Juliet's 1st Vegas Trip & I Love The 90's Concert in Paso Robles, CA 10/10/16 - 10/16/16

Vanilla Ice, Tone Loc, Kid N' Play, Color Me Badd, All-4-One, Young MC

-------------------------------------------------

We didn't have a lot of free time during the week we had Julie in Vegas with us but we did our best to take care of all our responsibilities as well as show her a good time. Here's the gist of how the week went:

10/10/16:

Being our first day back, we stayed home working almost all day, movies playing as background noise the whole time.

At night, we finally made some time to get out of the house. We ran a couple of errands, took a drive up and down the strip to give Juliet a look at Vegas, and went to Longhorn for graveyard specials. 

10/11/16:

We spent a lot of today running errands but made time to go to the $1 movies to watch the new Ghostbusters movie in the evening. Sean fell asleep halfway through the movie but Juliet and I enjoyed it.

10/12/16:

We hadn't exercised in awhile so we went to Sunset Park today for a jog. Sean and I did laps around the lake there after helping Juliet make a Pokémon Go account and leaving her to play on Sean's phone. Then we fed some bread we'd brought to geese, pigeons, and ducks there.

We drove to Pinball Hall of Fame after that and showed Juliet around there, PSG, and A Gamer's Paradise. Juliet and I mostly watched Sean play games in Pinball but we tried a couple machines ourselves. They both got some candy and we found lots of quarters on the floor and left in machines. I think we were only down a quarter when we left. PSG was looking good when we got in. It'd only just opened the only other time we'd been so it was much more set up this time. We said hi to Andy and then continued to A Gamer's Paradise where Juliet and I watched Sean play a couple of credits on another game. They had some newly added games this time, one of which was the game Sean played.

Juliet was in need of clothes so we drove to one of the Goodwill clearance centers in town then and looked for some essentials. We hadn't been to this location before. It was near the 15 freeway/Las Vegas Blvd, south of the strip.

Goodwill kinda took a lot out of us so we rewarded ourselves then with a trip to Chinatown. There, we let Juliet look around and got some snacks and treats in 99 Ranch Market. Juliet's favorite place there was the anime store inside the little shopping mall.

We drove home from Chinatown after that and played some Dance Maniax and Beatmania 4th Mix while cooking up a big roast dinner. Then we ate everything while watching movies.

10/13/16:

Almost all of today was spent working but in the evening we got Danny out with us and all went to Cici's for more pizza than any of us needed. Lol

Back home, I checked Facebook messenger and found out my ex had passed away. My LiveJournal post explaining:

I'm a mess! Apparently, Facebook has something called "New Message Requests" that I didn't notice til tonight. Going thru it, I found tons of messages that friends I had not yet added to Facebook had sent. One of these people was my 8th grade (and some of high school) sweetheart Alonso Estrada. He messaged me a year ago saying hi and congratulating me on my "successes". I didn't get the message til tonight. After reading it, I sent a reply saying I was sorry that I hadn't seen his message til now but hoped he was doing well. Then I went on his profile only to discover the awful news: he passed away this summer. I don't yet know why or how. He and I lost touch a long time ago. I always nagged him to be careful but only because I worried for him. I just hope he's in a better place now. Despite all the trouble he caused me in my younger years, he was a fun guy who I cared for deeply and he will be missed. RIP Alonso Estrada.

10/14/16:

Sean and I took Juliet downtown with us to see Fremont Street. We parked near our usual spot in a residential area on the east end and walked westward. We looked around Container Park, stopped to let Sean play a credit on a random game in the new arcade in Neonopolis, checked out some food festival thing they had branching off down a side street from the middle of the Fremont Street Experience, showed Juliet Slotzilla's ziplines, walked under the enormous TV overhead, and visited the California casino to play a little DDR. The machine they had this time was a Supernova. (Not sure which but it was either that or Extreme last time we visited.) The 2P's side wasn't registering coins properly when we arrived and the 1P pad was so frustratingly awful we could barely pass ANYTHING!

We went to Chinatown again after we were done on Fremont and got more snacks and drinks in 99 Ranch Market.

We wanted to stay out longer but we needed to get home to get some final things done before heading back to Cali. From Chinatown, we drove home and spent the rest of the night working, prepping food, and finally eating and watching movies til bed time.

10/15/16:

We finished packing today, loaded the car, and left the house at 3pm.

In Baker, CA, we exited the freeway to drive through town to give Juliet a quick look at the World's Tallest Thermometer.

We stopped in Barstow to show Juliet Barstow Station, get tea and coffee using a buy one get one free deal at McDonald's, and get some gas at Food 4 Less.

We passed through Delano, where Alonso Estrada had been shot and killed earlier this year, at 8:23pm.

We tried to show Juliet Bravo Farms but it was closed for the night when we arrived just after 9pm. She got a peek over the fence though.

In Fresno, traffic was shit. We had a short break there to use the second of 2 Rally's Groupon vouchers we had to get "dinner". Before leaving the area, we stopped at a a gas station called Fastrip where Sean and I fueled up and picked up mini bottles of Bacardi Oakheart and 99 Pineapple (1 of each at 2 for $2).

