Ordinary Adventures of Sarah Hoot

Good morning everyone! Here is another two-for-one special! Remember the flat tire incident from the other day? Well yesterday we had to go get it taken care of. Mama Ramey woke Jared and I up so that we could move and they could drive to the local Les Schwab to get it fixed up. While the mechanics were working on the car all of the kids slept and the parents went to Denny's to get some breakfast. With breakfast consumed and tires fixed, we set back out on the road. The whole day was pretty much spent driving with very few pit stops. Though we did stop at a bridge where Evil Kenevil did one of his stunts and watched some people base jump. Then we just drove until we got to our campground which was in Oregon this time. Once we got there Jared, CC, and I went swimming for a bit before we all got out to go and eat dinner. Then Jared and I went to the arcade to play some games (there were some really old games) until it closed and we went back to sit around the fire. We both hung o...

We finally made it to the Great Salt Lake, though I am not sure how I feel about the experience..... As usual we woke up fairly early but Jared and I were still half asleep so we slept on the bed for the first bit of the drive. I woke up a couple of times so I could get pictures when we passed by Temple Square, one of the original Latter Day Saints sites. The temple was really pretty and I hope that I can go back sometime to walk around and see the rest of the square. After that it was only a short drive before we reached the Great Salt Lake. None of us were prepared, our original plan was hey let's float on the Great Salt Lake but then we got there.... It was awful. It stank to high heaven, worse than the ocean which is actually a nice salt smell. And there were thousands and thousands of brine flies. Needless to say, I was not impressed. We got our sand and some souvenirs and left right quick. Once we vacated the worst of the stink we headed towards the salt flats. These ba...

We are leaving the desert soon I hope!! Today we are heading to Arches National Park and attempting to get to the Great Salt Lake. We set out some what early today, Mama Ramey made actual breakfast for us! Then after enjoying our scrumptious breakfast of eggs we headed out. These last few posts might be a bit boring since we are mainly just driving now on the way to get home. But today was a good day, we drove for a while looking at gift shops for last minute souvenirs and came across this really strange tourist attraction in Utah. On our way to Arches National Park we saw this place on the side of the freeway called Hole in the Rock (and by we I mean the driver and co-pilot since Jared and I were napping in the back). Anyways, this store was literally in a hole in a rock wall, there was a little store front but the rest of it went into the wall. There was also a trading post, some sculptures in a cactus garden, and a zoo of all things. We looked around for a bit and then we were b...

Today started very early for some reason. Mama Ramey wanted to get up and go right away so she got us up out of our bed and had us move to the big bed so that they could start driving. We didn't officially wake up until like 9:30.  So we pretty much drove a lot today. We had two scheduled stops but that was it. The first was to Four Corners. For those who don't know, Four Corners is basically a place where you can stand in four states at once: Arizona, Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico. So we stopped for a bit and took our pictures, there were also a bunch of vendors set up around the patio area selling different wares so we looked around for a bit. Then we headed back to the RV so we could eat lunch, everybody except Austin and I had Indian tacos which are tacos on top of fry bread. I had a chicken salad sandwich and I am pretty sure Austin just had chips.  Then we set off so we could get to our next stop. This time we were going to a place called Mesa Verde National Park...

Today we are heading to the Grand Canyon for two whole days!! The morning started off as usual just having breakfast and getting ready to go since we all wanted to get going as soon as possible. On the ride over we made a couple of stops so we could see some cool attractions. The first was to the Wigwam Motel, if you have ever seen the movie Cars this was the motel that the Cozy Cone was based off of. It was one of the first original motels along Route 66. The next stop we made was to Winslow, Arizona to take a pictures with the "Standing on a Corner" statue (if you know what that is you get points because I still have no idea). Our last stop before getting to the Grand Canyon was to the Meteor Crater, this off-the-freeway stop was unplanned but it was really cool. Basically as the name suggests this was the site of a meteor landing, so there was a huge museum and three different places where you could look out onto the giant crater. It was really neat and I want to take my l...

