Road Trip 07' Day #5 (drive home)

We woke up and were ready to get home to our family's. After a short nights sleep,(Das was in Boston, so all luggage was safe) we ate some breakfast and hit the road. Here we are checking out at the Rio.
Here Chris is crashed. Everyone was dead beat.
Here is Almond out cold.
And last but not least, here is Kurt. He got in this position in Vegas and didn't move the entire ride home. We actually checked his pulse in Beaver to see if he was still alive. This picture was in Nephi when we were gassing up. He may have been sleeping with his eyes open here. HArd to tell.

This is the end of the pictures. Like I said before, this was and still is the mother of all trips. The stories are still being told. I will always have the awesome memories from this trip and am greatful to have been able to go with the guys I did. Good good times!

Road Trip 07' Day #4

Sunday morning we woke up in Anaheim and checked out of our hotel. It was time to head south to San Diego for the Chargers vs Bears game. One of the fun things while we were driving around was taking pictures of each other as one of us would fall asleep. Below is a picture of Bob while he dozed off.Das was in charge of getting the NFL tickets. He kept promising us we were good, but the day we left he informed us that one of the tickets never got mailed to him. We weren't sure how this would play out. But Das continued to promise us it was all good.
We drove around the back streets of San Diego searching for the girls house who sold das the ticket. We were all sceptical, but Das came through. Above is a picture of him with "Ticket Girl"
Here me and Das are walking across the freeway to the Stadium.
At the tailgate party before the game. A few of the Charger Cheerleaders were walking around getting the crowd excited. Nice of them to stop for a picture.
Here Das is with some fellow Bear fans.
We all got broken up at the game. Me and Das sat together. Almond and Bob. Then Kurt and Chris. Above is me and Das in our seats.
Here Das was with some nice girls we were sitting by. They were big Bear fans and just nice girls all around. Das really loved the girl on the rights shirt and we got a picture with her to remember the shirt. I'm not a Bears fan, but the more I look at the shirt, the more I like it.
Here we all are after the game. This is at the San Diego airport. Das had to fly out to Boston for work. So we dropped him off.

Funny Story: for some reason a "Playboy" magazine was floating around my car the entire trip. As we said our good byes to Das, someone slipped it into his laptop bag. Das never realized it was there and as he went to his training the next day, he was surprised as he stood in front of the room and pulled his notes out to find a Playboy Mag staring back at him. Acting as Cool as possible, he just slid it back in his bag, gained his composure, and gave his training.

We then drove straight to Vegas. We didn't account for the terrible traffic from San Diego heading north after the game, so we didn't get to Vegas till about 2:00 AM. But in stead of going to bed we hit the tables.
Here we are playing with "Apache Pete". he had one arm and was a terrible blackjack player.
We were winning and I was feeling pretty good. So I tried hugging the dealer. You are not allowed behind the table, nor are you allowed to take pictures. So you can see the fear in this dealers eyes as I approached her and cameras were flashing.
The Pit Boss was called over to get me under control. But as you can see, she caved very quickly to my charm. She not only didn't get mad at us, but I was allowed in the Pit for a hug and picture with her. We stayed up till about 5:30 AM playing. Good times.
Here is a picture of Kurt I took when we woke him up at 6:30 AM to get headed home. It was a long Sunday. Woke up in Anaheim, NFL game in San Diego, and a night in Vegas! Like the shirt said, "Balls to the Wall"

Road Trip 07' Day #3

Saturday was a big day. This was the BYU vs UCLA game in the Legendary Rose Bowl. This trip was awesome for many reasons. One of them being that we hit a Major League Baseball game, a College football game. And an NFL game. We were all pumped to get to the Rose Bowl. BYU also took a 11 game or so winning streak into the game.

It took us a while to get up and going. Some of us were a bit groggy from the night before. So we hit Village in or Denny's (one of the 2) for some breakfast. Then headed to Pasadena. Here is a picture of Chris. He joined us late Friday night. Not sure what it is he is doing to Kurt's shoulder. Or to himself for that fact. He just looks happy.
Here we are driving to Pasadena.
The ROSE BOWL. Like Keith Jackson says every News Year day. "Welcome to the Grand Daddy of them all". That of course is for the actual bowl game. We can only dream to one day be there playing in such a game. But way cool to still see this place. Especially with it being such an historic venue.
Bob, Almond and Me
We went over to a BYU tailgate tent and bumped into the man himself, LaVelle Edwards. We really thought it was our lucky day.
Here we are.
Das and Me. This Stadium was huge.
Here our beloved Cougs were about to score. Max Hall hit Austin Collie for a TD. BYU got down big 21-3. They battled back but lost a hard fought game. It was awesome as we got the entire BYU section chanting "OLLLL Sooonnnn" for UCLA (former BYU QB Ben Olsen) and it got load.