It was late when we finally made it to Merced but my family is used to being up all hours so my mom and Jarod greeted us upon arrival and stayed up for quite awhile with us.

Sean and I were in desperate need of exercise so we decided to go for a brief run not long after getting to town. My mom recommended the nearby Merced Regional Airport. Jarod opted to join us and the three of us drove over to run some laps around the oval drive at the front of the airport. I did 3.1 miles in 23:13 or less (not sure about timer stopping and starting on time) and was happy enough with that considering.

After the run, we drove back over to hang with Mom and Juliet and watch a little Back to the Future til Sean and I decided to call it a night and go to sleep in our car a little after 4:30am.

10/16/16:

Not long after waking up this morning, we were greeted by a cop who, I assume, had gotten a suspicious activity call about our car and had driven over to see what was up. Apparently, a lot of people dump vehicles where we'd parked and he'd thought we were ditching ours there too. Hell no!! In the end, he started talking to us about Spartan races and was actually pretty cool.

We hung with Paul and my family for half the day after that, eating, watching movies, exchanging goodies, listening to stories about my mom's upbringing and our family and family friends, and spending some quality time together.

Sean and I eventually had to get on the road to Paso Robles, CA around 3pm. We had a concert to get to! We exchanged lots of goodbye hugs and hit the road, taking the 99S to the 41W, I think it was, and only stopping at a place called Tachi Casino to establish that they didn't have free drinks or free play to offer us along the way. (They didn't.)

In Paso Robles, we found and parked at the Vino Robles Amphitheatre for the I Love the 90's concert they were hosting tonight! We pregamed in the car with our 99 pineapple thing, Bacardi Oakheart, and Captain Morgan Cannon Blast we'd brought from home. Then we went in and danced and sang the night away to Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice, Wild Thing and Funky Cold Medina by Tone Loc, Kid N' Play, I Wanna Sex You Up by Color Me Badd, I Swear and I Can Love You Like That by All-4-One, Bust A Move by Young MC, and lots of other classic hits ALL LIVE!! :D Sooooo many great artists performing for us in one place in one night...We were overwhelmed by the awesomeness! We were dancing to everything, booty grinding, horseplaying, slow dancing to All-4-One, rapping (horribly, mind you) to Vanilla Ice,... Sadly, Vanilla Ice didn't perform the Ninja Turtles song but he DID bring Donatello out on stage to dance around with him and we got some pretty great pics of and selfies with him in at the end of the show. Hey, not a bad way to wrap things up, huh?! Oh, and we found a super cool, black, fold out mat like the ones they have at Planet Fitness left behind at the end of the show to boot! :p Obviously, we took that home. I'd been wanting one forever!

One hours of dancing and then waiting in the parking lot til everyone else was lonnnnnnnnnnng gone were over, we were ready to head home. I'm totally amazing at night driving so I drove us 6/7 of the way home, I believe, while Sean worked his butt off on the laptop from the passenger's seat. I saved the tail end of the drive for him though and he took us home to unload the car, make food, and cuddle up in bed with movies to sleep it all off!

Leicester City vs PSG Soccer (Football) Game & Socal Bonfire Road Trip 7/30/16 - 8/1/16

Day 1 - 7/30/16 (Leicester City vs PSG):

We'd been planning to leave Vegas the day prior but I'd had surgery on the 27th and was feeling a little under the weather til this morning. I was okay today though so we ran some last errands, stopped by the gym (Planet Fitness) for a quick workout and shower on the way out, and then started driving to Socal.

Awhile back, I'd found a Groupon deal for a Leicester City vs Paris Saint-Germain soccer match at the StubHub Center (home of LA Galaxy) in Carson, CA (near Long Beach). As Leicester City was Sean's home team and I'd never been been to a professional soccer game before, we'd bought tickets and made the drive out!

Just down the road from the StubHub Center was:

Go Cart World
21830 Recreation Rd
Carson, CA

I can't remember exactly how I'd found out about the place but I'd made myself a note to pay the place a visit and see if they had any dance games. Maybe a friend had mentioned it to me, maybe I'd seen the place online and thought the might,.. Whatever the reason, we were already right in the area today and decided to stop in to check it out! Inside, we found a DDR Extreme machine with a Max 2 banner! There were 4.5 credits left in the machine then so we played through them and managed to get a mini workout. The pads were playable. Not amazing but could've been worse. The 2P side was somewhat better than the 1P. Volume was a little low but they had a machine!! And there was even a Pokestop (spot where you get Pokeballs and such in the new Pokémon Go phone game everyone's been playing lately if your phone's GPS shows you being close enough to it) accessible right from the DDR pads! Free Pokeballs the whole time we were playing. :D We had to head out after DDR but we had a quick look around the rest of the arcade, which was full of games probably almost all from around the era of DDR Extreme (I loved it!), and added the location to ddrfreak before going.

At the StubHub Center, parking was $20 and all of the closest neighborhoods were closed off to event parking. We sure as hell weren't paying so we just drove a little further and found a spot in a quiet neighborhood past the blocked off neighborhoods. Then we went for a jog to the stadium, catching Pokémon and hatching our Pokémon eggs (in-game eggs that you hatch Pokémon out of by covering varying distances of 2k, 5k, or 10k, usually on foot) on the way!