Today we are setting out on the Mother Road, Route 66, to get to the Grand Canyon. We pretty much spent the whole day driving but we did make a couple of out of the ordinary stops. One stop we made was to this cool gift shop Flying C Ranch. It was full of different gifts, Native American crafts, and Mexican imported blankets and ponchos. Also if you had $20,000 you could purchase a taxidermy buffalo for your home. I however settled with buying a serape blanket because I am obsessed with blankets. We left after everybody got some ice cream from Dairy Queen, but not me because my tummy was acting up. The drive continued until we got to Albuquerque, New Mexico where we stopped to look around and have lunch. We went to a part of Albuquerque called Old Town, which was just a little tourist spot with a bunch of different stores selling everything from candy to jewelry. We toured around for an hour before heading back to the RV so we could head back out. Mama Ramey bought us some lun...

Today was a pretty interesting day. We spent a lot of it driving but had two pretty cool stops. Our first stop was in Dallas, Texas so that we could go to the Sixth Floor Museum. This museum is dedicated to the life and death of President John F. Kennedy. It is a really neat museum and is fairly inexpensive, only like $16 for adults 18 and up, it also includes an audio guided tour through the place and if you listen to all of the extra recordings and watch the films the tour is about an hour long. The museum itself is in the building where investigators suspect Lee Harvey Oswald was when he shot the president. The sixth floor, where Oswald allegedly shot from, was set up with panels covered in pictures and information about different times in Kennedy’s life. There was even a sealed off section from the original crime scene, where the book boxes were set up in the sniper’s perch the way they were on the day of the assassination. The seventh floor had stuff on it as well, there ...

Today starts our journey into the Wild West (at least until we start heading North again). We are heading into Texas! We woke up and did the usual routine (though now we have to try and fight off the ants that have infested the RV, nothing dangerous just annoying sugar ants). And we headed out. The drive out of Louisiana was uneventful for the most part but still really cool because we were driving through swamp land. I wanted to try and see an alligator but only Jared managed to see one, guess I will have to settle for the two toy alligators I got from Mr. Ramey. Eventually we got to Texas and after a quick stop at a "Welcome to Texas" rest area to take pictures we were off again. We kept on driving for a while until we got to our campground. This one was in Tyler State Park and right on the lake. Unfortunately, by the time we got there the store was closed so we couldn't buy anything. The swimming area was open but it was too far away from our cite to make us wa...

Woohoo! We are going to New Orleans!!! I am so excited to see the French Quarter, it's one of my travel bucket list places. We all got up and started getting ready to go, Jared and I went back to the beach to fill up a bag of sand for souvenirs (and look at what the storm washed up), and I took some pictures of the osprey nest nearby. Then we all got loaded up into our spots (we all have our spots we claimed in the RV) and started driving. The drive wasn't too terribly long today but we did pass back through Alabama and Mississippi. Finally we got to our campground in the French Quarter. It wasn't really a campground, more of just a fancy parking lot; but it was really clean, had really good security (guards, a gate, and a cement wall with barbed wire) (we would have stayed at the KOA but apparently someone heard gunshots near that campground), and a nice pool. Once we got all checked in, we grabbed our stuff and headed out. The RV park we were staying at was only a f...

So excited for today! We are going swimming in the Gulf of Mexico!! We left our camp site in Georgia after our delicious breakfast of cereal. We drove for a bit making our usual stops at rest areas, until we got to Alabama where we stopped again so we could get dirt for our collection (which has been going good we have only missed a couple states I think). However, I was horribly tricked while getting this dirt; I walked up to this seemingly insignificant mole hill (since I am from the North and we have mole hills up there I thought they would have mole hills down here), wrong, it was an ant hill. I dug down a little and they all came out. So I found somewhere else to get dirt. After that we kept driving until we reached Florida. Then after making a quick stop at a Walmart to get stuff for dinner and other resources we left for our new campground. This campground was great! It was out on this little barrier island in Pensacola and it was only a short walk to the beach, ser...

Here we go back out into the mountains!! This time we were out in the Great Smoky Mountains. A lot of the ride out of Tennessee was through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. So we made several stops to various places to get our passports stamped and enjoy the views. We kept driving for a while until we got to a spot that we wanted to see up in the mountains. It was just a small park that was mainly a trail head for several different hiking trails but we went and took some pictures since in the middle of the park was the border between Tennessee and North Carolina. Another place we went to had a little museum that talked about early life in the mountains and how people made a living back then. Also in the back was a homestead set up to show what an early farm would have looked like. It was really cool; there was the house, the barn, a mill, a blacksmith's shed, a meat curing shed, and even a pig pen and chicken coop with pigs and chickens inside (well the chickens we...

