Congratulations No Limits and The Gypsies!!

These were definitely my two favorite teams on the show "Expedition Impossible", with Country Boys a close third (although they did not place third on the show).  These two teams taking 1st and 2nd are truly a testament to the fact that nice guys don't always finish last.  Sometimes they even finish first.  (I do think that I slightly preferred No Limits over The Gypsies, but it was close.  Slightly off topic comment - too bad that Aaron Isaacson on No Limits is engaged.

Team No Limits was the definition of the concept of "never give up", with one blind team member and another team member who wore a leg cast and dealt with excruciating ankle pain for several legs of the race.  In the past, the blind team member reached the summit of Mt. Everest.  The one who hurt his ankle also served in the military in Iraq and Afghanistan, and if you know anything about many of my past jobs and my current job, you know how much respect I have for servicemen and women.  I can't forget the third member of the team either, as he is just as amazing.  He guided the blind team member throughout the race, and he was truly an amazing guide!  The whole team was amazing.

And The Gypsies?  They dominated the competition, winning all but one leg of the race.  Not only did they win, but they won graciously.  They were not cocky; they helped other teams; and, my favorite thing?  During one leg of the race, the winners won a special prize - a chance to talk to family and friends back home.  The gypsies won the leg, but they had already decided to donate the prize to another team (No Limits).  They are also involved in many charity projects.  This team was just incredible at (almost) everything.  Their world travels definitely paid off in this race.

While I enjoyed watching "Expedition Impossible", I still prefer "Amazing Race".  That being said, based on the rules of the "Amazing Race", I don't think a blind team member could have participated on the show.  I appreciate that this show is set up in such a way that the teams work together; and, while tasks may be easier if none of the members were to have disabilities - the tasks are still do-able for teams with disabled members.  If you all were unable to watch the show, you might want to check it out online.

Lessons learned in North Dakota, Canada, and Montana

So, My sister Moo (names have been changed to protect the innocent) came to visit me for about a week.  During the visit we went to Medora, North Dakota.  We poked around town and went to the pitchfork fondue.  The steak was great.  The sides were...okay.  While at the fondue, we spoke with some residents of Saskatchewan who informed us that the "Fields of Gold" that sting sings about are the canola fields, of which Saskatchewan has quite a few.  They also gave us advice on the route we should take to Canada. 


We left Medora pretty late, and it was decided that instead of returning home and leaving for Canada from home, we would just start on our journey that night.  I did warn my sister that due to all of the oilfield workers, we may not be able to find a hotel room.  So, my sister go out her travel guide and started calling hotels to no avail.  She was unable to find vacancies.  It was only about 5 minutes or so into that segment of the trip when she said maybe we should turn around and go to my place for the night.  I told her, "Nope.  You already made your decision and we're going with it" (words are not exact). 

So, my sister called my brother Squirrel in Washington and had him use his incredible internet skills to help us track down an apartment that might have an opening.  He gave us a number for a place in Crosby, ND very near the Canadian border.  Luckily they did have a room available for us when we called.  So....

LESSON #1 - It may be difficult to find a hotel room in areas of the country that have a shortage of housing and a lot of oilfield workers.

So, the next morning we continued our trip to Canada.  Our stop at the border took about half an hour.  Maybe it's not such a good idea to keep my temple bag in the trunk of my car?  Our trip to Canada was only spent in the province of Saskatchewan.   Saskatchewan  has oilfields too, and also farmland.  Lot's and lots of farmland.  It's pretty cool.  Lot's of wide open spaces.  The first bigger city we stopped in was Regina.  We weren't really fans.  It was a bit ghetto, and usually I'm okay with ghetto, but I guess not Regina's ghetto.

While in Regina we visited the "Government House" and the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) Museum.  The "Government House" was actually pretty cool.  I learned a lot.  I especially enjoyed learning about the salesman chairs, and how the furniture, borders, etc. in the bedrooms of the house were indicative of importance.  The RCMP Museum was okay.  I especially loved Exhibits 5 and 6 - you'll have to go there to find out what they are.  We also ere able to go on a tour of the grounds.  Apparently every person in the RCMP trains at the facility for 6 months before being assigned. 

After Regina we drove on to Moose Jaw Canada.  We may or may not have driven on a few gravel roads along the way. 

LESSON #2 - You may or may not have to drive on gravel roads in Canada.  It's pretty cool, but it can slow down the trip. 