There were lots of Pokéstops and Pokémon to get at the stadium and we got a bit distracted and carried away with that and actually hardly watched the game at all. x.x Oops! We saw a bit though and had lots of fun! We got to see Sean's team and I got the gist of it. Got a bit of exercise running around too so all in all definitely worth it!

After the game, we got back to the car and drove to a nearby Starbucks to do a little work before heading to a Walmart to play some more Pokémon Go and finally get some car sleep.

Day 2 - 7/31/16 (Socal Bonfire & Pokémon Go running):

In the morning, we woke up and headed over to our second big event of the weekend: the annual Socal Bonfire with our old Socal dance game friends. This time, I'd organized it with the help of Tony Padilla but I think he and Ervin and a few others showed up before us to reserve the fire pit and get things going. We'd decided to have this year's bonfire at Huntington Beach just to mix things up but it was pretty much the same setup as Dockweiler. It was $15 to park there but we were staying all day so it was worth it to us to be able to get things from our car as needed. Once we were settled in, there was just way too much fun stuff to do and somehow not nearly enough time! Friends and new faces were coming and going all day as well. We played in the violent, crazy waves with a group of friends for awhile and got a few people to play some frisbee with us. We bbq'd, snacked, chatted, horseplayed, and soaked in the rays. We caught lots of water Pokémon and other Pokémon we don't have much of in Vegas. In fact, Pokémon is how we spent most of the day. We went Pokémon hunting, walking all around with Ervin first and went running EVERYWHERE for HOURS and covering quite a few miles around the area with Edgar later. By the time we made it back to the bonfire the last time, it was dark and everyone had left or was getting ready to leave. Oops! On the bright side, we'd spent a decent amount of time with a lot of people in the earlier part of the day, had gotten tons of exercise, and had gotten to explore the busy pier and all the other cool sights in the area there. I'd forgotten to wear shoes so my feet had been tenderized by the pavement and the lower halves of my legs were DEAD but it was worth it! We spent some last moments hanging around the parking lots with friends who hadn't gone home yet and then finally said our goodbyes and took off.

We did some driving back towards home then and eventually parked and got some sleep, if I remember correctly.. (Writing this two months later)

Day 3 - 8/1/16:

We'd been road tripping so much recently we welcomed any opportunity to break up the monotony of driving so, on the way home, we stopped for caffeine and to get work done at Starbucks and then made lots of stops to catch Pokémon and get Pokéstops on the way.

AZ Def Leppard Concert & Races Trip - 9/20/16 - 9/25/16

Def Leppard, REO Speedwagon, Tesla, 8.2k Run Fore Cancer, Global Energy 10k, Dance Super Station,..

Day 1 - 9/20/16:

We woke up at 8am today to get packed and ready. Amongst other things we'd planned, we'd booked a concert for this evening awhile back. The concert: Def Leppard, REO Speedwagon, and Tesla in Phoenix! We got loaded up and headed out around 2:20pm today to get to the 7pm concert, listening to Def Leppard and REO Speedwagon in the car the whole way there! (Well, actually we spent a short while listening to some Spanish learning lessons we'd downloaded but only for a bit.) When we arrived, parking was free but took an hour so we completely missed Tesla. We made it in time for REO Speedwagon though and got to hear some of their hits before Def Leppard came on to completely dominate the night! We did some quick pre-gaming with brandy we'd brought from home before leaving the car. We'd just bought the cheap tickets for the lawn area at the back but we had more fun there than we possibly could've in any other seat in the place. We had so much more freedom to dance wildly and wrestle there and, of course, we did! The weather was great too! We'd brought a beach towel so I gave Sean a massage and relaxed with him on it til Def Leppard came on and rocked so hard we HAD to get up! So amazing getting to hear some of the most epic songs I'd grown up with live and even getting to see their guitarist shirtless! Lol

After the concert, we were hungry and tired so we found a Love's with a Subway attached, got a sandwich and free cookies (yay receipt surveys!), ate while watching South Park on Sean's laptop, and eventually went to sleep.

Day 2 - 9/21/16:

In the morning, we drove to Starbucks to use some credit we had there from a deal we'd booked and get Sean a tea. We did some work there for quite a few hours before heading out.

Then we got a big, cold drink at QuikTrip and headed to the Goodwill Clearance Center to spend a few hours and only $45 getting LOTS of amazing stuff that was worth way more than that.

Since we were in the area, we drove to the Main Event there in Avondale and used $10 in free credit we had to play PIU Infinity for an hour.

We were super hungry then and the food we'd brought from Vegas just wasn't cutting it so we drove to Tempe, AZ to use a Groupon deal we'd bought for an Indian buffet called Kohinoor Cuisine of India. The place was small and humble with a very down-home-cooking type feel about it but the food was great! We had to buy an additional item to "activate" our all-you-can-eat buffet for two Groupon but we just got some delicious mango drink, somewhere between a juice drink and a smoothie, to share and then filled a plate each with a colorful assortment of entrees - vegetarian, chicken, and more - and a few desserts and sides too! We left feeling absolutely stuffed and satisfied, having tried both familiarly tasty and lots of new things!

