cowcow2exportLori and I are helping out her parents by driving their car from South Dakota out to Washington while they visit the new grand baby this week. If you haven’t had the pleasure to drive across South Dakota, Montana, Idaho and Washington in 2 1/2 days you should. The sarcasm there is for the quickness of the trip, because it is an amazingly beautiful part of the world. It is big sky country for a reason.  However, it is a long-ass drive. I mean you can only drive for so long before you go a little crazy behind the wheel or in the passenger seat.

To pass the time, Lori and I created a game the last time we did this drive. Actually, we created two games. Not a red barn is pretty easy to figure out, except it took about 200 miles of discussion about what actually constitutes a barn. Lori and I both still think the other person is crazy for not knowing what a barn really is, but I digress. The big game to play on the road is Cow Cow Graveyard.

The game is pretty easy. You pick a number either 500 or 1000. You then count the number of cows on your side of the road until you reach the number. First person to the number wins. If you pass a graveyard on your side of the road, it is back to zero. That is pretty much the gist of the game. Not that hard, good for kids and adults of all ages. We did have to come up with a few more rules, but they are optional if you aren’t in our car:

  • you have to count out loud
  • you can count by two
  • you can’t estimate the number of cows, only ones you say out loud can be counted
  • when you get exactly 1 less cow than the required total you have to say mooNO (adopted from Uno)
  • if you see cows off in the distance and think you have enough to win, you have to say moo’em and weep. If you are wrong you have to subtract 100.

That’s about it. A fun and easy way to pass the time. Of course in the passenger seat it is fun to stick the camera out the window and see that happens at 75 miles per hour. Open roads, lots of cows and a some amazing scenery, now that’s a great trip. A quick click from the iPhone and now I have to go, I think Lori is counting sheep as cows again.