When Zac Phillips, a good friend of mine and the boyfriend of Moo Bunny Miranda DeMontier, left for his basic training for the summer, me and Miranda decided it would be nice to go to his graduation in Fort Leonard Wood in St. Robert, Missouri. At first, it had sounded like a wonderful idea, but of course, it would take a LOT and I mean A LOT of planning to successfully do so and pull it off. At first, it didn't seem like we were getting too far with any planning, and it felt like it wasn't gonna work out, which made me nervous. So, after some texting and some calls, we started to get somewhere with the idea. Our first step to plan was how we were going to get there of course. At first, Miranda had wanted to board an airplane and fly down to Missouri. However, after some research, it turned out to be too expensive and we decided against it. So, she then decided we should drive down to Missouri. At the time, I wasn't too fond of the idea, especially when she told me we'd be using MY car to drive down there. Somehow, after a little bit of thinking, I thought it wouldn't be too terrible, especially after she thought her friends, Kristina (who I barely know but have met a few times and am hoping to be friends with her as well) and Kristina's boyfriend, Jake "Murph" (the former boyfriend of Miranda's friend Rose, and a guy who I am dying to play Super Smash Bros. with), would come along for the ride as well. But, after some more thinking, we decided against that as well. So, Miranda finally had figured out the best idea would be to take a bus trip down, seeing as it would be our cheapest option. I thought long and hard about said idea, and decided it was a good idea. So, we had made that our choice of travel. So, she had looked up tickets for buses and found the Greyhound bus, a company that we thought would be good but this is explained much later on, and found some cheap tickets for around $200 (each, $200 for me, $200 for the pooch). Now, I was totally down for a trip to Missouri, so after deciding this would be fun, I immediately did some research for fun things to do around the area and found quite a lot of fun things. There were lots of restaurants, attractions, and even a fudge factory called "Uranus Fudge Factory" (They say "Welcome to Uranus" and "Thanks for picking Uranus", and if you don't get the pun behind it, ask someone else). So, after the Moo Moo found the tickets, she went ahead and purchased them, and got one step closer to our trip. We then had to figure out how we were going to get to the bus station in Boston, which was a challenge in itself since our first bus left Boston at 1 A.M. So, Moo Cow Miranda reached out to Kristina and Murph, and they (hopefully) happily agreed to take us to Boston. We left on a Monday, August 27, 2018 and the bus left the next day on Tuesday, August 28, 2018 at 1 A.M., which was obviously annoying as it was already. One challenge we faced was where we were going to stay. So, Miranda decided we should stay in a motel or something like that. I thought that was a great idea, and it wouldn't be too expensive. But, Trucinda, Zac's mom, and her friend Diana let us stay in the hotel room they were staying in, which was nice and it saved us a couple extra buckaroonies. Then of course, the packing. Packing was not that bad, the problem was I had to bring Zac's cot to sleep on in the hotel room, which wasn't bad, the worst part was lugging it around, but thankfully, it was kept in the little storage space on the bus underneath. Miranda brought along, Zac Jr., a stuffed doggy animal me and Zac had made her for her birthday present at Build-a-Bear. So, August 27th came, the day we finally left, and of course we were as ready as we could hopefully be. It wasn't too bad leaving, and since thankfully Kristina and Jake were nice enough to drive us, that just proves that we got not only lucky, but blessed enough to have someone take us. On top of all that, we even had Domino's pizza to eat which is always favored pizza by me (yeah, I'm not sorry UNO!). We all met at my house, and the time came to leave, we said our goodbyes to my dad, and finally, after a long drive to Boston, we made it to the station. We made our way to the gate, and after the bus had finally arrived, we said our goodbyes to Kristina and Murphy. So, me and the Moo Bunny boarded the bus and finally sat down, took a selfie and posted it on Facebook to let our friends and family know we were en route! However, this was not a direct trip down to Missouri, nope. We had to make stops along the way, the first being New York City. After about 4-5 hours, we arrived in NYC about 6 in the morning. Obviously, both of us are beyond tired and a little cranky, but we only had such a limited amount of time in New York City, meaning we couldn't step outside and walk around the city, which I was dying to hopefully do, but it didn't work out. Instead, at least I got Dunkin' Donuts and sat in the station doing pretty much absolutely nothing. Then, the time came to change buses and make our way to the next stop, which was Newark, New Jersey. Now, the bus, quite possibly the WORST and I mean the ABSOLUTE WORST, bus either of us had ever been on. The accommodations were not even remotely close to what they should and could have been. There was barely any extra leg room, the Wi-Fi absolutely sucked which was the worst part for me, so I had to use cellphone data to do anything, and the bathroom was not very pleasant according to Miranda. All the staff for Greyhound was absolutely disrespectful to both me and the Moo Bunny. And if those aren't bad enough, each bus trip was never on schedule, which made us worry if we were gonna make it on time for anything. And pretty much every stop, we were required to get off, which was just ridiculous enough as it was. The only good thing about any of these bus trips was the stop at the Service Plaza in Pennsylvania to stop and get food, which helped me out a lot because