We found an openly accessible pool area at a Super 8 Motel around the corner and went for a dip in the pool and hot tub there.

We got a message we'd been waiting for from someone who'd booked a shipment with us through Uship then. We'd brought an exercise bike from Vegas for them and they'd just gotten home for us to drop it off. We headed over to deliver it and then drove to the nearest QuikTrip to watch some South Park reruns on Sean's laptop til we fell asleep in the car.

Day 3 - 9/22/16:

We had a Walmart gift card we'd gotten awhile back as a reward for booking two nights at Choice Hotels locations (like Econo Lodge) so we used that to get various essentials, some new Captain Morgan Cannon Blast bottle (35%, shaped like a cannon ball), and some 2 for $1 egg rolls from the deli section.

Our egg rolls were cold and we needed caffeine so we drove to Ikea to get free tea and coffee, use their microwave, and borrow some outlets and WiFi to get work done. We figured we'd get lots of meatballs there to pay them back next time.

We ended up spending our whole day working at Ikea. We got lots done but when evening came we were absolutely starving! Fortunately, we had another Groupon deal for a place called YZ's Hot Pot & BBQ there in Tempe so we drove over and got a beef hot pot order each! It came with TONS of veggies and meats, including some very strange but yummy seafood items, as well as a side of rice and a scoop of strawberry ice cream for dessert. There was so much that we only finished about half but we took the rest with us for later!

We had some vouchers for free Redbox movie rentals so we picked up a movie called Now You See Me 2 at a Redbox location next to Safeway across the street and then drove a couple of buildings down to a QuikTrip to park for the night, watch the movie, and cuddle up to sleep.

Day 4 - 9/23/16:

In the morning, we ate some of our hot pot leftovers. A little weird for breakfast but very yummy! We donated what we couldn't finish to local animals. Lol

We took the Redbox video back to Safeway then and took care of some work and errands before our first fun activity of the day:

Tilt Studio (at Arizona Mills Mall)
5000 S Arizona Mills Cir
Tempe, AZ

Not too long ago, Tilt Studio had been Gameworks. I guess the location had been leased out to Tilt once Gameworks left? We'd visited several times when it was Gameworks and had even passed it a few times in recent trips since it'd become Tilt but hadn't yet stopped in to see the changes. Well, today was the day! We went in and found that the place still looked pretty much the same but with some different games. As for music games, they had Guitar Hero, some drum game (maybe MTV Drumscape whatever it's called thing?), Grand Piano Keys, DDR Extreme with a replaced screen that was vertically way too small and a Max 2 marquee with a little sign mentioning that it was actually now Extreme, and an up-to-date but offline PIU Prime back to back with, most importantly, Dance Super Station (Dance Master?). The last of these was a super rare machine, at least in the USA, which neither of us had seen anywhere but online before. I'd always wanted to see it though and was so excited to finally get to! Unfortunately, it was out of order when we arrived. It'd just gone down the day before and apparently wouldn't be fixed for at least 3 or 4 days. Wow, what terrible luck! Still, just seeing it was definitely better than nothing and it's lights still came on even though it's screen didn't. Anyway, prices there were really high and without Dance Super Station nothing was worth paying for. A technician gave us a free credit on PIU, which was cool, and we got pics and videos of the place and the games and played a free credit we found left in a Ghostbusters pinball machine. Then we moved on to see what else we could do with our day.

Down the street from there was a QuikTrip. We stopped in and used a couple of phone app deals we had to get 2 roller grill items, a fountain drink, and two cans of energy drink for about $5 total.

Coming and going from Phoenix so much lately, we decided it was probably a good idea to check out more gym options. We got in touch with a gym called Fitness Works who offered us a free day pass to go see one of their many locations in the area. We decided on:

Fitness Works
1668 N Higley Rd
Gilbert, AZ 85234

There, they had a pool, hot tub, sauna, steam room, cardio equipment, weights,... And we spent a good couple of hours trying out most of it before using their showers to get fresh and clean again! We only jogged a slow 1 to 1.5 miles or so on the treadmills to loosen our legs up for our upcoming races. We actually spent most of our time in the water, relaxing and practicing some swimming. The pool bottom was pretty grimy and some of the things about the place we're somewhat old, dirty, or damaged but they had lots of cool things and so much to do. Besides, can't complain about a free day!

Finally leaving the gym, we went to packet pickup for our race the next day. It was the Run Fore Cancer race and packet pick up was at:

Road Runner Sports
7077 E Mayo Blvd #150
Phoenix, AZ 85054

Actually, we had upcoming races two days in a row, each with it's packet pickup the day prior and both at the same location. Unfortunately, we couldn't get the second race's packets the same day as the first but we got our Run Fore Cancer packets as well as info on some other upcoming races in the area.

We were a little hungry then so we went to McDonald's to take advantage of their recent "free fry Friday" promotion. We got a burger and free medium fries each.

