Big Bear North Shore Half Marathon Relay Race & Oktoberfest 10/2/15 & 10/3/15

A couple of months before this, Sean and I were searching for new and interesting races to do when we came across the Big Bear North Shore Half Marathon/10k/5k. We'd wanted an excuse to go back to Big Bear and when we looked into the race further we found it! The half marathon was also offering a relay option, where one person (of either the same or opposite gender, either way) would run half of the half marathon and the other would finish up with the second half. We'd been looking for a relay race to do together for a couple of years now and this was it! There was still plenty of time to register and we even saved $30, paying only $100 total, by signing up so far in advance.

We did, unfortunately, run into a few complications before heading out for the race though. First off, we looked into literally EVERY kind of accommodation we could find but everything from bed and breakfasts to hotels to campsites to rooms people were renting in the area was either fully booked or charging ridiculous rates for the weekend we needed. Accommodation-wise, it didn't help that their Oktoberfest celebration was going on on the race date. It did give us an extra excuse to make the trip out though! We decided to just wing it, drive out the night before the race, and find a place to park the car and sleep.

Our next major complication was that the day before we were supposed to leave we found out some tie rods on our car were busted. Keep in mind that I know shit all about cars. We managed to do some research and order parts and tools but they wouldn't arrive for awhile and in the meantime there was no way we could roadtrip with our car, especially up winding mountain roads. Instead, we got a last minute rental car from some ghetto company called Fox. Danny drove us down to their office, wayyyy down towards South Point casino, and we waited in line for AN HOUR before we were helped. It was smooth sailing from there though. The employees were nice enough and even gave us a $6 locals discount. It didn't make up for the wait but we decided they, as a company, deserved about 2 out of 5 stars overall for various reasons. Apparently, as we later found out when going to rate them online, the average Yelp user agrees with us too.

We finally loaded up the rental, said goodbye to Danny, and got on the road after that. We made a quick stop in Barstow to pee, a stop in Big Bear Lake to scope out the race location in advance, and then found and parked in the race's event parking down the street a little after 10pm to get some sleep for the night. It was just after 11 when we actually cuddled up together in the passenger's seat and closed our eyes.

Day 2 - 10/3/15 (Race Day and Oktoberfest!):

I hadn't been able to get to sleep til after midnight and even then only with the help of a sleeping pill. I started dreaming about waking up late and missing the race though and I woke up needing to pee at one point as well so the sleep I got was broken. Stupid pre-race nerves! I did manage to get nearly 7 hours of sleep though, which is probably a pre-race record for me. I eventually got up at 6:51am feeling slightly nervous but somewhat refreshed. I got dressed for the race, Sean woke up and got ready 40 mins to an hour later, and we walked over to packet pick-up. Parking wasn't far from there so we were able to take our stuff back to the car before starting our race.

When 9am rolled around, I was mentally ready to run but I hadn't had a chance to warm up or stretch. The half marathon individual and relay runners were starting though and I was taking the first leg for Sean's and my relay team so I had to get going! I figured I could just warm up on the first mile and stick it out anyway. Sean cheered me on as I ran off and then he and the other second half relay runners got a boat ride, provided by the race organizers, across the lake to the half marathon turnaround point where they'd be trading places with us first half runners when we caught up to them.

In total, there were only three relay teams in the race and all three of us were mixed gender (one female, one male). All three teams coincidentally had the female running first as well. The other two teams were there together and knew one another and Sean met the two guys on the boat ride. I, on the other hand, had no idea who the relay girls I was running against were, let alone who the relay guys were, and I'm assuming they didn't see who I was either til we all traded places with our teammates at the turnaround. One of the girls was almost exactly as fast as I was though, at least in this race, and ended up getting to the turnaround about 20 seconds before me, according to Sean. I wasn't pushing my hardest when I got there, partially because I didn't realize where I was til I was there and partially because of people and cones and obstacles preventing me from sprinting, but I wouldn't say that girl went all out either so it would been interesting to see how she and I would do if we went head to head sometime.

Sean's portion of the race went somewhat similarly. Since I wound up being second out of the three relay females, even if just barely, he started as the second male. He maintained his position through the finish with his personal half of the race being perhaps a minute off the first place relay guy's time. Ironically enough, all of the relay men would have placed the same against each other with or without their female counterparts. Lol

Sadly, the relay ladies' boat ride back across the lake to the start/finish line took just a little too long and, though we enjoyed the view, we didn't all make it back in time to see our guys finish. :( Oh well.

On the bright side, we were rewarded for our efforts with awesome leis (serving as finishers' medals) once we made it back back and got to reunite with our guys and enjoy lots of snacks while we awaited the awards ceremony, at which point each of our three teams was awarded medals according to our place (so silver/2nd place for Sean and me)!

Once the race had wound down, Sean and I decided to go and explore town a bit. The one and only time we'd been before, several weeks prior, we'd gotten to scope out everything of interest to us in the area but none of it had been open then so this was our chance at a second, closer look.

The first place we revisited was:

Big Bear Funplex
40679 Big Bear Blvd
Big Bear Lake, CA

Now that we were there during business hours, we could confirm that there were no dance or other music games inside, at  least not presently. They did have a fair assortment of other video game types, however, as well as other sorts of entertainment including mini golf, laser tag, and a mini ice skating rink.

Seconds down the road from there, we revisited a bowling alley:

The Bowling Barn
40625 Big Bear Blvd
Big Bear Lake, CA

And, to our pleasant surprise, we actually found a DDR Extreme machine inside! We wondered if it was the machine that'd previously been located at the now-closed-down Big Bear Star Arcade arcade listed on ddrfreak years ago, which was initially the reason I'd known of and wanted to visit Big Bear in the first place. (I'd never had the chance to see that arcade when it was there.) I didn't think to ask but I was happy enough just to have found a machine so we could put Big Bear back on the dance game map! The monitor on this machine had been replaced and was abnormally bright and slightly blurry. The pads were mediocre at best, neither joint premium or doubles premium was on, the yellow arrow menu buttons on 2P side weren't working (so, amongst other inconveniences such as not being able to select a song if playing by yourself, 2P would be stuck on 1x). Still, DDR in Big Bear! Yay. :p We played a quick credit together, listed the location on ddrfreak, added it to my dance game binder and groovestats, and then headed out to continue exploring.

We found a Dollar Tree store while driving around and stopped in for a few supplies. Sean needed a pee then so he checked a couple of other stores in the cute, different-looking shopping center to find an open restroom and I put up some of our CandyMountainCrafts.com and website-making advertisements while I waited.

Passing through Big Bear Lake a few weeks back, I'd really wanted to see downtown in action during the day. Sean drove me down for a look next and I was not disappointed! It was really busy with people souvenir shopping, eating, etc. Lots of people and lots of shops! Most prices weren't great but we had more than enough fun window shopping and sight-seeing and most other people there didn't seem too bothered by the prices.

We had another peek in the building of the closed down Super Bear Arcade and were, this time, able to see in well and get a feel for what the place might've been like. Wish we could've seen it in its heyday.

We found a tiny movie theater there in downtown which actually seemed to have the most reasonable prices of any business we saw. I don't remember what movies they were showing but I'm not sure I'd heard of any of them. We liked that better. It was more interesting than your average theater. They didn't have any arcade games, let alone room in their small lobby for any, but they DID had $1 hot dogs, which we got a couple of, and other good deals - probably the best in the area!

Once we'd finished in downtown, we drove on to the second reason we were in town: Oktoberfest! We'd found out Big Bear Lake was having an Oktoberfest celebration which had sealed the deal when we'd discovered the race and were looking for additional reasons to make the trip. We'd never been to an Oktoberfest celebration before!

