The Minivan Diaries

12-28-2004

3:53 P.M.

We finally found out which car to take to California last night around 11 P.M. We had totally committed to cramming everyone in Suzi’s Taurus when suddenly, Karisa’s phone rang! Much to everyone’s surprise, it was Gary Mueller offering the Mueller family minivan to be our beast of burden. We gladly accepted and took off for Mankato to pick it up from Brook. Got home around 3:00 A.M.

Today, Shane and Tony woke up around 11, had some pasta for breakfast, and went about the business of gathering groceries for our excursion. Met Karisa and Suzi at 2:30 then we all went to Ben’s place to pick him up. On our way! (Ben’s picking his nose already.)

Ben had such a beautiful day at work today and now he just feels depressed and frustrated about the prospect of having to go to San Diego.   The rest of the crew arrived to pick him up at his house and he wasn’t even finished packing.   Meanwhile, Suzi clearly has sinister plans for us in Mexico.

After being forced to explain the theory of relativity to Tony at 2:30 in the morning driving back from Mankato, Suzi decided she’d had enough – and finalized her sinister plans for Mexico.  Aside from that, the task of naming the roadtrip has been placed on her shoulders.  She’s still thinking…..

Tony is thinking that Suzi is hallucinating. It is very obvious that there is no way she would have been capable of explaining relativity, mostly because at 2:30 A.M., she was sound asleep. However, he is willing to have the facts misrepresented to preserve peace in the minivan.

4:25 PM

“Stacy’s Mom” on the radio sucks all the energy right out of all parties involved. 

Wow, you should see the scenery in southern Minnesota! It’s just breathtaking!  I think I might move here and start an Amish family.  We could live on a farm, milk cows, churn butter, and ride horses to the general store.

4:48 PM

First fuel stop! Ben showed us all the moves of the gas-dance, it will be a hard act to follow for sure! Many photos were taken in spite of the paranoid clerk. Were we reps from a rival gas station there to ferret out of him how he sold so many mosquito traps? Possibly we were looking for his hot dog-selling secrets…? The BUNS BUNS BUNS BUNS BUNS BUNS BUNS sign kind of made Tony want to buy some.

Sandwiches have been administered and the whole group is feeling even better about life as a whole.

6:50 PM

It was decided that we should watch the movie Elf, and though the computer didn’t want to play it at first, we finally forced it into submission. Basically everyone suddenly got really tired so Ben, Shane, and Tony are awake while the other two sleep.

It smells kind of like all of Thailand is hitching a ride with us at this point. It’s kind of gross. Woo hoo! Des Moines! They have a skyscraper!

6:57 PM

Des Moines is hot.  I can’t imagine why the whole of the planet has not yet moved here.  In other news,  The Chili Peppers are lighting up the stereo.  I-80 Westbound baby baby,

7:07 PM

Just saw a really groovy Christmas tree made up of lights in hotel windows. Wow. Des Moines really knows what it's doing.

7:12 PM

Sucks to be the person on the roadtrip with the smallest bladder.  This is what Karisa is thinking right now.  She knows she would feel bad asking the others to stop just so she can pee, so she leans forward in her seat and asks Suzi if she’ll say she has to pee also, bettering the chance of anyone actually stopping.   Suzi isn’t keen on the idea, so Karisa sits back in her seat hoping the 2^nd half of the tank of gas will go by muy rapido.

7:20 PM

We have just passed the exit for ‘DeSoto’.  DeSoto, and don’t even pretend you already knew this, is the birthplace of John Wayne.  Tony predicts that John Wayne actually still lives at home with his mom, in the basement though, but he has his own TV.

7:55 PM

Contemplating throwing the Thai food out the window. Yup. Just did. Definitely completed a Thai toss.  The members of Road Trip Slash/-dash, (or abbreviated as /-) ceased driving for a moment to take a bladder break.  This break, much longed for after the incessant whining and crying of Rizzle, was followed up by a game of kick and toss the volleyball.  Now Tony is making sandwiches, Rizzle is driving, and the mood is once again carefree and jolly.  Except Tony is cutting the cheese (no idiom intended, mind you) with a butter knife and the cheese tastes like old lady.   Wow Tony, that’s a lot of meat.  That’s what they all say. And Shane gets a double butt.

