We left the house at 6:33pm. We weren't feeling ready for another roadtrip but we had places to be so we hopped in the car and got on our way.
We had a few last errands to run before leaving town, the last of which was stopping by Julie Murphy's pretty new house, 12 minutes from our house in a nice gated community, to drop off a few arrows she'd ordered from me for the upcoming UNLV ITG tournament she'd be hosting on Friday. It was our first time seeing her new place. When we arrived, she showed us around and insisted on sending us off with an assortment of snacks and drinks. She insisted we take another $10 payment for the arrows as well but we refused. She'd already done too much for us!
We were on the 95 freeway northbound just after 8pm. I took the first shift, listening to some of the 147 Spanish audio lessons Sean had gotten for me recently, trying to get smarter on the way.
When we reached Goldfield, NV, we put on the country song Forty Miles of Famous by Richard Elloyan that we'd gotten from the deejay at their local radio station!
"I turned on my radio and tuned in the only choice
And pouring through those speakers, I recognized my voice
On that lonely stretch of highway where the crows and the coyotes call
I'm 40 miles of famous between Goldfield and Tonopah"
We felt so free and amazing! Lol
Shortly after that, we were in Tonopah, stopping for a restroom break at Tonopah Station and at Valero for gas. They'd removed the free tea and coffee from Tonopah Station but there was still tons of other cool stuff to see and do there. We still needed to plan a trip just to stay there sometime! There was a Tesla electric car charging station across the street from Valero. Cool to see in the middle of nowhere like that!
Sean was actually super tired so he only did an hour of driving. I took care of the rest, stopping for gas again at a Maverik station we passed and getting us to Olympic Valley, CA a little before 5am.
Day 2 -9/29/16 (Spartan World Championships - Volunteering):
So I got a grand total of 2 hours of sleep before I had to wake up. Luckily, I'd managed to park us right near where we needing to be: "base camp" for the Spartan set up. There, we got checked in for the volunteering shift we'd signed up for and started our assigned duty - this time almost exclusively cleaning signs and banners, just the two of us, for 11 hours - from 7:30am til 6:30pm. It was extremely tedious but we got a free race, free shirts, $50 credit each to use in the Spartan online store, lunch (chili!), snacks, and a cool preview of the part of the race set up around the start and finish line! Also, it was a great day and great location to be outside and it was all taking place right there at the location of the 1960 Winter Olympics! (Of course, we got awesome pics of the sign from the Olympics.)
After our insanely long day of volunteering and only 2 hours of sleep prior for me, we were kinda tired so we pretty much just chilled in the car there til we feel asleep for 11.5 hours.
Day 3 -9/30/16 (Tahoe, Stateline..):
A day after arriving, we were finally free to explore the area a bit! We drove around Tahoe City and around Lake Tahoe, stopping to snap some pics here and there. It was such a pretty day! Blue skies, minimal clouds, great temperatures..
We stopped in a cute, little thrift store for a look around but didn't get anything.
Eventually, we made it to the casinos at Stateline. Sean hadn't been to this particular area before, I don't think, and I don't believe I'd been since I went with Danny at the end of May 2009.
We stopped in Harvey's first. When we arrived they still had their awesome, good-sized downstairs arcade there with Dance Maniax and DDR Extreme inside! It was open 24/7. I think that might've been the same when I last visited? DDR's 1P pad had a cracked arrow but we shared a credit on 2P and managed to average B's on it. The screens on it and on Dance Maniax were both kinda bad but did the job! Dance Maniax had a sensor-top missing but still worked pretty well! It was hard to see what to do because of the dark, blurry, discolored screen but as long as we didn't play anything super hard we were fine. It was $0.50 for 3 songs for 2 players (joint premium!) for Dance Maniax and $0.75 for 3 songs for DDR Extreme. We played 2 credits together on Dance Maniax, though we failed during the second credit because we couldn't see well enough to pass Dynamite Rave. Lol Still, super worth it and super fun!
