouldn't do. I never thought I would take a road trip around the country and see the most beautiful places I could imagine, but I did, and my experience will stay with me forever.

One last thing, smile. Something so small and seemingly significant does wonders for the positive energy in the world. Smile at your friends, smile at your neighbors, smile at strangers, smile at your boss, smile at the homeless person on the corner, smile at children, smile at your cashier, smile at the person in the drive through window, smile at other drivers, and smile at yourself. You look great today by the way.

I want you to take a picture of yourself smiling and email it to thelostairguitar@gmail.com. A real smile, like the one you get when you hear a funny joke or see someone you haven't seen in a long time.

Need a joke? What's brown and sticky?..........................................................................................a stick.

I will compile these pictures into a video and put it on youtube. Whenever someone watches it, they might smile. A few of them might even take pictures of their own and send them to me, where I will compile them into a new video and upload that. If this blog makes one person happier, it will be worth posting it.

Hakuna matata yall!

Goodbye Oregon!

We are leaving on our return leg of the trip as I write this [we left at 9:00 Oregon time, which I thought was funny since we left Texas at 9:04 when we started]

Salem was a blast, the Shippeys were WONDERFUL [we even stayed an extra day so we could spend just a wee bit more time here] We DIDNT get to go into Salem's underground [which would have been awesome but we DID get to go to Eugene which was worth it a billion times over. Even though I got lost on pre's trail about three times and turned what was supposed to be a 5k into more like a 10k. Next time Im mapping the trail on a gps and going when the sun is right above my head instead of in my eyes.]

I got to air guitar on the 45^th parallel [Halfway between the equator and the north pole], In front of the Oregon House of Representatives AND the Senate. We got the guy that helped us with the auto glass to air guitar for us which was awesome. We also stopped by Jackson's childhood carousel and got the cashier to take some air guitar pics. THANK YOU ALL FOR BEING SO AWESOME!

Papa Shippey told us about Salem's underground city, where the Chinese lived after they were driven underground. It isn't accessible to the public unless you do a little research. We didn't get to visit because the streets were too crowded and we were crunched for time. [but it's definitely on the list for next time.]

We visited Silver falls where I air guitared under the rock deposited by three volcanic eruptions while standing on the rock deposited by a fourth volcanic eruption all while being under a waterfall. Nifty eh? I thought so.

We went to see Jackson's old house and found a pine forest that was so thick that it was dark inside at 2pm. So I air guitared in front of it to emphasize its level of awesome.

I fell in love with Oregon from day one and would have NO problem moving here [at least no problems during the summer! Im not a big fan of cold because it makes all of my favorite outdoor activities suck.] Now that we are leaving I want to get back here as soon as I can. I can't wait!

The car got broken into and about $1000 worth of stuff was taken, which sucked, but it could have been worse, we could have been mauled by a bear who thought that I smelled pretty while we were sleeping. We could have fallen off the trail and fell 400 feet down the canyon at Zion. We could have been charged by a bigass deer because minie doesn't know when to keep her trap shut [true story] But we didn't We got the car broken into. Everything that was taken was replaceable. People aren't so replaceable.

Favorite parts of the trip:

Canada's Wine country was BEAUTIFUL [even though I didn't get many pictures of it because everyone else was sleeping.] On the bright side, we did get free coffee from a Canadian McDonalds because we were there during the Olympics [Go Team USA!]

Oregon rocked, it had everything. The beach, the mountains, the forests, the prairies, and even a little bit of desert. I learned how to make two slam desserts here too and got a TON of ideas for the etsy shop when we get back.

We visited Pre's rock and Pre's trail to pay tribute to the greatest runner of all time. Im hoping I can get some neat stuff from the trip. I took 4000 pictures [10 gigabytes of photo data] in one day, so it might be a while before anybody will see the end product.
Pre's trail was amazing even though I got lost. Next time I want to take a gps with the trail mapped out so I can run the whole thing and not worry about taking a wrong turn and ending up in the middle of springfield!

The National Parks were spectacular. Vastly untouched nature is the cat's pajamas. I love it! Its like I get to see the land as it was when America used to be. Sitting on a portable bridge with your feet in a hot spring as you watch the sun rise and the wildlife wake up is GREAT! LOVED IT! AND the next time I do this I am going to get the National Parks Pass so we can stop at EVERY AWESOME NATIONAL PARK we can get our vehicle to!