8:09 PM

Tony cut the cheese and made sure it went out the window.  Good boy.

9:00 PM

Welcome to Omaha.  Gay sign.  Chamber of commerce is gay.  42^nd St!! That’s a musical! Smells like old man.  So can things smell like young boy or middle-aged woman?  Tony says no, but of course, because Suzi asked, he had to say no.  The weird flickering police Durango just caught a drug dealer.  So Tony has concluded that Omaha is a cultural hub.  What’s a hub? Shane’s sleeping – he’s missing out on all the hubbing.

9:45 PM

World War II museum, a Big Inn with a football logo – what more do you need? Well, a 24 hour adult video store, of course.  Talk about meat.

10:45 PM 

We might be in the middle of Nebraska right now.  Stellar.  Rizzle and Tony switched the pilot position in motion.  Stellar.

11:44 PM

Flatness.

11:51 PM

Tony’s experimenting with typing and driving simultaneously, it seems to be working fairly well, however, passing may prove interesting. Here goes Partially successful, and not highly recommended also, the dude behind us is probably pretty ticked.

12-29-2004

12:04 AM

A new day.

1:13 AM

Nebraska is crazy flat. We can see things that are ten miles away with no problems at all. I’m thinking some Roman candles are in order. If only I could find a lighter.

2:03 AM, but actually 1:03 AM

Still Nebraska.  Still smells like rodeo.  That convenience store was amazing.  And we have stalkers.   Tony owes the crew a ‘gas-dance’ because he filled up the van and didn’t dance.  Suzi claims Amadeus is such a good movie.  She suggests that the movie about Beethoven is probably called Ludwig. 

1:07 AM

Where is an Eagles CD?  Just any Eagles CD will be fine. 

1:13 AM

Jim Croce says there will be one less set of footsteps on my floor in the morning, but I’m not sure what he means by that.  Is he offering to clean my floor? 

1:25 AM

AH HA.  Welcome to Colorado.   Slashers, meet Colorado.  Colorado, meet the Slashers.  Instant bumps in the terrain.  

So we was talking and trying to decide what crack head drew up the state lines.  He made the Colorado border right where bumps came along.  Why didn’t the border designer line drawer give that misshapen piece of land they call da UP to the Wisconsinites.

We be jammin’ to some good ol’ Jack Johnson.  The perfect way to shake us out of that afro-mustache craze they call Jim Croce. 

2:19 AM

Tony and I are playing with the settings on our digital cameras and taking pictures of sleeping passengers.  We are not paying attention to the road whatsoever and are visiting the rumble strip on a frequent basis

We have been in the car for exactly 12 hours!  I am amped about getting to Denver and getting some sleep!

2:42 AM

What a great rush it is to lie in the middle of the interstate at 2:30 in the morning. I bet it’d be even cooler if there were actually cars! The car kind of smells like rotten eggs now. It’s pretty hard to say what’s causing it; firecracker backdraft, the foundry outside, or Suzi being asleep. Maybe we’ll never know.

2:53 AM

Sure. Wait til Suzi is asleep to make fun of her.  Pansies.  We know who the true stinkee is around here, if you know what I mean. 

2:57 AM

We have found the best hip-hop station in all of the Denver area and it is all Karisa can do not to jump out of her seat and start dancing.   Lucky for all the crew, she refrains.

3:00 AM

Quite seriously, there is always something that smells funny. The aroma of rotten eggs passed us about ten minutes ago and we have since moved on to the tang of nasty socks. (The thesaurus in this program rocks. Smell = scent, odor, aroma……tang?!)

3:44 AM

The outskirts of Denver.  Oddly enough, we just saw Madonna beside I-76, carrying a shopping cart on top of her head and trying to hitch a ride, singing Prince’s Purple Rain.

