We wanted to leave from Rob's apartment at 5pm, but we had to wait for Kori and Chris to arrive. Once we got together, we stopped inside Smith's for some last-minute provisions. We went to Burger King afterward. The common tradition for the group was to sing "Bohemian Rhapsody" once we got onto the freeway, so we belted out like none other. Kori, Rob and Luis were in my car, with Kori as the driver. We drove through the night, with Luis as Kori's wing man (i.e. the guy that stays awake with the driver). Rob and I went to sleep, and simultaneously woke up upon reaching Las Vegas.
DAY 2
I decided to take Luis over to the Bellagio. We crossed a couple bridges, passing a street performer with a guitar, a beggar, and people from all walks of life. We stood in front of the Bellagio, just like the guys from the end of Oceans Eleven – too bad only Rob, Ian, Cheney and I were the only ones in the group that had even seen the movie in the first place!
It was still a pretty view, though. This began a series of tours I gave the guys around major cities we visited, because no one knew how to navigate a city, or everyone was afraid of getting mugged.
We stayed in Vegas for about 2 hours. Rob made a quick $50 playing Blackjack, and we left for the California border.
We stopped AGAIN at Buffalo Bill's for a bathroom break, literally an hour out of Vegas. Women's bladders boggle my mind. I walked inside, following the most basic rule of road trips: If you stop, use a bathroom. I walked into the gas station, and I saw this game that I had to take a picture of.
These games only exist in Japan, and yet there was one right here. I would have played it, but the prizes were all dumb sports plushes.
I switched over to the other car, because Kori wanted Cheney to drive while she slept some more. I got to hang out with Chris, John and Ian for a bit. They were fun to get to know. The sun was coming up an hour after we left Buffalo Bill's. They were both so excited to take pictures of the sunrise over the mountains. We listened to some weird music I didn't know, and arrived in Barstow to see the world's largest thermometer. A few pictures and unnecessarily driving around later, we left. I was back in Kori's car. I immediately fell back to sleep, and woke up a few times prior to the fork where the freeway leads to either Riverside or Los Angeles. The air was awfully smoky. The marine layer only made it worse. We worked our way through the morning California traffic as Kori had an emotional conversation with her sister-in-law.
It was time to fill up our gas. We pulled off, and spent a half hour wandering around back roads at 20 mph. The GPS we had was screaming to get back onto the freeway, but regardless of its existence, we were lost, anyway. We found a gas station, and went into a Denny's for breakfast. I paid for my food, and had to pay an extra $3 for the orange juice. I hate Denny's.
Lots of getting lost, vulgar words from Kori's mouth and annoying GPS announcements later, we arrived at our hotel at the base of Coronado bridge. Ian, Cheney, Rob and I were dropped off, while Luis, John, Kori and Chris drove both cars up to Anaheim where Kori and Chris would be staying for their wedding anniversary. Our small group was in downtown Sand Diego without a car. Fun.
Actually, it was really fun. We got to the hotel around 2 in the afternoon, and decided to actually walk outside and wander a bit at 4-5. MAPS!
We walked the BLUE route over to the hotel where the championships were being held. It was a very tall Hilton, with great views of Coronado Island across the bay. Once we got there, though, security wouldn't let us get up to the top floor where the events were to be held, so we had to leave. Just a reminder, this was Rob, Cheney, Ian and me walking around. We decided to walk a bit downtown. After a lunch break at Subway, I found an art gallery featuring Chuck Jones, the inventor of Bugs Bunny and other Looney Tunes. After looking around a bit, Cheney decided to go back to the hotel by himself. We stood around after he left, wondering what to do. I suddenly remembered a huge 5-floor outdoor mall deep in downtown, so I suggested we go play at the arcade there.
Here are some various pictures of downtown:
We started walking north, but I honestly didn't know where I was going. We eventually ran into a map of downtown, but it was a bit difficult to read. "If yo' lookin' for somewhea, I'd be happeh to pointcha in the right direction." I looked to my left and POOF. There was a black homeless man in a wheelchair with a small smile on his weathered face. I explained to him that we were looking for the giant mall downtown. "I'd be happeh to help," he said, "if you wouldn't mind loanin' some spare change for a sandwich." I apologized, saying that I didn't have any cash on me. I turned around to walk away, thinking I had to find help elsewhere. "Hold on, that doesn' mean I won' help ya!" He gave me perfect directions to the mall. I thanked him, and stuck out my hand. He shook it happily.
We got to the mall with no problems at all. Horton Plaza was its name. It's the LARGE RED SQUARE TO THE NORTH on the map. I found the arcade, following the memory of visiting the mall a couple years ago. Rob and I played some DDR, and we wandered around the arcade, watching others play games. We didn't stay too long. We left the mall, and decided it was best to start heading back to the hotel. It was about 7pm.
Rob wanted to see if we could go a bit south and cut across downtown to get a more direct route to our hotel. It sounded like a good idea. We proceeded to follow the CRAZY GREEN ROUTE. We cut across downtown and ended up in the ghetto outskirts of San Diego. We passed an outdoor soup kitchen lined with homeless folk. Across the street was a small gang shouting to some girl a few yards away. They looked like chums, so I didn't feel much threat from 'em. I was at the front of our small party, so I couldn't see, but I could probably guess that Rob and Ian were keeping very wary of their surroundings. We walked across a bridge that went over the freeway, and after walking a couple blocks south, Rob decided the hotel wasn't across the freeway. So we went back over. At this point, we were just walking as far south as we could until things started looking familiar. We saw some weird and awesome stuff, though.
We approached a large green electrical box in the middle of the sidewalk. Rob and Ian went one way around it, and I went the other. But suddenly out of the corner of my eye only 2 feet away from my feet, a large round dark thing jutted out from behind the electrical box. I jumped a little, and suddenly realized it was a bum laying down. If i wasn't paying attention, I would have kicked him in the head. He was mumbling some gibberish, and we kept walking quietly. Once we were out of earshot of the bum, though, I flipped off the handle. That gave Rob and Ian a good laugh.
We finally made it back to the hotel. Cheney was also back, but he had gotten lost on his way, as well. He passed through what he called Bum City, which we later saw as a bunch of shopping carts, tents and cardboard boxes carefully constructed on the side of the street under a bridge. We stayed up watching World's Dumbest Criminals, and went to bed.
> MS: GO TO DISNEYLAND, SUCKA
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