Parking at the event was hard but we managed. It was $18/person to get in, no outside foods or drinks or reentry allowed. We'd come prepared though. We had all the drink we needed in the car and we drank enough to get a comfy buzz before going in. Inside, we had a look around. Most of the festivities seemed to be in one big room, though there was a little more to see bordering the outside. Everything was pretty pricey there but there wasn't really anything we wanted anyway. We were just enjoying looking around and being a part of the festivities.

They had a lot of various contests going on throughout the event. Some only had so many spots for entrants and filled up quickly though and there were sometimes long waits between some of the better ones. We managed to enter our first stein holding contest though! We didn't do very well but it was fun to try!

Once we'd seen enough of Oktoberfest, we started towards a tiny place called Lucerne Valley on the way back home. We'd passed there twice before, including the day before, but it was our first time stopping for a look. There really wasn't much to see there anyway but they had a few gas stations (some chains, some not), liquor stores, a few other places. Most aignificantly though, they had a super market that sold just about everything! The prices there were pretty average but they had some pretty cheap energy drinks, of which we got a couple, and it was cool that you could get just about whatever you needed there. It seemed like the Wal-Mart of the town.

In Barstow again, we used the restrooms and got some free drinks for downloading an app at Valero.

A couple of hours later, we were home again and ready to start recovering! Lol

Phoenix Area & Salt Lake City Roadtrip 10/17/15 - 10/24/15

Foam Wonderland Rave (for Bingo Players), AZ State Fair, Trampoline Park, Arcades, Corn Maze, Fall Festival, Haunted Houses, Wild Western Festival, Haunted Hustle 5k, Free Dog, Zion National Park, and much more!

I have my Groupon account set to send me daily emails with deals they think I'll like from cities of my choice including Vegas, cities in nearby states, cities in places I'll be traveling to soon, London, and Leicester. Several months back, Groupon sent me an email about a deal for $12 entry to a Halloween themed race in Salt Lake City called the Haunted Hustle. Salt Lake's quite a drive from Vegas but the race looked pretty awesome and we couldn't resist the excuse! Not long after that, Groupon emailed me about a Western festival in Glendale, AZ the same weekend as the race. We weren't sure going to both was the most practical of decisions but we didn't care! We started planning by looking for additional things to do in each destination on Groupon and soon found tons more excuses for our trip. We'd be driving to Arizona first, spending about a week in the Phoenix area, and then heading up to Salt Lake for the race.

Day 1 - 10/17/15 (Foam Wonderland for Bingo Players):

Time flew by and before we knew it it was time for the trip. We drove out Saturday afternoon headed to a rave in Chandler, AZ (near Phoenix) called Foam Wonderland. It'd been one of the things we'd found while searching Groupon for excuses for the trip. At first, we weren't sure it made sense to go to, as it was an entire week before the Western festival and race, but after careful planning we'd worked it out so that we'd have tons of incredible things to do around Phoenix for a week before driving up for the race as a trip finale. I'd never been to a foam rave before and Bingo Players would be headlining at this one so of course we had to make it work!

We'd checked GasBuddy before leaving Vegas to see what prices were like where we were going. Turns out it was WAY cheaper to get gas en route in Arizona. Before leaving Vegas, we put just enough in the tank to reach Kingman, AZ. Then, in Kingman, we made a very slight detour and filled up at Smith's. It was EVEN cheaper closer to Phoenix though.

I think the rave was scheduled from 8pm-12am but we didn't get there til a little before 9pm. At first, we were worried we wouldn't have enough time left but the rave was smaller than we'd expected and we were able to park close to the entrance. We had a few shots of some rum and a few sips of wine we'd brought and then headed in! The rave was taking place inside one big warehouse-looking building here:

Frontier Hall at Rawhide
5700 W North Loop Rd
Chandler, AZ

It was a little weird at first because we felt like we were older than a lot of people there. Ughhh I hate getting old. There was still a fair amount of people that must've been our age and some much older too though. Anyway, it didn't matter much because we were kind of having our own party and dancing together, just the two of us. It was REALLY fun too! I hadn't known what to expect with the foam but between that and water they sprayed on us we were absolutely soaking by the end of it! Sadly Bingo Players, who was the only artist there I'd heard of before, didn't play the only song of theirs I knew: Cry (Just A Little). I was a bit disappointed because that song had probably been my favorite song in 2011. It's okay though, I had an incredible time dancing and getting messy with Sean!

After the rave, Sean and I drove down the road to a good-sized casino we'd seen on the way called Wild Horse Pass. They didn't have free beverage stations and we were too lazy to get drinks from the cocktail waitresses but they DID have $10 free play for new players club members! We signed up, used our free play, and won over $60!

Then we drove to a Love's travel center a minute away and got cozy in the passenger's seat to sleep.

Day 2 - 10/18/15 (AZ State Fair):

It was nearly noon when we woke up and went inside Love's. The only particularly noteworthy thing we found there was a "Game Room" that no longer had games in it and was being used for storage.

Across the street was a McDonald's. They had single scoop vanilla ice cream cones for $0.59 each so we got a couple and used the WiFi there to do a little work on our laptops. (We didn't get food because we'd brought a bunch from Vegas to last us the first couple of days and save us some money.)

Once again thanks to Groupon, we had the highlight of the day planned out already. This time, it was the Arizona State Fair! Groupon had had a good combo deal on fair admission and admission to some alien exhibit there. Using the deal, we could've gone any day during the fair but we chose this day because Meat Loaf would be performing! I didn't know much about Meat Loaf but Sean did.

Arizona State Fair
1826 W McDowell Rd
Phoenix, AZ

It was 3pm when we got to the fair. Meat Loaf wasn't on til 7 so we had time to see what else the fair had to offer. First, we spent $1 each to have a look at 3 big snakes. Too cute! Next, we bought something called a Passport to Savings coupon book. It was $5 but with it we got tons of coupons for things both in and outside of the fair including lots of free 7 Eleven food. We got to spin a prize wheel for buying it too and wound up winning a coupon for some free cheesy sticks from Domino's! (Well, technically I won a coke but Sean told the guy I wanted the cheesy stick coupon instead and he gave it to me!) We later found a second coupon book on the ground too. Double coupons! We spotted some $0.25 foot massage machines then and Sean and I had to have a go. Omg.. They felt great! Just after that, it started raining HARD. The rain was off and on throughout the day but when it rained it really poured down, soaking absolutely everyone and everything. We temporarily took shelter in the art, farm animal, and alien exhibits but finally had to get brave and make our way to the grand stands to watch the 5pm destruction derby. The ground was so wet and muddy, however, that they were close to an hour starting the derby. When they finally DID get started, after using a couple of tractors to remove the muddiest top layers of dirt, the cars were skidding and getting stuck all over the place. Along with the lightning and inconsistent, heavy rain if definitely added to the excitement!

At the end of the derby, we had about 20 minutes til Meat Loaf came on but it was raining hard again. We had to jog over to the coliseum but it wasn't long before we were sitting inside, drying off a bit, and watching Meat Loaf. :)

Just outside of the coliseum after the concert, we caught a little circus style performance by two guys on stilts and a ladder. It was pretty good! We'd seen and done just everything we wanted to at the fair then so we had one last walk around, just to be sure we hadn't missed anything, and headed out around 9:30pm.

