Where do I begin??? It started out at the Beachcomber. I'm sure many of you reading this blog have not only heard of this popular local hang out bar in Mission Beach, but have also thrown a few (too many) back here.
What started out as a very calm and typical (for Dave's friends) Sunday night at the bar turned into a whirlwind of mysterious events. The 'Comber had a band that day and was packed from 5 until 9pm. There was a group of about 10 of us who were all enjoying good drinks, company and the Ms. Pacman machine. I think it all started to go downhill when the shots below started getting poured. This was right before I left and went back to Matt and Erica's (where we were staying right down the street). Around 10:30, most of us said our goodbyes and left Dave, Brad and a few stragglers behind for what we thought would be one last drink and then goodnight. Boy was I wrong.
Pictured below is Matt and Erica's courtyard. This was also where my husband ended up passing out and sleeping until he was dragged into the house at 4:30am when the three of us were woken up by the call from the police station saying that Dave's best bud had been taken in. We received a call from my brother later that morning and his apartment window was open, the dresser in front of the window was knocked over and there was vomit on the floor (lovely) and he had no idea who did all this. Hhhmmm..... I wonder?
I knew it was not going to be a fun day when the first words out of Brad's mouth that morning when he came to be were "I'm just going to apologize right now for me and Dave for the rest of today." I probably would have been mortified at his behavior if it weren't for the fact that every one of their friends has passed out in this courtyard at least once over the past 5 years, so it didn't seem like it was a big deal to them.We assume that Dave knocked over evidence A, the dresser and the bodily fluids belonged to him also. We assume that his bud got taken in for drunken disorderly conduct (he was never charged with anything thank goodness) and probably couldn't tell the cop where he lived (the 'Comber is literally a block away from their apartment). None of the boys remember anything. The moral to the story is if you would like to erase your memory of the entire night, drink about 10 Jameson shots and you are guaranteed to not remember a thing.
As you can imagine, Brad had a wonderful drive up to Santa Barbara on Monday passed out in the back seat. He was finally back to normal on Tuesday afternoon.
If only I could say it got better when we got to our campsite..... but I can't. Pictured below is the gopher hole to China that our car keys (with alarm remote) got tossed into by accident. I'm not sure who is to blame for this one, my brother for not having an accurate throw, Brad for not lunging to catch the keys or the Jameson. The hole is actually a lot bigger in the picture below because after hacking at it with an axe and digging with a shovel, we were able to widened it, however we were not able to recover the keys.
Please note Brad's hungover "Oh Sh*t" look below. The situation is this: car is locked, food and tents are out, but everything else is in car, Dave doesn't even know if he has a spare key or not and we found that our fellow campers were very, very helpful but too many opinions and chatter was not helping us solve the problem any quicker.
Our neighbors, the gay couple below brought over their beagles, Coco and Paris to aid in the search and rescue mission. However, one of the guys was highly intoxicated and every 5 minutes he would shout "Now, everybody let's just wait a minute and stop... stop... stop.. do we actually know the car keys fell down the hole?" I literally thought Dave and Brad were going to throw this guy into next week. His partner however, was extremely helpful. He called Triple A for us and they were at the camp ground within 30 minutes. One might think we would be home free by now, but that would be too good to be true. Triple A breaks into the car for us finally. YEAH! Well, kind of. The car alarm is going off and the lights are flashing non - stop. After what seemed like forever, Dave found the spare key in a suit bag. Yeah! No, actually. He tried to start the engine and I'll be darned that those Subaru's have a very intense security system in them. Mind you the alarm is going off the entire time (it's now around 10pm) disrupting everyone's fireside chats and sleep. Finally, Triple A disconnected the horn and we decided to call it a night for now and figure out the plan of attack in the morning when we're all a little more fresh and the Jameson is completely out of the guys system.
The next morning Brad and I woke up to the beautiful sound of the Subaru's engine purring. My brother had also been a valet for a while at a hotel in La Jolla and the trick to get around the alarm dawned on him. Left blinker up, turn key, right blinker up, turn key, flash high beams, turn key and the engine started. Well, this was obviously the sequence of events! It worked every time. We did however get a lot of laughs later on when we got to Montana and after reading the manual, realized you just need to turn the key 3 times and then it will start. No need for the blinkers and high beams and touching your nose while patting your head three times.
