Plucky Survivors See America 2008: Prologue

June 11, 2008
We vacillated a lot, but after careful thought and way too much sugar, we have picked the location and official title for this year’s trip: Plucky Survivors See America 2008: The Plucky Shall Rise Again!

We’ll be starting our trip in Atlanta, Georgia and will be driving more than 2,200 miles throughout the south including stops in:

Savannah, Georgia
Charleston, South Carolina
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Asheville, North Carolina
Knoxville, Tennessee
Lexington, Kentucky
Louisville, Kentucky
Chattanooga, Tennessee

Along the way we’ll be visiting a lot of the weird and wonderful sights, attractions, and events the region has to offer including an acre of land that is owned by God, a drive through safari, the South Carolina BBQ championships, the world’s largest bat, the Dukes of Hazzard museum, the Colonel Sanders Museum, a 54-hole bible themed mini-golf course, the Scopes Monkey Trial museum, and much, much more.

Plucky Survivors See America 2008: The Plucky Shall Rise Again starts August 27, 2008!

August 16, 2008
An inescapable part of Plucky Survivors is the stuff we are surviving. We don’t like spending a lot of time talking about our respective health issues for a lot of reasons. First, we can’t imagine why anyone would be interested… the Olympics are on. Michael Phelps. He’s interesting. In a lot of ways. What were we talking about?

Another reason is because we don’t want to appear whiners, especially when we know so many people have it so much worse than we do. We’ve gotten e-mails from Plucky Readers who are suffering through seriously debilitating illnesses and ours, while certainly serious, for the most part are just inconveniences when it comes to their affect on our daily lives. Mary is able to continue pursuing her Ph.D. and working and traveling and Rick goes to work every day and watches lots of TV and occasionally goes to the refrigerator. So lengthy dissertations about what is trying to kill us just seems gauche.

Having said that, we understand that people are interested and as mentioned it’s part of the story, so let’s discuss it briefly and then move on to more interesting topics like donuts and BBQ, shall we?

For the latest on Mary’s adventures with cancer, you can visit her website CancerChick.com. A recap may be in order for this forum but for now you can get a more in-depth idea of what’s happening in the Maladies section of that site.

As for Rick, the last year hasn’t been exactly what he’d call fun from a health perspective but not really much more than unpleasant in the grand scheme of things. The meds he has been on for the last 8 years to control HIV began to fail in late 2007 and so his doctor switched him to something else. We’ll spare you the very gory details but let’s just say it didn’t go well. Another combination was decided upon in early 2008 and that has been side-effect free for the most part and seems to be working pretty well.

The other health issue he’s dealing with is a condition called Barrett’s Esophagus. The short version is that years of acid reflux causes damage to the esophagus resulting in a cellular change to the tissue that lines the tube, making it less flexible and sensitive – closer to the type of cells that line the intestines. Lots of people probably have Barrett’s and don’t know it and on it’s own it really isn’t that big of a deal except that it can predispose you to esophageal cancer, which is currently the fastest growing type of cancer in the US in terms of the percentage of new cases.

Rick’s Barrett’s is extensive and includes both low and high grade dysplasia, which are the types of cells that happen right before it changes to cancer. So every 6 months he has to go get tubes stuck down his throat while his gastro-guy takes a bunch of biopsies. It sounds worse than it is – as far as he is concerned it’s a day off work and some really good drugs.

Up until recently there wasn’t much that could be done for Rick’s particular version of the condition since the regular ablation techniques that burn away the bad cells don’t usually work well or have very bad after-effects for cases that are as extensive as his is. But now there’s this new thing that Rick likes to call the James Bond Villian Device that may offer some hope of stopping this before it turns into cancer.

The James Bond Villian Device is a computer-guided device that precisely maps the depth and breadth of the Barrett’s tissue and then burns just the bad tissue away with a laser, leaving the healthy tissue underneath unharmed. It’s a very new procedure and his gastro-guy is one of the few in the country who are going to be doing it so he’s lucky in that regard. He’ll probably go in for the procedure at the end of this year or the beginning of next.

