40 Whatever

The 2010 Ford Taurus SHO With Fake Scott Monty As Our Navigator

No, it's not a Bentley, it's the 2010 Taurus SHO. It's goes fast and kicks ass!

It was only Day 4 of the Ford-y Whatever/BlogHer 10 day roadtrip, and Stefania and I had already been called names and terrified by religious dolls. It felt like we'd used up all of the tricks in our bag, and we feared the next six days would be dull in comparison.  Then we kidnapped Fake Scott Monty* from the real Scott Monty's office at Ford, and things picked up again.

 

Fake Scott Monty* -- remember, looks can be deceiving.

But I should tell the story in chronological order.

Suites, Whores, Bikes, and Horse Poop - Our "Somewhere In Time" Adventure on Mackinac Island

Pretty flowers greeted us in our rooms First Lady Suites

Stefania wrote a lovely post about our visit to Mackinac Island, where we stayed at the beautiful Grand Hotel. She's right that our mere words and photos can't do it justice, and you really must visit yourself to experience the magic.

Early morning on Mackinac Island, Michigan

Thank you, Stefania, for leaving the stories about our Somewhere In Time shenanigans to me.

Leave Your Mustang on the Mainland, There's No Drunk Driving on Mackinac

It was so hard to leave our Mustang in the parking lot!

In the last Ford-y Whatever post, we had just gravel sprayed out of Danielle Wiley's driveway, and were driving up to the top of the peninsula, to get the ferry to Mackinac Island. Four hours and a few ballsy red Ford Mustang V8 powered slow-driver-passings later, we were on the boat, sipping adult lemonade beverages (thank you Meijer & Skyy Vodka!) We arrived too late for the fancy dinner at Grand Hotel, so we had a tasty meal at a restaurant by the dock, and then caught a "taxi" to the hotel.

Since Mackinac is a car free island, that means that everything is done by horse-drawn carriage, including taxis. Also you smell horse shit everywhere. 

On our slow, fragrant, horse-drawn carriage ride to the hotel, we met Transient Waiter Dude, who works on Mackinac Island six months out of the year, and then goes to somewhere warm like Florida to work the other six months. He shared this nugget of wisdom with us:

"Yeah, it's a party town. Thirteen bars and no cars!"

I been repeating that like Rainman for the past week. Sorry if you're infected now, too!

We Had No Idea Someone Made an Iconic, Late 70s, Time Travel, Romance Film Here

Self-portrait by Miss Jane Seymour, hanging outside the Somewhere in Time Suite

Yes, Just Like Thelma & Louise Except Without (Dumb) Brad Pitt or Shooting a Truck Driver

So you know what's even better than getting an email that says "Your Mustang will be waiting for you at the Ritz"?

Actually handing over the valet ticket (after raiding the very nice Ritz-Carlton Dearborn hospitality suite for the 4th time in less than 12 hours) and being handed the keys to a candy apple red 2010 Ford Mustang. With bigass Pirelli tires, black leather seats and a banging stereo system. Plus a place to charge up my iPhone.

It's even more fun to drive than you're imagining right now.

When you rev the V8 and hear that growling /purring monster under the hood, you know this baby can go fast. Some people might even have been tempted to peel out of the Ritz parking lot.

Oh, not us! Stefania and I are much classier than that, we waited until we were at a rest stop in rural Michigan, where there was some gravel we could spray.

Speaking of classy, I have to show you the back seat of the Mustang, where we kept one of our giant BlogHer suitcases. Note the tape. Good looking and practical! It turned out that we could fit that suitcase in the trunk, the luggage helping guy at the hotel was just being conservative.

Even though we had those giant suitcases filled with cute shoes and stylish clothes, we still succumbed almost immediately to the siren song of Meijer.  It's big box store that's apparently open 24 hours, is staffed by women who look like Donatella Versace/Janice the Muppet/Tori Spelling and has awesome accessories like the yellow circles bag that I made Stefania buy. Also, the one we stopped at is right next to a White Castle.