Adjacent to Harvey's was Harrah's. We walked over and found their arcade next! (I think I'd done that walk in reverse when I'd played there with Danny.) Inside, Grand Piano Keys, Dance Maniax, DDR Extreme with a 3rd Mix marquee, and DDR USA were waiting for us! So cool to see that they still had old and even new dance games after all these years! We shared a few credits on Dance Maniax at $0.50/3 songs (no joint premium) and actually found a free $1 in tokens in its' coin return. Like the one in Harvey's, it had a dark screen that made it a little hard to see too but at least it wasn't discolored and it worked okay otherwise. Not perfect but better than expected for a machine of its age! DDR USA and Extreme were both $0.75/3 songs so we shared a credit on each. Both had decent pads. We played the 1P side on USA. The pads were a little sunken in on Extreme but worked well! Well, we didn't try the 1P side but the 2P side only gave a few non-combos per song. After all that, we found some stray tickets and got some free candy at the prize counter before leaving.
Down the street were the Hard Rock and Montbleu casinos. We didn't bother going to Hard Rock but we stopped in Montbleu, had a peek in their music-game-free arcade, and joined their players club. Not sure I'd ever been in Montbleu prior but I definitely hadn't joined their players club before. They gave us cool key chains in fancy bags for joining.
Driving around, we wound up at the park of Lake Tahoe we'd jumped in together years prior. We stopped there again and had another cold plunge in the icy, clear water!
Then we finally made our way from Tahoe westward through northern California, stopping for the night near Sacramento. There, we dropped off a chair we'd been booked through Uship to transport. (Yay money!) Sean was getting tired then so we found a Pilot travel center called 49er Travel Plaza to park, get cozy in the back of the car, watch a movie on the laptop, eat some Burger King we'd picked up across the street, enjoy a little late night sexy time, and finally fall asleep in the car at.
Day 4 - 10/1/16:
We woke up at 8:28am and left the travel center to continue west. We didn't get far before realizing we were hungry though. Luckily, we almost immediately spotted an Ikea and stopped in for cheap breakfast. We each got a $1 small breakfast, a $2 Swedish American breakfast, and a free hot drink - coffee for me and tea for Sean - before finding outlets and using WiFi to get a few hours of work done.
After Ikea, we got back on the road, stopping for a little gas and to see my sister in Hayward for a few minutes before continuing to San Jose. In San Jose, we parked at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center to stop by the health and fitness expo where the Rock N' Roll San Jose race we'd be running the following morning - Sean in the 1/2 marathon and me in the 10k - had their packet pickup. When we arrived, we only had about 20 minutes left til the end of the convention so we didn't have time to see much. We got our race stuff quickly though and then rushed around the convention to get some quick pics and edible freebies.
We didn't really have a plan then but we knew we needed to at least do a pre-race jog at some point so we got some gas and found a park with a lake called Cunningham Lake, apparently where the local Raging Waters was located! We were disappointed when we got to the lake and saw there was a mandatory $10 fee to pay but when we actually got to the parking lot the pay station was covered with a sign that said "Parking is FREE today only, Saturday 10/1". How lucky! So we jogged a slow 2.55 miles around the lake and Raging Waters as the sun went down, snapping a couple of pics along the way and finally stopping to try some cool exercise equipment they had there.
I was desperate for a wash then so we drove around looking for a place to get clean and spotted a strange-looking Chuck E' Cheese's in the process:
Chuck E' Cheese's
2445 Fontaine Rd
San Jose, CA
I felt some deja vu when I saw the place and wasn't sure whether it was the two-story Norcal location I'd visited a decade or so ago that had two DDR machines including an older version that I tried Paranoia on, like USA or something. I looked into it and saw in my DDR binder that I had played there before and that they had been listed as having DDR USA and 5th Mix at the time. Their last ddrfreak update was in 2011 and showed them as having DDR SuperNova. We went inside and were sad to find that they currently had no DDR machines but were comforted by finding PIU Jump (the Chuck E' Cheese one Andamiro made), Grand Piano Keys, and Guitar Hero there.