We didn't have anything else scheduled for the night as we hadn't been sure how long we'd need at the fair but it didn't take us long to come up with our next plan of action: casino hopping! We'd checked out casino guidebook and found a few casinos not too far from us. Some were linked so there wasn't much point in going to all of them but a couple had the potential to be rewarding. We started with:

Casino Arizona
524 N 92nd St
Scottsdale, AZ

Inside, we signed up to their players club and were given a couple of neat credit card holders (like metallic wallets) and just over $4 each in credit towards food, drink, or goods there! We used the credit at one of their food court restaurants. With that and about $6 or $7 of our own money, we got ourselves a couple of orange chicken meals and were so stuffed we had to take the leftovers for later!

The second casino we went to was much further and we weren't sure at first whether it was worth the drive. We weren't tired yet though, didn't have much else to do, found online that they offered free play for new sign ups there, and were curious about the area anyway so we drove about 20 minutes east to check it out:

Fort McDowell Casino
10424 North Fort McDowell Road
Fort McDowell, AZ

The players club had closed 16 minutes before we got to it but we had a look around the kinda mid-sized casino before heading back to the car, parking somewhere less conspicuous to sleep in their lot, watching Simpson's on Sean's laptop, and cuddling up to sleep til morning.

Day 3 - 10/19/15 (Trampoline Park & PIU):

Sometime between 11am and 12pm, we got up and went back into the casino. In addition to waitresses walking around with beverages, they had fountain drinks and hot drinks set up in the bingo area. I think it was the first casino we'd seen self serve beverages at so far this trip and, of course, we helped ourselves. We also signed up for the players club and profited $18.75 from doing so. Gotta love free money!

We were feeling pretty disgusting then so we looked at the map in search of a possible solution. What we found was a grassy, wide open place called Fountain Park with a big fountain in the middle. On the way to it, we spotted someone's horses roaming free behind their house and all the way up to the road. Crazy!

The park was beautiful, though the water that made up the central lake where the fountain was was reclaimed water so we could only look at it but couldn't get in. We had a nice stroll all the way around the lake, stopping in the only restrooms there for our first thorough wash so far this trip. (Don't worry, we'd been using baby wipes, bottles of water, and other supplies we'd brought to keep semi-clean up til then.)

Being us, however, there was no way the cleanliness was going to last and our very next stop made sure of that:

Krazy Air Trampoline Park
4310 E McDowell Rd
Mesa, AZ

Another pre-trip Groupon search had found us this one. We had two hours and two fountain drinks included with the deal we'd bought so we went in and started jumping, climbing, and flipping! Then we quenched our thirst with the drinks and relaxed in their lobby to use their wifi for a bit of work before heading out.

We were already sweaty then so our next endeavor seemed like an appropriate one. We decided to go to a nearby Main Event location and see what dance games they had in store for us in their arcade area.

Main Event Entertainment
8545 S Emerald Dr
Tempe, AZ 85284

We already had $12 in game card credit from other Main Event locations we'd visited and when we arrived someone had left a couple of credits in the Pump It Up Fiesta 2 machine we found there. At $1.65/4 song credit, assuming you get all A's or higher on the first 3 songs and don't lose your life bar on the 3rd or 4th song, we were glad to be prepared. We also signed up to their mailing list while there and got $5 each in free play for doing so. That wouldn't be usable til later though. In the meantime, the credits we had were more than enough to get us a good workout. We explored the arcade just to make sure that Fiesta 2 was the only music game there. It was. It was plenty though and it was in great condition! We played through all of the credits, mostly trading off songs, and by the end of it I had a big blister on the bottom of one of my feet but I also had a couple of cool new scores. Nothing amazing but something I could be happy enough with!

All that sweating had made us pretty hungry and we'd finally finished the foods we'd brought from Vegas that we had to worry about an expiration on. It was time to treat ourselves once again! We thought about what we might want to do the next day and planned our next move accordingly, driving to a Waffle House in Mesa for a hot meal and stopping by an AMPM for amazingly cheap ($1.99/gallon of regular unleaded/87) gas on the way.

At Waffle House, the two boys working at the time were young and super sweet. It was refreshing. We were actually really pleasantly surprised by the number of nice people we'd encountered this trip! We ended up spoiling ourselves more than usual this time, getting large hash browns "all the way" and some $5 meal that included a bowl of chili, a grilled cheese sandwich (which we got with raisin bread),  and a drink of choice (we got iced tea-monade). Yummy, cheap, and so filling we had to take half of it with us for later! Of course, we left a nice tip.

Right by Waffle House was a Walmart. It was getting pretty late then and we had major itis  so we decided to call it a night. We drove over to Walmart, picked a spot that looked good, and went to sleep in the car.

Day 4 - 10/20/15 (Corn Maze, Fall Festival, Tempe Jog, & PIU):

In the morning, we went into Walmart and got a few items using a $10 gift card we'd received as a sign up bonus for registering with and shopping through a cash back website called Ebates. (We were also getting some cash back directly from those and future purchases. Yay!)

We'd finally run out of energy drinks then. We had vouchers for free ones at a couple of places but were curious what other items we'd find at a 99 Cent Store in the area so we drove to one nearby, which was sandwiched between a Savers and a Goodwill, and spent $9 on goodies!

Our scheduled event for the day was another Groupon special. This time, it was a corn maze and fall festival at Veruccio Farms there in Mesa, AZ!

Vertuccio Farms
4011 S Power Rd
Mesa, AZ

It would be the first corn maze either of us had ever done so we were pretty excited. We drove over then to see what it was all about. Inside the "festival area" we found various games and activities, inflatable trampoline-like bouncers, lots of farm animals (many we could pet), pedal cars, a playground with awesome tube slides, some little tractor and quad pulled trains, and more! We tried and did just about everything there was to do there and had too much fun in the process. I think the highlight for me, however, must've been petting tiny baby goats. Sooooo cute! After we'd seen and done about half of the other activities there, we decided to give the maze a whirl. We didn't use any strategy for it. We just ran in and let ourselves get lost and wander, figuring it was the best way to really experience our first corn maze. It probably took us about 45 minutes to get through. (Sean did a mapmyrun route to track the last 2/3 or so.) They had a little game for us there too, giving us boards with "clues" we had to find, though there wasn't really any prize for it in the end. Nevertheless, it was fun searching! Once we made it out again, Sean got a $1.50 pineapple Italian shaved ice from a snack bar there so we could refresh ourselves before finishing up the second half of the festival activities. All in all, we probably spent a good few hours there and DEFINITELY got our money's worth.

We drove to a 7 Eleven to use some of the coupons we'd gotten in our Passport to Savings coupon book from the fair as well as mobile app coupons we had for free drinks and taquitos.

Then we went to Epic Thrift and got a few snazzy items for next to nothing using a 25% off coupon I'd received for donating stuff to an Epic Thrift location
in Vegas on already great prices!

Sean is pretty fond of this silly movie called Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure so he'd been hounding me to take him to the filming location not too far from us where Napoleon had been thrown out of a bowling alley in the movie. The location now:

AMF Tempe Village Lanes
4407 S Rural Rd
Tempe, AZ

It'd changed ownership and it'd been a long time since the movie was made so the place was different. Still, very cool to see. They had a little arcade there too, though no music games.

We had to do a little work then so we went to a McDonald's to use their WiFi on our laptops.

We went for a short drive through downtown Tempe then, stopping near Tempe Beach Park to look around, go for a jog, and take some pics. Parking was metered there and we didn't want to drive around searching for free parking but we found a meter with a little time on, added $1, and we were good. We went jogging over a couple of bridges and around the park, enjoying the nice few of the lake and skyscrapers. Nothing speedy or fancy or speedy but really nice.

Then we used some free mobile app coupons we had to get energy drinks at a nearby Valero.

Our Main Event sign up bonuses had come through so we went there next to use them. We had $10 credit and, once again, we used it all on PIU. Lol We had a couple of new scores between us to show for it by the end of the night though!

