Conan, a Canyon and a Cute Grandma!

It's March 12th and we have been in Lawton, OK for the past 3 days visiting Grandma Bearden. We are leaving first thing tomorrow morning to make the 1,333 mile drive to Buffalo, NY. We now have almost 3,000 miles of driving under our belt so this will increase our mileage count significantly.

The last time we posted we were in L.A. so let's get you caught up on what happened there and along the way to Oklahoma.

Conan:

We were lucky enough to be selected as audience members for the Conan O'Brien show on Wednesday, March 7th. We were not allowed to bring cameras into the studio so this is the only picture we have proving were were there.


Guests included Ed Helms, some girl from The Big Bang Theory and some comedian (obviously, we are not good with names). We laughed out load a lot and Conan is really tall, well more skinny than tall.

Canyon:

After leaving L.A. we made our way to Grand Canyon National Park. We really wanted to camp in the park but is was 15 degrees that night so we made a Quality Inn in Williams our home for the night. Side note: Anyone going to The Grand Canyon should keep this hotel in mind because it was less than $50 and included breakfast. It was an hour drive to the park but we saw this sign and it looked interesting so we made a short pitstop.




Wow, The Grand Canyon is incredible! We hiked around the rim for a while and ate a picnic lunch which consisted of a convenience store sandwich, beef jerky and pepper jack CHEEZ-ITS (not as good as white cheddar CHEEZ-ITS, BTW).


We took a bunch of pictures so check the Photos tabs for more.

Spontaneous moment: "Don't follow where the path may lead...go where there is no path and leave a trail". Unless you are in a national park- we added that part. Josh has always wanted to visit Petrified Forest National Park and Painted Desert so we headed that way.

This little gem a.k.a. The Wigwam Motel caught our eye while driving along Route 66.


We spent a few hours exploring in Petrified Forest National Park and Painted Desert and it was surprisingly fun!



We left the park around 6:00 pm and headed towards Oklahoma. Two hours later we found ourselves eating at Applebee's in Gallup, New Mexico. We were using a gift card that Josh's parents gave us for a Christmas gift. Josh still thinks Applebee's is disgusting no matter how hungry you are and how free it is. He hasn't found a place that competes with Sizzler yet while on the road. After eating, we walked out to our truck and it was snowing so we had to find a place to stay for the night. We wanted to spend less than $50 so that left us with minimal options. We found a motel that will prepare us for any third-world country provided this third-world country has an abundance of meth. We were lulled to sleep by the soothing sounds of what we think were gun shots and multiple sirens.

We woke up at 5:30 am so we could gallup the hell out of this town. This must be how this town got its name.

A Cute Grandma:
After driving through New Mexico, the Texas Panhandle and SW Oklahoma we arrived at Grandma's house at 7:00 pm. On Sunday, we drove Grandma to church in her car which is a 1976 Malibu with 40,0000 miles on it!


Grandma Bearden is 96 years old and still lives by herself. We asked her what has contributed to her long, healthy life and she said the following:
1. Consuming no more than 3 eggs a day.
2. Eating raw (yes, RAW) hamburger meat.
3. Eating 1 pound of "weenies" a week. Weenies = uncooked hotdogs.
4. Pretty much never eating out unless it is at Julios for 1 cheese enchilada.
5. Working out with 5 pound lead weights.
6. Following the rule her mother always told her "Pretty is as pretty does."

Now that we have rambled on, we are going to head back to Grandma's house and get ready to head out early in the morning.

Cheers,
Leanne and Josh