Financing the project

Lindsay and I want to road trip to The House On The Rock in August. Both of us have other trips that month though, and we're planning a big trip in November to the YALSA conference. This means we'll have to be thrifty on our road trip, and try to find some ways to help with the costs.

I'll finally be taking back all my empties (the local grocery store doesn't have a bottle return thing for glass, and I mostly have empty bottles of Miller High Life around), and rounding up all of my loose change (I seem to leave a trail of it behind me). What suggestions do you all have for ways to make a few bucks here and there?

The Tale of Sarah Town-Mouse

I waited too long to write this post, so now I'veforgotten much of our trip to The Farm! Luckily I have some pictures to help me out.

Firstly, Farmer Boy insisted we take his tiny red car instead of my giant orange car. This meant poor George was stuck in the way back. He seemed pretty happy, though.















Here's the car, parked at one of many rest stops we stopped at along the way because I have to pee more often than a pregnant woman. Would you drive for 8 hours in this with another person and a dog?










Over the next few days I met ALL of Farmer Boy's family and a few friends. Everyone seemed to like me except for who I most wanted to befriend:

The barn cats. On my first trip into the barn there were about four kittens romping playfully. The rest of the times I went in they were all in hiding, except for one time when Mama Cat came out and stared me down long enough for me to get a picture.








Here's a local animal who WOULD come out and play with me. To take Lee's dad's dog out for a walk, you get in a go-cart thing and drive like crazy. He runs in front. Great for lazy people!










We spent our first day there hanging around the farm, and the next day in St. Louis. Lee spent that day hanging out working on a car with some friends, while I sat inside by myself reading and playing with the homeowner's pets. It was a good day.

Our second full day there was the 4th of July. The WHOLE FAMILY came by to gawk at me. It was a little weird but it was okay. His grandma was very charming and didn't even try to hide that she was there to see what I was all about. After everyone had left, we went up to the top of one of the grain bins to watch some fireworks.

Almost time!













Ooooh, Ahhhhh.




























Some general farm scenes:

View from the grain bin in the day time














View of Lee's butt while he foolishly climbs to the very top of the grain bin, which was very high up and also burning hot.















Butterfly! This kind of photo is what makes me wish I had a "real" camera instead of a point and shoot. There were lots of beautiful sights around.








The weird formatting of this post is a result of my posting the pictures first, from home. Now I'm not at home and typing this. Anyway, this is the only picture I have here from our drive home, because I accidentally deleted the rest. They were mostly charming shots of me and George at The Cracker Barrel. It is a given that you must stop at The Barrel on any road trip. I hope Lindsay agrees, since we've got a few days in a car together ahead of us!


Creepy giant cross

oh boy...

I've got a heck of a first coming up this holiday weekend: meeting the parents.


That's right, we're headed to the farm today for a weekend of family togetherness. Not only have I not met Lee's parent's before, but I've never actually had to formally meet ANY boyfriend's parents. My last significant ex never told his parents about me (charming, right?), so even though I met them it was never as his girlfriend.

ACK!

Have I mentioned that I'm a liberal vegetarian and Lee's dad grows cow food for MONSANTO? Should be an interesting weekend.