I loved crafts, handmade, and repurposed materials. Walking around and seeing all the local relics and other abandoned trash made my mind run at a million miles an hour. Im sure I texted myself a hundred times so I don't forget what I wanted to do when I got home [I couldn't bring my garage with me, so I'm taking the ideas home.]

Things I would do next time:

Pick up a national parks pass from the Department of the Interior [you can get them at any national park, they are $80 as of 2012 and are good for one year. Military discounts get you a pass for free if you have your cac card and Senior discounts get you the pass for less than $20 ] This pass will get you day access to any national park or federal lands which is PURE SWEETNESS because I LOVED the National Parks!

Underground Salem is already on the list. The idea of an underground city is all sorts of neato. Then you top it off with the fact that it has been abandoned for decades? That is a must see [If you think it's awesome too please send an email to the Salem city hall saying so, If we get enough support they will open the underground for everyone to see. As of today, one group has gotten to go down there.

The car was great, but next time I think I want to do a joint trip with Project Upcycle and drive on renewable energy. This trip was ORIGINALLY supposed to be a trip for Project Upcyle but they lost funding at the last minute and had to pull out.

If you didn't know, I am going to school for renewable energy, to say it's a passion of mine is an understatement. I designed my future house to run completely off renewable energy and be built completely from renewable resources...and be portable. Neato huh? Check out ProjectUpcycle.blogspot.com for more info if you are interested.

I'm also throwing around the idea of getting a sailboat...wind is renewable energy.

Thats it for now!
Was it worth it? A thousand times over. Get outside folks, We dont know how much longer we are going to have it.

Goodbye Warrenton, Next stop Portland!

We are in the car headed to see Alejandro Escovado in concert tonight at the Doug Fir in Portland, Oregon. We have spent the last four days parked here in Warrenton visiting Jackson's parents and seeing everything this little town has to offer. A haunted gun battery, the column, a B-E-A UTIFUL coastline, we made everything from crepes, to pies, to smoothies from wild picked blackberries and blueberries. Made cancer fighting persimmon tea from a tree in the backyard, had a BLAST with the Jacksons, went to downtown Astoria and it's sunday market and we even went to the beach to watch the sunset. I am definitely adding Warrenton, Oregon to my places to retire.

This state is pretty wonderful and the people in it are awesome. I can't say enough good about it, also it's a stones throw away from Canada which is fantastic because that place rocks on all sorts of levels.

We went to go see Russel Battery, a haunted gun battery used in WWII to watch the river against attack from the Japanese. If there isn't a bunch of kids running around screaming their heads off the place is pretty cool. If you visit the battery after dark you get generally creepy vibes the only light that touches the inside walls is from a flashlight or camera flash. We had a cannon dslr that just didn't want to focus in the dark and in one room it took an exposure so long that we thought the camera turned off [it was over 30 seconds of exposure before we figured something was up] It was really fun and I definitely would want to come back and do it again some day.

Blackberries are a weed around here and they grow everywhere. We went on an hour long walk and picked enough berries to make two pies and smoothies, and that was just along the main walking path.

Downtown Astoria is wonderful with all of it's historic buildings, original skylights in the sidewalk to the service tunnels underneath, and classic cars galore! It's like a city frozen in time. The Sunday market is an open tent vendor market where people sell their local crafts, food, furniture, clothing, everything! Its pretty neato. We walked around there for a bit and went to the salty dog for lunch. The food was good, and the view was great, huge windows opening up into the bay to watch the shipping boats as they come into port. The salty dog is also a brewery and you can watch them make it through the window. When we came out there was four barrels of hopps sitting on the curb [and being a goof ball I picked up a handful and tried it because I saw it on a tv show once.]

The column was neat, 164 steps to the top and you get a 360 view of the coastline, one of the longest bridges in America and a great view of the mainland. They have those little wood gliders that you can take to the top and throw off which is REALLY cool [they are made of balsa, so they decompose naturally if they cannot be recovered [like when the coastal wind takes it waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay inland.]

The Jacksons are AWESOME people, [now I know where our Jackson gets it] I had an absolute blast with them, learned about the flora of Oregon and used it to make some awesome wildberry foodstuffs! Blackberry crepes anyone? How about a fruit smoothie or a blueberry pie? All possible because of them. Who needs a city when you can live in an awesome small town instead! Not to mention their AWESOME collection of classic trucks including a 66 chevy panel van. This family is the embodiment of “good people” and I am honored to have had the opportunity to meet them.