Today was our last day in West Virginia, it’s very sad but we have to head back home. We got to sleep in a bit which was nice but we still had to get up somewhat early because we were having our last family breakfast, this one was at Aunt Louis’ house (sorry if I spelled that wrong). Today’s breakfast consisted of homemade biscuits, omelets, and warm cinnamon apples. Once we finished breakfast we did our last checks to make sure we had everything (plus all of the snacks and sodas that we acquired from all of the family, they were very prepared for us) and we said our goodbyes. I am really glad that I got to come along and meet those relatives they are all really nice and we got along well. Plus, they seemed to like me so that is a good sign (I even got a homemade ring made out of a bolt from one of Jared’s uncles, so now CC and I have matching rings). And so we set off on our drive for the day. This was another uneventful drive since the main goal was to get to our next stoppi...

Today was our last full day in West Virginia! We did not have a whole lot planned but Mama Ramey did have something on her agenda. She wanted to go and try and see the graves of some of her family members who were buried here. So out into the country we went. After we had our breakfast, pancakes and a really good egg casserole thing, we headed out to go look for the first cemetery. On our way to the first grave we stopped buy a Walmart to get some flowers to put on the graves. The first one was easy to find it was in a church cemetery so we just needed to hunt down the headstone. Unfortunately, all we had to go on was the picture of the headstone and we did not know where it was so we hunted around until finally we found it. The next grave was not in a maintained cemetery. It was near a church but the problem was that the graveyard was so old that people stopped caring for it. Let me put this in perspective, there was a grave for slaves of some person. So we tried to hunt ...

Today was both boring and exciting. We woke up reaaaaaalllllyyy early, at like 6:00 a.m., and we hated it. But we had breakfast at like 7:00ish and then headed out on our adventure for the day. This time we were heading out deeper into the mountains to go on a scenic train ride. This was no ordinary train ride. This train was a coal powered steam train! The tracks took us up to a place called Bald Knob where we could take pictures of the large expanse of forest. The drive out there and back was ridiculous though because the town where the train is stationed was about three and a half hours away! On the way there Jared and I basically slept the whole time because we are not morning people AT ALL (seriously, I am a grump until at least nine). We got to the town and we were still pretty early since the train didn't leave until like 11:30 so Jared and I went to go locate the geocache that was near the train. We found it pretty quickly and I put Jacob's travel bug in it so hop...

Today we took a trip out into the wilderness of West Virginia to see what we could find. Before starting our day we all had breakfast in the house -- pancakes, bacon, and orange juice. Super yummy and a good way to start the day. After we had breakfast, we got everything together that we needed for the day and then loaded up into the truck (one of the aunts let us borrow her truck). Our first stop for the day was a place called Hawkes Nest State Park. This was a pretty small little park but it is spread out, there are two different areas to go and look out over the river and the different bridges and there is even a tram ride where you can go down the cliff and look at everything. We tried to go on the tram but it was closed when we went so we are going to try again another day I think. But it was beautiful to go out and look at everything. The next stop we made was to Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine. This was an old mining town with old buildings and stuff still standing. The highlig...

Ladies and gentlemen today is the day!!! We finally made it to West Virginia!!!! The day started out pretty much the same as it has the rest of the time. We woke up, I took a shower, had breakfast, and set off. We actually got to sleep in today since we only had four hours worth of driving to do. So Jared and I relished our sleep and then eventually got up after Mama Ramey came in a second time and told us to get up. But eventually we got up and we all got ready to go. We drove for a while and only stopped like once for a rest stop. When we finally made it to West Virginia our first stop was the town of Point Pleasant where we went to the Mothman Museum and had lunch. For those of you on the west side, Mothman is this local legend in Point Pleasant. The "creature" is supposedly half man half moth with glowing red eyes and stalks people at night. Personally I am not a believer, but apparently there are a lot of people who do since there is a museum, a movie, and books abou...

Well folks this will be a pretty boring post for the most part.... We woke up this morning and started our usual routine of getting ready to leave when Jared's aunt came knocking on the door and said that she was going to treat us to breakfast. Not wanting to argue since we would have just eaten cereal again we headed out. The restaurant was called Copper Top and it was pretty nice, it's like a Perkin's for those who know what that is. Once breakfast was over we loaded back up and headed out on our way. Today was another long day of driving since we didn't have any stops planned. So we kept on driving through Illinois and on into Indiana where we are now staying. This KOA is pretty nice. It's not a monster sized resort like the one near Mount Rushmore but it is not dinky like the one in Hardin. There is a good sized pool, mini golf, a gold panning slough (gold mining is a big thing in the Midwest), and a small lake where you can rent paddle boats. Right now ...

