It was so much fun. The drive was really nice. Traffic wasn't tooooo bad. So, here's the play by play:
05.12.05: Karen and I spend entirely too much time baking really bad cookies an having really good nookie. We don't get but 2-3 hours sleep before we both have to hit the road the next morning for pre trip errands. Whoops. But, it was fun. And the cookies aren't THAT bad. You can eat them and not gag... maybe wish real hard for some milk... Packing was a breeze, and nothing was forgotten.
05.13.05: Run and get my hair done (cornrows are back, baby!), takes less than an hour, and life is good. Call Nathan and get the breakfast plan, and life is good. Stop to get hair care products, takes no time at all, life is good. Decided i should get a towel for the beach, didn't want to spend over 10 dollars. HA! this was a major time sink. Three stores later, i find a towel for under 10 at wal mart. There is this woman in the line that gets all bent out of shape because she has to stand in line at the customer service desk to do an exchange. Then the next woman buys shoes, pays for shoes, and then stands there, in the way, to change out of her old shoes and make conversation. So, then i pay and leave, and life is good. I meet Nathan and LeAnn, Karen meets all of us, and brekfast is had. We then go back to nathan's to consolidate cars and hit the road. 90 minutes later, we hit the road. lol. But life is good.
While in Barstow, Karen tells me that she has decided to give us another go. This makes me supremely happy. More on that in another post. Insert road trip of much fun conversation and laughs untill we hit the ted williams parkway and carmel valley road. It was about here that both mapquest and MSN maps decided we needed a good dick in the ass. Both insisted we exit a street too early and take some imaginary road to the hotel. Both pointed to different imaginary roads. One even said to make a u-turn on the imaginary road. It was AWESOME. But, due to some quick dialing on Karen's part, we get to the hotel, pull the first occupancy trick i've ever been party too, and change for the concert. DJ shows up, hello's all around, and we make way to the Rasputina Concert. On the drive over LeAnn asks about the alcoholic drinking potential. After some discussion it assumed no. At which point the big production happens. I fail my will roll and say "Then why did you come to the concert" Answer? To get fucked up. HUH?!? You left your house, came 300+ miles, got dressed up, paid 13 dollars, to get drunk. You can do that shit at home for 1/4 the price. That grated a bit. Anyhow, the concert was awesome. Not as much fun as last year, they seemed slightly less in to it this time. But awesome none the less. The opening bad... not so good. But not so bad either. Predictable hard rock. The venue had a really low stage and Rasputina, being hawt cello players, sit. So they advise the crowd to sit, and eventually they do. At witch point I rescue Karen from the back so we can sit in the audience and watch the show. She was back there because her ankles were displeased with standing. That was awesome. Well, the concert finishes and we go out side and smoke. Oh, here's a tidbit of information that would have been good to have before we arrived: "No re-entry, No Lighters, No Cigarettes, No markers". So, we had to send Nathan to go drop off all contraband. Well, at some point in time, LeAnn decided she was an unwelcome guest and stood about 10 feet away from us. You know, cause we enjoyed the concert... as close as we could... or something. Eventually, we decided to go to a bar and grill and eat and drink. Not too much alcohol was had by me and mine, leAnn, for someone who made it sound as the alcohol was akin to air, had three drinks... lol. We then decided that the hotel must happen. We go back, LeAnn and Nathan "talk" (i figure that was another way of saying argue), and Karen and I start "dating" (you can figure that's another way of saying having sex). We wrap up, and we took a bit longer than planned. And we, unfortunately, run the other two out of nookie time. We all go to bed, and life is good.