Denver, with all of its refineries and the smell of sulfur, is actually rather beautiful. 

Holy Buttnuggets, Batman, suddenly there is road construction and the road we needed to take launched us off onto a different road which we, if given a choice, would not have chosen to take. 

3:50 AM

Alrighty Shane – that light was so red it was ripe.  It was so red it was almost green.  It was so red it was about to burst.   Ok.  So was Aragorn in any movies before Lord of the Rings? Rizzle says yes, Tony says no.  All h*ll breaks loose.

3:55 AM

Cheech = Tony, Chong = Shane, Rizzle = Karisa.

4:06 AM

Who is awake at this ungodly hour?!!!!  And yet again I am so excited to have company!   Denver is always a good place to stop, make it your pit stop on the way back.

"HOWDY STRANGERS !!! Welcome to Denver, Colorado!!" - Jessica

1:37 PM

Ahh…not sleeping in the car.  It’s a wonderful thing.  We got to Kosha Ramsen’s relatives house at 4:00 and Kosha and Jessica woke up to meet us.  We chatted, then passed out, as road-trippers often do.  When we awoke, prolly round 10-ish, we had a lovely breakfast – Kosha’s a very gracious host.  As usual, breakfast was followed by trampoline jumping and oil changing. 

1:41 PM

Put your hands up in the aiy-er.  Wave’em like you just don’t cay-er.  If you like fish’n’grits and all that pimp #%#@, come on let me hear ya say Oh Yea-er. 

Lovely weather here in DenverTown, prolly 60 degreesish, sorta sunshiney.  Karisa looks lovely in aviator shades. 

2:02 PM

Sandwiches for lunch again, courtesy of Cheechey.  Slight panic as we fear we may run out of ham, until a second package is found.  All is well with the Slash Dash.  Heading to Loveland Pass, lacking chains or four-wheel-drive.  Yay.

2:12 PM

Slightly belated logging of Karisa and Tony’s trip to Denver to get Baby Beluga’s oil changed. Dropped the van off at the place, got coffee, and went thrift shopping. Karisa has quite the eye for fashionable clothing.

3:34 PM

Driving through the mountains now – Vail, actually.  There are a billion and 17 condos here.  We’ve agreed that to be a real estate agent out here would be killer, but Tony says no thanks.  The skiing here doesn’t look that superb – there isn’t much snow.  The price of gas! How do these people sleep at night?!  Well, tally-ho, team.  Tango forever

3:54 PM

So we’re in a blizzard now.  We trust in Ben!  We stopped for some intense rock climbing (see pictures.)  So I wanna see this accident because I’m sick like that.  Can we pop it into third without careening out of control down this winding mountain road while snow and sleet blast us from all sides?  Why yes we sure can.  VOTE FOR PEDRO!!

This snowstorm has become a full blown blizzard! We can’t see any farther than a couple hundred feet in front of us.  Ben is a pro behind the wheel!  Hey man, he drives like Steve McQueen.  Hopefully this lets up soon!

4:27 PM

Still lots of snow, and Tony is still very scared of heights. Meh.Ben is piloting us quite successfully through the snow.

4:37 PM

Wicked traffic jam in the middle of the blizzard. Suzi got out and went for a run in front of the car. We met a couple of Kiwis who were really cool people. Holding a computer out the window with “How you doin’?” written in size 150 font is a great way to meet great people. Stopped snowing for about two minutes, I think it was because we were in a tunnel.

5:07 PM

Talked out the window to a nice man in a truck who told us the reason traffic is so slow is because there is a huge hole in the road and it was down to two lanes up ahead.  Just what we need – a huge divit in the highway. The going is slow, but Tony is carving a statue of Ben out of an apple, so life is good.

5:33 PM

Just left the rest area. Had a snowfight and met a couple with a really cute black lab named K2.  Back to the the speedy I70.

7:59 PM

We stopped in Grand Junction, Colorado for gas and filled up our bellies at Shake Rattle and Roll Diner.  Our waitress was very pregnant and very nice.  We ate cheeseburgers, ruebens, and chicken tenders.  We used the uneaten onions for our onion toss game. 