Feeling hungry and thirsty after dance gaming, we drove to the nearest QuikTrip for the first time this trip. They were advertising their new mobile app so we signed up and got some deals for doing so. We used one of those deals to get a free beverage and then got a couple of $0.99 Sriracha sausages and some candy to go with it.

I think we were on a roll with couponing and we weren't stopping there. We continued the trend by driving to the nearest Walmart and using a redbox  coupon we'd been saving for a free movie rental. We chose Insidious 3. Then we drove back to the Love's we'd slept at a couple of nights prior, watched the fairly scary movie on Sean's laptop (ahhh nightmares!), relieved a little sexual frustration, and finally went to sleep together around 4am.

Day 5 - 10/21/15 (Gameworks Day Pass &

For some reason, I'd woken up around 11am every day so far this trip regardless of when I'd gone to sleep. Today was no different.

Once we were up and washed up a bit, we went to return the redbox movie and get something to eat at QuikTrip again. We had another coupon, this time for a buy one get one free "Hotzi" sandwich, so we got a couple of approx 6" subs for $4. With all the toppings and condiments there, they were actually reeeeally good!

We had an old Gameworks day pass we hadn't used but that should've expired long ago. Sometimes we get lucky with expiration dates on Gameworks cards though and the Tempe Gameworks location was nearby so we went to try our luck and see if anything had changed since we were last there.

Gameworks
Arizona Mills, 5000 S Arizona Mills Cir #669 Tempe, AZ

We got lucky with our day pass and the employee who helped us with it renewed it or something so that it'd work for us. Obviously, lots of gaming then ensued.

As far as dance games went, they'd removed the PIU and DDR Extreme machines they'd had last time we were there but they still had DDR X and DDR SuperNova 2. They still had Guitar Hero, Pop'n Music, DrumMania, and IIDX as well, though GuitarFreaks had been removed. I don't recall all the current or past mixes well enough to know if any had changed but I think that's at least accurate as far as the machines themselves go. We rotated around the games a bit, had breaks, and didn't exclusively play dance or other music games but I'd still say I definitely played more DDR X and Guitar Hero than ever before. Sean and I played some games on our own at first but that got old fast so we spent the remainder of our time there playing together, trading off, or watching each other on games. I don't know what all Sean played but we both had a couple of credits on SuperNova 2, IIDX, and some basketball and racing games throughout the day. Probably other stuff too.

A couple of hours in, we took a break to look around the mall. Not much worth mentioning there but they did have a pet store with cute puppies!

Just after 6pm, we decided it was about time to eat and take care of the special thing we'd been looking forward to on the day's agenda. Feeling a little famished, we went to a nearby Ikea we'd spotted to get some meatballs and wound up getting lots delicious food (dinner, dessert, tea, and coffee) for about $8.50 total.

What was even better was that we found out we could join Ikea's club for free and then get free tea and coffee any time! We signed up and planned to go back ASAP to take advantage of that as well as of their other great food deals.

So I'm sure anyone reading was wondering when Groupon would make its appearance for the day here. Well, here it is: the Crypt Haunted Attractions. We'd found a Groupon deal for all 3 of their attractions (2 haunted houses and 1 maze: The Asylum, Chaos, and The Crypt) for 2 people. Actually, we'd seen a lot of similar deals on Groupon as well but, of the ones in the area we'd be in around Halloween, this one caught our eye right away. It didn't hit me what I was getting myself into until we arrived though. Of course, there was no turning back then! I got as brave as I could and went in the haunted houses and maze one by one with Sean. It wasn't long at all before I was screaming bloody murder, sprinting, hiding, falling down, begging Sean to hurry and get me out of there, and crying my eyes out though. Haha Definitely one of the best haunted house experiences I've had because they really did their job and used a lot of extremely unique ideas you rarely or never see in other haunted houses to do it. Very creative and original, which added a lot to the scare factor. Also much better acting and commitment to character than I'm used to from the actors, yet they still pulled it off while being extremely considerate and sometimes even helpful (ie: when we were REALLY stuck in the maze and one of the actors who'd been chasing us around and scaring us realized we were never getting out of there and finally showed us the way while still being creepy and scary as hell). I was REALLY impressed. I was repeatedly thrilled and terrified beyond belief. A few of the most epic and awesome highlights for me included:

-Christmas trees with creepy masks and heads on top, music from The Nightmare Before Christmas playing nearby.

-A couple of LONG and creepy hallways. Hard to explain what made them so special but they were both original and very scary.

-A collage of melted Barbie, baby, and other dolls.

-When the girl from The Ring came crawling out from around the corner, just like in that and other terrifying horror movies, pursuing us with her dark hair over her face. Holy shit... I was shaking and bawling. By far one of the scariest moments of my life. It was like the horror movie which had scared me more than any other EVER was coming to life right in front of me.

Whew! What a thrill!!

Anyway, feeling more alive and relieved than ever, we headed back to Gameworks to finish what we'd started with our day pass. Back on DDR X, we got a couple of spectators including one who commented, "Nice! You guys are like a DDR player's final form!" HAHAHA We found a bunch of tickets by a machine at one point and tried to cash them in but no luck because they hadn't actually printed out of a machine. Some employee had just left them lying everywhere. XD Welp, had to try, right? We had a few of our own tickets so we just used those to get a couple of small prizes.

Once Gameworks had closed at 11pm, we went to the nearest 7 Eleven we could find to use a couple more coupons we'd gotten at the fair to get 2 free drinks. There was a guy at the redbox there when we pulled up. He offered us 2 coupons he didn't want for free movie rentals. Wow! We used one then to rent a movie called Dead Rising that Sean said was based off some game he'd played.

There was a QuikTrip across the street so we went there next to get a bite to eat once again. We used another coupon for some buy one get one free "Hotzi" things (some breakfast sandwiches with flour tortilla outsides this time) and got a couple of roller grill items as well.

There was a casino called Lone Butte that was linked to another we'd joined in the past few days. We decided to go have a look and wound up getting another $5 in free play each just for "liking" the casino on Instagram. We gambled the free play and turned it into $20.75. The freebies continue!

Then we went to a closed Starbucks to park outside and use their wifi for a couple of hours before driving back to Love's to start our new redbox movie and finally get to sleep again, this time a little after 4am for Sean and around 5am for me.

Day 6 - 10/22/15:

At 11am again, we were up. We went into Love's for an $11 shower but the wait was about an hour and we weren't willing to sacrifice that kind of time. Instead, we drove back over to Ikea to clean up and change in their restrooms. (We did the hard parts in the family restroom. Lol) Then we got our free tea and coffee in the cafe and sat down to use their wifi and outlets to get some work done.

It took a few hours to do what we needed to work-wise for the day but we weren't too upset about it because we were making money while traveling and it was a nice change of scenery when compared to working at home. Can't complain about that!

Once done there, we drove to a nearby Goodwill store to get some white pants and long sleeve shirts for a costume idea I'd found online. We'd forgotten to bring Halloween costumes on our trip and needed them for the Halloween race Saturday.

We had to load some money on a prepaid Brinks card we'd recently gotten to take advantage of some sign up deal but once we did they paid us $20. It cost $2 to load but still an $18 profit.

We were really needing some food then and we weren't far from a Domino's location so we stopped in and used the coupon I'd "won" at the fair for free stuffed cheesy bread. Omg...so good!

To wash it down, we went to a 7 Eleven and used more fair coupons for a free drink and slurpee.

Then we started towards Scottsdale, AZ, stopping to return our redbox movie at McDonald's and fill up with cheap gas at Circle K.