05.14.05: Karen sleeps like a cat, in so much as she can't sleep for more than 4 hours or so at a time, so she is awake at some ungodly hour of the morning. She goes to read, comes back a bit later. We cuddle and decide that before we start dating again, we should go away. We grab out laptops and head for less date friendly places. Yes, out laptops. Cause the establishment provides WiFi. And it was no lie. The signal was strong. But... they wanted 10 dollars a day per a computer. And you couldn't connect to it from the room. And the room has an ethernet connection. And that costs 10 dollars a day. So, for 20 dollars a day, per a computer, you can connect to thier publicly provided networks. So, we put the laptops away and just enjoy eachothers company. We have breakfast and go back upstairs. Breakfsat was interesting. I'm pretty sure our waitress was half backed on something. She forgot the water we asked for three times. the tea twice. the toast can AFTER we asked about it. Oh, and the whole time, she berated us on the evils of somking. We figure that the other two would have dated by now but knock first to be nice. Nope. No dating occured. I guess talking makes you tired and you sleep through available date time. Well, everyone gets ready and we head out for the zoo.
Well, darling Karen did some recon work and found a natural foods store near by. She also called the zoo and found that outside food is a-ok. She ALSO found out if glass was ok. She is teh biz-omb. We stop there and pick up provisions. Except for ice. Cause ice is clearly not natural enough for a natural foods store. LOL. We call DJ and she gets us the ice. She meets us at the zoo an we all go in. We hit the reptile house first, then some other surrounding things. We then hit the Delta SkyFari, express it clear accross the park, and see some other things there. Polar bears a big. We know that now. Well, Karens ankle decides it's had enough. After tying her to a table and force feed her a pride pill, she and I go to fetch a wheelchair so she can still enjoy the rest of the park. We then call the rest of the group so we can meet them somewhere. We decide on the pygmy chimps. This is another term for the Bonobos. No signage to tell that. So everyone thinks we have missed the pygmy chimps. eventually they call from the place we at not 5 minutes ago. So we go to meet them. We all met up and LeAnn comes back from the bathroom. Pissy. No idea why. Finding it hard to care by this point in time. I think, because we had to get a wheelchair, she was derailed from her plans and we had to pay. Whatever. So, we smoke and fuel up on water and get to going to the Pandas. We then decide that Karen is no longer in a wheelchair. She is a queen, it is her movable throne, and she is in it because her royal slippers can no longer be sullied by the ground. :-) After some big time discussion on how to get to them, we get to them. The trip there was a blast. Wheelchairs are fun when you get to act like a couple of fruity nuts with them. Pushing Karen around was fun. I paid for it a couple days later, but it was fun. She got to exprience the whole zoo with us instead of being on a bus readnig a book and seeing the occasional animal. The Pandas more or less sat. The meerkats were more exciting. Well, it was decided that it was luchy goodness time. So, we go rescue the now chilled food from the locker and eat. It WAS good. People run off in search of monkey's, we all meet up find out we missed the last guided tour bus, and head off to the beach instead.
The beach was a blast. I had forgoten just how salty the water is. I had also forgoten how powerful the waves were. Got a couple of decen shots of the sunset. And we sat around and just chilled out. After a while, hunger came again and it was decided that food and drinks must happen again. So, we go to red robin, get our grub on, and hit the hotel. There was a nookie batting order decided and Karen and I are dating first. Well, we tend to go on some pretty long dates. And once again, we left no time for Nathan and LeAnn. Whoopsy. I am sorry for that. But not ashamed. LOL. Well, we let them back up, and sleep.
05.15.05: Next morning, Karen and I decide to not trust our clothing to keep us from dating. We decide to trust our fear of being caught by children take care of that. So we go to the hot tub. We were not about to miss out on that. After about an hour, we head back up to the room to get ready to hit the road. Room = empty. So, we get dressed, pack up, and roll out. Nathan was lucky he gave a desired time of departure, or we porbably would have dated again real quick. Well, we hit the road after settling up the room. We make a stop for gas, food, and bathrooms. The ride home was pretty uneventful.
So, things learned:
LeAnn seemingly despises when she doesn't get her way. And it has the potential to ruin a road trip.
Wheelchairs a great fun when you're not confined to one on a long term basis.
The ocean is salty and fierce.
Wet sand makes a better boobie than dry sand.
Never be affraid to make someone have fun.