Across the street from McDonald's, we went to the mall where the Phoenix Monster Bubbles' location had been to use some of the many Monster Bubbles vouchers we'd gotten through Groupon awhile back. Sadly, that Monster bubbles location had closed down, leaving only the one in Mesa. We did find an arcade in the food court called Zap Arcade but they didn't have any music games or much of anything in general really.

Driving to a QuikTrip to spend the night, we stopped by another McDonald's to get more deals. Then we took our junk food with us to QuikTrip, parked up, got a fountain drink refill, and ate and sipped some festive beverages in the car while watching movies on the laptop til sleep time.

Day 5 - 9/24/16 (8.2k Run Fore Cancer):

It was tough but we got up at 6am or so to get ready for our morning race at the Silverado Golf Club in Scottsdale, AZ about 20 minutes away. The 8k (or 8.2k, I think?) race was starting at 7:30am so we had to hurry over. There was also a 5k distance that just went around the front 9 holes at the golf course but we were both doing the 8k/5 mile distance around the full 18. We got there, got lined up, and got started! We both ran intentionally semi-easy, comfy races as to not burn ourselves out before the following day's race but I did push a little for the last few hundred meters when I saw the finish line. Sean was there waiting with water for me when I got back. I took a few minutes to catch my breath and then we walked around a bit to collect some post race food a freebies. Around 9am, they announced awards. I'd gotten 1st place in my 5 year age group and Sean had gotten 2nd in his so we each got one of the StartLine Racing trademark medal attachments with our places to add onto the bottom of our finishers medals. Then we snapped some last photos and got out of there! Later though, we had a look online and got our results:

Sean's:
Chip Time: 00:35:46
Overall Finish: 6/124
Gender Finish: 5/46
Age Group Finish: 2/12
Average Pace: 7:09/mile

Mine: Chip Time: 00:41:14
Overall Finish: 16/124
Gender Finish: 4/78
Age Group Finish: 1/14
Average Pace: 8:14/mile

We saw some yard sale signs as we left the race location so we stopped and did some mini shopping at a couple.

We each had a coupon for $2 off anything at Tropical Smoothie so we went there next and got a smoothie each.

It was almost time for the next day's race's packet pickup then but we had other things we wanted to do so we decided to leave our packets til the next morning and instead drove to:

Monster Bubbles (at Superstition Springs Center)
6555 E Southern Ave, Fl 2
Mesa, AZ 85206

We each used one of our tickets for a session of rolling around in their giant inflatable bubble balls there. Second time there and still a kind of fun way to get sweaty in minutes! Lol

There was another Zap Arcade location in that mall as well but their game selection wasn't really any better than the previous one.

Driving back to Goodwill Clearance Center for another few hours, we stopped in Tilt Studio again on the way just to check the hadn't yet fixed Dance Super Station. They hadn't. :(

So we got to Goodwill, did another few hours of shopping, and left with a big bag of awesome stuff including a DS, an Atari, and TONS more for only $23 total!

We refueled ourselves at QuikTrip with $1 sausages and a big drink refill then before driving across the street to Travelers Inn to revisit their pool and hot tub. There was a Mexican guy in the hot tub when we got there so we had a good chat with him while enjoying the water til Sean and I finally had to get going to:

Sanctum of Horror
6555 E Southern Ave
Mesa, AZ

We had a Groupon I'd bought for the place and, though it was still September, I figured it was never too early to start celebrating Halloween! We drove over, had a quick couple of shots each, and went to see how badly they could scare us at the two haunted houses there! They did a pretty decent job with one and an average job with the other but we were happy. I was screaming my head off and Sean was laughing at me the whole time! Lol

We decided to keep the party going after that so we drove to a QuikTrip to watch some Red Dwarf on the laptop while eating car food and sipping some more alcohol til we finally decided to call it a night.

Day 6 - 9/25/16 (Global Energy 10k):

Reluctantly, we got up at 5:20am to get dressed and ready for yet another race. This time, it was the Global Energy 10k. We were tired and, unsurprisingly, I had a headache but it was alright. Worth it!

So we made our way to:

Scottsdale Sports Complex
8081 E Princess Dr
Scottsdale, AZ

There, we got to the start line (where StartLine Racing was setup to do the timing again), smiled for a few cameras at thus much bigger race today, wished each other luck, and started running at 7am. There was also a 3k distance there that I'd wanted to do but it was really just a fun run/walk and not meant to be competitive so we were both in the 10k. The last race had a handful of small, mild hills but this one was a little tougher. Not super steep for any extended time but I guess it could be referred to as undulating, seemingly particularly between mile 4 and 5. I took the race a bit easy but still didn't do too badly. There were only prizes for top 3 overall in each gender (no age groups or anything else) but there were far too many people for us to win anyway. Nevertheless, we both did alright, got cool finisher's medals, got lots of bread-related and other freebies (as the race was sponsored by Bimbo), and got to be a part of another Guinness World Record! The race was, in fact, being run in 20-something cities on the same day in an attempt to break the record for the most number of cities participating in one single race on one single day which they successfully accomplished! Very cool. Here are Sean's and my results:

Sean's:
Chip Time: 00:43:41
Overall Finish: 26/487
Gender Finish: 23/201
Average Pace: 7:02/mile

Mine:
Chip Time: 00:52:03
Overall Finish: 74/487
Gender Finish: 22/286
Average Pace: 8:23/mile

Right after we finished the race, we managed to get a hold of another Uship customer about a chair we needed to pick up. They said we could get it then so we headed to the pick up location and loaded it up.