The moral of all of this is if you have heart burn don’t ignore it. There are usually no symptoms for Barrett’s and even esophageal cancer so most people don’t know there’s something going on until it’s too late. Go see your doctor to talk about options for controlling acid reflux and examining whether it has already done any damage.

Okay, health discussion over for now. Let’s get back to more interesting topics, like how Rick is going to kick Mary’s ass in Cow! this year. Oh, yes… it’s on!

August 17, 2008
What is Plucky?

You’d be amazed how many people have been saying that to us recently as we mention Plucky Survivors. Or maybe you wouldn’t – maybe you are just as confused about the meaning of the word Plucky as others are. We think it’s primarily a generational thing, which of course makes us feel old, but beyond that it’s a word that isn’t used all that often anymore.

The dictionary defintion of plucky is “having or showing pluck or courage; brave” but we expand that definition to include people, places, or things that show determination, strength of character, firm resolve, the ability to not take things too seriously no matter how serious they get, coming back against all odds, and facing adversity with dignity.

We asked some friends and family to give us examples of people, places, and things they thought were worthy to wear the mantle of Plucky.

Barack Obama and John McCain are Plucky in their own ways. Our particular politics make us more inclined to appreciate the pluck of Senator Obama but that’s the thing about being Plucky – it’s bipartisan!

New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are definitely Plucky as they continue to come back against all odds from Hurricane Katrina when it would’ve been easier to just give up and move inland. Ditto Rick’s hometown of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, which is recovering from devastating floods earlier this year.

Our friend LeeAnn suggests that Winston Churchill was Plucky, although definitely not in a cuddly way and we have to agree.

Another friend Steve thinks that Dickens heroes have more than their fair share of pluck and also mentions The Hardy Boys although from a generational perspective that’s probably not going to do much to help the people who don’t know what Plucky is until the movie comes out next year with Ben Stiller and Tom Cruise.

Mary’s husband Steve (aka Rock Critic Guy) cites Olympic Gymnast Kerri Strug as being Plucky for her perfect vault to win the Gold Medal for the US despite having a broken ankle.

August 18, 2008
Turns out we’ve stirred up quite a healthy conversation about the meaning of Plucky.

Many additional nominees for the title of Plucky have been bandied about, including Nancy Drew, The Little Engine That Could, various plantlife, and even The Bad News Bears. Yes, this is the kind of high-minded debate Mary, Rick, and their friends and family engage in. At least this one hasn’t come to name calling or fisticuffs.

Back in Plucky Planning news, we still have one more official host hotel to announce – we’re just waiting for a final confirmation and then we’ll be posting all the details. Keen observers will note that there are three nights on the itinerary without hotels listed. Despite our best efforts and the undeniable lure of being Plucky or at least associated with Plucky, there are a couple of stops where we couldn’t find an accommodations partner. Instead we’re booking rooms at affordable yet relatively stylish digs in locations that are convenient to our schedule. We’ll tell you more about those hotels when we get there.

We’re also casting a nervous eye toward the Atlantic Ocean, not because of Hurricane Faye but of what else might be brewing out there ready to pop up like she did. Yes, it is totally our fault for booking a trip to hurricane country during the height of hurricane season but this is the best time of year for Plucky Survivors in terms of convenience for us, so we think they should just move their silly storm season somewhere else. There are plenty of good months left. February. February is a good month. Let’s do hurricane season then.

August 19, 2008
We are just a little over one week away from Plucky Survivors 2008! Rick is actually having dreams about it and spends almost every waking hour saying things like “Am I on vacation yet?” He really needs a vacation, people.

Mary is dreaming about her German test coming up this Friday but after that Rick will remind her that we’re going on a little trip next week.

Meanwhile, the debate continues about the intricacies of what Plucky means and today we found a terrific example of it in Christina Applegate.

We’ve been fans of hers for a long time, even more so with her show “Samantha Who?” which Rick boldly proclaimed as the best new comedy of the TV season last year. Come on… Christina Applegate, Jean Smart (Rick can quote full episodes of “Designing Women”), Melissa McCarthy (ditto “Gilmore Girls”), and the rest of the terrific cast plus smart, subtle writing? What’s not to love?