Earlier in the day, we'd stopped at a McDonald's to try and plan our next move. While there, we'd seen a handful of low riders and fancy vehicles come into the lot. One of the low riders gave us a pretty fancy hydraulics display, climbed on top of his driver's door when the vehicle was practically sideways, and had Sean and my busting up laughing!
We finally gave up on finding anywhere comfortable to wash and just went back to that McDonald's. Across the street from there was a park. There weren't many people there so we parked at McDonald's and Sean walked me over to the park's restroom so I could have a good scrub in their sink. Lol He decided to hold out on washing but I just couldn't. It was super cold but by the end of it I was fresh and clean!
There was a Walmart Supercenter not too far from there so we drove over and bought a chicken, bananas, bread, soda, and chili for our last big pre-race meal. We ate while watching movies and then parked in a quiet spot across the street to cuddle up and get some sleep.
Day 5 - 10/2/16 (Rock N' Roll San Jose):
In the morning, we got up at 6am. It was still dark and we'd had 6 to 6.5 hours of sleep but we felt rested enough. We got changed and headed over to the SAP Center, where the designated free race parking was, to finish getting ready and head over to the start line at W Santa Clara & Almaden Ave. There were LOTS of people there in the lot, making their way to the start, waiting in line for porta-potties, lining up in their corrals, checking their bags, etc. It was going to be my biggest race to date. Based on our self-predicted finishing times, I was starting in corral 4 (of may 21 or more?) and Sean was starting in 2. We had plenty of time to prepare before the race and snap some pics and such but when it was time to run we had to plan a good post race meeting spot, say our goodbyes and good lucks, and line up in our corrals. The first corral started at 8am with later corrals following in waves every couple of minutes. I ran a fairly comfortable race, enjoying all the entertainment along the way. There were bands, cheerleaders, a color guard squad, huge water and Gatorade stations with tons of volunteers handing out cups, people with motivational and hilarious signs, companies with supportive signs, tenants in front of their homes offering water and various types of support, and tons of other people cheering us on and keeping us all going. We ran down streets and through neighborhoods around central San Jose. I hadn't exactly known what to expect from a race of this caliber but as the miles passed it wasn't as overwhelmingly crowded as I'd anticipated. People spread out quite a bit after the start and, though I had to spend time and effort maneuvering around and between people throughout the race, I typically didn't struggle to at least have elbow room while running. When I finished the race, I tried to wait near the finish for Sean but it got too crowded and finishers were being moved along to keep the area clear so I met him in the family meeting area instead. Then we got lots of post race freebies including a free beer each, other beverages, snacks, even badass goodies exclusively for Toyota owners. (You just have to show a Toyota key, which I'd run with, for the last of these!) We enjoyed some of these at the post race festival for a bit before making our way back to the car a good while later. As for our race results:
Mine:
CHIP TIME: 52:29
5 KM TIME: 25:32
OVERALL: 207 / 3199
DIVISION (5 YR AGE GROUPS): 9 / 240
GENDER: 47 / 2012
Sean's:
CHIP TIME: 1:38:40
5 KM TIME: 22:13
10 KM TIME: 45:29
10 MI TIME: 1:14:25
OVERALL: 421 / 7636
DIVISION (5 YR AGE GROUPS): 72 / 623
GENDER: 350 / 3951
We'd gotten another Uship booking so after munching tons of food back at our car we drove over to San Francisco to pick up the item. The good news is that we were already in San Jose so we didn't have to pay bridge tolls to get to the pickup location. The bad news is that we must've driven over an hour to get there between distance and traffic and when we arrived the item was hundreds of pounds over the weight mentioned. The person we were picking it up from wouldn't help us load it either and it wasn't until after we were already there that the person who'd booked us stated that we'd need a dolly to move it. They'd quoted us the wrong weight and then told us MUCH LATER that we'd need a dolly, even though they already knew we'd be moving it in a Prius (therefore there clearly wouldn't be enough room for the dolly and the item even if we HAD been able to bring a dolly). On the bright side, we got Uship to reimburse us $50 for the inconvenience.
