So I am finally bored enough to go ahead and post all of this. I am going to give a little backstory and then get into it. This will be long so I may post it in stages.
So here goes.......
Backstory:
This all started sometime back in my high school days(I'm 30 now)when I was at the Daytona 500. The Marlboro girls were giving out free Zippos when you gave them your info. So I thought what the hell and filled it out and got my Zippo. Fast forward 10 years or so and I get a wall mounted bottle opener from Marlboro in the mail for my birthday. Sweet, what else can I get? I log into their website and update all my info and hey I win a hat. Cool. So a little more time goes on and every so often I log in and see whats going on. I end up getting all kinds of shit. Ashtrays, phone skins, playing cards, etc. Now I always see the stuff about the Marlboro Ranch and it looks cool but I figure there is no way in hell I am ever winning that. Fast forward to this past summer......
I receive a package from fed-ex that had to be signed for(what a pain in the ass coordinating that is) and it includes this:
Now this includes a ton of documents that you have to fill out and have notorized and sent back within 7 days. So I say to the wife get filling!
So a few weeks go buy and I'm at work one day and get a call saying I won! Fuck Yeah! I figure they use the first letter to weed out some people that don't fill out the info. The lady asks if I can make the trip and of course I can so she says be on the lookout for another fed ex package(here we go again with the signature).
BOOM:
This shit is getting real now. As you can see the trip is for 4 days/3 nights and they pay for everything! Airfare, bag fees, food, drinks, rooms, and all activities at the ranch. They even included a $750 check just for the hell of it. Just extra money.
Now all this documentation was about what you wanted to do and get info about your sizes(hat, shoe, jacket). Here were are options for activities:
I was for sure on the off roading and the shooting clays and the wife wanted to do the zipline so we just had one more option to rate high and we chose archery for 2 reasons. 1: I have been horseback riding and could care less if I ever do it again so that takes care of the cattle drive and horseback ride. 2: The mountain biking sounded cool but then I realized I am 10 years out of shape and 50 pounds overweight so that was out.
About a week before the trip we get one final fed ex package containing all the goodies:
We got the plane tickets, the gift card to use to check your bags, baseball hats with the ranch logo on them, the $750 check, and what we would be doing. Now I had also been getting follow up calls just to make sure we didnt have any questions. The last follow up call we were told to keep an eye out for 1 final package that I wouldn't have to sign for(thank god).
Final package arrives and it's brand new luggage! At this point I can only imagine what it's going to be like at the ranch since I am already surprised with all this free shit.
So the Ranch is in Montana and we fly out of O'hare into Bozemon on this tiny little plane. Now if you ever get the chance to fly into Bozemon aiport do it. It is the nicest and cleanest airport I have been in. Tons of gorgeous exposed wood that people here would put in millions dollar homes. It is a small airport with I think less than 10 terminals.
This pic is of the plane we took and of the view when we landed.
Now we had lunch at the airport which was paid for by Marlboro while we waited for the other flights to get in. The ranch was about an hour from the airport. We took a charter to the ranch.
Arriving:
So I am going to explain a little about the ranch:
It is essential an old west town in the middle of an actual working ranch that Marlboro owns. The ranch is 18,000 acres that spans 27 square miles. The guest portion covers about 5,000 acres. A lot of the buildings are from the 1800s and early 1900s and were moved to the ranch. Most of the buildings are used as the rooms for the guests.
Fun Facts about the ranch:
Map of the ranch:
So we get there and are issued a guide to show us around and take us to our room. We are informed that we are staying in the cougar room which is located in the dancing bear lodge. Now our guide was super excited for us that we got that room. I guess when the head honchos go out there that is one of the rooms they request. So I'm figuring a nice room but nothing crazy and I figure it's gonna be like a hotel room. I was wrong.
So when you pull in you are at the stage stop. Here is the town from that spot:
The Dancing Bear Lodge:
Why it's called the Dancing Bear Lodge:
Our Room:
The Balcony of our room:
Now you might be wondering why it is called the cougar room:
You also may have noticed a bunch of stuff on the bed
Now I know why they wanted all our sizes. We each got boots, a stetson hat, a jacket, portable ashtrays, bandannas, flashlights, and 5 packs of smokes each. Now I don't smoke so those came home and went to my cousin. You will also notice those folded red cards. Those each included a chip that was worth $150 at the gift shop. So we got to get more free stuff. The additional free stuff included a digital camera, an engraved zippo, belt buckle, shirts, glasses, mugs, backpacks, and we each got to get 1 more pack of smokes each. Well I do smoke cigars and they had black and milds so I got some of those as to not look totally out of place when I wasn't smoking.
Now the room was super nice. That bed is a king size. It was a very good size room with 4 closets and a balcony. The bathroom had a claw foot tub and a toilet where the tank is mounted high on the wall. I literally felt like wild west royalty. All I needed was a badge and a gun and I was ready for a shootout at the O.K. Corral.
Now we got settled and had a while before dinner so we figured lets check out the rest of the town.
Now we decided to get our hats shaped:
Then we had to check out the jail which was real:
There were Pheasants everywhere and they didn't give any fucks that you were there:
So it was the evening now and we had dinner and pretty much went to bed as we had a long day tomorrow with our activities.