In case you’ve been paying more attention to the Olympics and the endless speculation about who will be the Vice Presidential candidates, Ms. Applegate was diagnosed with breast cancer recently and made the decision to have a double mastectomy. That decision was brave and ultimately rewarding in that her docs now say she is 100% cancer free, say hallelujah.

But it’s how she’s talking about it that makes us love her even more. In an interview with Good Morning America, just three weeks after the operation (!!!), she talked about how she’ll be undergoing reconstructive surgery, saying “I’m going to have the best boobs in the nursing home. I’m going to have cute boobs till I’m 90.”

If that isn’t Plucky we don’t know what is.

So we’re making Christina Applegate an honorary Plucky Survivor. Hey Christina, wanna go on a road trip with us?

August 20, 2008
We know you can count, but ONE WEEK UNTIL PLUCKY SURVIVORS!

Just sayin’.

In today’s update, we thought we’d talk about Rick’s shoe issues. So, fresh off winning $30,000 on a slot machine (see August 10, below for photographic evidence), Rick decided he’d splurge and get a new pair of shoes for the trip. And by splurge, we mean buy them somewhere other than Payless, which is where he does most of his shoe shopping.

What he was looking for was relatively simple – a pair of white tennis shoes or sneakers or whatever they are called these days. That’s it – nothing fancy. No pretensions to fashion, just something comfortable to walk in. No stripes or bling or flashing lights or gel bubbles or multi-colored laces or miniature televisions in the tongues. A simple pair of white sneakers.

Apparently, they don’t make those anymore, or at least not very many of them. Through several stores he traipsed and finally managed to find exactly one pair that fit his “simple white sneaker” request and so he bought them, despite the fact that they more closely resembled orthopedic nursing shoes than sneakers. Better to feel good than to look good, right?

The next day Rick put them on, eager to start breaking in the new pair of shoes so they’d be nice and settled in before the inevitable walking part of Plucky Survivors. About 30 minutes into the day, Rick’s feet were telling him that there may be a problem. About an hour into it, they were telling him that indeed, there was a problem. By noon, his feet were saying that not only had he made a huge error in judgment but that these were definitely not orthopedic nursing shoes. They were actually medieval torture devices designed to LOOK like orthopedic nursing shoes, which is darned nefarious if you ask us.

It’s sort of like turkey bacon. You think it’s bacon, but no… it’s turkey. Nefarious.

Anyway, so he took off the shoes, threw them in a corner, and went to Payless. And they were having a sale. And he wound up buying two pairs of relatively simple white sneakers. He’s much happier now and so are his feet.

There’s a moral to this particular story in here somewhere but we’re too busy thinking about bacon right now to figure it out.

Did we mention ONE WEEK UNTIL PLUCKY SURVIVORS!

August 21, 2008
On Planning Road Trips

Lot’s of people have been asking how we go about planning Plucky Survivors. How do we choose the route? Where do we find cool things to do and see? How do we choose hotels and other essentials for places that we’ve never been?

The simple answer is: research.

For Plucky Survivors 3 we had narrowed down our choices of region to either New England or the Southeast, mainly because those were the two areas we most wanted to visit. Not that there is anything wrong with any other area – these were just the ones that appealed most to us this year.

The first thing we did was go online and order the visitor’s guide from every state that we might be hitting during the trip. You can get these for free by visiting any state tourism website – just type in the name of the state in your favorite serach engine and somewhere near the top of the list should be the official visitors and tourism website. Somewhere on that website you can usually find a form to fill out to request everything from a visitors guide to road maps to coupon books and offers, all for free.

Also on these website you can usually find a calendar of events that will list out everything from state fairs and parades to music festivals and more. Plug in the dates you’re traveling and they will provide you with a list of cool things to do.

Next we combed a bunch of websites that specialize in road trip ephemera. There are a bunch out there but RoadsideAmerica.com is probably the best. They specialize in the weird and wacky, which is where we find a lot of the things that make it on to our itinerary.

Armed with a list of museums, attractions, events, festivals, and roadside oddities for both the Northeast and Southeast, we simply compared the two and thought that the trip you see representated on this site for 2008 was the most interesting. The South Carolina BBQ Championships had a lot to do with it, we will admit.