10:18 PM

How the emperor got his groove back.  Yup.  So we’ve been singin’ away the hours – everything from Swing Low Sweet Charity to Under the Sea to Spice Girls.  Ooo – and a band full of angels comin’ onto me.  Suzi’s is delirious, Tony is nauseated, Shane is outraged, Ben is konked, and Karisa is one fiiiiiine piece of fudge, if you know what I mean.   Why is it snowing?  Cuuuuuuuuz it waaants to…it caaaaaaan if it waaaaaaaants tooooooooo.

10:53 PM

Um, so we are now in the worst blizzard since 1945.  We’re tailing a semi at .4 miles an hour and the education in India is atrocious.  We’re in for the long haul.  Can you say Donner party for five? Ciao.

12-30-04

12:05 AM

Driving in blizzards is quite a good time, but you have to make sure to watch the tach so you can tell if you’re spinning out while going uphill. The semi drivers are pretty insane up here. Tony was driving down a hill with hardly any visibility whatsoever, and 4 semis went piling past at about a billion miles per hour. ‘Twas worth a fist-shaking indeed.

3:46 AM Vegas Time, Pacific Standard, man

We have arrived at Sarah and Jason’s house in North Wegas.  We contemplated going to sleep but rather instead we have decided we will go down to The Strip.  Sarah will show us some sights, we will pretend to be Ocean’s Five at the Bellagio Fountains. 

The city lights are quite amazing, looks like a Christmas Tree!

There has been a small dispute over the rules.  One of the road-tripper simply questioned about a rule, curious to see how the others react.  A fistfight brokeout, and the aforementioned road-tripper definitely won, but all is settled.  We discovered a taco-meter is in the car.  To the Strip!

The taco-meter is pegged and we’re on our way to the strip at halfway to dawn in the morning. Sweet. Looking forward to sleeping on the huge comfy couch at Sarah and Jason’s place.

12:46 PM

The sun is shining and Baby Beluga is zipping along on her way to San Diego.  Las Vegas won our hearts – it penetrated so far, in fact, that we may spend an extra day here on the way back.  We drove down the strip and the crazy opulence of it all blew us away.  We visited the Bellagio, as we are always welcome there, and gazed at 25,000 carnation polar bears and music-synchronized fountains.  They begged us to stay, but alas, we wanted to spend time with our dear friend Sarah and her brother and sister-in-laws.  Don’t worry Vegas, we’ll be back!

Turns out that Vegas is a pretty cruddy-looking town in the daylight. I guess that’s why people come at night eh? The population is interesting though. Tony definitely wants to come through late at night to take some more shots of the lights.Too bad they don’t allow cameras on the floor. How cool would it be to take a photo of a guy who had just donated his year’s salary to the worthy cause of keeping the lights of the Bellagio blazing.

3:41 PM

Still toolin’ across the ‘Fornie desert toward San Diego….   Gas cost $2.58/gallon at the station labeled as the ‘Gateway to Death Valley’.   The van’s transmission seems a little bit overworked right now, it shifts haaaaard.   

3:51 PM

Some little cafe named Peggy Sue’s 50’s Diner on I-15.   And then we stopped because Karisa had to go potty again.  Calico is a ghost town and seems a little bit too proud of it.  They have a 15-foot cowboy monument. 

5:02 PM

We’re descending triumphantly into the valley toward Shane Diego.  It’s been a royal dandy of a trip so far and we’re not even to Mexico yet.   Suzi has mentioned that she is pretty excited about the prospect of a big steak for dinner tonight.  Carnivore. 

6:20 PM

Traffic blows in California, and I don’t mean drugs and immigrants.   The stretch of I-15 from San Bernardino to San Diego has been eternally slow.  20 minutes ago the sign said “San Diego 107”…  just now the sign said “San Diego 102” .  How disgusting. 