Moose Jaw was much cooler than Regina in my opinion.  Several of the buildings had murals on them.  The tunnels of Moose Jaw tour we went on was actually very cool.  The acting was pretty good, and they had really set the scene for the tours well (It was much better than the shootout we watched in Medora).  We also had the opportunity to learn about and see different types of kilns while we were at a pottery shop in town.  When we got into town, I saw signs for Moose Jaw Wing or something like that.  I was curious as to what exactly it was.  I soon discovered that it was an Canadian Air Force Base near Moose Jaw.  Our one disappointment in Moose Jaw was the lack of moose Souveneir options in the town.  Our cousin Liza B is very into Moose's and we were hoping to find something for her there.  We did find something, but we didn't really love it.  Oh, I did learn, though, that in Saskatchewan they call hoodies "Bunny Hugs". 

Knowing that gas is more expensive in Canada than the US, we filled up before entering Canada.  Just before leaving Moose Jaw, we debated whether we should get a few gallons of gas.  I decided that we should see how things go, and fill up some along the way if we needed to.

LESSON # 3 - If you see a gas station in Canada - stop and get some gas.  You never know how far away the next gas station may be.  Also, gas stations in Canada do not always have convenience stores near them.  There may just be some pumps near a crossroads.  I don't know if you need a special card to use those pumps, though.  I did not stop at the one I saw.

Luckily we made it to a gas station in Montana before we ran out of gas, but there were a few tense moments.  The gas light came on just before the Border crossing, and there were bout 6-8 vehicles in front of us.  If this were not the case, I was pretty confident we could have made it to the next gas station, but I didn't know how much idling or turning the car on and off would effect the gas usage.  I chose to turn the car off and let a few cars go through the border crossing process before I advanced in line.

We decided that we should pick up some food at a drive-through in Sidney on our way home. 

LESSON #4 - Fast food restaurants in Eastern Montana are few an far between, and if you do find one, there is no guarantee it will be open after 10 at night.  I was going to stop at a McDonald's in Sidney for a bit of food, but...nope...wasn't open.  We ended up driving all the way home.  I was certain that the Wendy's drive-thru in my town would be open when we got there, but apparently the drive-thru is open later on weekends than on weekdays, and we were there on a week day. 


Well, I think that pretty much describes things for now.  I may add some pictures later to spice the blog up a bit.

I wish I were married to a handyman

So, I've been searching for homes again.  I found one I really liked, and I even put in an offer on it.  Here's the thing...someone else had put in an offer on it the same day as well.  Before I put the offer in, I learned that they were waiting for the house to go on the market and that they and their realtor had talked to the seller's personally.  So, I knew I probably wouldn't get the place.  And...I didn't.  I was glad in some ways and sad in others.  I don't know that a place like that will come up again, but I didn't want to pay the price they were asking, either.  The other couple apparently outbid me by quite a bit, and I didn't feel like I offered too much under the asking place.

Anyway, this brings me back to the handyman comment.  Why do I want to marry a handyman?  Well, right now it seems like almost all of the houses on the market are being snatched up quickly!  There are a few, however, that have been on the market for quite some time.  Some of them are at quite good prices, and I would make a bid on them, but they would require a little bit of renovation.  So, since I know nothing about those types of things, I would like to marry someone who did...someone who could make me some custom-built cabinets, lay flooring, frame walls.  You get the picture.  Also, someone who could teach me how to do those things, because I would love to learn how to do it myself.

PS - If you want to know what style of house I like, I prefer the craftsman style with the beautiful woodwork and the hardwood floors (I like laminate as well).  I don't mind carpet in some of the rooms.  I do NOT like carpet in bathrooms, dining rooms, or kitchens, though.  It just seems wrong.  You know what I mean?  What style of houses do you like?

Link to a Bucking Horse Sale story by CBS

This link shows the bucking horse sale from this year.  Hope your video quality was better than mine.

I bought a bike today, and other things

So, I finally took the plunge and decided to by myself a bike today.  It is a cruiser bike to ride around town on.  The store had two in stock (in the back, which they so nicely put together for me).  Unfortunately, they were the two that I was trying to decide between online.  They both had excellent customer ratings.  Why is this unfortunate...well, it meant I had to make a decision.  If I were to have decided on looks alone, I would have bought the Huffy Cranbrook Cruiser.  It had a nice retro look, which I really liked.  Comfort-wise, I think I liked the Schwinn Delmar Cruiser slightly more, but it was close, and it's not like I could really ride them much in the store.  I also liked that the DelMar had a rack on the back.  In terms of price, the Huffy was 9 or 10 dollars cheaper. 

So, do I go with the one that's the better price and the one I think looks cooler, or the one that is slightly more, but has a slight edge in terms of comfort, and a rack already included.  This was a tough decision for me, I called home and spoke with my brother and after much debate in my head I decided to go for the Schwinn.  I think part of it had to do with the fact that I tend to correlate Huffy with kids bikes and Schwinn bikes with adult bikes (even though the looks of these two bikes seemed the opposite of that to me).  Also, the Schwinn received slightly better reviews on the website.