Sean and I went to Starbucks to use our gold card and some credit we had loaded on it to get a couple of basically half priced drinks (plus free refills!) then while we used outlets and wifi to work there.
Liz and Kyle were dog sitting (technically doing dro-in visits) for a work buddy and the house the dog was at was only a few minutes from where we were. When my sister got over there, we met up with her and took the dog on an hour or so Ling walk together.
We followed Liz back to her and Kyle's place then and killed some time chatting. She made us a delicious dinner and shared some wine with us and I gave her a couple of birthday gifts I'd brought for her! No way I could wait until her actual birthday on the 4th. Lol
Once midnight hit, 7 Eleven's annual (I believe) free coffee week began! Liz, Kyle, Sean, and I used it as an excuse to go for a walk and got our free caffeine, as well as a couple of non-free treats, while we were out!
My sister had school in the morning so, once it got late, Sean and I got out of her hair and found parking on Mission St, not to far from a Shell station. We watched some movies for a bit then and finally decided to call it a night.
Day 6 - 10/3/16 (Hayward, Fremont,..):
In the morning, we were up at 9am. We drove to McDonald's to get a sausage burrito, a sausage biscuit, and a fountain drink (free with any purchase!). Then we used WiFi briefly at a Starbucks down the street before driving to a place called Hayward Plunge to use their big heated, indoor pool and showers! Their session times/hours they were open were extremely limited so we only had half an hour to swim and another 15 minutes to shower but it was enough and it was $4 each! We went in and splashed around in the pool a bit before showering. (Well, Sean did laps like you're supposed to but I kinda just splashed around. Lol)
We got a couple of pizza slices at 7 Eleven next and then went driving around, kinda just exploring the area and seeing what there was to see.
In one neighborhood, we spotted a few people standing in the road, huddled, poking something with a stick. We soon realized it was a tarantula! Worried for its safety, we pulled to the side of the road and ran over. Turned out they were just trying to get him out of the road but none of them were comfortable picking him up. I snatched him up without a second thought and ran him up a nearby hill to drop him off and hopefully keep him out of harm's way.
We were in Fremont, CA then, a short distance (maybe 15 mins?) from Hayward. I remembered having played DDR at a couple of locations there so I decided to drive over to one of them and see what the place was now like a decade later. The place: Shaker's Pizza. To be honest, I didn't remember much about the place other than the fact that I'd stopped in and played on a DDR Extreme machine there once. Someone had deleted the location from ddrfreak though, quite likely long ago, but we went for a look anyway. Unsurprisingly, the machine was gone now but we had a look around and got some pics. At least they still had some other games and they were still in business!
As we were driving away from Shaker's Pizza, Sean spotted a persimmon tree growing over someone's fence, hanging over a sidewalk! Persimmons are my favorite fruit so I pulled over right away and went with him to fill a bag up! After that, it was about 1 minute before started munching our findings. Haha
I was feeling like we were somehow coincidentally ending up in all the right places at all the right times. While we were sitting in the car after persimmon-collecting, we heard something rustling in nearby foliage and went over for a look. It wasn't long before we spotted an opposum trotting. I went after him, unsure how fast he'd run away and what to expect when it turned out he wasn't getting away, and he just continued to trot til I got in front of him. Then he froze, motionless, and kind of played dead, as they are so well known to do. Despite being motionless, his face was snarled and I'm sure he was hissing at me. Nevertheless, I couldn't help petting him and picking him up for awhile. He was cute in a kind of ugly way that I guess I couldn't resist. Haha Finally, however, I let him go again and he trotted off under a little building nearby.
We were still at a loss as to where to go so I drove til I found some wetlands place still in or near Fremont, I believe, called Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge. We stopped there to walk a short trail and enjoyed some nice, peaceful views along the way. We saw various birds, some white-shelled snails that liked to climb up tall grasses and other plants, colorful plants in and around the water.. By the end of the trail, we thought we'd seen it all there. We got in the car and drove a little further just to be sure but were greeted just beyond a little hill by seemingly neverending landscape like that we'd just seen except huge and running all the way to the bay, broken up with interesting structures here and there. There weren't enough places to stop let alone time in the world to capture everything but we did what we could. At one point, we even spotted a shabby, simple boat floating in some water and pulled over to hop in for a minute.