6:31 PM

Yeeeah.  We were definitely supposed to be there like 16 days ago.  Oh well.  Time flies when you listen to Mexican polka  and Hanson.  No, I will come to you.  Definitely could eat two steaks now.  It has been suggested that half a cow would be sufficient.  Our orange peel air freshener finally had to go.  Awww. The baby beluga is southbound and floating on white trash beautiful.

7:53 PM

We made it.  The party begins.  The log will resume when the party is over.

11:30 PM

We’re here. Things rock, everybody’s laid back, I love it. We just got back from Hot Monkey Love café. A sweet jazz band was playing. Just like elevator music with out the elevator and corniness. Awesome.

After 7 pounds of Mexican food and 5 pounds of chocolate coffee, Suzi’s stomach is aching.  Awww.    However, she was comforted by Hot Monkey Love (see above).  Everyone decided to stay at the Toby – David – Kale residence tonight, and Kale was indeed overjoyed.  They were all gonna go to the beach, but then they decided against it as it was late and David was arriving soon.  Everyone was waiting with great anticipation as David logged his final hours in at Wally World and Tony taught Suzi to play the guitar.  Kale is tired and will go to bed soon as he and Toby are going surfing at 6 am tomorrow.

The time was 1:56 AM… but really it wasn’t because the clock was wrong.  They have discovered the boob pillow, what a treat.  Tony is going nuts with the camara and we are having a good time.   94 minutes to deadline, the whales are passing and the room is dark.  I feel the cold water as it sucks inside, brr I shiver and then there it was a seal in the water, not on  the land.  The cliff fell into the ocean.oaOSDFKID. Turns out it’s pretty hard to type with boxing gloves on.

12-31-04

12:34 AM      

So, we tried to do a stop action awesome-photo. I think it kind of turned out like a mosh of weird group photos, they still look fairly cool though. We just had a sweet boxing match where Suzi, Karisa, Toby, and Tony were equipped with only one glove and went about beating each other senseless. Tony predicts a busted lip, or maybe rib in his case. Currently Toby and Kale are playing the weirdest game of foosball ever. The ball is usually about 4 feet above the table. The downstairs neighbor will doubtless be up to tell us to “knock off your hopscotch”, but before that Kale and Dave are going to do a bit of boxing.

1:36 AM

It’s obvious that Suzi is by far the best at boxing.  Yup – she pretty much showed the others a thing or two.  Other than that, the intense fit of punching and blocking that each was overcome with turned out to be quite entertaining – an audience formed, consisting of a gay middle eastern man who couldn’t believe we were sober and a skateboard pizza delivery midget.  Tango forever!

So everyone got to fight as things turned out. The bouts went as follows:

        Kale vs. Dave ---------3 minute round, winner undecided

Toby vs. Shane -------2 minute round, both got tired. Shane was walloping away.

Tony vs. Ben ----------2 minute round, possible TKO by Ben. Strong jab to the jaw.

Suzi vs. Karisa --------2 minute round, Karisa mostly on offensive. Suzi taking it well. Felt sorry for Karisa apparently. Lots of apologizing.

TOMORROW NIGHT:

Matches pending weigh-in. Match times undecided. Winner by KO only. Dave’s using a chain and Kale gets a pipe.

8:39 AM

Some Hispanic maintenance man is jabbing very gay pink, white, and blue flags into the ground around the building.  Wait, that’s Tony.  My bad. 

3:36 PM

The crew went out to the beach this morning where it was definitely freezing cold. Fun though. Kale and Tony were the only ones brave enough to jump into the 50-some degree water. However, a great volleyball game was played in which neither team lost, and the wind definitely reigned victorious.

Actually, Tony was shivering like a the pansy we know him to be, although many others would indeed make the argument that Tony the Tiger is a true He-Man.  The beach was cold, though, so everyone went home to go into the hottub. The hottub which, when turned on, sounded a lot like a large child was slurping the last bits from a 300 gallon milkshake.