Now, after one ride on the bike, I am happy with my purchase.  We'll see how it holds up over time.  The ride was very smooth, and although the roads were flat, not downhill, the bike coasted really well.  I was not planning on riding the bike quite so soon, but unfortunately it would not fit in my car.  So, my solution was to ride the bike home, then walk back to the store and drive my car home.  This solution worked pretty well and didn't take too long.  I'm thinking of hooking a laundry basket to the back so that I can ride my bike to get groceries.  I would put a link here so you can see what type of laundry basket I'm talking about, but I can't find it online (it really doesn't look too bad - I tried it out when I got home and it actually looks quite nice on the back - not too ghetto).

In other news, I'm considering buying a house.  Therefore, today I went and took a look at a few houses.  Once again, this means decisions, which I am not good at.  I also went to the bank to find out information about loans and what I would qualify for. 

Last, but not least, I will finally be getting a bed.  A co-worker is selling a bed - frame, headboard, footboard, mattress, box springs...the works, and she is even throwing in free delivery.  Now, I haven't really felt the need to buy a bed.  I like sleeping on the couch quite a lot, but I figure that guests might appreciate a real bed to sleep on, so...I decided I should get one.  I also figure if I'm getting a house, I should probably have at least one bed in it.

Also, if you want to vote on a house, you can go to this website and let me know which houses you like.  I'm not looking for anything very big, but I am looking into the possibility of getting something where I can rent out part of it. 

A funny offer

So, I was at work yesterday, and one of the residents came up to me and said (paraphrased - and I probably don't do the real offer justice):

"Just so you know, this is an offer I don't give to too many people; but, well, would you like to go out to the smoker with me and watch me smoke a cigarette?"

I don't think anyone has ever invited me to smoke, but this isn't the first offer anyone has ever given me to go on a smoke break with them.  This is definitely the best smoke break offer I've ever had.  It makes me laugh.

The Bucking Horse Sale

A little over a week ago, I went to The World-Famous Bucking Horse Sale.  It was rainy outside, and it was a bit cold outside.  There were large puddles.  My shoes were not made for the rain/puddles, but I still enjoyed myself.  I started out by going to the sheep shearing contest.  At the contest, I learned that if you sheared the sheep right, the wool came off in one big piece.  You all may have already know that, but it was news to me.  After that, I watched the beginning of the sheep help contest, but I only made it through one round before I decided to go check out what the vendors were selling.
I was sad when I discovered that most of the sale items were jewelry.  There was also some gear for horse riding, but since I don't have a horse, I didn't really look to closely at what they had to offer.  There was very little for sale that actually said Bucking Horse Sale on it.  Most of the stuff was stuff you could find in a store.  I was a bit disappointed in the wares for sale.

After that, I drove back to my place and then walked back to the watch the sale.  On the way, I stopped by the food vendors that were set-up downtown (not at the fairgrounds), because my coworkers had told me that the Island Noodles were great.  They were okay.  I think they would have been better if I would have put more sauce on them.  I ate them as I finished my walk to the sale.  Once I got to the fairgrounds I decided to take advantage of the fair food, and I got an order of fried oreos for myself.

Image Courtesy of Mytidewatermoms.com

They were delicious.  Fried candy bars were also for sale, but after my first and only experience with those a few years ago, I vowed to never get one of those again.  Just too sweet or something.


Having had my main dish and dessert, I settled in for the show.  The sale was interesting.  Some of the horses really bucked; others, not so much.  Some of the horses went for a couple of hundred dollars; one horse, $4,000.  It was so wet and muddy in the arena, that they were running out of clean, warm cowboys to ride the horses.  They announced that if anyone in the stands wanted to give it a try, they could come on over.  The announcement was a bit of a joke, kinda; but one of the members of the audience did take them up on the offer.  Unfortunately he didn't stay on his horse for too long.  Too bad Jet or Cord McCoy weren't there.

Image retrieved from flickr.com via Bing

The funnest part of the day was the wild horse race.  (Note: As it was not raining in the video and there is no mud in the arena, you can see that the video I linked to was not from this year.  The date on the video will also give that fact away).  I've never seen a wild horse race before.  For the races, there are teams of three individuals.  The first person holds the horse's lead rope.  The second person follows the lead rope in an attempt to get near the horses face and hold the horse still.  It is the job of the third person to get the horse saddled and ride him around the arena.  The first team to get their horse saddled and ride it all the way around the arena one time wins.  It was so funny to watch, especially in the mud.  One of the teams was getting some nice mud skiing in, although they weren't doing too well at staying upright.