Bozeman, MT

After another all day/all night champion driving sesh by Team Zinger we find ourselves in Montana at long last. Our fabulous host Holly Mumford had an amazing drink concoction called a Moscow Mule waiting for us as soon as we arrived (which again turned out to be close to midnight). We crashed on the couch shortly after that but not before meeting Dan, Holly's boyfriend and neighbor (how convenient!). Dan, as luck would have it, is an awesome chef at a restaurant downtown so the next morning we went down for brunch. Ceviche and flatbread with mimosas! A great way to start our Montana adventure!

Back at Holly's we got a daylight tour of the surroundings and met the rest of the neighbors, Dillon and Derek and got ready for the cookout/volleyball tournament that was scheduled for the evening. Holly and her neighbors share an awesome little yard that includes a garden, a garage/workshop where people make glass art, build guitars and wooden drums, paint, and make full scale dinosaur skeleton replicas (no joke- the guy's name is Dino Mike and he drives a car that's license plate says T-Rex!). There's also a sand pit volleyball court, a bonfire area complete with a smoker grill and even a stream!

Holly's puppy Jockomo got most of the attention during the afternoon. He's less than a year old but already knows some good tricks and is shaping up to be a true key player! Holly's friends Chris and Courtney showed up and we had some epic volleyball!

Today Holly and Dan both had to work. We got the van all cleaned out and organized and got ingredients to make a stir fry. The next couple of days are going to be good ones!

Salt Lake City, UT: Partyin' with Chuck

Fear not world, the Zinger is alive and well! The guys over at the Foreign Aid did an amazing job and we simply can't thank them enough! After a hug and some reorganizing we were back on the road headed several hundred miles to Salt Lake City to party with Chuck Mumford, fellow Vermonter, extreme skier, and founder/CEO of Pit Viper Sunglasses (.com). Our adventure was back on!

Utah was one hot desert. And while we were happy to have the van back it took a bit of getting used to. Our rental car(s) had spoiled us a little. We were now going 20 mph slower, with the noisy wind whipping in through the open windows, no AC, and back to getting blown all over the road being passed by everyone and their grandmother. We were however pleasantly surprised to find that our new used engine took us up the highway hills at 40 mph not 35. Yeah that's right! Wanna race!?

We were scheduled to meet Chuck at a party up in the mountains of Park City and we drove all day and into the night. The van drove like a champ, somehow some way making it up some of the longest and steepest hills of our entire journey. We got lost a few times and had to continuously coordinate with Chuck for accurate directions. Up at 9,000 ft the Zinger was having a hard time breathing the thin mountain air and we almost thought we weren't going to make it. We eventually navigated some dirt roads in the woods and found ourselves at an epic mountain house rager! It was almost midnight at this point but the party turned out to be worth the wait. We met up with Chuck, met a bunch of other Vermonters and even ran into Ned, an old friend from Burlington! There was a bonfire and an awesome band playing. And come to find out one of the owners of the house (and guitar player in the band) was none other than our friend Max whom we had met in Massachusetts. He was Christy's (White Barn Farm) cousin! Talk about small world!

In Utah beers are only 3.2% alcohol (or something like that, we heard several stories) and we were party favorites with our growler of IPA from Colorado and our 'full power' Budweisers! We, along with Max and Chuck, were the last to go to bed at 3:15 in the morning and when we awoke we got to see our beautiful surroundings in the daylight. The mountains of Utah are gorgeous!

The van was slow to wake up but we eventually made it back down to the SLC, driving past endless bikers, Mormons and outdoor enthusiasts.

We got an exclusive tour from Chuck of the Pit Viper warehouse/office/factory and he assembled a new pair for us on the spot! We then took a ride in his new '86 Mustang to an awesome Mexican food spot to get some burritos and chimichangas to fuel up for the next leg of our journey. 

We're now cruising through Idaho en route to Bozeman, Montana to spend some quality time with Holly, the other Mumford. We won't get there til late tonight but we'll be hanging out in Big Sky Country for the next few days. Onwards!

