Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Ahh haa, this is where cowboys come from.

Oh haaayy Benson! Do you know where Benson is? Yeah well I didn't either, that was until one weekend last fall when my roommate Megan took me back to her roots. Everything that she had ever talked about started to make sense. It was awesome!! Take a peak..it's a picture heavy post, but beautiful!


First lesson Megan taught me-whenever traveling deep into the desert, have plenty of water. You never know if you're going to make it out alive, so mind as well be prepared. Haha.
On the open road, we made it the entire 3 hours without taking a break-pretty impressive, especially for the survival hydration tactics we were taking part in.
We were almost there and then this is what the billboards started to turn into, yes Megan wanted this picture very badly in honor of her favorite movie-whatta hick! :)






















And this..













































This is where I entered the point of no return. I'M KIDDING. The signs on the way down may have been weird but the ride was beyond beautiful. For a small town, the mountains were not only gigantic but also breath taking, the air was fresh and the country music was loud.


































































Our first stop (after Meg's house to say hi to the doggies) was a quick one at the annual Butterfield Stagecoach Days festival! Benson has it every year, we were a little late on our arrival but it was still a great experience to go. We ate an entire bag of some of the best kettle corn that I have ever had, watched our own troops put on fabulous live entertainment, and hung out with a few of the coolest cowboys.










































We only made a quick run through because we were on our way to Megan's best best friend Katrina's house for her sister Savannah's birthday. Katrina and her family live on a ranch that is 30 minutes past Benson. The ride was beautiful and so was our night. I am going to skip the details and just post the pictures.




























































Of course there is no real party without an after party. Megan took me to possibly one of the most fun bars I have ever been to in my life-The Arena.















































Those are two of Megan's friends -Sarah and Deena. I was going to take more pictures but I was having way too much fun and way too much to drink to snap a good shot of anything. The Arena was filled with people from 21 all of the way up to 100+. I will tell you a good fact-Benson knows how to drink!! I met tons more of Megan's friends and danced the night away (after I learned how to dance country the right way of course!). We were picked up after closing hours by Megan's high school softball coach and slept in a water bed. That's all I have to say about that ;)

Much to my surprise, just because you drink like your from Benson doesn't necessarily mean you don't get hangovers like the rest of the human population. For some reason I thought cowboys had it easy.. Megan had the perfect cure and that was The Apple Farm Bakery and Restaurant. It was delicious and hit the spot like no other.


















































Isn't Megan so cute!?






After breakfast we took yet another beautiful ride through the country side. It was a gorgeous day. Megan showed me the entire town of Benson and outskirts as well. I hadn't felt that relaxed in a while.














































We made a few pit stops, Megan was determined to show me everything before we left (which she did a great job doing). We stopped by some old friends houses to say hello. Drank some clamato and bud with the guys on the porch for lunch (yes they do that for real). Went to see the ranch that Megan's Grandma owned and turned into a beautiful facility for foster children and hung out with Katrina and her boyfriend Jeremy for a while before saying our goodbyes.

The day and a half trip wore us out big time, but the experience will never be replicated. I had an awesome time and hope to visit again. Now that the shock of seeing every cowboy and country stereotype is out of my system, Meg and Jess take Benson part II might be dangerous so be on the look out!

Monday, September 24, 2012

After a year, it's back to blog!

No judging! I had some things come up where it was important that I take a year break from blogging (haha). But now that things have slowed down a tiny bit or I am just not as lazy as I was (one or the other) I am going to fire her back up. 

I am warning you right now it is going to be a work in progress. I am going to be updating a ton of stuff from the last year but also trying to make the blog more.. fun? If you have any suggestions let me know, I would love to hear them! Let the blogging begin :)