Hello folks. Welcome back to the now barely running Life and How To Live It. I think I’ve done like 3 posts this year? Wow I’m lazy anymore. Today, we take a break from ranting… HAHAHAHA!!! Yeah right. There will be some ranting. What kind of blogger do you think I am? Anyway, sit back and let me tell you about my free trip to…Montana?
This story starts in March of this year. Me and my good friend Nick were in Atlantic City for a few days. You know, hanging out, drinking, gambling, so on and so forth. Well we lost our asses off. Ok, he ended up winning the jackpot on a quarter slot machine but that’s another blog. Anyway, I get a call Friday morning from my mother. I just figured it was nothing but her checking up on me and making sure I didn’t OD on captain and cokes. I answer the phone and she screams, “YOU WON!!!!” Here is where the confusion sets in. I said, “No I didn’t. In fact, I’ve lost just about everything I had. I’m going to have the use the dog for collateral.” She says, “What? No! You won a trip to Montana!” I reply, “What the fuck is in Montana and why the fuck would I wanna go there?” She then tells me she entered me in some contest from Marlboro (you know, the cigarette company!) and I won a trip to the Marlboro ranch on crazy mountain. Not only did I win the trip, but I also get a check made out to me for $750 bucks! I was thinking, “AWESOME! MONEY!” Then she tells me I get to take a guest with me! I, right away, start thinking of who I’m going to take with me. Everything seemed fucking mega!! Here is where the stipulations come in. Not from Marlboro, but from my mother. The guest I would be taking is her. Kinda lame to have to take your mother on an all inclusive trip but I guess it could have been worse. Then she tells me, I have to wear this cowboy garb. Boots, 10 gallon cowboy hat and all that. Well now I decide I’m not going. Fuck that. If anyone knows me, they know ol’ Tonedawg don’t do cowboy shite. However, my mother informed me if I did not go on this trip, she would pretty much end my shit and not think twice about it. Thanks Ma!
Now let’s fast forward to the day before I left. I had to get a haircut and all that, no biggie. Then, for some unknown reason, I decided it would be a great idea to start drinking. Well, I went quite overboard with that and stayed out til 12:30 that morning. Now I know what you are thinking, “Tony! 12:30 isn’t late. Especially not for Tony the tank! Are you slowing down or just getting older?” My response to that is, go fuck yourself with screwdriver! The reason this was such a bitch is because I had to be up by 4 that same morning. Whoopie and holy fuck that was stupid of me. So 4 comes and I get up and await for our ride to the airport. Now I’m not quite sure why my mom thought this person would be good to drive us to the airport cause this person drives like someone is jabbing her in the side with a fucking ice pick! For the first time EVER, I was more afraid of being in a car than being on a airplane! Got through security alright and waited to get on the plane. Let me just tell you, I will never get used to being on a plane. I hate those things. How in fuck’s name does a 12 ton hunk of metal and screws go 39,000 feet above the ground!?!?!?! IT DOESN’T ADD UP!!!!!!! So we get to Salt Lake City (that’s Utah kids!) for a one hour layover. Well by this point, I hadn’t had a smoke in like 3 and half hours! I’m flipping out over here. Then, a glimmer of hope came! I turned around and BAM!!! A smoking room appears before my eyes! It was almost as if God himself took his finger, tapped the airport and said, “Here you are you complaining ass shithead! Now keep your mouth shut for the next 4 days and I’ll make sure to get you home safe. ” Well you can’t argue with that now can you? I mean, he is God after all! Here is where another suprise comes into play. The next plane I have to get on is one of those small ass tin can planes. Well as soon as I see this, I start thinking La Bamba, The Buddy Holly Story and Sweet Dreams. I thought for sure this thing was going to hit an air pocket and we were going to crash into the side of a fucking mountain! Luckily, that didn’t happen. Thats the airplane diaries. Please stay tuned for the rest of the trip in 5. 4. 3. 2…..