Castle Rock, CO: Casa De Riner

We arrived in Castle Rock Monday night and now that we're about to leave we can safely say the past 3 days have flown by!  Hanging out with Jim, Betsy, Andrew, and Kyle is always a blast (Erin is in Nicaragua but we'll see her in August at the Lake Ontario family reunion).  In our short time here we've played lacrosse, basketball, pool, Nintendo Wii... GOLF!  We made burgers, filled our growler up with beer, ordered buffalo wings, watched hockey, ate ELK STEAKS, watched more hockey. We even found time to do some house cleaning and plant a bunch of flowers!  We also drove 3 new vehicles and even though they weren't rentals we'll just go ahead and call them rental cars #5, 6, and 7.

A Kim and Andrew creation!

Both Andrew and Kyle are currently attending golf clinics and somehow someone jokingly suggested that we should all go golfing.  When Betsy informed us that she had a group coupon for 9 holes of golf (with carts included!) it was settled- we would go golfing!  Kyle was already booked doing something else (who knows maybe it was golf clinic) but luckily Andrew had a friend who was also named Kyle so we invited him to stand in.  For Kim, this would be her first time playing anything other than miniature golf (which she claimed she was pretty good at).  Curt had been a few times but not in several years and he was accustomed to a rule that allowed players once per hole to throw the ball instead of hitting it with a club.  Andrew and Kyle had been recently learning about golf but had never stepped foot on a real course.  This was going to be fun!  We all drove out to the local course in Betsy's Audi (car #5) and split a bucket of balls at the driving range for practice.  The driving range had 2 floors which was pretty exciting in itself and a sign of good things to come.  For either not knowing much about golf, or having never played, or having not played in a while, everyone did really good!  No one made par on any of the holes but we all had some pretty good shots.  Curt chipped one in on the very first hole.  On one hole Kim made it onto the green in one shot.  Andrew hit a few that went so far we couldn't even see where they landed.  And Kyle only lost his ball twice and didn't hit a single car!  After our awesome round we had some beers and buffalo wings (no beers for the kids but Curt would go on to consume more wings later that day).

Get ready to golf!

Car #6 was Jim's Chevy Tahoe, which we drove (with a trailer) back to the house from Home Depot.  We brought back a work bench table and an assortment of plants that we put in pots on Jim and Betsy's deck.  It was a fun project and was the first time we got to get our hands in the dirt since leaving the Bug.  Lucky car #7 was a sleek and superfast Audi A7 that Jim had on loan.  We took it into town to pick Andrew up from Tae Kwon Do and we can definitely say this is the best car we've driven on this trip if not ever (the Zinger is not a car, it's a van- totally different).

Tomorrow we head back to Grand Junction to pick up our revitalized van.  Rental cars no more!  It's been fun driving so many different cars but we'll be happy to be back in our home.  Once we reunite with the Zinger we're immediately on the road again, heading northwest to Salt Lake City to spend a night with extreme skiing hero Chuck Mumford.  Hopefully Franken-Zinger is up for the task!  By Saturday night we aim to be even further north, in the great state of Montana where we'll stay with Holly Mumford (Chuck's sister and our good friend) til we have to head back to California for the High Sierra Music Festival.  Looks like our unplanned Colorado vacation is about to end and it's back to business as unusual!  See some more pictures riiiight here...

Boulder, CO

Well it's been a few days since our last post so you know that means we've been busy having fun!  We finally got a rental car on Friday that could take us to Boulder, a black Mazda 2 (zoom, zoom).  Our 4th rental in the past week, this one was pretty fun to drive.  And at 40 mpg and only $20/day we couldn't be happier!

Curt and our latest (and hopefully our last) rental car.

We made our way out to Boulder to visit our friend Caleb.  Him, his girlfriend Maggie and his cousin Dave have an AWESOME apartment that we stayed at Friday night til Monday.  Friday night we celebrated our long awaited arrival with PBRs and the biggest pizza we've ever seen (2 full feet in diameter!)

Caleb and Kim

The next day Caleb and Maggie had a wedding to go to so we killed some time by hiking around the Flatiron mountains area.  It was a beautiful day, 80˚ and overcast which was much appreciated after the several days of 100˚ sunny weather in Grand Junction.

The Boulder Flatirons

We hit up the grocery store on the way back and Kim got to do some cooking.  It seems like we haven't cooked much food in quite some time which is very odd for us as we both love to cook.  Having a full kitchen to use was like heaven!  Saturday night we watched game 2 of the Stanley Cup finals.  The game ended up going into overtime so after the 3rd period we caught a bus and went to a bar downtown to finish the game.  The Bruins were scoring the winning goal just as we walked in.  Oh well. With that out of the way it was time to celebrate Dave's birthday and dance to a really good band.