After the game it took us a while to get out of the Golf Course parking lot. We were all beat. This was the most mellow night. We were going on about 5 hours sleep from the last 2 nights. We hit the CheeseCake Factory for dinner then went to bed early back at the hotel.

Road Trip 07' Day #2

So after a very long night. We got up and hit a joint for breakfast in the Palms. We left all the wet towels on the floor, along with a nice tip for the poor housekeeper lady who had to clean our room. It was time to leave Vegas and get to California.Here is Almond, Das (in back) and Kurt. This is at a stop on the way to Anaheim.
We stopped in Barstow for some In & Out Burger. Here is Das gettin some!
Me and Kurt.
Then it was off to the ballpark for the Angles vs Indians game. Great park and it was a great game. The next picture below is one of my favorite pictures from any of our trips.
So after the game my Camera died. Thank goodness. But for the sake of staying true to this blog and what it is about, I will roll myself under the bus here. We were hungry after game. Parking lot has a "Hooters" right there in it. I don't care for the food, but it was conveniently located and they sure have some friendly service there. We were enjoying a nice meal when over the inter calm system I heard a women say, "I need Trouble to come to the stage". I looked around and Bob said "you better get on the stage Trouble". Bob (oh my good friend Bob) told the waitress it was my birthday and that my name was trouble. So I was taken up on the stage and all the nice waitresses surrounded me and proceeded to do the "Hooters Hokey Pokey". Don't ask, I cant explain it. Thanks Bob. And Thanks to Das for texting me the one picture taken that night. My wife had my phone when you sent it. Went over real well buddy.

We stopped by a liquor store with a funny idea. They sell knock off Viagra there and we thought it would be funny to slip it to Almond at the BYU game the next day. If all went as planned he would be walking around the Rose Bowl with a stiffy. Never materialized. But was a hell of an idea.

From there out my memory of the night is a bit foggy. All I know is I woke up safely in my bed the next morning and for that I am grateful.

Road Trip 07' Day #1

So I'm going to be honest. This was the Mother of all trips. This is the standard. All other trips prior and past will always be compared to this one. I even had shirts made. This is how much hype was involved with this one. And it lived up to the hype!

Here is a roll call for those who participated in this one. We had Jeffery Almond, Me, Kurt Swenson, Das Jettie and Bob Tueller

Here we are loaded up and ready to roll.
The first taste of awesome we got was in Beaver. We stopped at the McDonald's to grab some dinner and met this beauty. Me and Kurt were filling our drink and this old lady asked if we wanted to see the most beautiful girl in the world. Weird question considering the circumstance, but I said sure. She proceeded to kick her dentures half way out of her mouth while rubbing her but while moving her hips in a way that made me wont to vomit. But we appreciated her enthusiasm and asked if she would be willing to take a picture. She obviously agreed and was clearly willing to do more than just take a picture. Look at the way her and old Swenson are all cuddled up. She couldn't hold that hand up on his chest forever. Gravity was bound to take over.

Then we kept rollin. We got to Vegas around 10:00 PM or so. We checked in and got right to the Casino. We stayed at the Palms. More Awesomeness followed. We all got hot on a table together. If my memory serves me correctly we had a nice gall on 1st base (Miss Georgia) and a fantastic dealer who wanted to be a dentist. We played Blackjack forever. We were all felling good and I opened my big mouth and when the cocktail waitress asked what I wanted to drink, I replied "The toughest thing you got". She came back with something tuff. I of course was all talk. All bark and no bite. The waitress wouldn't leave till the drink went down. Das being the buddy he is, took it for me. And the rest is history. About 30 minutes later Das passed out right on the table.

We took him to the room and that room has never been the same. We got to bed around 4:00 AM. All was good until about 5:30 when someone woke up and said"what water is running"? What water you ask? That would be our buddy Das pissing in Almonds luggage. Thats right. Poor guy was so disoriented that he couldn't find the bathroom door. So we jumped up to help him but the piss just kept coming. Nothing else to say. Just enjoy the pictures from here out.

Whats sad is we actually opened the hallway door and sent him out in the hall for a while. Looking just like this. Then we realized we didn't need him getting arrested for showing his stuff off. And he was let back in.