Highway 87...

Yes... we're back from vacation and oh what a great vacation it was! One of these days when we're all rich, we're going to take month long vacations. Or just have a vacation home where we can go whenever we want..... yeah, right... it's nice to dream isn't it?

We decided we want this house:

I think it's amazing at all the things that can be related to hockey when you take a road trip. I don't think we started noticing most of it until we got toward the southern part of Alabama. We left at five in the morning, so our brains didn't start firing on all cylinders until about seven hours later, at which point we were a lot closer to the beach! Some things we found associated with hockey:

1. The road we took into Florida was Highway 87.

2. There were a couple of sod farms. (We didn't see any Staals though.)

3. We passed a field full of miniature ponies.

4. We saw a road named Eaton Drive.

5. We saw a road named Brooks Street.

6. The road our house was on was named TANG-O-MAR.

That's six Penguins associations right there: Sid, Jordan, TK, Delaware, Brooksie, and Letang. How nice. :)

We took notes while traveling so we wouldn't forget about all the fun we had, and we wanted to document it. There are a few things that Guardian has written down though that I don't remember talking about, so I'm going to do my best to summarize our AMAZING vacation. Since I was driving, it was hard for me to take in everything. Here are a few things that went on while on vacation.
Note: That's about all of the hockey related stuff we have, so if you are expecting more you can go ahead and quit reading. The stuff that follows is simply a little insight into our minds. Just a warning, you might kill a few brain cells. Oh, and if you are confused about some of it, I guess that's the parts where you just had to be there. Good Luck!

Oh... Guardian has something written down about Michael Jackson Syndrome. I'm not for sure what that is. Maybe something about bleaching your skin.... Moving on.

I don't know what it is, but apparently TN is not a place for armadillos. Alabama, Georgia and Florida are though. There were armadillos everywhere. And what's sad is, I've been to Florida a dozen times... and usually on the same route... and I've never noticed armadillos. Somehow we got on the kick of armadillos. There was, what looked like, a bear crossing sign. We weren't so sure if the picture was supposed to be a bear or an armadillo, so we came up with the "Bearmadillo". Mighty fierce creatures they are! Unfortunately, most of the armadillos that we saw looked more like this:

In case you have never been to Alabama, we'll inform you that most of the people that work for the highway department must stay drunk because their roads are not that great. I complain about all of the construction on Tennessee highways but at least ours have been paved in the past thirty years and the medians are kept mowed. Don't get me wrong... I have nothing against Alabama. I love living in the south and Alabama is part of that, but it was not a very scenic or comfortable drive through the part we ventured into. We also got a kick out of some of the town names.

Examples:

1. Okaloosa

2. Arkadelphia (which we re-named, Ardvarkadelphia)

3. Tuscaloosa (not that funny, except that Guardian called it Tuskaloosca)

4. Coosada

5. Wetumpka

Just to name a few. Very nice.

The part of this long road that I was even remotely excited about was when we reached the sign that read Hank Williams Memorial Lost Highway. Seriously? I didn't even know there was such a thing. Had I not been the one driving, I would have had a picture of that sign! AND on our way home, I totally saw a sign that pointed toward the Hank Williams Memorial Museum. Son of a gun. I sooo would have went if I hadn't been following Smalls. But considering I didn't know my way home, I figured it would be best if I followed him until we at least crossed back into Tennessee.

Once we got into Florida we saw a sign on the side of a truck that said:

Cash's Male Dancers: "Buns so Tight, You'll Want to Take a Bite!"

Unfortunately, we never found this venue. *mumbles* (Gosh darn it!)

There's something written down about Abrakadoodle...

OH! That was a sign that we read advertising a summer school for kids that focused on their artistic abilities. We thought the name was real catchy!

At some point, Guardian and I are going to start a tree farm. This is one of the things that we decided while Slasher and Enforcer were asleep in the backseat.

We're going to name it: The Tree Hugger Adoption Agency.