Maggie, Caleb and us @ The Lazy Dog!

We witnessed an awesome thunder storm from the roof of the bar and experienced downtown Pearl St. - designed by the same dude that created Church St. in Burlington!  It was a bit surreal, we thought we had seen a place in Aspen that reminded us of Church St. but this Pearl St. was almost a mirror image!

Pear St., Boulder.  Feels like home!

After a fun night on the town everyone was taking it easy the next day and/or calling out of work...  We  drove up to Denver to see Kim's cousin Kyle play in a lacrosse tournament (he's such a little lax bro! Go KYLE!) and then returned to Boulder to be lazy and watch movies.  Caleb and Maggie somehow found the energy to go mountain bike riding.  After a relaxing night we hit the road and are now in Castle Rock, CO, staying with Kim's aunt and uncle.  We'll be here til the van gets fixed which should be either Wednesday or Thursday.  The fun never stops here in Colorado, we've only been here in Castle Rock for a few hours and we've already gotten a lacrosse lesson from Kyle, a tutorial in Google Earth flight simulator from Andrew, and Betsy is encouraging us to go golfing!  Kim even went on a 3 mile run!  We've put some of our pictures from our Coloradoing adventures on Facebook.  Check em' out!

Grand Junction, CO: Yeah We're Still Here... Ugh

As many of you may know there are currently several devastating wildfires ravaging the state. They've been called the most destructive in Colorado's history. And while this is certainly quite the issue, we've uncovered yet another problem facing the Rocky Mountain State- a lack of rental cars! A shortage of rental cars that is causing the state to come to a grinding halt and is forcing these two blog writers to spend yet another night in the Grand Junction Mesa Inn.

This morning we checked out of the Mesa Inn Hotel (yes, the same one we are currently checked into) and tried to get a rental car that we could drive to Boulder. Our rental company of choice, Enterprise, said they were waiting on upwards of 15 cars to come back later in the day. Well as it turns out they didn't come back. Luckily Steve let us hang on to his old Mercedes and we took it to the nearby Kannah Creek Brewing Company to sample their wares, call every other rental car company in town, and get the Zinger a 'get well soon' sticker to show our support. Everything went smoothly except the rental car situation. The only thing we could find was an SUV for $1,000 a week. No thank you.

We looked for Craigslist ride share options and even asked Steve if we could take the Mercedes to Boulder. He said no, but that was ok, we knew it was a long shot and he ended up letting us keep it for the night to get back to the hotel so that was cool. And with all our options exhausted we headed back to the Mesa Inn to book one more night. We ended up with a room right next to our old room only the layout was reversed. It feels like bizzaro world! One more night of TV watching and then hopefully Enterprise will have something for us tomorrow. Fingers crossed as per usual. 

Grand Junction, CO: Light at the End of the Tunnel

Our saga with the Zinger has finally reached a conclusion, although we're not fully in the clear just yet. Steve came back with a report on our VW organ donor, a 1988 Vanagon that he had in the back of his lot. It passed the engine compression test with flying colors, seemed to run ok for having just been fired up for the first time in a few years and the transmission appears to be in good shape (much better shape than our old one at least). And while it might not have the guarantees of a rebuilt transmission, at this point we'll take what we can get. We're going to go ahead and make the full swap (engine and transmission) with Steve promising to mix and match the best parts from both vans. With the total price estimate being not too much above the price tag for the rebuilt transmission we're feeling pretty good about this. And for being stuck between a rock and an expensive place, it definitely could have been worse. The Zinger will live to see another day and hopefully many more. We've still got about 5,000 more miles before we'll be back in VT but we're confident we'll make it.

Steve let us borrow an old Mercedes til we could score a new rental car and on his insistence we immediately drove over to the Colorado National Monument to take our mind off things (as you can see from the pictures below- Kim's still feeling the hurt from the deposit made on the van). Now we're back at the Mesa Inn plotting our next moves. 

The van won't be ready until mid next week so we've still got some time to kill. Our plan is to make it over to Boulder tomorrow to see our good friends Caleb and Maggie. Then we'll potentially head over to Castle Rock to visit Kim's aunt and uncle. Unfortunately, several massive wildfires are currently threatening the region so we'll have to keep an eye on that situation as it unfolds. Hopefully we'll have a speedy rental car by then that can outrun any dangerous situations!  The main thing is that the Zinger is going to pull through this unfortunate series of events- long live the Zinger!

