West Coast '08 Part I: Re-Cap Journal

9/26/08: Day 1 starts with a runway delay at JFK due to the heavy rain. Everyone is bursting with anticipation and the flight feels like 8 hrs vs. 4 and a half. I bought the Bob Saget stand up on the headrest TV for $2 and it was generally a let down, dude is trying too hard to contrast with his Full House image. Anyway, we finally land in Vegas around 1PM. Immediately the heat change and the time differential send us for a loop. We pick up the rental van and forecast the experience in our home away from home for the next 10 days. Power doors, bonus. Power windows in the back, bonus. Sto-and-go space, bonus. We then head to Target to load up on supplies (cooler, football, cheap pillows, etc). Sawyer buys an economy pack of pens and it becomes a joke the entire trip as he never uses them. Next is check-in. MGM Grrrrand. The big green one with the gold lions...it's like the Don Magic Jaun of Hotels. The check in counter reminds me of the airport, like 100 ppl trying to get in, nutty. Quickly the room becomes a hamster cage at the encouragement of Chris. The whole phone book is now the floor. The rest of the night includes Northeastern-ing up the pool and hot tub scene, walking the strip, 13.99 buffets, rousing Repub's as they watch the debate on the big screen, Dave handing out escort magazines ("I said no creep!!") Tony and I losing money and Sawyer losing WAY more. The time zone fucks us, and I'm spent relatively early.
Word(s) of wisdom: "Wee ooh wee oh we, wee ooh wee oh we."

9/27/08: Early to rise, again with the time zone. Sawyer and I stay behind in the room as the others venture out for some breakfast. When they get back we hustle down to the lazy river/pool area. The main floor/casino/restaurant/store/arcade area of the hotel is like a small city. Gigantic. Lots of hard bodies and fake titties on the scene. I'm anxious to get on to L.A., mostly because of the heat. We pack up and bust out. About 45 mins outside of Vegas we stop at some outlets (Nike, Polo, etc) and a Carl's jr. Both we're mostly a let down besides the AWESOME Banana Cream shake from Carl's Jr. with the Nilla Wafers. The desert scene is tripping us out, first time for all of us I think. We're running from the heat. We stop for gas and toss the football some. Locals are looking at us like we have "Not from here" stamped on our foreheads. I guess Yankee hats are the next step down from that. We finally make it to Los Angeles at sundown. Pretty grimy overall. I'm taking in the dwellings and the architecture hard...way different from the East Coast and I'm glad I got to see it. We stay with Dave, one of Sawyer's friends from New Brunswick. He has tickets for a free comedy show on the other side of town. On the way we pass LA Ink and the Vivid Entertainment building, silly. The show was LONG but a good amount of comedians were funny enough. This was my first time at live stand up and I dug it. Back to Dave's, but not before breaking my Del Taco cherry. All sorts of freakers and baseheads, it was like a party with poorly made tacos. Nice apartment. We all sleep in his roomate's room who is away.
Word(s) of wisdom: "Awww naaaooo," "...haaaan"

9/28/08: Exploration of the City of Angels. Everyone is largely underwhelmed but I appreciated the experience (probably the most). We walk the walk of fame briefly and check out some cool stars and the Chinese Theatre for a hot second. We find the former house of Charles Bukowski at the request of Sawyer. It's basically in a small alleyway that houses a row of buildings, the only marking identifying the number is some chalk on the gas meter. Mildly depressing. Sawyer gets shit for wasting time but I think everyone secretly appreciates it or doesn't mind all that much, I know I liked it. Quick stops at some clothing and art shops downtown before hitting up the beach. The lot of us hit Supreme, Flight Club, and some cool ass art print shops. We drag Sawyer from some flea market to hit the beach. It's nice to finally see/swim in the Pacific Ocean. Afterwards we start our drive to San Fran. In and Out Burger for Dinner, does NOT disappoint. We get in San Francisco late, experience the hill climbing early. Meet up with Joe's friend and crash pretty hard.
Word(s) of wisdom: "If ya gay, ya gay!"