On to Portland to listen to some good music made possible because of MY awesome family! [Don't awesome families rock?]

Air Guitar pics are up on Facebook!

If you have taken a picture with me playing the air guitar/air instrument of choice, your picture is now up on facebook!

If you are here because I gave you my card and you are looking for the pictures of the (Wherever I met you)
you can find them in the pics section of the facebook page as well.

I will port them over to here when I have more time/better internet.

The Lost Air Guitar on Facebook!
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Lost-Air-Guitar/268989539867910

Air Guitars!:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.272313682868829.46240.268989539867910&type=3

THANKS FOR BEING AWESOME YALL!

How to make the most out of a rainy day in Vancouver

If anybody is following this, it has rained everywhere we have stopped so far....

Canada you beautiful neighbor upstairs if I would have known you were so kind and loving I would have moved here forever ago.

I am at a loss for words tonight. We got to Vancouver today and ran around here and there, but the weather moved in and we couldn't go out and do what we had wanted to. So it looked like we were going to stay in and go to bed early.

Wait a sec, we are in Vancouver Frickin' Canada eh! Why in the world would you want to stay in when you could go out and see this beautiful city at night!

PROBLEM: no car, no cash.

SOLUTION: walk/dance/moonwalk etc...

So I sort of just picked a direction and started walking [I didn't take the camera because it was raining and the camera is worth more than I am, sorry for the lack of pictures] I didn't have a plan so I thought about it as I was walking and decided that I was going to make a new friend. The Lions Gate Bridge caught my eye and I decided that I was going to walk over and look at the cityscape from above. WHAT A FANTASTIC IDEA!

I made my way to the bridge and started walking across, I sort of got distracted singing and dancing because I was in that kind of a mood, on top of that, the lights on the bridge were SUPER NEATO so I wasn't exactly paying attention and I walked straight into this girl [hell of an introduction eh?] walked isn't the right word, it was more of a spin-stumble-headbut-fallontheground sort of thing. A happy little bump I think is the word I'm looking for. Before I could rush out my apology this girl was laughing her little butt off, and before I knew it, so was I.

I introduced myself and she introduced herself and we started talking. She is an artist who lives here and comes to the bridge for inspiration. I am an unobservant tourist who sings off key and knocks people down, but she was wearing headphones so she couldn't hear me! [or so she said, but I was singing pretty loud!]

We stood there on the bridge and talked for what seemed like forever. She told me her life story, I told her mine. We had a mini air guitar jam session because she is awesome. We both agreed that life was beautiful and that things like this happen for a reason. It started raining gigantic rain [a bug's life style] and she said she had to leave. Before she left, she reached into her bag and pulled out a towel for me to walk home in so the rain wasn't so cold, turned around, and just as soon as she came into my life, she was gone.

“Life is what you make of it” Parting words I'll never forget. I walked skipped danced and sang my way back to the hotel where Jackson an Merian were crashed out. PERFECT EXAMPLE. I could have stayed in and gone to sleep, but I didn't, and I made a new friend because of it.

Tomorrow I am going to check out a place called Mean Poutine *sp? She says it's the best poutine in town, and I have no reason to believe otherwise.

Jenni if you ever end up reading this I just want to thank you again for such a wonderful night. If you ever visit the states Ill take you out anytime! [just email me]

Cheers!

Yellowstone to Canada eh!

Goodbye Yellowstone, next stop Glacier International Peace Park and Canada eh!

On our way through Salt lake City, Utah we stopped and visited my cousin and her husband. Made dinner and showered before heading off to Yellowstone. Six hours later, We ended up rolling into Yellowstone at 4am (nobody was there) so we parked and slept in the car until the rest of the world woke up. The day got off to a rough start when a ranger came up to our car and said we were “unauthorized” to be camping here (We were parked outside the front gate waiting for someone to get there so we could pay the fee and get in.) It got better and we ended up having a great time.

The change in weather was astounding, traveling from the deserts of the south to the Northern United States is like traveling forward in time and skipping straight to winter! (Southern winter, but still winter) The rain followed us north to Yellowstone and it sprinkled a bit while we were sleeping. (It has rained on us at EVERY destination so far.)

This park is HUGE, no, huge is an understatement. This park is larger than some states. It takes over an hour to drive between destinations. The park is B-E-A UTIFUL and 90% of the attractions are drivable or are a short walk from the road. We stopped at several hot springs, waterfalls, rivers ponds and the like. We saw TONS of wildlife and we were just driving. I stood up through the sunroof so we could get some good pictures that I can share with yall!