Grand Junction, CO: The Mesa Inn (Day2)

Well, we've been here hangin out at the Mesa Inn for what seems like a while now but has only been 2 days... The Zinger's prognosis is looking bleak. A compression test of the engine came back and 2 of the 4 cylinders (yeah, it's only a 4 cylinder) are pretty far below what they should be meaning the engine could technically stop working before we make it back East. Considering we're scheduled to go all the way back to California before heading ALL the way back to Vermont we probably don't want to chance it on the motor we've got (this plan now sounds somewhat ridiculous in hindsight but we're gonna do it one way or another). Steve over at The Foreign Aid is trying to work on a solution for us. Tomorrow he's going to inspect an engine and transmission on another van he's got in his lot and we may try to swap everything into our van. If everything works out we might be lucky enough to get out of this for the same amount of money as the rebuilt transmission. One day at a time though, hopefully our luck starts to turn around.

In other news, we walked to the grocery store to get some Ramen noodles and also came back with this gigantic sandwich for only $6. It ain't ALL bad news. 

Aspen, CO: Seth's Wedding

After a little bit of confusion as to where we were supposed to be meeting for the wedding we ended up canceling our 2nd night at Ami's Acres and luckily booked a last minute night at the St. Moritz Lodge which is a beautiful and very reasonably priced hostel in downtown Aspen, only several blocks from the site of the reception. Thanks to our zippy Kia Optima red rental car we were able to arrive ahead of schedule for once. Aspen is quite the place! Beautiful scenery and architecture, warm sunny weather, and a constant stream of those cottony seed things that makes it look like it's snowing in summer!  What could be better!? We walked over to the site of the reception, the Aspen Historical Society building, and met up with Seth and Brittany, long time friends of Kim's from her Freshman year of college in Denver. After some catching up it was time for Seth and his groomsmen to leave and time for all the guests to hop on a charter bus that would take us up to the stunning Maroon Bells mountains. This is where the ceremony took place and we couldn't have imagined a more scenic place for a wedding! 

The ceremony was simple and beautiful, and one of the highlights besides the amazing views had to be the shoes. Everyone, we mean everyone, in the wedding party wore Converse Chuck Taylor sneakers (Seth's favorites). It was awesome. After the ceremony it was back on the bus (and after a quick stop to see a bear in the woods right off the road) back to the historical society for the reception. With Seth being a chef the food was incredible! The wedding cake was topped with a VW bus, (also Seth's favorite- he owns 2) and the night was filled with dancing, laughing, a little bit of Jim Beam, and more dancing. Eventually we went downtown for some more fun with friends old and new. It was a great night- we even snuck off and caught the end of an awesome Grateful Dead cover band!

We checked out of our hostel at noon and have been hanging out by the (heated) pool ever since- it's now 3 o'clock!  Time to plan our next moves. We'll be heading back to Rifle, CO to spend another night at Seth's parents (cause they're so great!) and then we'll most likely be booking a room in a hotel back in Grand Junction for the next few days while we await the fate of our big yellow, 4 wheeled friend.  We'll probably be able to write some blog backlogs of our Yosemite Valley adventures- lucky you, you reader of this blog! Cross your fingers for the Zinger and stay tuned- the single biggest decision of our trip will have to be made tomorrow afternoon...

Glenwood Springs, CO: TGIF

Well after another long day it's finally Friday and it's time to relax a bit. The Zinger is still in critical condition but it is in the capable hands of Dr. Steve over at Foreign Aid. He's going to do a thorough check-up (hopefully more 'thorough' than the last few we've had) and he'll give us his diagnosis on Monday. His report will help us decide wether or not to drop some serious dinero on a rebuilt transmission. If the rest of the van is in good shape we're gonna go for it but if there's too many other potential issues well then... let's just hope that's not the case. Either way we promised ourselves we wouldn't think about it anymore til Monday. Luckily we have Seth's wedding to distract us!  We had a wonderful evening with Pam and Jim and got our rental car situation straightened out, trading in our $40/day Dodge Ram for a $19/day Kia Optima. At this point every dollar helps!  We've checked into Ami's Acres Campground, right next to the Colorado River (and the highway) and will be meeting up with Seth and co. Later tonight. Time to get ready for shenanigans in beautiful Aspen tomorrow!

