West Coast Move

We have started our big move to CALIFORNIA!!!
Monday June 15: Movers come and pack everything!
Tuesday June 16: We travel to Bolivar to spend time with Bretts parents Sherrie and Bing Bayer
Wednesday June 17: We travel to Kansas to spend time with Michelles family, Ron and Theresa Robinson, Brenda Myers, Tiffany, Timothy and Jennifer
Thursday June 18: Our first big drive, we hope to make it to Amarillo TX for our first night on the road so Brett can try his hand (or mouth) at the BIG TEXAN steak!! maybe..
Friday June 19: Stay in Flagstaff and see some natural beauty :) tomorrow we will spend the whole day at the Grand Canyon!
Saturday June 20: Stay at the Grand Canyon National Park and see some of the beauty then head to Vegas!
Sunday June 21, Monday June 22: Stay in Vegas at Cesars Palace (hopefully we can smuggle the kitties in)
Tuesday June 23: Arrive in our temporary housing in San Clemente.

Well we are on the road!! This was what I consider our first REAL Day on our road trip, the first two were just fun :)

Day 1: We visited Sherrie and Bing Bayer in Springfield, Bretts parents and had fun just hanging out with them and trying some nice BBQ on Bings new grill! yum!! Sherrie made a fantastic meal as always.. We managed to FINALLY get some wedding thank yous in the mail (sorry its taken so long!) we havent been home with all this traveling and just havent had a moment yet....

Day 2: We got a late start visiting the Kansas fam but made it in time for a delicious dinner at Chicken Annies :) who have the BEST onion rings in the world (and Brett says best coleslaw) with Theresa, Ronnie and Jennifer, step-mom, Dad and sister. We also got a chance to visit Brenda -mom where we got an AWESOME care package for our trip to help ease any possible discomfort we could possibly face.

Today is day 3!!!! We woke up this morning to the Jen heading out and then a AWESOME breakfast made by dad and featuring my FAVORITE fried potatos... yum! Its a Dad only specialty... We went past the store and said goodbye to Terri-making sure that we left LOTS of flyers about the fun stuff in Southern California (propaganda to convince them to come visit :) ). We headed out around noon and met up with Bretts friend Eric and Lindsay Johnson and their new little one in Oklahoma city to hand off some negatives from the Europe trip they took back in the day..
We made it to Amarillo around 8ish and checked into the Holiday Inn only to find ourselves arriving in the PRESIDENTIAL SUITE!! Pretty awesome!! The kitties loved it and immediately began exploring, the suite has a huge dining/meeting area, kitchen, living room, jacuzzi-whirlpool tub big enough for 3 and a seperate bedroom.. pretty awesome... next we headed to the BIG TEXAN STEAKHOUSE.. Ill let Brett tell that part because he was responsible for that wonderful experience :) :)

So we went to this steakhouse called The Big Texan in Amarillo. Everything is bigger in Texas and this place did not disappoint. We had a 30 minute wait in which we saw a live rattlesnake and lots of cool Texas bumper stickers. The Big Texan is known for its free 72 oz steak...if you eat it in an hour...if not it costs, you guessed it $72. What is the principle of 72 again?

We saw a guy who had attempted to eat the steak, but he failed. There is a special table in the middle up on a small stage where those who attempt the feat eat. The waiter said that they have about 5 people try a day and only 1 in 10 make it. A big pink sheet shows the people who have successfully eaten the steak and some other stats including your time.

I had a 20 oz T-bone and Michelle had a 6 oz Filet Minon. The steaks were awesome. Next to the 72 oz stage, we saw Chef JJ who made our steaks. He is the only employee who has finished the steak and he didn't eat for 2 days after his feat. They serve about 600 to 700 steaks a day...and after that he even goes home and makes a steak himself. It was a pretty awesome experience. Thanks for reading!

(Michelle)
Tomorrow we head to Flagstaff- about 9 hours on the road.. ugg!! hopefully Kisa and Princeton will be ok, today we had a small issue when Kisa had an accident on my leg!! gross... thankfully we were close to meeting Eric and Lindsay and I was able to change....

I am beginning to highly doubt the intelligence of bringing the kitties on this trip... :) we will see!!


Overall GREAT day, awesome food, amazing hotel room and pretty comfy robes!!