So we actually didn't have a Groupon deal planned for this day because we figured we needed to at least give ourselves one spare day in case we fell behind, needed extra time for work stuff, or found unplanned things to do. While we were right on schedule, we had found a place on ddrfreak that we wanted to have a look at:

Crackerjax Family Fun and Sports Park
16001 N Scottsdale Rd
Scottsdale, AZ

We didn't have the highest hopes that it'd still be there but according to the location's last ddrfreak update in 2009 there was an ITG2 machine next to a DDR SuperNova there. There were a few other ITG2 locations in the area but we'd been to some, if not all, and this one had caught our eye the most. We weren't really surprised when we got there and found ITG had been removed but we were relieved to see that they still had their SuperNova machine as well as a Guitar Hero. Sean and I played a credit together on SuperNova. It was unpatched, good pads, really low volume, $0.50/3 songs (and extra stage if you're good enough). As for the rest of the place, the little arcade and almost all of the other attractions there were pretty dead. There were a few people in the batting cages, on a bungee thing, and golfing at an adjacent driving range that we weren't sure was part of the same place but that was about it. Hopefully, it's busier other days and times. It's sad seeing arcades and such places going out of business.

We spent a little more time getting things together for our costume then by going to a nearby 99 Cent Store for some supplies. We got a few foods, drinks, and even some funny umbrella hats while there too.

Then we went driving towards the next day's main destination while in search of wifi. When we found good wifi, outside of a closed T-Mobile store, we parked so Sean could get some work done on his laptop. Most of the work just required that he leave one of his programs running while online so he set that up and then we watched a movie while pigging out on a combination of 99 Cent Store purchases and canned goodies we'd brought from Vegas.

Finally, it was time to call it a night. We drove to a Walmart and parked up to sleep around 3am.

Day 7 - 10/23/15 (Western Festival & New Dog):

We actually woke up around 10:30am today, about half an hour before our usual time. We got cleaned up inside Walmart and then spent about $1.75 or so of our gift card value getting some yogurt, yogurt drink things, and bananas so we could have breakfast in the car. For an example of a typical road trip meal for us: We'd brought tuna, mayo packets, a can opener, utensils, bread, and cranberry juice from Vegas. We bought yogurt, bananas (on sale), and yogurt drink from Walmart. Breakfast served!

It was time to use our second to last Groupon deal then:

Wild Western Festival (at Sahuaro Ranch Park)
9802 N 59th Ave
Glendale, AZ

The festival was one of the two events that caused this entire trip to happen yet, oddly enough, it ended up being our least favorite of the Groupon deals we'd booked. It was fun and cool to see and everyone was friendly but everything there just felt like a desperate, nonstop attempt to dig in our pockets. We'd already paid admission yet almost every attraction in the place was trying to sell us something. There was very little by way of free (well, included with the admission fee) entertainment and nearly everything seemed to have a catch. There were some fun contests but they'd all ended for the day by the time we arrived around noon. There were some funny live shows like a comedy magician and some skits. There were some musicians as well. Each was cool for a couple of minutes but in a place like that you want more. We got to do panning for fake gold (glass pieces and other materials painted gold) for free. That was cool. Got to pet some horses and chase some peacocks too. There were some Western movie and TV show stars there but we'd never heard of any of them. There were various booths with souvenirs or food to buy. Not a whole lot to the place in total though. The park itself was nice and we were still really happy to have seen it but after maybe 45 minutes we'd had our fill of the place.

Our last Groupon was for the race in Salt Lake City the following day. We decided to start driving up then so we'd have plenty of time to stop for anything interesting we found on the way. Besides, it was a long drive.

It wasn't too long before we spotted a rest area and pulled off. There was a great view from there and it was a perfect chance to get really clean too! They had a water pump, I guess it's called, there. We used it to wash and felt sooo nice and fresh afterward! We got a lot of weird looks but most people kinda just laughed and a few people even complimented with things like, "You kids know how to do it!" Once clean, we used some outlets there to plug in a single-cup coffee maker I'd brought on the trip to heat some water and make some noodle bowls. A lady who was hired to keep the rest area clean approached us then. She said the water we'd used to bathe in was great for bathing but warned us that only the water in the drinking fountains was drinkable in case we were planning to consume any. Then she asked us about a bag of food she'd found. She asked if it was ours and when we said it wasn't she asked if we'd like it. Apparently someone had left it behind and there was a lot of good and pricey food inside. I was hesitant at first but finally took it. Definitely didn't want it to get thrown away and it did look delicious! So thoughtful and sweet of her! So we made our noodle bowls with turkey and cheese added and had a feast with tons of goodies, including turkey sandwiches, for later!

A little further on, we stopped off to see a casino just off the freeway:

Cliff Castle Casino Hotel
555 W Middle Verde Rd
Camp Verde, AZ

Inside, one of the first things we found was a little arcade. More excitingly, there was a PIU Fiesta EX in an FX cabinet in it! Wow!! We hadn't been expecting that. Well, we wanted to save the best for last so we looked around the small to medium sized casino, signed up for their players club, used the $5 of free play we each got for signing up to earn a profit of $8.75, got free sodas from casino attendants with drink carts, and finally went back to try PIU! There was a Kids Quest across from the arcade too but no dance games inside except a soft mat we thought we spotted. As for PIU, we had to get a game card to play it but game cards were free. The game itself was $1.50/3 songs. We loaded $3 on a card and traded off songs. The machine was in pretty good condition, a little screen burn, usbs didn't work, decent pads, volume was alright but could've been a little higher. Still, can't complain about finding a dance game as good as that in that remote of a place!

It was just after 5pm when we got into Flagstaff. Sean got pulled over for speeding then but the cop was super nice and let him off with a warning. He said something like, "It's actually 65 here so as long as you go under 75 you're okay. If you're going 75 to 85, an officer will probably pull you over. Over 85, it's a misdemeanor." Sean was going 87. XD

We couldn't remember whether we'd driven this whole route or not before but we'd done at least parts of it. We passed some cool places on the way but didn't stop til we got to a gas station called Express in some place called Gap. We got some $1 Knockout brand energy drinks there that actually ended up being good. There was a dog wandering around outside the gas station and she followed us back to our car. We offered her food and she scarfed it right down. She seemed hungry and she was so cute! We asked the gas station attendants about her and they said she was a stray. Feeling bad for her and unsure what to do, we picked her up and took her with us!!

It was around 8:30pm (well, 9:30pm local time as the time zone changed from MST to MDT at the border) when we finally got into Utah and about an hour later when we reached a cool looking town called Kanab. Most things there seemed closed at the time so we didn't stop but I made a mental note to check it out some other time if we had the chance.

We came up to Mt Carmel, Orderville, and Glendale just after that followed by Hatch and Panguitch bit later. All were very rural and super cute. I really wanted to pull over for a look but everything was closed for the night so, except for a quick stop to get a little middle-of-nowhere-priced gas, I'd have to wait for another time.

Panguitch was the cutest of the towns we passed through with a typical old downtown area we DEFINITELY had to go back and check out sometime. As we were driving through and admiring the place though (driving totally normally, responsibly, safely, etc), we got pulled over by ANOTHER nice cop who let us off with a warning, this time for having green lights illuminating our rear license plate. Apparently that's illegal in Utah. I didn't even notice I had the lights or that they didn't come stock because I'd bought the car that way maybe 6 years prior and had never heard mention of them before. Oh well! Cop said not to actually bother removing them, at least not this trip, but that he had to stop me to let me know.

We saw quite a few deer near and crossing the road in the area. Had to be a little more cautious than normal.

At 12:45am local time, we got onto the I-15 and into the first 80mph speed limit zone of the trip!