The sun was getting lower and we decided to move on. Headed out, however, I spotted what I was sure was a dead fox on the side of the road. I know it's a bit odd but I stopped for a better look. I don't think I'd ever seen a fox up close. It's fur was so pretty! So sad seeing it like that. :(
Definitely not inspired by the dead fox, we were hungry then so we stopped in a parking lot with Taco Bell and Burger King, got both, and ate in the car while watching a movie.
Liz called us during the movie to gel us she'd gotten off work. We went to meet her at her place and spent the rest of the night there. At midnight, it was her birthday!! The guys hung out on the balcony while she and I shared wine, she gave me a haircut (which was surprisingly good!) and played around with my hair for a bit, we chatted, we made quesadillas for everyone, and we ended the night with a silly movie called Sisters. Finally, Sean, Kyle, Liz, and I all fell asleep in one bed but not before all but Kyle juuuuust made it through the movie!
Day 7 - 10/4/16 (Liz's Birthday):
It took us all quite a few hours to get going this morning but we finally all got ready made it out of the apartment to start celebrating Liz's birthday. We didn't get far at first though. We got our 7 Eleven free coffees down the street to start and munched some extremely tasty tacos at a place not much further down that Liz and Kyle recommended. Bellies nourished, it was time to make a late start towards the highlight of the day:
I'd found a Groupon deal for the Winchester Mystery House. Liz's and my mom had mentioned the place to us on various occasions but we'd never been so we jumped at the chance today. We booked our Groupon deals before leaving the apartment and then drove over after tacos. Less than 40 minutes later, I believe it was, we were walking into the gift shop to look around til it was time for our tour! Then we spent a little over an hour exploring all the strange and breathtaking attributes the house had to offer as a guide took a group of us through seemingly endless rooms and corridors there. We weren't allowed pictures in the house but I got what I could to remember the place by and then browsed the gift shop with our group after.
Down the street from the Winchester Mystery House was a fancy outdoor mall. We went there next and walked around looking in a couple of various stores while playing Pokémon Go and catching Pikachus!
Kyle still needed to pay a visit to his co-worker's dog so we all drove there next and Kyle walked the dog while Liz did homework and shared some beers and TV time with us inside the house.
We'd ordered a pizza to share from a place down the street from Kyle's co-worker's place so we picked that up before heading back to Hayward, stopped in a liquor store for additional snacks and alcohol, and then made it back to the apartment to hang out and eat with some movies til finally falling asleep.
Day 8 - 10/5/16:
Liz had to get to school in the morning so we exchanged some last hugs and saw her off. Then Sean and I got washed up, said goodbye to Kyle, and took off as well. We needed to start driving south to visit more family.
We got gas on the way out of the area, got on the freeway, and drove to my grandma's house. We spent maybe 5 hours there hugging, catching up, exchanging foods we had for each other, gardening.. She made us some really good soup and sent us away with, amongst lots of other things, tons of apples and persimmons we picked from her yard for ourselves and to take to share with family. Sean helped her with some yard work as well but a little after 8pm it was finally time for us to go.
We drove to Merced to meet up with my mom and youngest 2 siblings. They ended up being busy when we arrived, however, so Sean and I killed some time walking around Main Street. I showed Sean all the most interesting places there, shared all the most memorable memories I had from there with him, and had a look at five ten bistro, where I'd be having my high school reunion a few days later.
After that, we went to the car to give each other a hand.. lol
When my family freed up, we drove down V St to meet them at their friend Paul's place. He, my mom, and we had all saved things for one another so we made some great exchanges before eating a bit more and hanging out together til it was time to call it a night. We all had kind of a sleep over there but Sean and I stayed in our car. Hey, our car is actually pretty cozy now!