GEEK STUFF! Batch files and hard drives and automated data transfer oh my!

The data count so far is 4.75 Gigs of pictures in 1500 files. I have plenty of space on my hard drive and I wrote a batch file to copy the data from the sd cards of the cameras and clear the cards. Just insert your sd card, run the .bat and hit Y when it prompts you to. It takes less than a minute to get the card out of the camera, run the program, and have the card back in the camera ready to take pictures.

If anybody out there wants to write a batch file for their own use it's super easy. Just open a file in Notepad and write in your commands. .bat uses DOS commands [copy, del, run, etc...] Save the file as whatever.bat and you are good to go!

If something doesn't work you can right click the file and click edit [clicking the file will run it]

My file looks like this

copy F:\DCIM\100CANON C:\pics

copy f:\DCIM\102_PANA C:\pics

copy f:\PRIVATE\AVCHD\BDMV\STREAM c:\pics

copy f:\DCIM\101MSDCF C:\pics

copy f:\DCIM\104KC713 c:\pics

Del f:\DCIM\100CANON

Del f:\DCIM\102_PANA

Del f:\PRIVATE\AVCHD\BDMV\STREAM

Del f:\DCIM\101MSDCF

Del f:\DCIM\104KC713

This script copies the files from the picture and video folders in each of the cameras we have, then clears the card.

If that looks confusing you can use this template

Copy filepathofpictures destinationofpictures
del filepathofpictures

NOTE: dos commands have trouble processing spaces in file names. Instead of saving the pictures to “my pictures” C:\Documents and Settings\Wrzesinski\My Documents\My Pictures <see the spaces? This won't work.

I copied the files to C:\pics and put a shortcut to the folder on my desktop so I can get to it quickly.
To make a shortcut just right click your desktop and select “create new...shortcut” and paste the filepath of the folder/program/whatever you need to get to.

The “del” command deletes files, it will prompt you to make sure you want to delete the files press Y and enter to delete them.

Stuff we learned:

Boxed wine sucks, but it makes for a compact water storage bladder in a pinch. We drink a lot of water between the three of us, we also use it to clean and wash. Just pull out the pour spout and fill the empty bag with water. Wash the bag out before drinking it or it will have a wine aftertaste. If you keep the box you can use it to protect the bag from punctures and stand it up to make it easy to pour. Fold it flat when empty to save space.

Pan + natural soap + washcloth + campfire = hot shower
The only showers at Yellowstone are cold water, and the faucets here have a warning on them to leave them dripping so they won't freeze...in the middle of summer...the water is AWESOME to drink (always ice cold) but I don't think it would be very fun to shower in. We took a pan that we brought to cook in, filled it with water, and set it on the campfire. We used the hot water to wash ourselves and our stuff. It felt pretty spectacular to leave a campsite cleaner than we came in and it doesn't take up any more space.

Bears can smell food that hasn't been there for days

They have a keen sense of smell and if you don't pack your stuff up they just might wander up looking for whatever you left out. They aren't there to attack you, they are there to eat something. Don't give bears false hope, keep your campsite clean. If you have food scraps, incinerate them in the fire before you go to sleep.

Power inverters are the bee's knees:

All of the power for this trip is being supplied by the car we are driving. We have a power inverter hooked up to a power strip that is charging all of our phones, my computer, and the cameras. We plug everything in while we are driving to charge up our batteries and unplug the inverter when we aren't.

You can pick up a deep cycle battery for around $200 and have power available when you aren't on the road. Another $200 and you can build/buy a solar panel with a charge controller to recharge the battery with the sun. [If any hypermilers are following us you can use the solar panel and deep cycle battery in your car to bypass the alternator in your vehicle and drastically increase your fuel economy, just make sure to watch your charge or have your alternator attached but the load disconnected via an inline switch so you can jump yourself if you accidentally drain your battery.]

It's hard to believe that we have only been gone a week, we have seen and done SO MUCH. I am SO glad that we actually got up and made this trip (We were pretty lazy about prepping from the get go.) This national parks tour is going to happen as soon as I save up my leave. More planning, more parks, more pictures, and probably even a video or two. I am taking suggestions for places to visit, if you know of an awesome park, ghost town, or generally hoppin place send it to thelostairguitar@gmail.com . The more I think about the TLAG 2.0 the more excited I get about it, and we aren't even halfway done with THIS awesome trip. Can you tell I am having a good time?