Just after that was Beaver, UT where we pulled into a Shell station to use restrooms and borrow an outlet we spotted outside to make ourselves tea and coffee with my mini coffee maker!

Around 2am local time, we saw a Chevron with their own rest area and pulled off to check gas prices. Too high to be worth it but a mile off the same exit was something called Cove Fort. We went for a quick look but it was too dark for pictures and was closed anyway. Maybe we'll stop in there too next time we're passing through.

We got more gas in Fillmore, UT at a Texaco. Cheapest price we'd seen in a very long time, though still a lot more than in Phoenix.

Though we'd had temporary satisfaction the other day, I hadn't sat on Sean's sausage once so far this trip. I'd been trying to be patient and wait for either a good time or til we were back in Vegas. At this point though, I finally couldn't take it anymore. I pulled over and climbed aboard for some much needed mutual relief!

We'd been really wanting to call it a night for some time when we finally reached a place called Payson. We'd chosen to stop there for the night because it was the first place for hundreds of miles that had a Walmart and after some careful thought we realized Walmart would be the ideal final destination for the night as it was probably the only place we could get some dog supplies in the middle of the night AND we needed a place to sleep.

It was 4:30am or so local time when we got there. We went in to buy a collar and rope to walk the dog and a dog bowl and a can of food so we could feed her and give her water. We wouldn't normally have been so seemingly frivolous with our purchases and would've improvised more instead but we actually needed both the dog dish to replace one of ours that'd recently broken and the rope to keep in the car (hence the reason we got it instead of an actual leash for the dog, which we already had back in Vegas). Besides, we paid for it all using the gift cards we'd gotten free from Ebates!

Inside this Walmart, as with many others we'd seen this trip, there was an arcade. We'd had a peek in each one we'd spotted, actually, but no music games to be found so far. Outside this Walmart, there were a lot of people parked up to sleep for the night, including quite a few in RVs. Definitely made us feel less out of place! We parked near some of the RVs to spend the night and then fed the dog, walked her, inspected her for ticks (which we then cleaned off of her), and finally got both her and us ready for bed at 6am.

Day 8 - 10/24/15 (Haunted Hustle 5k):

I'd REALLY wanted to sleep in but at 11:30am we woke up to a dog wriggling around in the backseat. She was definitely one of the most calm, quiet dogs we'd ever seen but dogs have needs. We walked her around for a bit, went across the street to 7 Eleven, used more fair coupons to get 2 free hot dogs, topped the hot dogs with chili and cheese (still free at this 7 Eleven!), got a bunch of extra chili and cheese for doggy, added some bread we had to the extra chili and cheese, and fed doggy.

Sean's phone charger broke then and after a quick search we found that there were no 99 Cent Stores within about 5 hours. We didn't want to spend the day looking for a phone charger so we spent about $10 on one from Walmart but kept the receipt so we could return it once we got back to Vegas and replaced it with a cheaper one.

Continuing towards Salt Lake, we took a short break at an Ikea on the way to re-caffeinate with free tea and coffee.

Then I worked on making our costumes from the supplies we'd bought the other day as Sean drove us the rest of the way to the Haunted Hustle 5k fun run in Salt Lake to use our last Groupon!

The race was at a really pretty park:

Sugar House Park
1400 East, 2100 South
Salt Lake City, UT

When we arrived, Sean took the dog out for bit while I finished up the costumes. We had to leave briefly to borrow a stapler from a nearby store but it wasn't long before we were back at the race and ready to run! We'd wanted to take the dog with us for the race but she wasn't great on a leash just yet and was a bid skiddish when people were running behind her, around other dogs, in noisy environments, etc. Instead, Sean and I left the dog in the car (don't worry, the weather was great and windows were cracked for her!), wished each other good luck, ran the race separately, and went back for the dog at the end.

The race was technically an untimed fun run with gimmicks like a tiny maze and tunnels where costumed characters chase you and try to steal a flag (actually a bit of caution tape) that you're given at the start. I was feeling fat from the trip though so I decided to actually try and get a good workout. It took a bit of the fun out of it for me but at the time the exercise was more important to me. Despite my efforts, however, I still wound up getting a crappy time. I'm not great at distance running but I didn't expect to do that poorly. Maybe it was due to the costume I was wearing over my normal clothes, the extra stuff I was carrying with me, the roadtrip diet, a week's worth of broken car sleep, not getting nearly enough sleep the night before, having to dodge pursuers and countless walkers while making my way through the course, the fact that the course was just a bit longer than a 5k, the fact that there was a hard hill we had to do twice (2 lap race), and/or any other number of things but when it came down to it I really just sucked. Haha Oh well! I still wound up breaking a sweat and getting rewarded with a finisher's medal, an event shirt, stickers, water, and candies!

Sean was there waiting for me as I approached the finish line and he ran the very last bit with me again as I finished up. Then he and I went to get the dog from the car so she could hang out with us at the event for awhile. While getting the dog, we accidentally missed the costume contest they were having but we didn't think we would've won anyway. Nevertheless, we got a handful of compliments on our extremely simple costumes, which were some of the most basic ones I'd ever made, and that alone made it worth the effort!

Done with the race, we were FINALLY ready to start heading home to Vegas. We pulled into a nearby gas station called Mowhawk and filled up the tank and our big gas can as well. Though gas was slightly cheaper just north of where we were, it wasn't worth the drive for the minor price difference and this would be the cheapest gas price we'd see for the remainder of the trip. Much cheaper than back in Vegas too! Inside Mowhawk, we found a few other good deals as well including one I had to take advantage of: cans of Starbucks coffee drinks for $0.89 each!

Down the street, we went in a 7 Eleven we saw to use more fair coupons we had to get 2 free slices of pizza. We got a $1 bag of chips too.

One of the exits we'd stopped off earlier in the day had caught our eye. We'd seen a field with watermelons growing in it near the road and had made a note to return. On the way back down, we pulled off and grabbed ourselves a watermelon just to say we'd picked one ourselves (and obviously so we could eat some tasty watermelon later)!

Across the street from the field was 7 Eleven again. We STILL had more fair coupons so we went in and got a free tea for Sean and a free slurpee for me.

While driving down the I-15 towards home, we had a thought: maybe it was finally time to visit Zion National Park. I could be wrong but I think doing so would add about 55 miles or so onto our trip and would cost a bit extra not only in time and gas but also probably for park admission. We'd never been though and what better time? So we detoured for Zion, exiting the I-15 and heading back east on the route we'd taken on the way up from Glendale, AZ.

At 1:43am local time, we were in Panguitch again. The other towns between there and til Mt Carmel followed but it was once again too late at night to find much reason for stopping.

Mt Carmel was where the route changed up. Near the gas station we'd gotten gas at on the way up was the turn for Zion. We took a right there and drove 12 or so miles to get to the park's east entrance. On the way, at least a dozen more deer came awfully near or crossed paths with us. We'd already seen several through the night but there were lots more coming out near the road now, 1 to 3 at a time. One even came darting towards us like it was looking to headbutt the car! We got away though.

Just before the park entrance was a campground called Zion RV & Campground. I needed to use the restroom and it was the most likely place with one nearby so we checked it out and not only found a place I could poo but freely accessible showers and a rec and laundry room that. Someone had even left some change that they apparently didn't want and a bag of Jolly Ranchers there as well! We took the change, of course, but only took a few Jolly Ranchers. Hey, we're not THAT greedy! :p

At Zion's east entrance, there was no one at the gate when we pulled up so we drove in free and parked at a lookout just past the entrance to sleep and wait for the sun to come up.