4:14 AM (2:14 AM California time Hezze fo shezze)

This is a guest journal entry from Javier Williams, from this point know as “Javi”.  I must tell you all that at first meeting Big Suzi and her  “crew” was quite intimidating, I mean whoa… and then wow and then hahaha… you know what I mean  (wink...wink)  All these new friends and happy faces.  Everything was going well, all the random people, crazy sights, odd smells, it all took me back to my childhood.  That’s another story… for another journal entry.   Man though I must say New Years downtown does not compare to the infamous Mexico incident.  I know I should mention it but WOW!  Who would have thought that a van of that size could out run the federallies – that stands for mexican police, but hey  that baby hauls!  All the weaving back and forth should make sure that there aren’t too many bullet holes and who would think we could cram that many illegals into the back, but wow the “crew” amazes me.   Well that’s all for now. Diary,  I really think this could be the one.  Oops… wrong journal entry. 

If you like this writing call this man:  Look below for the “bio” (411)  or call 760 –485- 2923 or e-mail jawilliams@palomar.edu

Javi like walks on the beach, puppies and cooking for his special someone.  J

9:58 AM

It’s a beautiful day in San Diego. Everyone’s had a couple hours of sleep and things are starting to get rolling a bit. Right now it’s just Dustin Jinks, Shane, Ben and Tony that are up, but they’re working on being obnoxious so everyone else wakes as well. Might even work. It is! Big Suz just arose from her deep slumber. Hopefully a trip to the beach is forthcoming, but we’ll see how much motivation everyone has.

5:19 PM

I’ve got your happy friggin’ new year right here, hippy.  Today was a gorgeous day at South Mission Beach.  Lots of volleyball and football and besides that some wacky fellow caught a bat ray.   Tonight Javi is cooking supper for all of us in the Slash-Dash crew.  Hopefully he is preparing an excellent meal of turkey, ham, and horse as we speak.  Because Shane is so hungry he could eat a horse. 

I don’t believe it has been mentioned in the LOG yet, so I have the story about how Ben got his nickname.  We were at the taco shop in the ghetto and Ben bought a cute little sticker from a vending machine that said Cuteness.

Thus, Ben = Cuteness

6:43 PM

So the crew is just chillin waiting for The Rock to return so everyone can go to Javi’s for supper tonight.  Tony and Brian were having a good time looking at girls and vinyls – what more could you ask for says Suzanna.  Brian is a stud, and all these midwestern people will remember him for that.  Kale is having a good time too, except for he cut his lip shaving.

12-2-04

9:51 AM

So a little bit has happened since the last log. Javier’s supper did not disappoint! Ham, turkey, green bean casserole…the man had it all. The only nasty thing was the jam, which turned out to be cranberries with no sugar. Kale and Brian had quite a good time playing tributes to The Rock. We hung out at Javi’s until he put on “Closing Time” and we figured we’d worn out our welcome. Got home around 1:30 and listened to Dave singing in the shower.

Woke up this morning at about 5:00 and went out to Fletcher Cove. Tony, Toby, Kale, and Suzi met up with Brian and Nate and surfed some smaller waves until about 8:30. Quite cold! Suzi had her wetsuit on backwards and Tony had his on inside out, which was undoubtedly the reason they both got out earlier than the rest.

7:29 PM

A great day in Sandy Eggo.  Meeting, food, meeting, and food.  Alesha was kind enough to make tacos for us.  We should remember to thank her sometime.  We stopped at the In-n-Out Burger for a light supper after Sally and Rhonda’s gospel meeting.  Surprisingly, the In-n-Out Burger has a pretty decent hamburger on their menu.  Kale has decided it actually was NOT a light supper really.

Currently, we are awaiting the arrival of the ladies so we can head on over to Nate’s for some chillin and hottubbin.  It will be a good time for the realz.  The writer of this entry will soon be stopping as everyone is leaving.  Anyways, lata folks.

1-03-04

9:48 AM

We made an amazing discovery today. Don Henley’s “Boys of Summer” sounds a lot like Cyndi Lauper or Dolly Parton when played at 45 RPM.