Grand Junction, CO: Vehicular Decisions

Oh how we wish we could say that the Zinger was doing great and we were hanging out with friends in the great state of Colorado, but alas, we are Vdub van owners and that shit breaks down.

So, long story short, it was the worst case scenario. The damn transmission. 

Pardon the French in this post- it's been a long day and we're currently riding in a stupid dodge ram truck rental car (it was the only thing the rental company had left).

On the bright side we're headed to Seth's parents house where hot showers and Jimmy and Pam await! 

Tomorrow we will commence the search for a donor transmission so that the zinger may rise from the ashes like a flaming pheonix. Please everyone out there- send us good luck vibes!

Utah: I 70 mile marker 151

Well. We. Didn't. Make. It. Far! 

It always seems that after an awesome night, we break down. But we updated our triple A and we're not that far from our destination.

We're hoping its not the transmission but who knows. We'll keep you all in the loop!

Breakfast of champions: tuna fish, a packet of mayo, salt, and red peppa flakes! Living large!

Utah: I 70 mile marker 143 Spotted Wolf Canyon Viewing Area

After leaving the wildlife reserve in Nevada this morning at 9:30 am, our next destination was a pull-off viewing area in Eastern Utah. For skipping all of Utah's National Parks, our off-the-highway-parking-spot turned out to be hella scenic (sorry, but after spending 3 months in CA, some of the slang still sticks haha). The views remind us of a mini Grand Canyon but we are really excited it will be 60 degrees warmer than that frigid night in February. 

We were contemplating today weather we should just book it another 3 hours to Glenwood Springs CO, if we should go 3 hours out of the way to visit Chucky Mumford in SLC or if we should just stick to our plan. Although our hearts were telling us to be adventurous, the Zinger reminded us of it's old age while climbing hills on the 80 mile an hour highway going only 30 miles an hour. Maybe next time around, we'll pick different routes that lead to different adventures! There's one thing for certain: Seth and Christina's wedding at Marroon Bells in Aspen is ON - on like donkey kong! (Don't worry, I've already been made fun of for writing that!)

So tomorrow we have a 3 hour journey until we hit Glenwood Springs where we'll be staying at a pay campground (boooooo haha, we've been spoiled these past few nights). We are still figuring out details for the rest of the wedding weekend, so stay tuned for updates!!!

P.S. if you've been keeping up with these rapid paced blog posts, shout us a comment and you WILL win our favor!

P.P.S it's always easier to write a blog post after a cup of Mammoth Brewery 395 IPA ice cold from the growler!!!

Nevada: Pahraganat Wildlife Preserve

After a little van moto surfing, we left the hot springs this morning and headed back into Mammoth Lakes to fuel up; gas for the van, coffee and wifi for us and a growler from Mammoth Brewery for later. We parted ways with Alex, he was the first person we met at the Bug and the last we said good bye to- a good friend indeed. Our drive took us east through the winding mountains and flat deserts of Nevada. Our destination for tonight was the Pahranagat Wildlife Refuge. We found it on free campsites.net, a website we have been using more and more to find cool places to spend a night (for free). We arrived just in time to catch yet another awesome sunset and enjoy the sounds of all the local ducks and birds while we made dinner. Tomorrow we drive to Utah, we'll be in touch!

Mammoth Lakes, CA: Leaving the bug, Mono Lake, Brewery, Hot Springs

It's been a while since our last blog post and to be completely honest, it's because we've just been having too much fun! Finishing up garden tasks while taking overnight trips to Yosemite and creating bonds with some amazing individuals are just a few of the things we have yet to fill you in on in the upcoming week! We just wanted to let everyone know we've left the Bug and our adventuring is in full force. We have till Saturday to get to Colorado for Seth and Christina's wedding. Today we are saying goodbye to Yosemite by driving over the Tioga pass, checking out Mono Lake and searching out some hot springs. Below are pictures from Mono Lake, one of the oldest lakes in North America that has 2 1/2 times more salt than the ocean. We realized Mammoth Lakes was close by so we stopped by Mammoth brewery, picked up a growler and headed to the hot springs where we set up camp and soaked until it was time for bed! What a great day!