Zion to Yellowstone

I am REALLY loving this trip, we have found so many awesome air guitars and awesome air guitarists that I am thinking about making this search permanent. What say you? World tour searching for all things awesome? Will you join me?

We spent last night in Zion National Park Utah, hiked up Watchman Trail and found a set of really nice air guitars so we had a little jam session at the top because why not right?

Zion was freaking beautiful, we got so many awesome pictures its great! I was messing around with the camera because I couldn't fall asleep and caught a meteorite with the super long exposure. I REALLY like this camera [It's Jackson's Cannon Rebel EOS] it takes GREAT action shots [90% of the pictures taken on this trip were taken traveling 40mph+] and it can do just about anything you could want to do with a camera.

I am planning to go back to Zion and spend a few days to a week here canyoneering, climbing, spelunking, exploring, etc...The scenery is wonderful, the people are friendly. If I can afford it before TLAG 2.0 I would love to get a wingsuit or a paraglider and grind the canyons there.

Sorry for the short post, I'm wiped out and driving towards Yellowstone [11 hours]

Cove Fort and my Mormon Cousin!

Visiting Cove fort in Utah was an accident. The only reason we wanted to visit was to stop somewhere between destinations. Luck had it, we visited on the last day of the Cove Fort Days celebration. Every year on August 3^rd and 4^th the LDS put on a two day festival with music and re-enactments, people get all dressed up and teach people about Cove Fort, Early settler life, and the book of Mormon.

Honestly I thought it was going to be a drive by and take some pictures sort of thing. We got there and there was a horse drawn mail buggy showing people around, music in the air, people EVERYWHERE and reenactors practicing or teaching their crafts. WHAT?!?!? NEATO!!!!!!

The first stop was the fort itself, built by hand it took seven months to complete. This was not a military base, it was built as a rest stop for travelers protecting them from Native American attacks and the weather. It cost 50 cents a day for a spot on a bed and 35 cents for a hot meal. People didn't usually have a lot of money so they traded goods and services instead.

While we were looking at the rooms some of the volunteers would tell us a little about life here.

The first thing I noticed was the bed, the mattress was made of grain hulls and fiber but it was hanging on a lattice of rope. The rope was used like modern box springs, but it would loosen up over time and you would need to tighten it back up to sleep comfortably. This is where the phrase “good night, sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite” came from. When I heard that a smile shot across my face and the stop was instantly worth it.

In the next room we saw a “Weasel” which is used to sort and measure yarn. 30 revolutions is one measure and the weasel had a mechanism that would pop out telling you when you were at 30 revolutions. This is where “pop goes the weasel” came from. Do you want to know something cooler? The nursury rhyme that spawned from this phrase has 30 beats in it.

[REMIND ME TO PUT THE WORDS IN WHEN I GET INTERNET AGAIN]

the beat pattern is:

12=2

12=4

12345=9

12=11

12=13

123=16

12=18

12=20

12345=25

1=26

1234=30

The first numbers are the beat number in the line, the number after the = is the total number of beats so far.

I know my fair share of random facts but that completely blew my mind. So I am passing it on!

We saw a musket demonstration which was super nifty. Did you know that the flint used by American Soldiers in the American Revolution was imported from Engand? The ships would break through the blockades to get it here to us because English flint formed so well and could be split so evenly.

We also watched a man take a fire, some iron, and a few tools that he made out of old truck parts and make/mounted four shoes for his horse. This was quite possibly the coolest thing I have seen someone make from scratch. This stop was worth it's weight in gold.

If you are anywhere near Cove Fort, Utah August 3^rd or 4^th I would HIGHLY suggest you go check it out. Cove fort is owned and maintained by the Church of Latter Day Saints but there is NO PRESSURE whatsoever to become a member of the church. I wasn't asked once if I was a member, nor was I asked what my religion was, which gave me A LOT of respect for these folks.

After cove fort we headed up to Yellowstone WAY ahead of schedule [we were going to get there after they shut down for the night but before they opened back up for the morning.] We were driving through Salt Lake City and I remembered I had a cousin that lives here [who happens to be a member of the church], 20 minutes later we are at her front door! We had some spaghetti in our car that we got because we couldn't find pita bread to make pizzas on [we had spaghetti sauce already, but nothing to put it on, so we got spaghetti to go with it.] So we commandeered their range and shower, made dinner for everyone and got clean! Yay for family!

