Dirty Sodas & Fluffy Cows: Adventures on the Road to Yellowstone

Sharlotte and Aunt Steve are back with another wild stretch of their road trip adventure — and this one has everything from “dirty sodas” in Utah to snowmen disasters in Wyoming. Along the way, they talk about homeschooling on the road, missing friends back home, accidentally almost getting stuck at Walmart, and discovering a dairy farm with life-changing raspberry cheesecake ice cream.

They also share stories from the Tetons, lessons about fluffy cows (a.k.a. bison), and why every day on the road feels like a new adventure. Next stop: Yellowstone National Park.

Expect laughs, sibling-style roasting, snack reviews, and a surprisingly heartfelt look at life on the move.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Hi, I'm Charlotte.

SPEAKER_00 0:03

I'm Ann Steve.

SPEAKER_01 0:04

And this is Middle School Miles.

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Which is a podcast.

SPEAKER_01 0:07

It is a podcast.

SPEAKER_00 0:10

And it's a podcast because we have a unique situation, right?

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Because I'm a 14-year-old on a road trip with the uncle doing homeschooling.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

And experiential schooling.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Experiential.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Experiential.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Experiential.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

Close enough.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

What does experiential learning mean?

SPEAKER_01 0:30

It's like you do schoolwork and then maybe you might go to a science museum or shopping or going yeah, going to national parks doing something that you're done with school for three hours and then you go do something fun.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

What do you like?

SPEAKER_01 0:49

Okay, I do and I don't like it. I like it because then I get to catch up on if a show comes out during the day that I've been wanting to watch and the season comes out, but if I were to go to school and I'd have to wait until I got home to watch it. That's kind of bummed, but if it comes out in the middle of the day and then I can just watch it and I don't have to wait.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

So you're likely to have more flexibility with your schedule.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

But I don't like it because I try to talk to my friends, but they don't really talk to me because they're either at school. So I'm just sitting there for two to three hours doing nothing. And playing Fortnite by myself. Some of my friends can't play on electronics during the week. So I have to wait until the weekend.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

What's something you'd like about it?

SPEAKER_01 1:35

Something else I like about it. I get to eat whatever I want and whenever I want to eat it. Except for ice cream, which I do something before I eat ice cream.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

You put two and two together and figure that out.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:46

So you're gonna ask me again or no?

SPEAKER_01 1:48

No, because then I'm not gonna be able to have it after this or dinner.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

Uh-uh. So the last time we recorded a podcast episode, we were on a lake in Utah.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

No. We didn't record that.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

No, we were in Provo. Who wants to get kalachis? Remember? But there was some place that we went that you were really looking forward to going.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

Oh, s what is Swig? Swig is like this Utah thing, and everybody brags about it. It's like a drink place. If you have a Sonic near you, you can basically get the same thing at Sonic. But Sonic has other food things, and Swig is just cookies, pretzels, and then dirty sodas. And they have other things like refashers and boba and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 2:33

What is a dirty soda?

SPEAKER_01 2:34

A dirty soda is like if you mix Dr. Pepper with coconut cream or Coca-Cola with lavender, or spite with lavender syrup is like the best.

SPEAKER_00 2:47

Did you like it?

SPEAKER_01 2:48

Yeah, it was really good. I drank the whole entire thing. It was only a 25-minute car ride home. And it was a medium, so it was massive, and I chugged the whole entire thing, and it was delicious.

SPEAKER_00 3:03

So we've done swig.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

Swig.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

Done in and out.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

In and out.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

What's something else you want to try?

SPEAKER_01 3:08

Wait, the Starbucks drink.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

Oh no.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

I wasn't thinking about Tillamook. Oh yeah, we're gonna have Tillamook.

SPEAKER_00 3:16

We're gonna go to Tillamook.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

No, but I was thinking about the Starbucks Cape. The like unicorn one.

SPEAKER_00 3:21

That they came out.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

And the butterfly drink. But there's no Starbucks around here, so it's not even like I can pick it up.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

This is true. Tell me, what's something else we did since the last time we recorded?