Yes, just like Howard & Kumar, except without (awesome) Neil Patrick Harris or being terrorists.

My first White Castle burger definitely lived up to the hype, and they also make a delicious unsweetened iced tea. Who knew?

The Meijer was on the way to Fennville, where we had a delicious lunch with the delightful Danielle Wiley and her wonderful family at their summer cottage.  After lunch Danielle and her two kids took us to the beach, where we saw Lake Michigan for the first time.

As a native East Coaster, who now lives on the West Coast, I didn't know what to expect when we got to the "Third Coast." Even with all of the advance warning, it was still surprising to see this ocean in the middle of the country. It was a little bit windy and wild and gorgeous!

We could have stayed at the beach all day, taking pictures and watching waves, but the lure of getting our sweet ride back on the open road was strong. Plus we had a ferry to catch!  So around 3pm, Stefania and I hopped in the car and zoomed off to Mackinac Island.

Possibly we sprayed a bit of gravel as we pulled out of the driveway. Because we could.

to be continued...

- Cat/BadKitty

"Your Mustang will be waiting for you at the Ritz"

Bad Kitty and I are lounging in our room at the Ritz-Carlton in Dearborn after just having raided the hospitality suite on the 10th floor. Note to hospitality suite people: you might want to hide the self-serve Rolos and Reese's peanut butter cups and champagne while we're staying here.

We have a gorgeous view of the arboretum surrounding the Ford campus and way, way off in the distance we can see downtown Detroit under a blanket of thunderclouds.

We've had a moment to let it all sink in and...

WE CAN'T BELIEVE WERE HERE.

Tomorrow we hop into our torch-red Mustang GT coupe (with charcoal black turned leather interior and a 5-speed manual transmission) and wing our way across the state to Fennville, MI to have brunch with the lovely and talented Danielle Wiley at her cottage by the lake, and then we continue on to Mackinac Island for our "Somewhere in Time"-inspired romantic getaway. (Cue giggles.)

Four months ago when we pitched our idea for a series of roadtrips around America to celebrate our 40th birthdays, we had low expectations that the folks at Ford would say yes.  But they did, and tomorrow we kick it off in grand style. After spending a couple of days on Mackinac Island, we'll return to Dearborn to pick up our next car, a Taurus SHO, and then we cruise down to Chicago for Blogher.

As we embark our adventure we'd like to thank our lovely sponsors who made this possible:

First and foremost, Ford (particularly @scottmonty) and Ogilvy, for indulging our crazy idea and for comping us our room (for one night) at the Sheraton.

To Intel and Ogilvy for providing us with an Intel-powered Dell Mini 9 minibook so that I can blog/Twitter and Facebook our adventures on the road AND for providing one for us to give away to a lucky Twitterer who follows our all-girl agency—@clevergirlscoll—on Twitter We'll pick a winner at BlogHer and if you are there, you will get to take it home with you.

To Fiona Goldstein and the Ritz-Carlton for welcoming us to our first night in the midwest with champagne, chocolate, and cookies.

The Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island who is putting us up for two amazing nights and who have arranged for us to interview their historian. We promise that only 99% of our questions will be about Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. (Words cannot express how magical this place is. Being in the Jackie Kennedy and Roselynn Carter suites were a luxe touch that we were NOT expecting.)

Anna at Allison and Partners and the Best Western North River for being the first stop on our 6-day long visit to Chicago. (Excellent service and family-friendly accomodations that made us feel like we were staying at a 4-star, fancy hotel.)

To PainePR and Sony Vaio for providing a minibook so that Cat and I can craft our stories and keep everyone updated on our roadtrip.

Tomorrow the adventure begins and if you follow us on Twitter (@dearbadkitty and @citymama) you can come along with us!  Here's to great cars, the best of friends, and to turning 40 with no shame!