Day 9 - 10/6/16 (Jamestown, Sonora):
We'd stayed up pretty late so we didn't wake up til noon today. By then, Juliet was the only other person left there at Paul's. Sean and I went inside to hang out with her and make some food. She sang us some Japanese anime songs while we ate including a song called Torinouta that I used to play on ITG!
Some time after my mom got back, I showed her how to get and use the 7 Eleven app on her phone so she could get free coffee for free coffee week. Then she, my siblings, Sean, and I drove to 7 Eleven for free coffee.
I'd wanted to show Sean a little town called Jamestown slightly more than an hour away so I drove him there next. I only vaguely remembered the place from my younger years but I thought it'd be cool to revisit now that I'm old enough to appreciate it and have a husband to share it with. The route took us through Snelling, where I'd taken him a visit or two prior. On the way, we spotted a horse behind a fence near the road and stopped to feed it some off brand fig newtons. It didn't love them but it ate them!
In Jamestown, we parked in front of one of their Main St hotels and walked up and down the street seeing all there was to see on that stretch of road. We peeked in shops there and I showed Sean the tiny "park" with the pretty gazebo right in the middle of it all. There, we saw a sign for the Railtown 1897 State Historic Park and decided to follow the trail up for a look! It was definitely worth the trek as it was the home of many famous movie trains and film location of many movie train scenes - most importantly, in my opinion, Back to the Future III. Still, it was a bit of a distance from Main St so Sean and I decided to jog there to get there faster and get a little workout while at it. We had a good look around when we arrived. The museum was closed for the day but we got pics and vids of all the trains and everything that WAS out for us to see before jogging back to the car a little before sunset.
Another town called Sonora was only about 3 miles from Jamestown so we went to look around there next. It was dark when we parked and many shops were closed but much of the place was still lively enough and was quite reminiscent of Old Sacramento.
Once we'd had an up-close look at the train engine on display at the Sonora welcome sign and walked all around downtown Sonora, we felt we'd done enough exploring and we got on the road back to Merced.
Our family was busy when we got into Merced again so Sean and I killed some time by getting some Mexican food to share at Victoria's on R St (long ago Rally's, I believe) and chasing it down with free drinks from 7 Eleven.
We met back up with the family at Paul's shortly after that and spent the rest of the night getting work done on our computers and phones, cashing in merchandise credit we'd earned for our Spartan Race volunteering, watching movies, and making it to sleep sometime after 5am.
Day 10 - 10/7/16:
Sean and I were up at 10am today. We ate, got our 7 Eleven freebies, and stopped by the 99 Cent Store to pick up lots of supplies with the family. Mom and Jarod went off to handle some things after that. Juliet, Sean, and I caught up shortly after, only stopping for a moment to pick up a few quick items we spotted while driving by neighborhood yard sales.
As the afternoon came to a close, we made our way to Lake Yosemite with our 99 Cent Store supplies to finally get started on my big plan for the day: take the family for a BBQ and go for a dip there with Sean! I wasn't sure whether they'd be charging when we arrived but the gate wasn't manned so we got in free. We chose a table in the area my school had brought us to when I went on a school trip in 5th grade, I believe it was, near the little basketball court. We set up and BBQ's some tasty hot dogs, sausages, and chili. We ate up and then Sean and I took our food-filled bellies into the lake for a dip! Not sure if it was time of year, if I'm just remembering it being a little cleaner, or if a lot just changes in 20 or so years but the water seemed a lot grosser than I'd remembered it in 5th grade. That's okay though. We still waded around in it for a good while and I think Sean even plunged in completely! There were huge schools of fish swimming all around in the water. So fast! The water was a little cold but we soon got used to it and had fun horseplaying in it for awhile as the sun began to set. Finally, we got cleaned up, got some amazing pics of the sunset, packed up, and took off. My family headed one way, Sean and I headed another.