Guardian and I saw lots of signs that were "R & R" this and that. Such as "R & R Auto Sales" or "R & R Lawn Care" or whatever. We started thinking of things that the R & R could stand for. Somehow we got on the subject of Batman and Robin. We figured one of the R's could stand for Robin and since Robin was Batman's sidekick, he needed a sidekick of his own. Thus, Roberto was born. Batman & Robin. Robin & Roberto... and Gomez. (We decided Robin & Roberto needed a guard dog.) Gomez is Robin & Roberto's chihuahua. We imagine Gomez would wear a yellow mask and purple cape with a yellow 'G' on it.

(Hey! It's a long drive to the beach and our imaginations get away with us. Okay? Don't judge.)

There are lots of Whataburger restaurants in the Southeastern United States I've noticed. Thus, I was the first to notice them and apparently I can't read that well, because I thought it said Whayaburger. I confused the 'T' for a 'Y' and now I'll probably never live it down.Speaking of never living something down, Enforcer will never live down the following conversation. Just a little background before we get to it though... we were driving around in Destin and I'm noticing all of the different license plates. Guardian, Slasher and our other cousin Doug, were in the car as well. Apparently Doug and Enforcer were having a separate conversation from the rest of us and so... this is what came about...

Me (Pansy): Man. There sure are a lot of Texas cars here in Florida.

Enforcer: Yeah. There are a lot of those in Texas.

Yes. She seriously said that.

She also said she enjoyed weed at some point. I don't believe she meant THAT kind of weed. I hope she didn't anyway. ;)

On our trip home we saw a road sign that read "Twilight Rd". I thought about stealing it.

There was a sign outside of a rinky-dink gas station that was supposed to say Ice Cold Beer. But it read more like this... I C COD Beer. (I See Code Beer)

There was a sign on the right side of the road that pointed to the left side of the road that just simply said "Blackman". We think it was the name of the road because there was no one standing there.

One more thing. As some of you may know, our friend Marshall is serving overseas. We have created "Marshall on a Stick" and he goes with us on road trips. We did indeed take him with us on vacation and he had a great time, although he did spend a few days passed out in the back seat of the car. Anyway, Guardian and I were standing in line in a restaurant in Alabama when a man and women behind us kindly asked us the story behind the picture. We proceeded to tell them the story behind "Marshall on a Stick"... that he's our best friend serving in Iraq and that we take him with us wherever we go and we take pictures and send them to him. The man just happened to be retired from the Army and he had also served in Iraq. He was touched that we would do such a thing for our friend. He told us that we were doing a good thing and he thanked us for it. Honestly, what we are doing is nothing. They are the ones making the sacrifice. That being said, we found a great website. Slasher read it off the back of a tractor-trailer. Packages From Home is a website where you can go to donate goods or money... or your time... to prepare packages for our servicemen and women overseas. If you are a big supporter of our troops, it's a great website to check out. If you don't have the financial means to make a donation, there is also a place where you can write the soldiers a letter. If you get the chance, just give them a big thanks. It's the little things that make the biggest differences.

And last, but certainly not least, I almost forgot to mention the most memorable part of our trip. So as not to confuse anyone, I'm going to tell you all how Enforcer, Slasher, Guardian and I are related. Guardian and Slasher are sisters and their dad and my dad are twins. Enforcer's mom... Aunt Moose... is their older sister. There ya go. First cousins.

Anyway... on the long drive home we (Enforcer, Slasher, Guardian and I were in a car together) decided that we would hold signs up in the window to Aunt Moose (since she's not conquered the art of texting yet) just to say 'hi' and such. I guess she got tired of us at some point, because Smalls motioned me to drive around him and when we did, MOOSE MOONED US!!! I thought I was going to run off the road because I was laughing so hard! Let me just tell you, you've never lived until you've been mooned by your fifty-something year old aunt. It was great!


Anyway... unfortunately we are home now, but we are already planning next year's trip.

If you made it this far through the blog... we appreciate it. We've found that we have acquired a couple of more "fans". Thanks. We enjoy having you here. We hope you don't think we're crazy.


Until next time... Peace, Love & HockeyIs it preseason yet?

Oh... and don't forget... the ESPY's come on at 9:00 ET!

Go Penguins!

~Pansy (with love from Guardian, Enforcer & Slasher)