Speaking of family, I have some good friends who are stationed in England right now. We watched the Olympics while we were visiting and got to see Ennis take the gold in the women’s heptathlon by BEASTING the 800m. Huge day for Great Britain, congratulations!

“Friends are the family you make for yourself.”

On a side note...I want a musket now...and a horse...

Vegas to Zion

We are leaving Vegas as I write this, We spent three days here with Merian's grandparents Bunny and Mike. We had a BLAST here and we can't wait to come back through on our return voyage.

We found a few air guitars here but none of them fit quite right, We uploaded a bunch of pictures to our Facebook page so you can check them out and see if your lost air guitar ended up here.

Thing we learned:

1: Air Guitaring ROCKS, and it brings a smile to everyone's face, which is awesome in my book.

2: Don't gamble on the strip, you will never win, this is not the vegas of 20 years ago. Ask the locals where the good spots are for your favorite game. Like for blackjack, play at The Longhorn, it's a small slots restaurant with three blackjack tables and the most liberal rules for the game in all of Vegas.

3: There are some awesome dealers, and there are some not-so-awesome dealers,

4: Be prepared to donate all the money you came with to the local economy, The locals say thank you in advance :)

5:Check the floor, I found a $25 chip! (SCORE! We only lost $15 between the three of us then! )

6: GO SEE THE BELAGIO WATER SHOW (Out of everything we saw, that was my favorite, its FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC)

7: The only thing slots are good for is bottle service, and NONE of them have a functioning pull handle, which takes all the fun out of it, I can play video slots online and NOT lose all my money :)

8: I look good in elvis glasses, dress attire, and flip flops, and I like it that way.

9: It's way easier to be nicer to people than to be rude to them, but some people need a little rudeness every once in a while to keep them in check. Just make sure that you send out enough positive energy to counter act the negative energy put out by being rude. [Mostly its the escort card people that need to be checked, they contribute to most of the litter in this city.]

and 10: Vegas is HOT. We are from Texas and we think this place is hot...which says something.

We are headed up to Zion National Park today to look for air guitars there, we heard from some of the Vegas locals that it's pretty neato. Plus, its only 4 hours from Vegas [WAY better than the 24 hours to Austin!]

We may nix the grand canyon from the trip to make room to fit some smaller stops along the way [ghost towns, olde towns, scenic roads and other cool stuff you never hear about.]

A little side note to traveling folks who use a lot of data, build a mini radio wave concentrator for your computer/phone. I have an instructable on how to make a big one that isn't compact by any sense of the term HERE. I will do one on how to build a portable one when I can, but I don't have any of the tools I need with me, so I will try some things out and see if they will work in the meantime.

ONWARD MY FRIENDS! ADVENTURE AWAITS!

Days 1-2 Home to Vegas Day 1

Alright, we officially made it into Las Vegas at...ok nobody remembers but we are pretty sure it was around 10am [Including a 4 hour layover in the middle of Arizona due to being stuck in traffic waiting for the police to clean up a drunk driving accident.] DONT DRINK AND DRIVE PEOPLE!

Some gas mileage tips:

We drove the first leg of the trip at 80 on cruise control and got 29.9mpg

We drove the second leg of the trip at 60-70 on cruise control drafting semis [use the two second rule and be safe.] and got 37mpg. What does this mean? SLOW DOWN and SAVE GAS, also, follow semis whenever you can.

The air guitar?

Places we stopped today included the hoover dam [super neato, bring a penny if you go and roll it down the face of the dam if you can, I used a gummy bear because that's all I had on me :D ]

We also stopped by the “scenic view” overlooking lake mead, we looked for an air guitar there but didn't find one, we did however sign our names on the bench :) If you are ever headed to [or from] Vegas, stop by and sign the rock, take a picture, and send it to us! It's about 10 miles from Las Vegas

Yesterday we stopped in Steins, New Mexico, to look for an air guitar there. It is a ghost town that was built as a railroad town. About there were 30 registered voters, but more people actually lived there. We couldn't go in which was a bummer (and thus, didn't find any air guitars there...)

once we got to Vegas we met up with Merian's grandmother bunny, had lunch, and went to Nellis AFB NV. And took some cool pictures came out of it...but no air guitars which is weird because it's an AFB so you would think there would be lots of air guitars there to look through.

Tonight we are headed out for a night on Las Vegas. We choose Vegas as the first stop on our trip because it is renowned for the amount of air guitars that get brought here every year. My theory is that if her guitar was found by someone else, it probably ended up here...so it's a good starting point.]