SPEAKER_01 3:31

Well, you got stuck at Walmart.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

I didn't get stuck.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

Yes, I came close.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

We got out of there. Let's preface this with explaining that we went to Walmart for a grocery pickup. The grocery pickup area had some tight turns.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

I had to honk my horn at somebody about to park in my way.

SPEAKER_01 3:56

Yeah, but they were nice about it.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

Moved.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

They were nice.

SPEAKER_00 4:00

And then we had to loop through the parking lot to make our way out.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

We missed a true fruit pop up. And I literally hinted and you're like, oh, okay. And then you turned the other direction.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

Kept going.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

You turned the other direction. True f You know what true fruit is?

SPEAKER_00 4:15

They had a pop-up.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

Yeah, I'm like so into fruit today.

SPEAKER_00 4:19

So after we left Provo.

SPEAKER_01 4:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:23

We went to Utah Wayne.

SPEAKER_01 4:27

That was annoying. Cause you're like, guess what? One Utah. Guess what? One Wyoming, like, wow.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

It was a campground right on the state line.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

I had a nice ocean.

SPEAKER_00 4:37

It was a lake.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

Lake, ocean, water.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

And there was snow.

SPEAKER_01 4:42

Yeah, there was snow, and I gotta play in the snow until my time went off, and then I caught.

SPEAKER_00 4:47

And then you went back out after.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

And I went back out after. And my snowman not did. Okay, long story short, because I don't know if I'm allowed to say one of the diseases that Bob had, because it might be rude for some people.

SPEAKER_00 5:00

You're not gonna say that your snowman was diseased. We're not gonna name the diseases. Because there were seven.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

It looked sad. Well, there was George, and George had ice sunglasses because there was ice on the front of the bus, took it off and used it as glasses, but he was on the hood of the car because it was deer, and I didn't even want to pick up snow with deer feces on it. So I was guess I was guessing something else, but good catch. So I sat on top of the Jeep hood, and there was snow all over it. So I kinda used that. And we had George, which George sadly died because we slid off the court, and then there was Bob, and Bob stuck around for an hour, and he had hair, and he had eyes, a nose, hair, everything. Except grass sticks.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

But no rocks, because rocks would melt and hit the streets.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

Actually, there was rocks until you said why are the rocks on the snowman, and then I had to take them off.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

So after that, we drove to where we are now.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:19

Which is in the Tetons, Wyoming.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:23

But we made our cool stop on the room.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

We went we went to a farm and they had yogurt, and I do not like yogurt. The last thing I want to eat is yogurt, but this yogurt was the b I ate the whole entire thing in like one and a half sittings. And then they had ice cream, and there's still ice cream in the fridge. We had got like five to seven different flavors.

SPEAKER_00 6:44

So it was a dairy farm with their own creamery.

SPEAKER_01 6:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

And you got to pet the baby cow, which was cute, long eyelashes.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

I wanted a cold eyelashes.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

This is true.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

Bro, it was so nice. Those eyelashes could make millions.

SPEAKER_00 7:00

So we picked up a few different flavors of ice cream. Which one was your favorite?

SPEAKER_01 7:05

Okay, so there's one in the freezer right now called Love Potion. And it's raspberry cheesecake with raspberry chunks and cheesecake chunks, and it's so good. It's the best one yet. And then those horse tracks, which was peanut butter ice cream with peanut butter cup cups.

SPEAKER_00 7:29

And they had a blue mint with Oreo, which was pretty good.

SPEAKER_01 7:33

You and your blue mint.

SPEAKER_00 7:35

We left there, we came up to the campground, and we decided we were gonna go to the grocery store.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

Oh but No, no, no. Because whenever you go somewhere new that you don't know, you're supposed to look it up. This one did not look it up.

SPEAKER_00 7:49

The grocery store was closed on Sunday until June 7th.

SPEAKER_01 7:53

Yeah, because I read this sign and I was like, oh no, it says it's open seven days a week. And then in small print, it said June 7th, 2026.