Day 9 - 10/25/15 (Zion National Park):

It was about 4am local time when we went to sleep and just before noon when we got up again. We had a look around the area we'd slept at (in view of Checkerboard Mesa) and at various other spots as we drove through the park, pulling aside here and there to snap some pics or get a vid. There was a scenic loop that went through a huge portion of the park but that only shuttle buses were allowed on. We wanted to go for a look and the shuttle buses were free but we had to get home so we chose to save it for next time. This time, we were happy to just to be able to say we'd finally been to Zion! So many breathtaking views! On the way out the west side of the park, we checked out the visitors center there. Then we continued on towards home.

At Zion's west entrance/exit was a town called Springdale. There was some stuff to see there, worth looking at another time. Rockville, with a population of 247, was just after that. We stopped at yard sale there and left with a couple of little toys to repurpose and sell on Etsy.

We came up to a place called Virgin slightly onward. They had some cool-looking gift shops and cafes and such there. We stopped at the last one for a look around and then used an outlet there to make more tea and coffee. Short on cups, we decided to reuse a nut can for my coffee. Lol

La Verkin and Hurricane were next. Some stuff there. Nothing we felt like pulling over for at the time.

In St. George, we saw a sign mentioning an directing the way to some dinosaur tracks. We got off the freeway and drove a couple of miles for a look but what we were led to was a dinosaur museum that would've been cool to visit but that wasn't open at the time, being a Sunday, and nothing significant was visible from outside.

Less disappointingly, a family fun center in town that'd been closed for the night when we'd tried to visit sometime within the past few years was open this time!

Fiesta Fun Family Fun Center
171 E 1160 S
St George, UT

They'd moved to a building just behind their former main building but had kept the same mini golf area, located between the two buildings. Finally, we were able to go in for a look! Inside, we found a PIU Exceed machine with super wobbly bars. The machine was kinda alright and was only $0.50/credit but couldn't play anything hard on it and kept failing. Lol Also, the short timer on old PIU always sucks. They'd mentioned this PIU machine to us when they were closing our first and only visit before but this was our first time going in either building, seeing it, and finding out which mix it was. Additionally, they now had a Grand Piano Keys machine. We found some tickets in the arcade, used them to get ourselves candy, and got, back on the road.

The sun was setting as we approached Vegas. We stopped at a Pilot gas station for gas (cheapest around at $2.55/gallon for 87) on the way into town.

Once home again, we had a lot of bathing, eating, new dog introducing, sexing, movie watching, and sleeping to do. I think it was at least half a day later when we were finally up again and ready to get back into the swing of things at home.

My Birthday 2015

It's just about impossible for me to keep up with posting about every damn thing I do so I'll summarize the bits I haven't typed up yet:

We found out NKOTB would be performing at Mandalay Bay in Vegas again one week before my birthday and TLC and Nelly would be headlining for them! No question about it; we HAD to go! We checked Craigslist way in advance and were able to get our hands on tickets for $30 each, I believe it was. Finally,  5/1/15 rolled around and it was concert time! The traffic on the way was insane though so we missed a lot of Nelly's performance. Luckily, he was on stage for quite awhile so when we finally got to our seats there was still plenty of time to hear him perform some of his hits. We were a little disappointed that he pretty much yelled every one of his songs, rather than singing them, but still...it was Nelly! I'd never expected to see him in person. Wow. After Nelly, TLC (well, the remaining two members) came on. It was our first time seeing them live too. Couldn't believe we got to hear No Scrubs live. Of course, we had to sing along! Finally, NKOTB made their appearance. Omg.... They were SOOOO good! No matter how many times we see them I really just never get enough!! We sang along to just about every song they performed and by the end of the night I could hardly talk let alone hear. Worth it!! All in all, the concert lasted about 4.5 hours. Best use of $60 or so and definitely the best early birthday present ever!

Throughout the weeks before and around my birthday, various primarily food-related businesses sent me birthday coupons to use, usually for a free menu item at their restaurant. We used SO MANY and got SO MUCH free food! I gave up on keeping track of all of it but the birthday coupons we redeemed for free food included these: IHOP meal, El Pollo Loco tostada, Baskin Robbins ice cream scoop, Del taco milkshake, another El Pollo loco tostada, Coco's Bakery pie slice, Jamba Juice smoothie, Auntie Anne's pretzel, Red Mango frozen yogurt, Cane's drink, another IHOP meal, another Baskin Robbins ice cream scoop, Buffalo Wild Wings snack size boneless wings, Schlotzky's small sandwich, Ruby Tuesday's burger, Gameworks meal (and 4 game cards for myself and the 3 friends I'd brought with me: Sean, Danny, and Ryan), and more!

One day, we redeemed 3 deals in one spot! We went to the Excalibur and used coupons to get an Auntie Anne's free bday pretzel, Krispy Kreme free bday soda and donut, and Tropical Smoothie free bday smoothie. Afterwards, Sean played a credit of PIU, I played a credit of DDR, and we played a couple of other fun games together.

5/8/15 - My Birthday!:

I couldn't sleep much and woke up at like 1:20am but I got an awesome start to my birthday! I spent just over an hour longer cuddling up to Sean and trying to sleep. Omg..His amazing body felt so incredible snuggled up to mine! I finally gave up on sleep though and decided to open presents! Sean's mom had sent me a super yummy, fun birthday package and card and I still had the cheesecake we'd gotten from Coco's the day before so we opened gifts and pigged out while watching The Simpsons. Then Sean spent about 30 minutes working while I mended an old pair of pants. Not sure why but I really wanted to spend my time that way. Next, Sean ran a candlelit bubble bath while we listened to ITG songs. Lol Finally, a little before 6am, we had a quick shot of some peppermint alcohol and we were ready to head out!

Our neighbors had left some cool furniture and stuff outside their houses so we scooped that up quickly. Then we drove down to Denny's to get my first free grand slam of the day to share!

Denny's was yummy and didn't take long at all. Most places were still closed when we finished eating but we went to Walmart to get 151, wine, and car oil. Dunkin Donuts was just down the street so we used a voucher we had to get Sean a free tea. We did some grocery shopping at Smith's after that and went home to drop things off.

At home, we had a little wine and did some house work and other work but around 10am it was time to head back out. We went to Goodwill first to donate some things and use the vouchers we got from donating to get some new things we found there.

We drove towards the Boulevard Mall after that, stopping at Baja Fresh on the way to use a birthday coupon they'd sent me for a free burrito with purchase of a large drink. They even gave us free chips with our order and the burrito was delicious!

I was already pretty full when we got to the mall so I couldn't use most of my vouchers for food and drink places there but I did get a delicious, free Mochalatta birthday drink from Cinnabon. SOOOO yummy! Birthdays are very tasty. Lol

Right by Cinnabon was a little kiosk for a dental office. They had some really good prices and were very willing to work with us so we booked dental appointments with them for the following week and they sent us away with goody bags full of snacks and toothbrushes!

After that, we walked to the arcade and played a credit together on DDR.

Leaving the mall, we saw a thrift store across the street that we hadn't visited in awhile. We stopped in briefly and found a couple of bits to buy from the super cool owner there.

We tried to go to Circus Circus to ride their El Loco rollercoaster but the area was way too busy due to the RockinRio event that was going on so we bailed on that and headed up to the northwest side of town with the top down on the car listening to NKOTB, including their song Happy Birthday To You, all the way!

We were going to a 3pm ice skating session at the Fiesta Rancho casino but we had a couple of hours to kill til then so we drove up Rancho a bit to find something to do. We found a Savers and a 99 Cent Store so we went to wander around. We stopped in a pawn shop there too but didn't buy anything.

Feeling sleepy then, we got a $1.07 energy drink refill from Rebel across the street.