I got Burger King and since I am such a great friend, I even shared with the Pooch. Now, you're probably wondering how long did the bus trip take? Well, since it wasn't a direct trip there, it took us 35 hours (NONSTOP if I may add) just to get from Boston to St. Louis. That means, we spent overnight on the bus and it just drove on as the nights rolled on. Our only hope for sleep was to hopefully get lucky enough and sleep on the bus in our seats, which at times we were lucky to do. After a couple extra stops, we made it to St. Louis finally on Thursday, August 30, 2018. You're probably thinking "Wait, what happened to St. Robert?". So, when me and the Moo Moo arrived in St. Louis, that's where we met up with Trucinda and Diana, then we had to get a rental car to drive around with. So, we did so and if you thought we were done traveling, think again. We had to drive pretty much another 2 hours just to get to St. Robert, thankfully we fell asleep in the back of the car. We got to the motel, dropped our stuff off, and since it was family day for us to see Zac, we saw him and hung around with him for a bit. Nicely enough for Zac, his stepdad, Keith and his girlfriend Karen had come to Missouri as well. We hung with them, and that was nice as well. But, it was time for Zac to go back with his people. So, me and Miranda drove back with Keith and Karen to the hotel. It was late, we were all obviously exhausted, so we crashed for the night. We got up the next day, and finally it was graduation day! We got back to the military base and saw a nice graduation. It was cool and finally got to have Zac all to ourselves. But, the time came for me and the Moo Moo to make it back to the bus. We got dropped off and had to make our way back to St. Louis, but we did so in a cab, weirdly enough. Back at St. Louis, we finally got back on the dreadful bus and started making our way back home. This was basically the same as the trip coming down, only worse in my opinion. Why? Well, for starters, we're both obviously tired and cranky and dirty. Poor Miranda was beyond exhausted and cranky that it seemed the only thing she wanted was to be left alone, get back home and sleep and shower. So, after the same trip basically backwards, we got back to Boston on Saturday, September 1st, 2018 at around 4 A.M. And who picked us up you may wonder? Why, none other than my own dad and little sister Nika! We got back to my house around 5 in the morning, and poor Moo Pooch had to make it back home so she drove all tired at 5ish in the morning. However, all I cared about was taking a nice shower and going to sleep. Funny enough, I slept for about 7 hours and woke up around noon time. So, for the rest of that day, I just drove around, went to Market Basket to get a wedding gift for a wedding I had the next day, went to UNO for a lobster roll (yes, even I eat at UNO when I feel like it) and weirdly enough (in all niceness), I get a call from the Pooch Bunny. I answer, she's crying, I ask what was up, and she wanted to see me. I'm wondering "Why? I thought you had plans with Zac?", but nonetheless, I pay for my meal and go meet up with her. I'm not going to explain why she was crying because that's personal, but I met up with her, comforted her and gave her a hug and just spent some nice extra quality time with her. She felt better, we both went back home and I watched "The Day after Tomorrow" (I had been dying to see it for some time). And that's basically how me and my best friend spent a week of the summer taking a trip that we will definitely remember for all eternity. Now, if I had to pick a most favorite and least favorite part of this trip, I would. Starting with my least favorite, well of course, was dealing with the bus and staff. One staff member was so mean to poor Moo Moo Miranda, because she left her ticket on the bus when we made a stop and she was supposed to grab it, but forgot and one staff member was so disgustingly disrespectful to her that I wanted to step up and say something but didn't, and I should have, and I am so sorry Miranda that I didn't stand up for you, why am I a terrible friend? Even worse than that, she said she wanted to talk with Zac alone, but I didn't really let her (I'll never know why) and she got annoyed and mad at that and it made me almost regret going on the trip in the first place. So, I got moody and mopey and showed it in front of her and Zac and even worse, Keith and Karen. But thankfully we got over that, so thank God. But my favorite part is a small story in itself. Now, this is NOT meant to creep and/or freak anyone out, but while on the bus going to Missouri, since we're both tired enough of course, Miranda was able to fall asleep (which I unfortunately couldn't do so much as well) and I don't know if she meant to do this intentionally or on accident, but before I knew it, she falls asleep on me and rests her head on my shoulder. And while she did this (again, not meant to weird anyone out), it just made me so thankful and lucky and blessed, etc. to have such a WONDERFUL and AMAZING best friend like her. With her head on my shoulder, I kept telling myself something like: "I love my best friend so, so much beyond belief. Thank you God for giving me Miranda. I have the most amazing best friend ever." And it's true, to know she was asleep right on my shoulder, it made me realize I am so grateful to have met such a great person and I love her so much. I told her I liked it when she fell asleep on me, but of course, being the idiot I am, she wasn't fond of hearing that and I was full of regret of having said that. But, there you have it, the story of Me and Miranda's trip to Missouri. Many ups and downs, but if I learned anything from this trip it's this: I love my best friend beyond belief and am so lucky to have her. I have to respect her and Zac's relationship a lot better than I have been. And lastly: NEVER EVER GO ON ANOTHER GREYHOUND BUS AGAIN FOR AS LONG AS I SHALL LIVE!