Then comes the hard part – planning the exact route making sure that you’re covering enough ground each day to see all the stuff you want to see, but not driving so much that you don’t get a chance to stop and smell the giant ball of twine, so to speak. Because we live in Los Angeles and do a lot of work in Las Vegas, we picked the distance between those two cities – within spitting distance of 300 miles – as a good yardstick by which to measure a decent day’s drive. Some days we do less and we may do a little more but not seriously more than that because then all you’re doing is sitting in a car watching the scenery go by.

Tomorrow we’ll talk more about finding that route, verifying that your plan is doable, picking hotels, and more.

Plucky Survivors 2008 starts in six days!

August 22, 2008
Mary had her German test today – you know, the one she has been studying for months now – and afteward she looked up and said, “Oh… when are we doing Plucky Survivors again?”

That would be this Wednesday, Mary. Rick has told her that all she really needs to do at this point is pack a bag and that’ll pretty much take care of it.

But back to the continuation of how to plan a road trip…

One side note from yesterday’s udpate is to remind folks that in addition to every state having its own tourism website, most cities also have websites for visitors and they can be really handy in finding local favorites.

Picking a route is a complex game of “Sophie’s Choice.” What Rick usually does is use some sort of map software and put spots on the map for each of the places that could become a stop on Plucky Survivors. It usually becomes obvious fairly quickly what’s going to work and what is just so far off the beaten track that no matter how interesting it might be, we just won’t be able to do it on this trip. Look at major and minor cities that could provide enough hotels for pitstops, check the roads between those cities to see if there are any interesting byways, and then you just start a-mapping.

Once you take a first pass at the route you need to do a reality check. Yes, you’ve set it up so you can stop at whatever odd museum you want to stop at, but is it actually open on the day you are planning to be there? And more importantly, does it still exist? More than one Plucky “bright idea” has been squandered by a closed sign upon our arrival (see Dinosaur World for an example). Most attractions no matter how minor have some type of website and if they don’t there is usually a phone number that you can call to verify operating times.

Then it’s all about finding places to rest your weary head at the end of each day. Guide books are invaluable, and we’re not just saying that because we’re guide book writers. They are often the only source of unbiased opinion and review that you can find these days. Internet sites are important and can often provide you with very useful details and reviews from other people, but make sure you know the source before you start trusting what you’re seeing on the net. For instance, Rick is very proud of the fact that Vegas4Visitors.com is one of the few sites about Vegas where you can find critical reviews of hotels, restaurants, shows, and more. Most Vegas websites (not all, but most) are corporately owned and derive a big chunk of their income from partnerships with the very hotels, restaurants, and shows they are “reviewing” so it’s often hard to find a negative word even when one is deserved. The same applies to websites about other cities so surfers beware.

Using sites like Travelocity or Orbitz are good for price comparisons. They can often direct you to the hotels that are both in and out of your price range with one quick search, but you should always check multiple sources for room rates to see who has the cheapest. Often these days, you’ll find the lowest rates by book directly through the hotel website – even cheaper than the big travel re-sellers. One of the hotels (that shall remain nameless) that we are staying at was advertised as $144 on one of the big travel booking websites but through the hotel’s website it was $20 less.

But you gotta eat, right? Food is more of a catch-as-catch-can proposition for most road trippers and that’s often a shame because you can miss some must-visit locations. Going back to the official tourism websites, many will have dining sections where they talk about specialized regional cuisine and the best purveyors of same. You can also visit a handy website called RoadFood.com or buy the book of the same name. Both are good for finding off-the-beaten-track gems. Finally, spend some time on websites like FoodNetwork.com and go though their archives of shows that focus on “Best Of” or “Top 10.” You may find something very exciting there.

But one of the lures of the open road is the anything can happen nature of it so restaurants are the one area where you can just go until you see something that looks interesting. We still feel that places like Craig’s BBQ and The Udder Cow were divine intervention.