9/29/08: San Francisco exploration. First order of business is an authentic California burrito. We hit up a corner spot called " Rosa," killer. Afterwards we walk around Haight street for awhile, check out Amoeba records, get heckled by crusties and bums, all part of the experience. Chris takes us to Union Square, we check out Huf, the Levi's Store, and Nike Town. LOTS of hills, lots of walking, my feet blister up good. We walk a lot more and finally make it to the pier/bay near the Bay Bridge. Good pictures. We take the bus back to the place were staying and everyone rests up a bit. The go go go is starting to catch up with me and the blisters and calf burning doesn't help. We go out to sit down Mexican for T-Fed's birthday. Chimichangas this time, also exceptional. Half of us stay out for beers, the other half make it back to crash, including myself.
Word(s) of wisdom: "Try it out."

9/30/08: Day 2 in San Francisco. I'm really whipped from these hills and feel like a lil bitch. We go to the San Francisco Science Museum that JUST opened that week. There's an albino alligator, a full multi-tiered aquarium, a planetarium, and a bio dome. This is hands down the sickest museum I've ever been to. We experience it all. The planetarium show has some glitches but its forgivable and the bio dome is crazy. Butterflies and little birds all flying around, surreal. We take another evening break and head out for dinner. Find a pretty good Japanese noodle/Chinese restaurant. Lots of laughs. Afterwards we meet up with Tommy and he takes us on a goose chase for this huge hill that overlooks the entire city. It's stressful but COMPLETELY worth it. The view is incredible and it takes the entire time up there (a few hours) to take it all in. Definitely a highlight on the trip. On our way back we drive down the windy part of Lumbergh street and Sawyer doesn't shut up about wanting to see hookers.
Word(s) of wisdom: I don't perspire under my arms that much so therefore I do not require stick deodorant!"

10/1/08: We wake up (relatively) early. I didn't sleep much as it was my turn for the hardwood floor. We pack up and begin to set sail for Portland. We have a decent breakfast just north of the Golden Gate bridge and continue on. It's annoyingly and unexpectedly HOT in central northern California and I let it get to me pretty good. I fell asleep riding shotgun for an hour or so and woke up to stopping for hot dogs by some. I feel like I'm getting sick, but I'm just fucked from the lack of sleep and the heat. I try to pull it together and feel better once we get up in the mountains and it cools off a bit. I'm using this day to salt my wounds from the San Francisco commuting. We see some wild shit on the drive. Aside from the mountains, we come across a flipped truck from a car accident where the guy is being pulled from the wreckage by some bystanders and volunteer firefighters. So crazy. A few scratches but otherwise the guy seems unharmed. A debate follows amongst the van as to whether he was drunk, in shock, or a combination of both. More stops with the football being thrown. Such a good idea for keeping loose on the long drives. We make it to Oregon around 1am, take pictures of the sign and what we could of the Redwood trees. Loved being able to see those, too bad it was in the middle of the night. They're enormous. In fact, everything is bigger out west: the trees, the mountains, the lakes, everything seems mammoth. We stop at ole faithful (T-Bell) for some refueling and somehow they don't fuck up the six person drive-thru order including Sawyer's custom bullshit. I finish out the leg of the drive and we make it to Ryan/Ehren's around 3am amidst a cloud of farts and mild delusions from the lack of sleep.
Word(s) of wisdom: "Can we stop, I gotta pee."
"If you drop that I'm gonna break your hand off and shove it up your ass!"

10/2/08: Portland, OR. It's great to see Ryan again, long overdue. Ehren is a cool ass dude as well and it's nice staying in such a nice house. Not knocking where we stayed prior to this, but it's just fortunate since we're 3000+ miles from home. We get some killer breakfast at a local spot and head out of the city for a ways to check out some waterfalls and mountains. Awesome pics, awesome views, decent hike. By now everyone is getting hungry again and we head to Acropolis, the sickest place on earth with the biggest and cheapest burgers you will ever cum across. We have a blast just hanging, leave there after awhile and hit some bars up in the city. Everyone one is pretty toasted by this point and I'm DD'ing. Stressing hard and get pulled over, whatever. We get on foot and downtown shit is getting loose. Sawyer is ripping up street signs and trying to light phone books on fire. Ryan is getting mad at him. Dave is yelling and stumbling and laying across garbage cans heckling party boyz. Sawyer gets denied service at some titty bar he tried going into. I pull the plug on the night and bring the cruise into dock. Not before the drunkards need a Taco Bell run, another perfect drive-thru order. Amazing! Let it be known that Sawyer had three dinners that night. Acropolis, Chinese, and taco bell. That is all.
Word(s) of wisdom: "You havin' a good tiime?" "Fuck me to you"