ALSO: Today was the first day where I got to upload pictures, we took 300 pics in 2 days so I am going to bulk upload all the pics to the facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/media/albums/?id=268989539867910


Still no air guitar though...Where should we look in Vegas for the lost air guitar?

Home Cooked Meals on the Road

ALRIGHT FOLKS! THIS IS IT!! Less than eight hours until we leave on our trip! I'M SO EXCITED I'M FREAKING OUT! Anyways, Yesterday we got everything ready, the car packed up, and took care of everything that we needed to, this is happening.

We went to the store and picked up food for this part of the trip, but alot of it is highly processed foods [spaghettios, canned raviolis & the like] it's not all that healthy and its crazy high in sodium but it doesn't need to be refrigerated, and it can be cooked using only a two burner propane stove and a casserole pan since that is all we are taking to conserve space. For the next leg of the trip We want to eat home food while we are on the road. so I am going to scour the internet until it's time to leave or I come up with enough recipes to be happy. Ready set go!

Mashed Potatoes:

Regular, dehydrated, or instant potatoes

Dehydrated or instant milk

Butter flavored spread to taste [you can't keep real butter without refrigeration]

Add ins:

Go to the spice isle and find stuff you like!

Chives, onion, garlic, Parmesan cheese, crumbled bacon

Directions, hydrate the milk, make mashed potatoes, add milk to desired consistency. Add Add-ins to taste.

Protip, add about a half of a tablespoon of vinegar to canned cream and let it sit covered for 30 minutes

TADA! No refrigeration magic sour cream!

From Sailingbreezes.com:  Velveeta brand cheese and other American cheese products need no refrigeration.

Potato pancakes

Mashed potatoes

breadcrumbs

cheese

an egg or two

Mix the above ingredients and make patties with them fry them in a pan until crispy on the outside. serve when delicious.

NOTE: Get your eggs from a local farmer and tell them you want the outer layer intact These eggs can be kept without refrigeration in a cool dry place. They also taste way better, are WAY better for you, buying them helps keep your money local, and you help in a tiny little way against factory egg producers.

Mashed potatoes and gravy...burger: 

Make the potato pancake patties about the size of a hamburger patty, add gravy from recipe below, stick between two pieces of bread and you have yourself portable mashed potatoes and gravy! Aren't sandwiches awesome?

Mini pizzas!

Self rising flour

Dehydrated or instant milk

pizza/spaghetti sauce

traveling cheese of your choice

traveling meat of your choice (holy crap I went off on a tangent there, long story short...the meat's optional.)

onions are also pretty slam.

Now I say traveling cheese and traveling meat I mean one that doesn't need to be refrigerated to stay good. Pepperoni is a good meat option [you could do diced jerky too], and harder cheeses travel better than soft. I'm not talking blocks of cheese, these aren't natural cheese and they spoil easy. Hard cheese that still has the rind on it from when it was made is the best, but those cheeses are usually pretty expensive, so I am saying this recipe is for mini pizzas. These cheeses usually have more flavor than block cheese so you can make more pizzas with less cheese Them being mini pizzas you conserve on your more expensive toppings giving you more full tummies for less money. You know what you could do with all the money you could save with mini pizza? I would build a giant slide, because giant slides are the shiz.

First, hydrate your milk. Add to flour with salt to make a dough. Make them flat and whatever size you want. About the size of the cup/can I was just using is the size I like: flatten your dough and use a cup like a cookie punch to punch out a biscuit, reform the dough and do it again until you are out of dough or have and uncomfortable number of biscuits. Cook the biscuits in the oven until they are almost done 350* for 10-15 minutes should do it, pull them out and add toppings and put them back in until they are done.

Biscuits and Gravy:

Well you just made some pretty awesome biscuits in your head just now with the recipe above Now take some more dehydrated milk and add it to a pan of hot water, add in flour, salt, pepper, and whatever else you like in your gravy, stir it over low heat till it thickens. [add more flour to make it thicker if it's still too thin.]

Add over biscuits and dig in my friends! [Protip: This is also a pretty slam gravy on mashed potatoes...but you probably already know that.]

Grilled cheese:

American cheese slices [dont need to be refrigerated, neither does Velveeta]

Bread

Directions: Add ingredients and grill to taste  

Fried rice:

Rice or instant rice

oil

carrots

cabbage

onions

eggs

canned chicken

prepare your rice, add oil to pan, add everything but the rice until the eggs are done, add rice and fry until delicious.