We saw an army surplus store and went in to look around but everything was brand new and ridiculously expensive.

Then we saw a Wienerschnitzel/Subway combo. Weird! Sean had a coupon for a free chili dog at Wienerschnitzel so we went in and got it to share. Not sure we were even hungry but can't pass up a chili dog!

Finally, it was 3pm and we made our way over to Fiesta Rancho for ice skating! We'd gotten the best Groupon deal ever so it was practically free for us to skate for as long as we wanted between 3 and 6pm but we had more than enough fun in half the time. We totally sucked and Sean's ankles ended up really sore from it but it was way more fun and funny than we'd expected. Best of all, there were only a few other people on the ice so we had plenty of room to goof off!

Afterward, we had a peek in the small, music-game-free arcade in the ice rink area. Then we went to the other arcade just outside the arena and played a credit together on their DDR Extreme! Pads weren't completely perfect but they were very good. :)

After DDR, we went to one of the casino bars for dollar margaritas which we took into the Denny's there so I could get another birthday Grand Slam. So many birthday deals! They even brought us an extra side of free pancakes with our meal!

Having been up for so long and having not gotten much sleep to begin with, we were feeling very tired then. We'd bought hour passes for 9-10pm for the lights-off thing they do Friday and Saturday nights at an indoor air sports (trampolines, foam pits, etc.) place called Gravady. It was only 6pm at the time though so we decided to use the spare hours to get a nap in. We drove to a park 1 or 2 minutes from Gravady, rolled a blanket and some pillows out on the grass, and cuddled up for a nap. It was a cold day and getting colder as it got later so we knew we couldn't stay out there for too long but once it got too cold we went back to the car and cuddled in the passenger's seat instead.

At 8:40pm, we finally got up again and drove over to Gravady. Ryan, Danny, Avery, Naomi, Morgan, and two of their friends who we hadn't met before met us there. The time slot we'd booked there was for 15y/o's and up only but there were a lot of teens there and even the people in our group were mostly pretty young. It didn't matter much though. We just minded our own business and had a great time getting sore and bruised up! When we'd first planned the night, we thought we were just going to a regular trampoline place so we were pleasantly surprised to find all the other treats waiting for us inside when we arrived! We tried just about everything in the place from slackline walking to cargo net climbing to foam pit jumping.. The hour seemed to go kinda fast but only because we had so much fun!

Once we were done at Gravady, the younger half of our group had to leave but Ryan, Danny, Sean, and I drove 0.8 miles, I believe it was, to our final Denny's of the day on Lake Mead and Tenaya. I didn't realize til we arrived but it was in the same shopping center as the Laser Quest I'd found the 4th Mix machine in 8 years ago and the Chuck E. Cheese's with Guitar Hero next door! Both were still open when we arrived so we decided to have a peek in each before going to eat. I think I'd either called or revisited quite awhile back to check whether the 4th Mix was still at Laser Quest and had discovered that it wasn't so I wasn't surprised when I arrived and they didn't have any dance games but at least I got to show everyone where it used to be. I asked an employee there what had happened to it. He said he didn't know where it'd ended up but that they'd taken it out because it kept breaking. Sad times. Next door, however, in the Chuck E. Cheese's that never used to have music games other than Guitar Hero (assuming I remember correctly), we found something a bit different: a Chuck E. Cheese branded Pump Jump machine! It was just like regular Pump Jump but I guess Andamiro had made a few design changes for Chuck E. Cheese's including putting their mascot (the mouse)'s head on the header area and putting the Chuck E. Cheese's characters on the start screen. Cool! There was a credit left in when we arrived so Sean and I shared the one song that a credit gave and tried it out. It really was just Pump Jump with a Chuck E. Cheese's mouse on it. Lol

Back on track, we got into Denny's a little before 11pm and had a fun meal chatting and goofing off for nearly an hour. I got my 3rd and final free Grand Slam of the day to share with Sean and the other guys got lots of random foods. Then we said goodnight and headed home.

Back home, Ryan and Danny went to their rooms, maybe to sleep, but Sean and I stayed up for a couple more hours snacking, sipping rum and other fun drinks, enjoying a warm bath to relax our achy leg muscles, and cuddling up to watch The Matrix. Then Sean spoiled me in bed with his tongue and sexed me up so good I practically melted afterwards and passed straight out in his arms. After a few minutes, he woke me up sweetly so we could brush teeth and wash up for the night and then we climbed back into bed together and he held me all night while we caught up on some much needed rest. Such a wonderful end to such a perfect birthday!!

5/9/15 - Party Day!

Sean and I spent the day cleaning and prepping the house for my birthday party but when 8pm rolled around it was time to put the work down, greet people, and start getting crazy! It didn't take me long to start on the shots and get the night going so most of the details on what all went on after that are a bit hazy but I know I drank A LOT; played a few songs on ITG including birthday charts made for me by Danny, Fox, and Stevie (thank you!!!!!), jumped in our partially filled pool we'd just cleaned out earlier the same day fully clothed; went skinny dipping with Sean, Afro, and Steven Eckhouse, maybe others? (though I think they actually might've kept their boxers on, I can't rember!) later; BBQ'd some hot dogs to share with everyone; made some Caribou Lou (151, Malibu, and pineapple) to share with Sean and mayyyybe others?; smoked hookah with everyone; fell down like 4 times including unintentionally back flipping off the DDR Solo machine's bar when all I was trying to do was sit on it; and got dropped on my back on the pool stairs which were not yet covered with water (OUCH!). All in all an awesome night! Lol Jesse brought his dj equipment for the party and got people dancing. I'd made a red velvet cake before the party and tried to get it out and eat it discreetly but somehow everyone caught on, grabbed the cake from me, and sang Happy Birthday to me before I could dig in. Sean even brought sparklers down to use as birthday candles in the cake! It was hard to tell exactly how many people showed up to the party and the number definitely wasn't what it would've been years ago but I think there were at least around 30 guests. Unfortunately, I eventually got too drunk and had to abandon my own party. Sean told me that I passed out in a chair briefly with someone hugging on my legs, then I apparently made my way onto the stairs where I passed out again, and finally I was escorted to my room by Steven Eckhouse. There, I spent a good while puking in the trash can. I wanted Sean with me but Steven stayed there with me instead. He promised to take care of me and helped me to puke in the trash but never went to get Sean. After awhile, however, Sean noticed my absence and came upstairs looking for me. He found me almost unconscious on the bed, completely wasted, looking like I was about to get raped! Steven left the room then and I had Sean send everyone home. I was done!

5/10/14 - Hangover Day:

It was so hard getting out of bed today. I was reeeally hungover but guess it was to be expected. Worth it anyway!

When I finally did get up, I found Josh/Nova and Arthur asleep downstairs. Sean and I spent most of our day hanging with them, chatting and looking at songs on ITG. We played a few songs but almost exclusively just sat and watched the arrows scroll by. Lol

When we were all awake and recovered enough to leave the house, we went to IHOP to get some food. Ryan and Danny were in and out of the house but didn't join us for IHOP. It was Mother's Day so Danny was hanging with his family and Ryan was doing his own thing. Because it was Mother's Day, IHOP was pretty busy with families eating together to celebrate. Arthur and Josh are two of the loudest people I know though, Josh is one of the most vulgar, and we were all a mess so we almost got kicked out of the restaurant several times during our meal. Lol It was too ridiculous!

I don't remember a lot of the rest of the day, aside from just sitting at home in front of ITG and watching arrows scroll by, but at some point Arthur left. Josh stayed and hung out with us for a long while, which was a lot of fun, and at some point Sean and I ended up watching the Matrix and eating Golden China. Perfect way to wind down from a great birthday!