Driving away, we saw signs for more yard sales and stopped to have a look and get some goodies.

It was time to start heading home then but on the way out we made a couple last stops, first at a QuikTrip for some last sausages and drink refills and then at a place near Phoenix Zoo. At the second of these, we did a mini hike up to something called Hole-in-the-Rock, where we got great views, pics, and vids of the awesome surroundings and overlooking the city. Then we walked over to see some little lakes/ponds there. It was so peaceful and such a nice day! There were fish in the water, ducks swimming and resting in nearby shade, picnic benches surrounding the water.. Would definitely an awesome place for a picnic sometime!

Aside from getting gas at Maverik in Kingman, as usual, we didn't stop again until we reached Chloride, AZ. I'd been wanting to stop and see the little community of 352 people for a long time but hadn't had time til now. Well, after driving several miles from the highway to get to it, I wasn't disappointed! There were lots of random things to see in the tiny place, namely the oddly decorated homes, buildings, belongings, and one particular vehicle that really stood out. I didn't see a gas station there at all but Sean thought he spotted a cafe. It was mostly homes there but there were a couple of little shops selling antiques and miscellaneous as well as a post office and a few other buildings. A few people shouted for us to stop and have a look around. Cute place though and we'd definitely have to go back sometime, maybe when they do one of the festivals there that we'd seen flyers for. On the way out, we spotted a tarantula crossing the street! It was the first wild tarantula Sean had seen. I'd only seen two before, both in Oklahoma. We pulled over for a look. The cute, scrawny thing was missing two limbs. :( Sean had to really talk me out of taking it home and feeding it up. Lol While looking at the tarantula, a guy living in the closest house mentioned to us that they get tarantulas walking around there all the time, helping them keep bug populations there under control. So cool!

When we got to Lake Mead, we stopped at the Hoover Dam lodge for some free Coke. They'd opened up a big room with lots of cool arcade games, a big ticket redemption counter, pool tables, a bar, and slot machines. No music games there but it still looked like a pretty fun place to visit sometime when we just needed a mini break from Vegas.

We finnnnally made it home just after that and got rested and ready for our next trip a couple of days later. 

Ultimate Wine Run 5k & Cali Family Trip 8/27/16 - 9/2/16

Day 1 - 8/27/16 (The Ultimate Wine Run):

Sean and I had signed up for The Ultimate Wine Run 5k at Lake Las Vegas awhile back. We got our race packets yesterday AS WELL AS OUR MEDALS. (Yes, they gave the medals in advance at packet pickup, which kinda killed the motivation imo!) Today, we showed up to run at Lake Las Vegas. Parking was $15 ($10 in advance) but we refused to pay and wound up parking a couple of miles from the start, having to power walk, and almost missing the start of the race because of it. Lol We got to the start just in time though! The race was extremely "undulating", as I've heard so many people say lately, and totally owned me. Sean had decided to run with me though and kept me motivated while playing Pokémon Go. Yes, he was playing Pokémon Go WHILE RUNNING WITH ME. I was absolutely dying and he was just casually catching Pidgeys and even a Tauros! Hahaha At the end of the race, I took a little time to recover before we got our cups of finish line wine and tried riding a mechanical bull they had there. Then they did a raffle and a few other things and Sean managed to win a bottle of wine in one of their little side events! They didn't have any placement prizes or even timing chips as it was a fun run but a bottle of wine was plenty to show for our efforts!

Heading back into Vegas after the wine run, we stopped by Danny's parents house where we'd been invited to Danny's mom and brother's birthday party. We hung out and ate with them for a good couple of hours til we finally had to head home and get ready to go out of town.

Sean and I had gotten a booking through Uship to transport someone's flatscreen TV from Vegas to Berkeley, CA. We'd already picked up the TV. Now it was time to load it up, pack, and start our long road trip overnight! Once we were ready to go, we buckled in and I drove us up while Sean got lots of work done in the car.

Day 2 - 8/28/16:

We pulled into Merced around 8:20am, I think it was, and met my mom and youngest siblings Juliet and Jarod at the Burger King on Childs Ave for some quick breakfast. We couldn't stay too long though since we still had obligations northwest of there.

