Montana, Yellowstone, and the Marlboro Ranch (Part 2)

We received our tickets only about a week before we were set to leave. Those days leading up to take off seemed to drag on; the excitement seemed unbearable. My wife and I are not world travelers. We are barely travelers at all. We get down to the Memphis area as often as possible to visit family but that's about it. Other than Vegas back in '07 we had never taken a real vacation together; time and money constraints won't allow it. Finally we were going to get a real vacation, and someone else was picking up the tab.

When the day arrived, we loaded our bags in the back of the Mustang, donned our "ranch hats" that Marlboro sent us and requested we wear on our flight, and headed for Port Columbus. Having flown only one other time in my life, I expected my nerves to be unbearable. I was wrong. I barely noticed the nervousness as the excitement of the unknown took hold of my consciousness.

The reason for the hats became evident when we landed in Min/St Paul for our connecting flight to Bozeman, Montana. The hats seemed to take over the airport the closer we got to our gate. Everywhere we turned, we encountered other people on the same unbelievable high that we were on.

When we finally arrived at the Bozeman airport, we were immediately greeted by staff of the ranch. They were unmistakable with their bright red shirts, perfectly authentic cowboy hats and boots, and strangely genuine smiles. We're from Ohio, we are not used to genuine smiles from perfect strangers. Their staff gathered our luggage, there was a quick "getting to know you" speech and then we were off.

As we traveled down the highway toward the ranch my mouth stayed agape. Never before had I seen such beautiful landscape; the not so distant snow capped Rocky Mountains, the farms that looked so similar yet so different than what I was used to seemed to stretch for miles. The sky...the sky and clouds were so close I could have reached out and touched them.

When we arrived at the ranch, we were shown to our rooms and were greeted by a bed full of free gifts. Stetson cowboy hats, Resistol cowboy boots, Columbia windbreakers, heavy coats, sunglasses, backpacks, stainless steel water bottles, the list goes on and on, and none of it had the Marlboro logo on it (another plus). The gifts alone would have been enough, but the adventure was just beginning.

Montana, Yellowstone, and the Marlboro Ranch (Part 1)

As some of you may or may not know, my wife and I recently returned from a trip to the Marlboro Ranch. I know what you're thinking..."The Marlboro Ranch? Is that where they grow cigarettes?" Well the answer is no...and yes; I'll explain later."

My wife, Chelsea, has been on Marlboro's mailing list since she turned twenty-one and could legally certify that she was a smoker over the age of twenty-one (if you're on the list, you get that joke...). Well, we get their junk in the mail all the time. Sometimes it's coupons, other times it's free gifts like ash trays and such. Well a couple of months ago we she got a package via fed-ex that said that they wanted to send her and a guest to their ranch in Montana. The Crazy Mountain Ranch is the real name, but it is affectionately referred to as the Marlboro Ranch. The paperwork said it was an all expenses paid, four day, three night vacation in the Crazy Mountains in Montana. We were obviously skeptical at first, but my wife called the RSVP number and gave them our Promo code and the voice on the other end immediately congratulated her. I got right on some Google research and found several blogs written by people who had received the same package and swore that it was legit.

Time went on and we continued to receive correspondence from them; what activities did we want to do, what our hat and boot size were, that sort of thing. I remained skeptical until the day we got luggage in the mail from them, and a few days following that our plane tickets and a check for $1280. $1250 of that was for incidentals, the other thirty and the thirty dollar check they sent me were for baggage check fees. They had hooked us. Looking at those tickets really gave us the fever. We were ready...

Web 2.0; The Art of Interaction

In 2005 (or around that time) when I joined DeviantArt, I had a very limited knowledge of the workings of the Internet and the World Wide Web; I barely knew there was a difference. Since that time my knowledge has grown exponentially. Due in part to repeated use and more importantly due to courses I've taken through the Digital Media Design program at COTC, I have grown to love the interactivity of Web 2.0 and am trying to take advantage of my opportunity to make my mark on the world through user generated content. In light of that, I wanted to take a moment to provide links to some of the sites where I leave bits of myself. Feel free, scratch that, feel encouraged to visit these sites, say hello and leave a piece of yourself forever imprinted on the face of the World Wide Web. As this list grows, and I'm sure it will, I will update this post.
_{(This will be posted in more than one spot)}

My Blog @ Blogger~
How Much Difference?

My DeviantArt Site~
BuckNut on DeviantArt

My facebook~ _{(Don't judge me; it's a good place to interact with my family and friends that I don't see very often)}
Zachariah Biggs on facebook

My Photography Website~ _{(This is still under construction and I don't have a lot of time to work on it right now, but it will be finished eventually.)}
ZEBiggs Photography

Tweet Me~
ZachariahBiggs on Twitter

Email me @~
zebiggs@gmail.com

Hope to hear from you soon,
-Zachariah E Biggs

Pearl Jam News

For Pearl Jam fans~

About the new album's release

Last Night's performance on The Tonight Show

New ID for DeviantArt

See the Deviation

Introduction to How Much Difference?

First of all, let me begin with an explanation for the title, How Much Difference? The term "how much difference" is taken from my favorite song of all time, Indifference by Pearl Jam. In the case of this blog, it serves a double meaning; first of all, it pays homage to a song that has meant a lot to me over the years, and secondly, well, you figure it out.

I would like for this to be a blog written by myself, as well as family and friends. I will invite certain people that I think may be interested in authoring posts on this blog, and hopefully it will produce some interesting reading. If you are interested in authoring posts on this blog, please e-mail me or comment on this post, and we can discuss it. I will try my best to not turn this into a spot where we only come to vent frustrations, but I must admit that it will, on occasion, be just that.

The number of posts that will appear here will depend entirely on how often I or the other authors feel inspired to share. It is very likely that I will sometimes post just to share cool links that I think some people may find interesting. I have very strong opinions on many subjects so I am likely to post often, when I have the time. Chances are that when college football season gets here, my posts will increase, Go Bucks!!

I hope that if you are reading this, you will click the little "follow this blog" link and comment when you feel moved to do so. I have allowed anonymous comments, but signing up for a blogger account (which is actually a Google account) is very easy and quick, and then you will no longer be an anonymous icon on the screen. You will have an identity for the whole world to see.

On occasion, it is possible that the topics discussed here will not be appropriate for all readers. It is possible that some of it may be down right offensive for some readers (my mother for instance). I will include a sign of some sort at the beginning of any blog I write that may fall under this category to warn readers, but I can not promise that other authors will do the same; although I will encourage that they do.

I hope that this will not be a gross waste of time, and that people will read and interact with this blog.

-Zack Biggs