Too be continued......
So here goes.......
Backstory:
This all started sometime back in my high school days(I'm 30 now)when I was at the Daytona 500. The Marlboro girls were giving out free Zippos when you gave them your info. So I thought what the hell and filled it out and got my Zippo. Fast forward 10 years or so and I get a wall mounted bottle opener from Marlboro in the mail for my birthday. Sweet, what else can I get? I log into their website and update all my info and hey I win a hat. Cool. So a little more time goes on and every so often I log in and see whats going on. I end up getting all kinds of shit. Ashtrays, phone skins, playing cards, etc. Now I always see the stuff about the Marlboro Ranch and it looks cool but I figure there is no way in hell I am ever winning that. Fast forward to this past summer......
I receive a package from fed-ex that had to be signed for(what a pain in the ass coordinating that is) and it includes this:
Now this includes a ton of documents that you have to fill out and have notorized and sent back within 7 days. So I say to the wife get filling!
So a few weeks go buy and I'm at work one day and get a call saying I won! Fuck Yeah! I figure they use the first letter to weed out some people that don't fill out the info. The lady asks if I can make the trip and of course I can so she says be on the lookout for another fed ex package(here we go again with the signature).
BOOM:
This shit is getting real now. As you can see the trip is for 4 days/3 nights and they pay for everything! Airfare, bag fees, food, drinks, rooms, and all activities at the ranch. They even included a $750 check just for the hell of it. Just extra money.
Now all this documentation was about what you wanted to do and get info about your sizes(hat, shoe, jacket). Here were are options for activities:
I was for sure on the off roading and the shooting clays and the wife wanted to do the zipline so we just had one more option to rate high and we chose archery for 2 reasons. 1: I have been horseback riding and could care less if I ever do it again so that takes care of the cattle drive and horseback ride. 2: The mountain biking sounded cool but then I realized I am 10 years out of shape and 50 pounds overweight so that was out.
About a week before the trip we get one final fed ex package containing all the goodies:
We got the plane tickets, the gift card to use to check your bags, baseball hats with the ranch logo on them, the $750 check, and what we would be doing. Now I had also been getting follow up calls just to make sure we didnt have any questions. The last follow up call we were told to keep an eye out for 1 final package that I wouldn't have to sign for(thank god).
Final package arrives and it's brand new luggage! At this point I can only imagine what it's going to be like at the ranch since I am already surprised with all this free shit.
So the Ranch is in Montana and we fly out of O'hare into Bozemon on this tiny little plane. Now if you ever get the chance to fly into Bozemon aiport do it. It is the nicest and cleanest airport I have been in. Tons of gorgeous exposed wood that people here would put in millions dollar homes. It is a small airport with I think less than 10 terminals.
This pic is of the plane we took and of the view when we landed.
Now we had lunch at the airport which was paid for by Marlboro while we waited for the other flights to get in. The ranch was about an hour from the airport. We took a charter to the ranch.
Arriving:
So I am going to explain a little about the ranch:
It is essential an old west town in the middle of an actual working ranch that Marlboro owns. The ranch is 18,000 acres that spans 27 square miles. The guest portion covers about 5,000 acres. A lot of the buildings are from the 1800s and early 1900s and were moved to the ranch. Most of the buildings are used as the rooms for the guests.
Fun Facts about the ranch:
Map of the ranch:
So we get there and are issued a guide to show us around and take us to our room. We are informed that we are staying in the cougar room which is located in the dancing bear lodge. Now our guide was super excited for us that we got that room. I guess when the head honchos go out there that is one of the rooms they request. So I'm figuring a nice room but nothing crazy and I figure it's gonna be like a hotel room. I was wrong.
So when you pull in you are at the stage stop. Here is the town from that spot:
The Dancing Bear Lodge:
Why it's called the Dancing Bear Lodge:
Our Room:
The Balcony of our room:
Now you might be wondering why it is called the cougar room:
You also may have noticed a bunch of stuff on the bed
Now I know why they wanted all our sizes. We each got boots, a stetson hat, a jacket, portable ashtrays, bandannas, flashlights, and 5 packs of smokes each. Now I don't smoke so those came home and went to my cousin. You will also notice those folded red cards. Those each included a chip that was worth $150 at the gift shop. So we got to get more free stuff. The additional free stuff included a digital camera, an engraved zippo, belt buckle, shirts, glasses, mugs, backpacks, and we each got to get 1 more pack of smokes each. Well I do smoke cigars and they had black and milds so I got some of those as to not look totally out of place when I wasn't smoking.
Now the room was super nice. That bed is a king size. It was a very good size room with 4 closets and a balcony. The bathroom had a claw foot tub and a toilet where the tank is mounted high on the wall. I literally felt like wild west royalty. All I needed was a badge and a gun and I was ready for a shootout at the O.K. Corral.
Now we got settled and had a while before dinner so we figured lets check out the rest of the town.
Now we decided to get our hats shaped:
Then we had to check out the jail which was real:
There were Pheasants everywhere and they didn't give any fucks that you were there:
So it was the evening now and we had dinner and pretty much went to bed as we had a long day tomorrow with our activities.
Too be continued......
the more im in illinois the more I realize it blows.