On the other hand, the LEAST valuable camping item was this teeny, tiny special camping towel. This towel, which is the size of a hand towel was purchased at a local camping store and I just could not go on the trip without having a towel that would dry ultra fast and not get mildewey and stinky. The towel did NOT dry super fast and by the time I wiped my legs off the entire thing was sopping wet and didn't dry for a few days. I am fighting the urge to write a letter to the manufacturer for false advertising. Messing with someone's personal hygiene should be a very punishable offense!
Out of all the states we went through, and there were a lot, the drive up the Oregon coast was the most beautiful. We stopped at the spot below and it reminded us of one of the scene in the movie Goonies.
My favorite campsite was in Northern California in the Redwood Forest. It was about 85 degrees when we got to our campsite and we were all pretty hot and sweaty after setting up our tents. I saw a sign that read "Trail to the River" so I decided to follow it. The trail led me down to a river that was so clear people were swimming in it. I went back to the campsite to "gather the men" and we all went down for a dip. It is one of my most memorable days from the trip. I felt like a nature girl, pitching a tent (well helping pitch a tent), going for a swim down in the river and then cooking dinner over the fire.
As you can imagine, Brad had a wonderful drive up to Santa Barbara on Monday passed out in the back seat. He was finally back to normal on Tuesday afternoon.
If only I could say it got better when we got to our campsite..... but I can't. Pictured below is the gopher hole to China that our car keys (with alarm remote) got tossed into by accident. I'm not sure who is to blame for this one, my brother for not having an accurate throw, Brad for not lunging to catch the keys or the Jameson. The hole is actually a lot bigger in the picture below because after hacking at it with an axe and digging with a shovel, we were able to widened it, however we were not able to recover the keys.
Please note Brad's hungover "Oh Sh*t" look below. The situation is this: car is locked, food and tents are out, but everything else is in car, Dave doesn't even know if he has a spare key or not and we found that our fellow campers were very, very helpful but too many opinions and chatter was not helping us solve the problem any quicker.
Our neighbors, the gay couple below brought over their beagles, Coco and Paris to aid in the search and rescue mission. However, one of the guys was highly intoxicated and every 5 minutes he would shout "Now, everybody let's just wait a minute and stop... stop... stop.. do we actually know the car keys fell down the hole?" I literally thought Dave and Brad were going to throw this guy into next week. His partner however, was extremely helpful. He called Triple A for us and they were at the camp ground within 30 minutes. One might think we would be home free by now, but that would be too good to be true. Triple A breaks into the car for us finally. YEAH! Well, kind of. The car alarm is going off and the lights are flashing non - stop. After what seemed like forever, Dave found the spare key in a suit bag. Yeah! No, actually. He tried to start the engine and I'll be darned that those Subaru's have a very intense security system in them. Mind you the alarm is going off the entire time (it's now around 10pm) disrupting everyone's fireside chats and sleep. Finally, Triple A disconnected the horn and we decided to call it a night for now and figure out the plan of attack in the morning when we're all a little more fresh and the Jameson is completely out of the guys system.
The next morning Brad and I woke up to the beautiful sound of the Subaru's engine purring. My brother had also been a valet for a while at a hotel in La Jolla and the trick to get around the alarm dawned on him. Left blinker up, turn key, right blinker up, turn key, flash high beams, turn key and the engine started. Well, this was obviously the sequence of events! It worked every time. We did however get a lot of laughs later on when we got to Montana and after reading the manual, realized you just need to turn the key 3 times and then it will start. No need for the blinkers and high beams and touching your nose while patting your head three times. Don't let me forget to mention that we packed up the car and all had our seatbelts on and Dave turned they key and the battery had died. The alarm that was silently going off all night drained the battery. So, yet again, a helpful camper came to our rescue and gave us a jump and THEN we were on our way.
Aahhh, good times!
I am happy to say that it all got better from here. No major incidents after leaving the Santa Barbara area. I am even surprised at how much I enjoyed the camping. Of course, by day 14, I was not really enjoying much of anything. And I may be exagerating just a bit. We didn't camp for 14 nights, only 6 actually. We got a hotel with my reward points (finally I get to reap the benefits of all my travel last year) in Monterey and then were at my sister's three nights and slept in the car one night as we drove straight through to Wyoming from Montana. Because I don't have time to write a short story about the trip (I would much rather be writing than working. I realized after being away from work for 2 weeks just how easy it would be to walk away), I decided to do the road trip in highlights.