We continued to Berkeley after that to drop the TV off and then got in touch with my sister Liz. She and her husband Kyle were home at the time so we headed over to their place. Liz is taking classes at the City College of San Francisco now and when we arrived she was working on homework. Kyle was watching TV on the couch so Sean joined him while I went to nerd out with Liz. She was working on Trigonometry at the time. I couldn't believe it! She's a smart girl but I never imagined her being motivated to learn any math beyond maybe algebra. I couldn't help but grin watching her find function inverses and whatnot. Math had always been my number one subject and one of the things I'd prided myself on most growing up. It'd been about a decade since I'd done any serious math though and I'd never taken a trig class. (Instead, I'd skipped from geometry to calculus and continued through classes as they were presented, assuming I'd pick trig up somewhere along the way.) Looking at Liz's work, I was absolutely clueless! It turns out I had learned what she was covering once upon a time and it came back to me pretty quickly as we got into it together but it took a couple of minutes for me to get up to speed with each concept as I was presented with it and I was absolutely ecstatic and thoroughly impressed when Liz was tutoring ME, explaining to ME how to solve these problems! I'm not cocky about my past knowledge at all but I dedicated so much to my education growing up and never saw Liz's interest in certain subjects such as math so to see her not only attempt it but master it this way was just incredible and so heartwarming. Anyway, we ended up getting through nearly all of her math homework and even spending some time Google'ing silly math t-shirt jokes for awhile til she had to get ready and head to work.

Once it was just Sean, Kyle, and me, we decided to get out of the house and walk to a semi-run-down, single hoop basketball court a block or two away where Kyle's taken to playing basketball lately. Sean and I were dead tired but staying vertical was the only way to keep us awake so we went and played for a bit. A neighborhood kid even came and played with us for a bit. We caught some Pokémon while out too. Pretty successful excursion, really! :D

Sean and I finally had to get a nap in when we got back to the apartment so we crashed on the couch for a few hours. Then we hung out with Kyle til Liz got home, went out to stop by a liquor store, got lots of Pokestops on the way, hung out back at the apartment, watched Death Proof, had some drinks, ate, and eventually called it a night.

Day 3 - 8/29/16:

According to Liz, Kyle never misses work (though I assume sick days are an exception?) but in the morning he slept in and was late. He ended up just not going so my sister decided to skip school and stay home as well. I felt somewhat personally responsible but couldn't do much other than get out of their hair towards the end of our trip and decide not to come back too frequently. Lol

So we all spent most of the day in the apartment but finally left in the late afternoon, I believe it was, headed to a sandwich shop called Little Lucca in Burlingame for lunch. There, we got HUGE, ridiculously delicious sandwiches for maybe $10 each. Sounds like a lot but each sandwich fed at least two people. We didn't eat our sandwiches there though. Kyle took us to a pretty park nearby instead so we could eat and do some Pokémon hunting!

Later, Kyle drove us up through and around a hilltop neighborhood with nice views and expensive houses.

Then we went to a mall not far away for a little shopping. Sean and Liz bought an awesome Harley Quinn hat for me. Totally not worth the $20 they spent but SUPER awesome. Then we got a Sharks hat as a going away gift for Kyle's soon to be former boss, a smoothie to share, and some Asian snacks and bits.

Back at the apartment a little later, we snacked and watched some movies before finally going to sleep.

Day 4 - 8/30/16:

Kyle had work in the morning but Liz was free so we hung out with her all day. We made chocolate chip pancakes with a side of peaches for "breakfast". (It was probably after lunch time at the time.)

Eventually, we made it out of the apartment and went to get groceries at Food Maxx. While putting the groceries away not long after getting back to the apartment, Kyle got home from work. Quinn was already there with a friend of his.

Liz, Sean, and I went to the pool and hot tub for a bit then. The pool was super cold but we kinda got used to it and had a lot of fun playing around together in it before thawing out again in the hot tub.

We caught a few Pokémon including a Tauros after that.

Kyle and Liz had both made us food since we'd arrived. Sean and I had brought snacks and quick bites but it just wasn't the same. Accordingly, we'd picked up ingredients at Food Maxx and promised to make a shepherds pie to share. Sean spearheaded the operation, of course, but Liz and I helped too. In the end, it was a big success! Everyone loved it - Kyle, Liz, Quinn, Quinn's friend, me. Good job, Sean!!

After dinner, we all sat around sipping beverages and watching stuff til it was time to sleep.

Day 5 - 8/31/16:

Liz had to go to school today but Sean, Kyle, and I eventually got the Bart to downtown to meet her between classes, catching Pokémon along the way and throughout the day.

Liz had made a list of tons of exciting things to do. She didn't have a lot of free time but she made good use of the time she did have with us.

She took us to Nordstrom cafe where we shared a couple of bowls of lobster bisque soup, an extremely delicious soup, some kind of lemonade that she ordered, tea that Sean ordered, and some entree that Kyle ordered. Everything was so good! Nice view too! Sean and I had been there once before with Kristina Proctor and Chris Danford but it'd been awhile!

Liz knew all the most visually appealing spots in the city! She took us up a hotel where we had amazing city views looking out over the city from a restaurant window. She took us to pretty, old brick church with an awesome interior and super high ceiling. Then we went walking around near the Metreon catching lots of Pokémon. By the end of the day, Sean and I probably had over 20 Tauros between us!