Sean and I had bought a Groupon deal for a couple of haunted attractions in Snelling, CA so we drove there for those next. They actually had quite a few scary attractions set up at the time but we stuck with the two we'd already paid for: a haunted house and a walking ghost tour. We did the haunted house first and were not disappointed! It started us off with a bridge walkway through a cylinder of lights rotating around us. Walking in a perfectly straight line, we became completely disoriented and could hardly keep our balance. Plenty of other quality scares followed as well as a moment of pitch black, which I'm terrible at. I think the moment that stood out the most there, however, was when we found ourselves in a room surrounded by several doors and numerous monsters closing in. We had to find the correct door under pressure and go through before it was too late! Whew. It was no small haunted house either. They'd put effort into every bit of it and had us winding around through it for a good amount of time. DEFINITELY got our money's worth. The ghost tour was a lot more mellow, just walking around the area behind the other attractions with occasional spooky props poking up in the distance or creeps in costume sneaking up to scare us. Still, the whole event was all-in-all impressively done, especially considering the remote location.
When we were done there, Sean and I made the drive back to Paul's to meet up with family for a bit. Then, we got some sleep in a side room Paul had made space for us in.
Day 11 - 10/8/16 (10 Year High School Reunion):
In the morning, Mom and Jarod went to go feed a friend's cats. Juliet, Sean, and I hung out at Paul's with him and watched some movies. Sean and I got some work done at the same time til Paul had to leave to get to work at noon.
I wanted to show Sean Merced's swap meet (G St & Child's Ave area) that I worked at for a short when I was 15 so I took him and Juliet with me and we went for a look. It was very similar to Vegas' swap meet but much smaller so we didn't buy anything other than a big horchata with strawberries, cantelope, and nuts in it to share but for an admission fee of only $0.50 per person it was definitely worth it just to have a look around.
We went to 7 Eleven for free coffee week coffees to caffeinate us before Sean and I used Paul's hose to get all spiffy clean for my 10 year high school reunion later in the evening. Don't judge us! It was a damn nice day out and playing in the water in the hot sun felt totally awesome. Besides, I was sparkling clean and smooth as a baby's butt by the end of it. Lol After that, we put on a movie while we got dressed and I did my makeup. My mom got back to Paul's with Jarod during all of this and took some pics of the finished product once we were finally all put together. Then we were on our way!
A short drive later, we arrived at five ten bistro. It was all decorated and ready for the combined GVHS/MHS Class of 2006 10 year high school reunion. The area they'd reserved for us was much smaller than I'd anticipated, as was the turnout, but it was cool. Included with our tickets, we got to enjoy a drink each and some pretty scrumptious hors d'oeuvres. We chowed down pretty much first thing but then got around to looking for familiar faces and catching up with my old friends. Most of them found me, actually. I remembered most of the ones I spoke with and a couple I didn't, recognized but couldn't place a few others who said hi, and couldn't remember most of the rest of the people there but assumed we'd either never spoken or that they were from Merced High, rather than Golden Valley, as it was a combined reunion. Of those who came up and said hi to me, I hardly had to introduce Sean at all. Nearly all of them had been following our adventures on Facebook and were well aware of who he was and what we'd been up to. That made things easy! In seconds, it was like no time had passed at all, really. Most of the people there still lived in Merced or nearby, though some (such as Kevin Benson, who'd moved to Dallas) had moved a bit farther. Most of the people I'd remembered from school didn't turn up, perhaps because they'd moved farther or maybe they just couldn't be bothered, but it was nice enough to see those who did and hear what they'd been up to this past decade! To name just a few of the most memorable faces, some of the attendees included:
-Melissa. She'd played bass drum with me on the drum line at Weaver in 8th grade and we'd been close when we lived in the same trailer park. We talked for quite awhile, caught up, and introduced our husbands to each other.
-Kevin. He'd also been in drums with Melissa and me and was probably my biggest academic rival at Weaver in 8th grade. We spoke briefly tonight and he told me he'd moved to Dallas and become and firefighter!
-June. I guess I never told her but I used to have a little thing for her. We spent awhile chatting tonight and she told me she used to bump uglies with a different girl I almost had a thing with who went by Spider. I'd suspected as much back in the day, which was part of why I gave up on them both, but I'd never minded really! Tonight, June, Sean, and I just talked about traveling for awhile. Turns out June had gotten out and traveled quite a bit just like us! Pretty cool and definitely different from most Mercedians!