Alicia Silverstone and Alanis Morrisette Star in a Trailer About our Ford-y Whatever Roadtrip

My Mother's Red Hat w/Alicia Silverstone & Alanis Morissette from Alicia Silverstone

Hey, so you know how Stefania and I leave on Friday for our big Ford-y Whatever roadtrip through the mid-west?  Funny or Die just posted this movie trailer about it, starring Alicia Silverstone (me) and Alanis Morrisette (Stefania).

I always suspected that our lives are ripe for an IFC feature length film, and now I have confirmation. But just for the record, our real soundtrack has a lot more rap, the kind with with very explicit lyrics. No Diggity, No Doubt!

P.S. to Scott Monty, Ford Social Media Czar: even though I'm devastated and heart-broken that we can't have a Shelby, thanks for giving us the Taurus SHO to drive to Chicago. I hear it's badass, and probably less likely to get the attention of speed trap monitoring state troopers.  Speaking of, if we get any tickets while driving the non-Shelby Mustang, can we expense those back to Ford?

P.S.2 Don't worry, both our moms are alive, kicking and far too well-dressed to ever wear a red beret. But they do plenty of other crazy shit (Love you, Mom & Tata!) so the movie will still be an Emotional Laugh Riot.

- Cat/BadKitty

Ford-y Whatever Road Trip!

Badass 2010 Shelby Mustang, courtesy of Shelby Forums

So ... remember a few months ago, when Stefania and I started this site? And we said we wanted to take kooky trips and have adventures and generally spend the whole year celebrating?

(Please see: "The Not Bucket List" to your right.)

Well, wishing made things so, and we're taking a pre-BlogHer road trip, up through Michigan and then across the state to Chicago for the conference at the end of July.

Actually, it wasn't wishing so much as finding some visionaries at the Ford Motor Company, who agreed that our "Ford Fan Pilgrimage from the Past to the Future" idea was as awesome (or perhaps funny) as we did.

What's a "Ford Fan Pilgrimage from the Past to the Future"? Glad you asked! It involves:

• picking up a Ford Mustang in Dearborn, MI (is it wrong to wish on every shooting star that it will be a beautiful, powerful, badass Shelby GT500?)
  
  (Btw, if it's what God needs to make it so, I will also cross the threshold of a Catholic church and light as many candles as it takes.)
  
  (Besides, it's not like we're asking for the Super Snake Package, or being picky about colors or demanding the convertible. We're grateful for whatever we get, we just hope it will be a black and white Shelby, and not even a convertible because we're driving long distances, and that's a lot of wind and sun for your hair to deal with.)

• driving the absolute speed limit (at least whenever we see cops) up to Mackinac Island, where we will stay at the Grand Hotel, setting of the romantic cult classic film Somewhere in Time -- we even get to interview the Hotel Historian, who will hopefully clear up this whole "travel through time using only the power of  your mind" shenanigans.

• shooting back down to Detroit, where we get to tour the Ford plant and ask a million questions about their new models, sustainability, and who gets to name the colors.

• swapping our glorious Ford Mustang/Possibly Badass Shelby GT500 (which we plan to name The McKenna, after Jane Seymour's character in Somewhere in Time) for something else, perhaps a Ford Fusion Hybrid.
  
  (Naturally, our second car will be called The Collier, after Christopher Reeve's character in the film.)

• hanging out with the delightfully zesty Queen of Spain, who threatened to make us do shots promised to show us the "sights" around the greater Detroit area.
  
  
• making our way to Chicago, and arriving a day or two before BlogHer, all the better to receive a personal tour from our dear friends Sassafrass and Foodmomiac.  They're going to reveal the secret, best things about Chicago to us, before the other 1,000 crazy blogging women arrive.

After all of that amazing fun, we get to go to BlogHer!

Of course we're going to blog, tweet, Facebook and (gulp) YouTube every step of the way, so you won't miss a moment! Stay tuned for all of the exciting, over-sharing details.

And hey, if you have suggestions for places to see on the way, please, please PLEASE leave 'em in the comments!

WOOT! ROAD TRIP!

- Cat/BadKitty