Liz had to get back to class at 6pm but Sean, Kyle, and I stuck around the area to wait for her to finish. While waiting, we got alcohol from a liquor store nearby and drank it slyly in an alleyway like homeless people, sharing it out of a brown paper bag and chasing it with an energy drink I'd brought. Lol We had a fun buzz then which we enjoyed while wandering through the mall nearby. We got samples there and even scored a free pretzel each at Wetzel's Pretzels! We took our pretzels for a walk, shared a little with the countless pigeons we found outside, and eventually wound up at a place called Top of the Mark. My sister had actually recommended we go there just before sunset to enjoy another wonderful lookout point. The place was far too fancy for any of us but we did manage to make it up and get some pics while enjoying another awesome view! We got more liquor and soda from a shop just a minute down the street from there and took it for a walk to Union Square where we drank and caught Pokémon til it was time for Liz to get out of class. Then we walked to her school and met her at the exit!

Liz had parked semi-close to there so we drove us all home, stopping to grab more liquor on the way. Then we all played fun drinking games like King's Cup and Ride the Bus on the balcony together til we were all pretty done!

Day 6 - 9/1/16:

Kyle had to work in the morning but he was really in no condition to go. To make matters worse, his truck battery was dead and his truck was parked in a no parking after 7am zone. We were all drunk still but had to get up and help sort things out. Kyle took Liz's Audi to get to work and Sean, Liz, and I tried to jump Kyle's truck with our Prius so we could move it to a better parking spot. Unfortunately, the Prius refused to jump the truck. We tried to push the truck next but it was kinda stuck on the curb and we didn't have much luck with that either. Kyle had forgotten his work boots though so he had to come back anyway. The rest of us waited at his truck til he arrived and then helped jump the truck with the Audi. 

Back at the apartment, Sean and I made omelet and sausages for everyone. Then we got a little more sleep before it was finally time for us to head out. We said our goodbyes and then went to kill some time til our next Uship gig.

Our first destination was Food Maxx. We got some energy drink there and then continued to a boba shop we'd found on Google called Milk and Honey Cafe. I got the BIGGEST cup of boba smoothie I'd EVER seen there for $5.25. So yummy and really good value! We took the drinks to Horseshoe Lake to do more Pokémon hunting while enjoying the outdoors then. We walked around, took in the sun and sights, relaxed on a park bench.. When it started getting a little chilly, we finally left and found a Starbucks for some WiFi.

When the time came, we made the short drive to a place called Foster City to get our next Uship item: a Coke vending machine! We had to pay a $5 toll to get over the bridge but it was a lot faster than driving all the way around the water. We got a funny look and some skepticism when we showed up to load the Coke machine into our Prius but I'd checked the measurements and it fit in the car perfectly. It was heavy as shit and took 3 adults including Sean, the guy we were picking up from, and me to load it but once it was in it was no problem!

We started south to drop off the Coke machine then, stopping in Merced to visit family again along the way! We got some gas and Taco Bell in Manteca before getting to Merced shortly thereafter. Then we met my family at their friend Paul's house where we all hung out, snacked, and exchanged more gifts and things we had for each other.

When it started getting late, Sean and I said our goodbyes and got back on the road to Paramount, CA.

Day 7 - 9/2/16:

We finally made it to Paramount early in the morning. It was too early to drop off the Coke machine though so we parked at at Food 4 Less and got some sleep in the car.

It was 1pm when we woke up. We used some McDonald's Friday deal they've been offering lately to get free medium fries with any purchase and got a cheap sandwich and medium fries each. Our bodies weren't happy with that but at least we weren't hungry.

Then we dropped the Coke machine off in Paramount, CA and got paid $150.32 after fees for doing it!

We needed to get some work done then so we went to a Starbucks for a but to do that. Then we got some energy drinks at a grocery store and started towards home. Traffic was awful though so we stopped at an Ikea for a break. We got a meal with LOTS of extra meatballs (20 total!) plus free coffee and tea and got some more work done while trying to wait out the traffic.

Once Ikea closed at 9pm, we tried driving again but traffic was literally the worst we'd EVER seen by far on account of Labor Day weekend. In fact, we later found out it'd made the news.

We decided to stop again at Food 4 Less to get some food and got some great deals there!

On the road again after that,where there were back or side roads, those were completely full of unmoving traffic as well. At one point as we were driving on the 15 freeway towards Vegas, roads to each side of us that we didn't even know existed were lit up with cars driving 0 to 15 miles per hour. We tried to take side roads whenever possible but much of the trip to Vegas only seemed doable from one major freeway. It was like trying to get to EDC except that it lasted several times longer. We even tried taking a break at a rest area but that was so busy with everyone else who'd given up that there was no point in even trying to stop and use a restroom. It was a big rest area but there were probably 2 or 3 times as many vehicles there as there were parking spaces and drivers were forced to park illegally in no parking zones all around the lot because of it. Even when we finally made it to Primm, just over half an hour from Vegas in normal traffic, we saw all the gas stations and parking lots there completely full of drivers who'd just given up. We'd had to make a lot of stops to try and wait the traffic out and didn't get back to Vegas until TWELVE HOURS after we'd initially started driving, attempting to get home. It was 4:30am when we got to our driveway. We managed to crawl in the house with all our things, make "dinner", bath, and cuddle up with a movie to get some rest but it was probably going to take a couple of weeks to recover before trying to leave town on another roadtrip.