Today was another day of just driving goodness. There were no side stops planned since we were trying to get to where we were staying for the night so the Rameys could spend some time with their relatives. So mostly we drove….. Jared and I watched a lot of Game of Thrones (we are currently in the middle of season five) and made pit stops every once in a while. The main highlight of the trip was that we crossed the Missouri River. That was pretty neat, there was a rest stop on the other side of the river that had a small Lewis and Clarke museum and an overlook where you could go and see the bridges across the river. Then guess what happened next?? More driving…… We drove for a couple of hours more until we got to the next cool thing. This time we were crossing the Mississippi River! We went to another rest area for lunch and hiked down a trail to the lookout spot where you could see part of the river. After lunch it was back to driving. We drove and drove and drove unti...

Headed out for a new state today! We are finally out of Montana!! The agenda for today included traveling through the Badlands which was super cool. We woke up this morning and took our time leaving since the family wanted to do some of the stuff around the KOA before leaving. So Jared and I stayed and set up Thor so that we could be ready to go when they got back. Once everyone got back we all loaded up and set out. Unfortunately, the majority of our trip this day was pretty ordinary. The scenery was pretty but the drive itself was boring, up until we got to our first stop, Wall Drug. Originally this was a small pit stop for people who were on long drives and the owners would give out free ice water and 5 cent coffee to the drivers that would come by the store. Today however, along with the ice water and coffee there are now several gift shops, a book store, a candy store, a clothing store, and many more random stores. They even have an arcade and a spray park in the “backyard” o...

Well folks we are finally heading out of Montana!! Today should be interesting since we have a lot to see. We packed up very early so that we could get to where we wanted to be. Once we packed up we headed to our first stop for the day, Little Bighorn. This was a super cool place to stop and anyone who has never been needs to go. Little Bighorn is a huge cemetery commemorating the battle at Little Bighorn (go figure) this was a battlefield where several tribes of Native Americans fought American troops over their land and way of life. The Native Americans killed over 200 troops while they themselves lost only around 70. So there are a bunch of marble and stone tombstones placed in remembrance for the soldiers (a lot of which don't even have names). There is also a Native American memorial down a walking trail to remember the Native Americans who fought and died for their people. The whole experience was really cool and I hope I can go again someday. Our next stop was to have br...

Sorry about posting so late in the week wi-fi has been down all week, an trust me it has been a pain trying to get stuff done without it. But I am back now so here are the days that I missed. Our third day dawned just like it did the day before, bright and very early. Jared and I both went and took showers and got breakfast at the KOA cafe, which was actually pretty decent food (a bit like being back at girl scout camp), then we loaded up into Thor and set off. Today's goal was to get further into Montana so that by the next day we were out of the state and on to the next. After driving for a bit we hit another landmark, the Continental Divide. It was pretty cool I guess, not much more than a rest area but there were some signs that talked about it and the scenery was beautiful. Once we took pictures and collected our Montana dirt we set off. Well that's about it honestly.... this day was basically just driving. We stopped at some rest stops and took pictures of the scene...

Alright here we go the first official day on our trip! Woohoo!!! Everyone was up and at 'em around 7, though Jared needed some prodding to get out of bed, and once breakfast was consumed and the dishes were done we loaded back into "Thor" (the Ramey Mobile) and set out. We drove for quite a while making stops at several rest areas to stretch and attempt to play Pokemon (they all got to play but my phone was acting up as usual). Eventually we made it into Idaho which was pretty uneventful for the most part. We stopped at a rest area and in a little town called Wallace, a little out of the way town that was nothing super special though it did have a bordello museum (a place where one can buy a prostitute) that we passed by to look at. After collecting a bag of dirt and a rock (our souvenirs from all of the states that we visit) we started driving again. The next state we entered was Montana where Austin and Mama Ramey spotted the first real wildlife; Austin saw a d...