Bechamel sauce over fancy sounding pasta:

Pasta

flour

egg yolk[s]

butter flavored spread

nutmeg

It's really easy to make but it seems kind of backwards when you first look at it. Add a dollop of butter to a pan, add flour and combine, cook flour until it does not taste raw [10-15 minutes] add milk until desired consistency is reached. Pour it over your pasta and enjoy!

Mornay sauce over vegetables and rice:

Do all of the above steps, but add cheese to your sauce, in our case, that cheese is parmesean or a cheddar...or a mix...hmm...mmmm...

Prepare the rice and veggies, pour sauce over and serve.

Crepes or similar flat pancake, or regular pancakes too

flour

milk

sugar

eggs

Mix ingredients until a pancake-y-delicious thickness, pour onto hot pan while holding the pan at an angle so the batter runs, flip when the top is dry. You can add peanut butter, nutella, fresh fruit, eggs or just eat them plain.

You can add more sugar to this mix and add it to a pot of hot oil, to make funnel cake!

Egg sandwiches [portable eggs and toast]

eggs

bread

cook, combine and eat.

Yogurt!

Dehydrated instant milk

Starter culture [or yogurt with live cultures in it, but that needs to be refrigerated]

*thermos

Quote from sailingbreezes.com

"It's easy to make homemade yogurt using a thermos. Heat one quart of reconstituted nonfat dry milk (add an additional 1/3 cup of dry milk - no extra water - if you like thick, custard style yogurt) over medium heat just until milk comes to a boil, stirring occasionally. Remove milk from heat. While the milk is heating, boil a kettle of water and pour the boiling water into the thermos to sterilize and "preheat" the thermos. Cool milk until it reaches a temperature between 100-120 degrees Fahrenheit. Put 2 Tablespoons of "starter" yogurt (either from your last batch of yogurt, store bought plain yogurt that has "live" or "active" cultures, or dry culture mix available from Lehman's Non -Electric Catalog www.lehmans.com or 1-888-438-5346)) in a small bowl and add a small amount of the cooled milk. Stir until yogurt is dissolved. Add the dissolved yogurt to the remaining cooled milk and stir. Empty thermos of hot water (use for washing dishes) and pour yogurt/milk culture into empty thermos and cap. Let incubate for 6-12 hours. The longer the incubation time, the "tarter" the yogurt. Eat warm or wait until it has cooled and flavor with vanilla extract, honey or fresh fruit."

The search!

We have about three weeks to cover this ground, but we are determined to find this thing! Our trip is going to take us around the western United States (that's where we think the air guitar might be) Leaving Austin Texas our first stop is Vegas because why not right?

	From: Austin, TX
	1,293 mi - about 20 hours 40 mins
	To: Vegas, NV
	277 mi - about 4 hours 54 mins
	To: Grand Canyon Village, AZ 290 mi - about 5 hours 42 min
	To: Bryce Canyon, UT
	272 mi - about 4 hours 36 mins
	To: Arches National Park, Moab, UT
	599 mi - about 10 hours 17 mins
	To: Yellowstone National Park, WY
	431 mi - about 7 hours 42 mins
	To: Waterton Glacier International Peace Park, Improvement District No. 4, AB, Canada
	724 mi - about 15 hours 29 mins
	To: Vancouver, BC, Canada
	318 mi - about 5 hours 42 mins
	To: Astoria, OR
	134 mi - about 2 hours 39 mins
	To: Salem, Oregon
	2,292 mi - about 1 day 15 hours
	To: austin tx

If we don't find the air guitar....well...I guess that means that we will have to do this again sometime!

The Lost Air Guitar

Hi, I'm Zinski (left), this is Jackson (center) and Merian (right).

We are three friends back together for the last summer before we all go separate ways. We wanted to start a band so we all brought down our instruments from home. I brought my air guitar, Merian has his air drums, and Jackson has her air guitar, but Jackson couldn't find her air guitar so we are driving around the US looking for it. We are pretty sure it is somewhere in the western United States... Have you seen the lost air guitar? Will you help us find it?

This is "The Lost Air Guitar" poster
If you want to be awesome and print these out, tack them up, and take pictures you can submit them to ahead23later2blog@photos.flickr.com
Put the location where the picture was taken as the subject.
(please stay awesome and not send in anything you wouldn't want a kid seeing)

Tally ho! We hit the road in three days!