And of course, don’t be afraid to talk to people. Chat up folks at the gas station while you’re filling up the car or at the convenience store where you’ll grabbing a cold drink or just the folks wandering down main street of whatever town you happen to be in. Us jaded city-folk often forget how nice and friendly people really can be and most of them are eager to share their town’s “must-see” or “must eat” destinations.

August 23, 2008
Courtesy of Mary’s sister Deb – aka last year’s Plucky Passenger – we now have an official mascot for the trip (see picture below).

For those of you new to Plucky Survivors, the reason why the cow is so appropriate is because of a little game we like to call Cow! It’s the official road game of Plucky Survivors and you can read all about it on the Cow! page in the games section.

The fun thing about the cow mascot is that it’s actually a bank so we’re working coming up with a twist to this year’s game – a new rule addition that can take advantage of this opportunity. We’re thinking something along the lines of whoever loses the day has to contribute to the cow bank. Or maybe even more challenging, every time you pass a bank with a drive through on your side of the car, you can either contribute a buck to the bank or you lose half your cows. We’re still thinking about it – watch for developments when we get on the road.

We’re also still looking for our overall theme for the year, something that will also probably come to us while we’re on the road like it usually does. The first year wound up being about legacies and what people do to build them on both small and grand levels. Last year was it was more about the things you do along the way to that legacy; the human journey, if you will, and human potential. It’s been a tough 12 months for both of us from a health perspective but we’re both fairly determined in our own plucky kind of way to keep on keeping on, which seems to fit in well with the region of the country we’ll be visiting. There’s a reason we dubbed this year’s trip “The Plucky Shall Rise Again” beyond just the obvious.

Less than four days and counting as of this writing. We’re looking forward to having you along for the ride.

August 25, 2008
Have we mentioned… Plucky Survivors starts the day after tomorrow—!!!!–so now seemed like a good time for Mary to realize she’s going on a road trip the day after tomorrow. The suitcase is out, packing lists created, magazines assembled for plane and excellent hotel bed reading. She’s doing this in between checking email obsessively hoping her German test result will come in sooner than it’s supposed to. The test went fine, thanks for asking, at least, so she felt during it, but since then she’s been second guessing herself and you know how well that usually goes. Updates on the results as they come in.

Rick hasn’t begun packing, instead choosing to wait until the night before because any other strategy ends up with him huddled in a corner rocking and muttering things about why he needs room for just one more pair jeans. “Just one more…” he’ll whisper.

Since Rick updated everyone on his own health matters, Mary thought she ought to do likewise, just so you know what this whole Cancer Chick thing is about. In 1997, she was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer, and though treatment was successful to the point that she went into remission, it returned metastasized to her liver in 2001. Another nearly four years of remission followed, but since late November 2005, she’s been dealing with on and off (mostly on) recurrences, in liver and various bones. She usually feels fine except from treatment side effects. By some unpleasant coincidence, she’s been in active treatment on each Plucky Survivor, but though not as convenient as last year, when she simply carried her oral chemo along with her, downing it before barbeque and casino outings. (She’s currently getting once a month infusions of Doxcell.) At least this year she has both hair and virtually no side effects, not to mention ten intact toenails, so this leaves her with little to complain about. Given she’s about to have nearly two weeks of road side attractions, barbeque and Rick’s company, she has nothing to complain about.

Except her German test, of course.

Back to packing! Or rocking as the case may be.

August 26, 2008
It’s a little after 7pm as we write this, the night before Plucky Survivors begin, and we are estimating that we are both about 90% packed. Who are we and what have we done with Rick and Mary?

So yes the bags are mostly packed, the Biggest Book o’ Fun is printed, the iPod is ready for road music, the camera battery is charged for photos, the Plucky Mobile is waiting, and so are we! We’ve decided we’re just not going to think about the single computer, apparently something like a Commodore 64, that crashed or something today and caused massive delays in flights across the country. We’ve decided it will be fixed by tomorrow and that’s that. And we’re not going to worry about the various hurricanes and tropical storm remnants that are lurking around the general neighborhood we’re going to be. Nope – all worries are gone because Plucky Survivors starts tomorrow!

The next update will be from Atlanta tomorrow night! See you then!