10/3/08: Day 2 in Portland. Experiencing the northern pacific rain, which I actually hoped I would have a chance to get into. Same breakfast spot. Seattle day trip gets vetoed and I'm mildly bummed...when else am I gonna make it to Seattle? Then off to an old school arcade with endless pinball machines and vintage games. Most games are 25 cent or 50 cent, so awesome. I get into some Simpsons and Ninja Turtles, the O.G. cruisin' USA, it's all there. I also score some pickups at Compound and Upper Playground. Hat is slick but the kicks are a little tight, might ebay them. They're a little loud for my taste as well. Back to A-CROP for eats. After that we meet up with Ehren who has just ate weed cookies and do the bar thing for awhile. I get fed up with drunk Sawyer and the second hand smoke and call it early. I watch the rest of Gangs of New York in the van and fall asleep waiting for the others. When I wake up we're missing one...guess who. ANYWAY, he meets us back at the house and gets there about a half an hour later than us. He's in drunken baby mode and we lay into him pretty good, busting his balls about his plan gone awry and the throw rug he's using for a blanket.
Word(s) of wisdom: "She said she doesn't fuck strangers and blah blah blah."

10/4/08: We get going on the road at a decent time for our next big drive. Stop and have a forgettable lunch and say our goodbyes to Ehren who put us up so graciously. An equally grueling drive ensues like the one from San Fran to Portland. This time we're on our way from Portland to Reno with Ryan in tow as well. I'm literally struggling to remember any highlights from the drive to Reno, which is a good thing in retrospect. We crack the windshield of the van on what we speculate was burned off tire tread from an 18 wheeler. Shook us all for a hot second, especially yours truly, riding shotgun about to fall asleep. Dairy Queen pumpkin pie blizzard was on point. We almost run out of gas about two hours out of Reno but luckily stumble on a small town called Mt. Sashta and fill up. More taco bell with some ice grillz by some woodsy paper gangsters. Loving it. We get into Reno around midnight and settlin in and the Days Inn.
Word(s) of Wisdom: "I think he's wearing shorts."

10/5/08: Rise and shine in Reno. Way colder than I expected but I'll take it. We hit up Sonic breakfast and all awkwardly order into the walk up talk box. After that we meander around in the van till we stumble upon the Reno strip. We take pictures of the sign, the sketch balls, and do the tourist thing for a little while. Everyone is over it pretty quickly and we start the trek back to Vegas. The drive is another lengthy one but we see the coolest shit hands down. First we pull over to check out some hills(have eyes) in the desert overlooking this massive lake. A couple hours later we stumble upon a burnt out and abandoned motel complex complete with a burned up car and sketchy graff. Madness and destruction ensues. What will probably become the trip photo is taken. Viking funeral for the cooler and we bounce, making the rest of the drive tolerable. We get into Vegas around 11pm and hit up the worlds largest souvenir shop for some more kitschy shit, repack the van and prepare it for return, and head back to the MGM for some farewell gamblerly. This time around I win 4 dollars on a dollar bet of video blackjack. I come out a winner.
Word(s) of wisdom: "Bellus Boobus"

10/6/06: Rental "truck" says it's goodbyes and we catch the train to the airport. I take a shit and soon thereafter pass out after checking through security. Board the plane as the sun is coming up and having not slept the night prior, get a little loopy. The flight home sucked. I slept an hour, watched Everybody Loves Raymond for an hour, and the E True Hollywood Story of Chris Farrelly. My leg was frozen from being up against the cold air vent and everyone else seems to sleep pretty soundly, bastards. We touch down in JFK around 230 EST and I'm home in my room by 9pm. Work at 7am. Another trip in the books.
Word(s) of wisdom: N/A

States visited: 3. Nevada, California, Oregon
Cities visited: Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland (kinda), Portland, Reno
Miles Driven: More than it takes from NY to California total
Windshields cracked: 1
Fast food not available in NY inventory: Carl's Jr., In and Out Burger, Del Taco, Sonic, Dairy Queen
Songs heard, tagged, and downloaded once home: Gwen Stefani - The Sweet Escape, M.I.A. - Paper Planes, Trick Daddy - I'm a Thug (should've had this one already).

Like any other trip, there were times I wanted to get the fuck home or at least stop driving/walking/going. But all in all it was a huge success with an all star cast that furthered opened my eyes to things I haven't seen. Countless laughs, good for the soul.