Welcome back. Now we are in Montana. The airport in Bozeman was half airport, half museum for some reason. Thats the first time I’ve gotten off a plane and saw bear bones and some sort of dinosaur looking thing while waiting for my bag to come around the belt! Trippy right? Fuck yeah it was! Now we get on the bus to head to this ranch. Well it takes another hour and fifteen minutes to get to the ranch. Not bad though. The guide we had was quite the looker! This is where they warn us that we are so high up on this mountain, the air is thin so have to constantly drink water or poweraide. Well how the hell am I supposed to capatilize on the free open bar thing if I have to constantly rehydrate myself? Ok, I still found a way, but that’s beyond the point! Now we get into the room and the bed is showered with gifts. I felt like a five year old on christmas morning. Except I don’t think you’d give your five year old half a carton of Malboro Mediums for christmas. Not that I’m judging anyone who does, but seriously, stop that. They gave me a digital camera, ashtray, bookbag, wind breaker, and of course, those fucking cowboy boots and hat. Yeeeeee fucking Hawwwww. My mother is excited as all hell at this point and wasted no time in putting on her shit! You would have thought she shit out a golden egg and was going to be rich. She then tries to spread that spirit to me. I wasn’t having it. But with a few smiles and threats, I put this stupid ass Roy Rogers shit on (see below).

Oh yeah! I'm happy!
The dinners though were of epic proportions. Litterally! I could write a whole blog on the meals alone. However, this is not that kind of blog! So the first night goes off without a hitch. The next morning was not so kind. I got up at 6 AM to get breakfast which was amazing. Then, between the traveling and the lack of sleep from the night before, I was just dead. I had no energy. So I retired to my room and slept til noon! It wasn’t real hard to do that. The bed felt like sleeping on a cloud of greatness.
When I got up, it was raining and like 58 degrees outside. IT’S JUNE!!!!! One of the bar maids was telling me how her birthday is in July and it’s snowed every year for the past three! Can you fucking imagine having snow in July? It would make me think the rapture was coming!!! Fuck! So in light of the rain, I shot pool for like 4 hours straight with people I hadn’t met yet. Those people were awesome. Give yourselves a hand if you are reading this! So the evening went on and it was fantastic. The next day was an early morning. 7:45 in the morning to be fucking exact. I’m totally not a morning person. At all. But we were heading off to shoot guns. Ok. Sounds like something fun I suppose. We get there and it’s 45 FUCKING DEGREES OUTSIDE!!!!!! HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO FIRE A DAMN RIFLE!?!?!?!?! Turns out though, I’m awesome with a gun. The guy told me I was a natural. That was nice to hear. I had a method though. I just visualized the one person in this world I hate whos name shall remain unknown. Worked everytime.
Got back for the happy hour. That was cool. They had shrimp and some sort of wild game kabobs. I wasn’t feeling adventuress, so I bypassed the wild game and stuck with something I knew I liked. Since this was the last night, I figured, “save your energy tone and get tore up tonight!” We walked back to the saloon, had dinner. Afterwards, the bar was then offcially open! The only buzzkill of the night was this horrible band they hired to “entertain” us. This band was doing country versions of Walk This Way and Crazy Train!?!?! NO! NOT ALLOWED!!!! I hate Aerosmith, but this is the one time I would have rather heard there version of a song! They bored just about everyone to tears. No variety! WE ARE NOT COWBOYS FOR REAL FUCKERS, WE ARE PRETENDING!!!!!! Finally, the band left the stage. Time to get good and drunk while drinking the champagne of beers… that’s right…. Miller High Life. Turns out, I quite like it! What a night this was… From what I remember anyway.
The next morning comes and it’s leaving day. I realise at that moment, getting 25 sheets to the wind was about as smart as a 40 year old shoving a fork in an electrical socket. (Insert mental image of that HERE) Yep. It was back on the planes for another installment of Fun Times While You Think You are Going To Hit A Mountain At 39,000 Ft. Still, I’m happy to inform everyone, God kept the smoking rooms in Utah! Which was great for me cause I had a 3 FUCKING HOUR LAY OVER THERE!!!! Got to BWI around 11:15 pm and got the luggage. What a change in the weather that was. I went from a place that seems to never exceed 60 degrees to the humid air of Baltimore. It felt as if a giant, cosmic dog was breathing over the Earth with his mouth open! Here is the kicker. I didn’t get home til 2 AM. Now, here is where you say, “But you only live 25/30 from the airport!” Yes, this is true imaginary voice that just said that. However, my mother forgot to make the proper arragements for being picked up. We had to wait for my father to pick us up. He didn’t get off work til about 12:15. Whoopie. When we finally arrived at home, I crashed harder than a diabetic kid who just ate a giant fucking hershey bar.
So that was the trip to Crazy Mountain Ranch. Crazy it sure was too. I’m sure I’m leaving some shit out, but you get what was going on. If you don’t, well that’s your problem
Join me next time folks when I talk about those damn buzzing things everyone seems to have at the World Cup. How fucking annoying!
Piss off!