11:10 AM

Meow, it is 11:10, but what we need to talk about is last night.  The girls finally arrived at the guys place after a short leg-shaving, clothes changing and gossiping session at Alesha’s house.  Arrived at Nate’s, Chad’s and whoever else lives there to find a house full of squawking hyenias, err—girls, I mean.  A plethera of swimsuit-clad people went to the hottub, while others stayed in the room visiting and squawking.  Meow, Benny and Karisa went to Starbucks—and it was good. 

8:14 PM

We took Tony home for a few hours today.  It was just loverly to see him frolicking about with his native peoples. After a mad chase through bamboo jungles and lava, we finally snuck across the border.  It was a brilliantly sunny and soggy day.  The food in Mexico isn’t bad either.

8:45 PM

Dave and Tony returned from a mission getting photos developed with some unexpected baggage. Namely the Big Hunk, which Suzi smacked on a hard surface and got white chunks all over the place. Seriously, carpet, walls, nothing was spared, but Karisa picked it all up off the carpet. On Dave and Tony’s adventure Dave ended up taking about 3 steps through a puddle before he realized his shoes were wet, which Tony thought was an absolute riot. Dave was eating an Abba Zabba, which neither he or Tony would be so hard, and started drooling all over the place while trying to bite into it. Abba Zabba, you’re  my best friend.

11:43 PM (Cali time, which, by the way, is the time I like to be on)

Toby just hit the ground.  All the people in the surrounding vicinity just laughed—Oh wait, was that just me?  Oouuch!  Toby, I’m on your side… FYI.

1-04-05

1:02 AM (MN time)

We went to the mall today.  Period.  That’s it.

Oh, wait, it wasn’t THAT bad (j/k!!)…tonite we went to Dawna’s house for a dinner.  Ben played and sang his new song that we all love, Beck drew really good, wonderful, beautiful, marvelous, amazing,  breathtaking, fantanstic, dazzling, astonishing, etc. sketches of people, Bri and Suzi and Tony and Brian and Toby sang, pianoed and guitared… um, songs.

And here is a… Recipe for Hawaiian Hay Stack!!

·         Chicken in gravy (make gravy with cream of chicken soup and chicken broth)

·         Rice

·         Chow mein noodles

·         Tomatoes

·         Celery

·         Green peppers

·         Green onion

·         Pineapple chunks

·         Grated cheddar cheese

·         Almonds

·         Coconut

Dawna’s rocked! Lots of people having lots of fun doing lots of singing and lots of eating of lots of Hawaiian haystacks. Chris something rides in rodeos, Preston’s in the Marine Corps, Marshall is “the best surfer in San Diego” and all sorts of other people are cool too. Dave, Kale, and Tony (and Ben!) are in the process of writing a movie/song/something completely different, we’ll see how it turns out. 

9:43 AM

Toby, Kale, Nate, Brian, Chad, and Tony went out surfing out at Fletcher Cove at 5:30 this morning. Super stormy surf, but everybody got a pretty good ride. Kale especially. Tony experienced sea-water out the nose for the first time, not altogether pleasant. Going to the beach to play volleyball soon.

6:04 PM

Volleyball at the beach at 10 AM! Awesome games once we figured out that with 12 people we could have two games of 3 on 3.  Brandon took some people out on the bay in his jet boat, and they all had a good time.  He let everyone drive, and the all had a good time.  Everyone would spin it around, and they all had a good time.  Soon it will be time to go to gospel meeting, but first, some people are going to the Thai place near Vons.  Hopefully it will taste good.

7:02 PM

Thai food was great. Recipe for success: half a mango, steamed rice soaked in coconut milk. Serve with cold mango on top of warm rice. Everyone is totally tired; it should be interesting to see how things go in meeting this evening.

9:28 PM

Meeting was over.  The crowd shuffled back from the event to Kale, Dave, and Toby’s apartment.  Then Lindsay was there with her yellow corvette, and she said our apartment smelled like rat poop.  Wow that was mean.  Karisa is eating Thai fried rice. Mmm, it smells really good she - should really think about giving some to Toby,  he would really enjoy some of that.