Pictured below is the most valuable piece of camping equipment EVER! A huge thanks to my mother in law for loaning me her head lamp. Despite of what a dork I'm sure I looked like, I wore it every night camping and I could not have done without it.
Pictured below is the most valuable piece of camping equipment EVER! A huge thanks to my mother in law for loaning me her head lamp. Despite of what a dork I'm sure I looked like, I wore it every night camping and I could not have done without it.
On the other hand, the LEAST valuable camping item was this teeny, tiny special camping towel. This towel, which is the size of a hand towel was purchased at a local camping store and I just could not go on the trip without having a towel that would dry ultra fast and not get mildewey and stinky. The towel did NOT dry super fast and by the time I wiped my legs off the entire thing was sopping wet and didn't dry for a few days. I am fighting the urge to write a letter to the manufacturer for false advertising. Messing with someone's personal hygiene should be a very punishable offense!
Out of all the states we went through, and there were a lot, the drive up the Oregon coast was the most beautiful. We stopped at the spot below and it reminded us of one of the scene in the movie Goonies.
My favorite campsite was in Northern California in the Redwood Forest. It was about 85 degrees when we got to our campsite and we were all pretty hot and sweaty after setting up our tents. I saw a sign that read "Trail to the River" so I decided to follow it. The trail led me down to a river that was so clear people were swimming in it. I went back to the campsite to "gather the men" and we all went down for a dip. It is one of my most memorable days from the trip. I felt like a nature girl, pitching a tent (well helping pitch a tent), going for a swim down in the river and then cooking dinner over the fire.
Brad testing out the temperature of the river. It was cold, but refreshing.
And so clear I can see my toes.
The picture below gets my vote for most beautiful pic of the trip. And surprisingly, I don't even think I took it. I think this one was taken by Dave. The mountains are the Grand Tetons and the lake is Jackson lake which is the lake we camped on.
We were fortunate enough to see some amazing wild life on our ride through Grand Teton National Park. I was so excited when we spotted this bear on the side of the road.
And the next day, we saw a baby bear on the side of the road.
And then.... we had a buffalo pass us in South Dakota driving up to see Mt. Rushmore. It was crazy how close he was to the car. I took the picture from the back seat.
And Cleo gets the prize for the cutest animal on the trip. Cleo is my sister and Will's lab / border collie mix. When Cleo is not chasing squirrel and rabbits or taking a jaunt down to the creek (pronounced "Crick" if you live in Montana), she enjoys hours of rest on her futon.
This is the view Cleo has from her futon. Cousin Winston is very jealous of Cleo.
Out of all our adventures, amazing sights and many, many laughs, I think one of the things that really made the trip for me was having myself, my sister and brother all together. We haven't all been together in over a year and a half. Now with my bro living on the east coast and my sister headed to CT in October for the winter months (nothing to do in MT in the winter except watch the snow and freeze) I think we'll all be seeing a lot more of each other.
And so clear I can see my toes.
The picture below gets my vote for most beautiful pic of the trip. And surprisingly, I don't even think I took it. I think this one was taken by Dave. The mountains are the Grand Tetons and the lake is Jackson lake which is the lake we camped on.
We were fortunate enough to see some amazing wild life on our ride through Grand Teton National Park. I was so excited when we spotted this bear on the side of the road.
And the next day, we saw a baby bear on the side of the road.
And then.... we had a buffalo pass us in South Dakota driving up to see Mt. Rushmore. It was crazy how close he was to the car. I took the picture from the back seat.
And Cleo gets the prize for the cutest animal on the trip. Cleo is my sister and Will's lab / border collie mix. When Cleo is not chasing squirrel and rabbits or taking a jaunt down to the creek (pronounced "Crick" if you live in Montana), she enjoys hours of rest on her futon.
This is the view Cleo has from her futon. Cousin Winston is very jealous of Cleo.
Out of all our adventures, amazing sights and many, many laughs, I think one of the things that really made the trip for me was having myself, my sister and brother all together. We haven't all been together in over a year and a half. Now with my bro living on the east coast and my sister headed to CT in October for the winter months (nothing to do in MT in the winter except watch the snow and freeze) I think we'll all be seeing a lot more of each other.