-Jessica. I'm not sure she and I had ever spoken til tonight but we recognized each other and realized Spider had been our mutual friend. I think I'd always remembered her as June's short-haired friend, just because we hadn't really spoken. We changed that tonight though and she turned out to be just as cool and no I'd thought she might be!
-Kelly. I'd been on a basketball team with her at Weaver in 8th grade. We didn't chat much tonight but said hi.
-Morgan, Ginnie, Barbara.. I don't think any of them spoke to me much or at all tonight, save for maybe a hello from one, but they all looked just the way they did 10 years prior! :D
-Marinna, Rocio, Tasha, Serena. A few of the ones here I probably spoke with more than most and some of whom I was pretty close to back in the day! They were still being awesomely loyal Cali girls, keeping my home state warm for me, though some had done some adventuring and even moved out of Merced. They were all looking young as ever and were just as fun (and funny!) to talk to as they'd always been. Really looking forward to seeing these ladies, Melissa, and others at our 20 year reunion but I hope it doesn't take another 10 years for us to make time and chat again!
There were several more I didn't mention here but I hope you guys know I didn't forget you and that it was super amazing seeing you all!
I loved getting to see how old friends had shaped their lives, hearing about their successes, getting to share a couple of stories myself. I think the most wonderful part of tonight for me, however, was getting to share another huge piece of my youth with Sean and getting to introduce him to a few of the people I spent daily time with during those years. It WAS exhausting though so, once things started really winding down after group pictures and several hours of socializing, Sean and I finally snuck away.
We made one more stop at 7 Eleven for drinks for the night before getting a call from Mom asking if we wanted to join her and our family friend Maggie at a bar called Kewl Cats. Why not?! So we drove over just to hang out and listen to my mom's friend who was playing in a band there and hang out for a bit. We chilled towards the back of the place, just enjoying the music and talking a bit. There were some dart boards and pool tables there so Sean played a game of pool with Maggie while Mom and I watched. At the end of the night, Maggie sent us off with belated wedding gifts for Liz and Kyle, since we'd likely see them again before she would, and then we said goodbye and headed back to Paul's with my mom. Finally, around 3am, Sean and I got around to sleeping.
Day 12 - 10/9/16 (Juliet to Vegas):
I was up at 9am. Mom took my siblings to church and Paul left for work but Sean and I stayed behind and got ready to leave town. When my family got back, Juliet, Jarod, Sean, and I put a bit of board up together to fix a part of Paul's ceiling.
Sean and I would be leaving back to Vegas shortly but were planning to be back in Cali again a week later. Of my immediate family members, only my sister Liz had ever seen my house. I decided maybe it was time to change that. It'd be a few hours out of our way to bring someone back up to Merced the following week but for a week of quality time together I figured it'd be worth it. I told me mom and siblings I could make room in the car if anyone wanted to come to Vegas and Sean and I ended up taking Juliet with us.
Before leaving Merced, we all stopped for a peek in an anime store Jarod had wanted to show us near Save More and Rollen Donuts. We didn't stay long though. We just had a quick look before exchanging lots of hugs and driving back to Vegas with Juliet in the back seat.
We got gas at a Pilot gas station in Madera, $0.03/gallon off for using their free membership card!
In Fresno, we stopped to use a Groupon deal we had to get food at Rally's.
We took another little break after Bakersfield when we got to Murray Family Farms. We took Juliet for some fruit and other samples inside and to feed and pet some goats outside.
Shortly after that, we got gas at Love's in Tehachapi.
At the Shell Station in Nipton, we stopped in for jerky samples and a look around.
We snuck Juliet into Gold Spike in Jean, NV for a quick look at the casino and now dance-game-free arcade.
Shortly after that, we were in Vegas! We got some free chili cheese fries at Del Taco, our last free hot beverages at 7 Eleven, and finally made it home again.