10:28 PM

Good “banana splits”, Brandon!

10:40 PM

YES!!! BEN’S SONG AGAIN!!

1-06-05

1:03 PM (MN TIME)

Toby and Suzi went up north early this morning to pick up Jacinda in L.A.  most of the rest of the bunch are packin up to go hiking.  Karisa has a cut on her foot so she’s still in the decision making process, Ben’s just pounding on the drums.  Beck doesn’t know what to do.

6:26 PM in California Time

Great day of hiking in Mission Gorge….  Kale (Roswell) says, “That’s pretty sweet.”   Right now Tone and Ros are writing a song, it sounds like its off to a good start, ahhh the A minor rings nice.   Tonight is a bonfire on Coronado, sort of our last hurrah before we head back tomorrow morning.  The hike was long and hard (well, maybe not so long or so hard), but it was technical, as we had to roll over some rocks due to the fact that Tonester and Dave went straight up the mountain, no trails involved.  The only paths were the ones that the mountain goats had beat in for us.

Retrolog from 1-7-05 at 2:50 PM

Yesterday was sweet. After some hiking in Mission Gorge where the views are beautiful and the rocks are slippery Kale, Ben, Karisa, and Tony went to Starbucks to meet up with Beck and plan the bonfire. It was decided that some food was in order and, after a slight suggestion from Tony, a lazy stroll for burgers turned into a half-mile footrace to Denny’s for some awesome breakfast food. After the meal, a friendly old man kindly gave Karisa “his best compliment”. “You’re a doll, from the tip of your toe to the top of your head”. Then he showed us a bit of swing dancing and when we left told us to “man the battle stations!”. We couldn’t find any battle stations to man, so we got in Kale’s car and drove to the bonfire instead, where we met a cool group of people. Since no one could get our fire to start, we decided to conquer the other group’s party. With the other group befriended (or vanquished), the night went on to become an agreeable mix of guitar jams, laughs, and new acquaintances.

1-7-05

10:29 AM

Ahh – the mountains were singing in Mission Gorge  as the slash dashers climbed in the midst of all the beauty.  Their muscles straining, breathing in the fresh salt-water air, it was exhilarating.  Off in the distance, Suzi could see soft clouds ris…oh, no, no – wait a minute.  That’s right – she wasn’t there.  Tee hee. Alrighty then.  We’re almost ready to go, sniff* sniff* - these Californians are going to be so sad.

11:52 AM

The Midwestern Express departed at 11:30 this morning much to everyone’s dismay. Our time in CA was gnarly, as Brian would say.

2:42 PM PST

What weather! San Diego had rain, outside San Bernardino there was about an inch of snow, and on the border of Nevada it is currently sunny. Morale is fairly good as the crew heads east and homeward. The girls are currently sleeping, and Ben and Tony are trying to figure out how far away some of these mountains are, but keep getting distracted and losing track of which one they were looking at in the first place.

5:05 PM SO.CAL TIME

Evanescence playing as the crew heads further east.  We hit up Vegas’ rush our and Beck decides that, yes, traffic jams out west are just as much fun as rush hour in the midwest.

Reflecting on her time in San Diego, Beck has to admit that it was definately the highlight of her X-Mas vacation.  And Suzi would agree, along with everyone else maybe?, that our week or so probably held the “highest mountains and the lowest valleys”.

Hmmm… all that reflecting just made someone hungry.

8:33 PM (Robert)

The unstoppable road-trippers decided to take a bit of a detour up to Salt Lake City to bypass the snowy mountains.  We might just be the gnarliest ever.  Suzi is thinking about life and how good honey-wheat pretzels are, and that no one should ever not do what they want because of someone else’s expectations. So there.

2:08 PM Central

Surprise! Nebraska’s still flat. The whole posse has been on the road for 27 hours straight now and things are still going quite well. Planning to stop at Dean and Jeannette Ricter’s place in Rochester to drop Tony off to meet his parents.

Gnarly.