SPEAKER_00 8:02

So the town that we're in is called Aetna. Aetna has a population of 185 people. It is a small town, but it's super cute. It's super pretty. The mountains in the background with snow on top of them. The giant rainbow we saw yesterday. Did I get it right?

SPEAKER_01 8:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:23

So what else? Where are we going next?

SPEAKER_01 8:26

Yellowstone? Yeah. Oh, I got it right. I just guessed.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

Sweet. What do you know about Yellowstone?

SPEAKER_01 8:32

It's yellow and there's stone. Nana Jane went to Yellowstone and she got me a stuffed animal. A stuffed buffalo.

SPEAKER_00 8:38

Bison.

SPEAKER_01 8:39

Bison, yeah, that thing. And she said it was really pretty. And she showed me photos of it.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

Dyser?

SPEAKER_01 8:44

Yes, that's the wood.

SPEAKER_00 8:47

Old faithful. Explodes.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

Dushes.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

Are you looking forward to checking it out? What do we know about bison?

SPEAKER_01 8:53

That they like you.

SPEAKER_00 8:54

But we cannot.

SPEAKER_01 8:55

But they really like you. Do not The Fluffy Cow.

SPEAKER_00 8:58

The fluffy cow.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

No.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

What's something else you're looking forward to?

SPEAKER_01 9:03

Camp. I got in.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

So we were waitlisted for camp.

SPEAKER_01 9:08

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

But we got the notification yesterday.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

You didn't tell me until this morning. That's it.

SPEAKER_00 9:12

Because I wanted to make sure I had your registration done. Because we had to put in a lot of information about health vaccinations and all that stuff. So I wanted to make sure we could get it done before we get a little bit more.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

Oh, like my thousands of tetanus shots.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

So what's a piece of advice that you would give to another 14-year-old that was going to take a road trip adventure like this? To make the most of it, to have fun with it.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

Depending on your age, you should probably do it with friends. But if you're younger, like my age, I would recommend to do it with somebody that you enjoy hanging out with.

SPEAKER_00 9:43

Like me. I was forced on this trip. But we let's be honest. We get along pretty well.

SPEAKER_01 9:49

We get along like mid, unless you take me off. Which that's a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

And you've gotten on my nerves a couple times too. So we're even.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

I'm not a person that gets on people's nerves.

SPEAKER_00 9:59

That is a lie. They can't see my eye roll.

SPEAKER_01 10:03

You didn't even roll your eyes. Staring at me.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

Glare.

SPEAKER_01 10:08

You like this.

SPEAKER_00 10:09

You like this? They're gonna see that on my phone. Yellowstone is next, and then we're gonna make our way up to Glacier National Park. We're gonna stop and see some friends along the way. And then we're gonna go to Washington State and Oregon. And you're gonna go to sleep away camp.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 10:30

Why should people stay tuned for the next episode?

SPEAKER_01 10:34

Because there's a new adventure every day.

SPEAKER_00 10:37

I like that.

SPEAKER_01 10:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

Every day is an adventure.

SPEAKER_01 10:42

Not every day.

SPEAKER_00 10:43

Most days.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

SPEAKER_00 10:47

I love you, kid.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

What?

SPEAKER_00 10:49

I love you, kid. And this has been a good talk.

SPEAKER_01 10:51

Yeah, I love you too.

SPEAKER_00 10:52

Stay tuned for the next episode of subscribe.

SPEAKER_01 10:55

Subscribe. What?

SPEAKER_00 10:56

Subscribe to the podcast so they get automatic notifications when it comes out.

SPEAKER_01 11:00

You checkbox it.

SPEAKER_00 11:03

Subscribing.

SPEAKER_01 11:04

No subscribing is like when you get paid for it.

SPEAKER_00 11:06

No no no. You can opt in. You can subscribe to a free newsletter. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:12

I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_00 11:13

But you can pay for subscriptions.

SPEAKER_01 11:15

Like subscribe.

SPEAKER_00 11:17

Subscribe. Peace out.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

Peace out.