Alright here we go the first official day on our trip! Woohoo!!! Everyone was up and at 'em around 7, though Jared needed some prodding to get out of bed, and once breakfast was consumed and the dishes were done we set out. We drove for quite a while making stops at several rest areas to stretch and attempt to play Pokemon (they all got to play but my phone was acting up as usual). Eventually we made it into Idaho which was pretty uneventful for the most part. We stopped at a rest area and in a little town called Wallace, a little out of the way town that was nothing super special though it did have a bordello museum that we passed by to look at. After collecting a bag of dirt and a rock (our souvenirs from all of the states that we visit) we started driving again. The next state we entered was Montana, and our first stop was the tourist trap of at the 50,000 Silver Dollar Diner; basically it is a diner, casino, bar, and gift shop all rolled into one. The thing that draws ...

"Home is behind and the World is ahead." The time has come faithful readers! The summer adventure that we have all been waiting for (or at least I have been waiting for)! THE RAMEY ROAD TRIP!!!!!!!! Well our trip started a day earlier than originally planned because the navigator and chief trip planner Mama Ramey wanted to avoid the Eastbound traffic heading out of the state. So we left today instead. I came over early to put my stuff in the "RameyMobile" (my name for the RV that will be our home for the next month or so) and make sure that Jared had all of his stuff since he procrastinates like nobody's business. Really quick before going any further in the post I will say thank you to my sister for letting me use her camera on the trip. My little point-and-shoot camera just is not of the same caliber and we are not even going to talk about my phone camera (which is too bad to even mention). So I will have some good pictures of the trip, the majority of w...

Well everyone, Spring Quarter has come to an end and it is time for a little recap and future activity update. This quarter was pretty good and really laid back because my classes were easy, the only one that gave me trouble was Geography of Rivers which of course I thought was boring so I did not apply myself to it. Anywho... where was I?? Oh yeah, classes. My favorite has got to be botany; this class was taught by an amazing teacher who loved teaching us and made the class fun to be in. It was also a good science class because it was not just lecture we also had a lab section which was nice because I got to see some interesting plants and even take one home for my collection. The other class that also taught me a lot was Observer, this is the class where you write for the school's newspaper. I loved this class, I took it before last Spring Quarter but I was on copy desk so while I learned a lot I did not get a chance to really practice writing, but this quarter I was on the sce...

Now I know I said I was going to do another post about comics but that topic got boring for me; so now I am going to do something else. This post will be about surviving on campus with food sensitivities. Those who know me or who have been following my posts know that I have a condition that doesn't allow me to eat certain foods. This of course makes it difficult living on campus where I, and many other students, are required to have a meal plan which pays for our food during the year. That way we don't need to go off campus to go grocery shopping and try to cook in our Residence Halls. However, since I can't eat a lot of the food on campus it makes spending the money difficult. Now I am here to help those like me who are struggling to cope with their new on-campus diets. First suggestion: A very easy way to help get around the tricky meal plan is to get the smallest plan available. That way there is less money on your account to spend, then you can purchase the things ...

OK stop the presses!!!! Today is Mother's Day and I want to take a moment to thank a really special lady. You see this awesome lady right here => That lady is the woman who birthed this legend. That's right folks! SHE MADE ME!!! I AM FIRST BORN!!!! THE ONE THAT MADE HER A MOMMY!!!!! My mom is like the coolest person! She takes me places and is there for me when I need it. Thanks mom for being so awesome and supporting me. You have taught me so much and I am so glad that I have you, thanks for giving me good advice when I need it. Sorry that I am not at home this Mother's Day but I hope that you have an awesome day and that you get to relax and do whatever you want. I love you lots mom! Happy Mother's Day to all my other moms too! My grandmas, Mama Ramey, and all those other fabulous ladies. You gals are all fabulous and I am glad to have you in my life. Have a great Mother's Day wherever you are. 

OK guys so Game of Thrones season 6 is premiering tonight and before the big kick off I would like to do a little recap for anyone who forgot what was going on in Westeros. Basically who is alive and what they are doing. Tyrion Lannister: After being smuggled out of Westeros after the poisoning of the former King Joffery, Tyrion makes his way East to help advise the Mother of Dragons, Daenerys Targaryen. Buut he gets kidnapped by Ser Jorah, though he is really just taking him to where he was already going. No sooner does he arrive in Meereen than everything goes to heck; the sons of the harpy start slaughtering people and there is chaos. Tyrion is left on his own to try and fix the damage when Daenerys takes off on Drogon. Jaime Lannister: After Lannisters start dropping like flies Jaime heads out with his brother Tyrion's loyal-ish sell sword Bronn to Dorne to try and rescue his niece/daughter Myrcella from the hands of the Dornish. But of course their plans are foiled when Pr...