Ryan Joy (atxryan)

Jade, Bryan, and I took a snowboarding trip to Salt Lake City, Utah January 24-29th. Neither of them had ever even seen real snow and none of us had ever been skiing, snowboard, or otherwise.

We drove from SLC to Eden and stayed in a vacation condo at Wolf Creek Resort, which we found through Valley Lodging. I thought it was a pretty good deal for a group of three and it was absolutely beautiful in any direction.

Our 3-day rentals and first-time lessons were purchased at Powder Mountain, though we really ended up splitting our time between there and Wolf Mountain: one of the country’s largest at 5,000 acres and Utah’s smallest at around 85 acres. Honestly though, Wolf Mountain was perfect for our needs. Only on the third day was I confident enough to take on the majority of Powder Mountain’s green trails. Oh, and we were able to use our $23 half-day lift ticket to ski into the night at Wolf.

I made good on my promises not to break anything though I did bust my shoulder up a bit and even went to the doctor for it.

Photos:

More photos at http://flickr.com/photos/atxryan/tags/saltlakecity2008/

I had a great time and can’t look forward to doing it again next year!

Mexico is getting so fuckin’ cheap. I mean, it was cheap before but c’mon!?

For the past year Aeromexico has offered non-stops out of ABIA for as low as $159 roundtrip.
http://www.aeromexico.com/usa/english/pages/specials/faresavers/departure_AUS.html

And now vivaAerobus will be offering flights to places like Cancun, Guadalajara, León, & Monterrey. Apparently vivaAerobus is the RyanAir of Mexico which means that it will cost you less to fly to Cancun than it costs to take a taxi to the airport.

Happy Hour in Cancun in ‘08?
http://austinist.com/2007/11/08/at_this_rate_we.php

If you don’t have it, get your frickin’ passport.
http://travel.state.gov/passport/passport_1738.html

Jade and I finally made it to Seattle last night despite all odds. This trip is chock full of snafus!

It all starts yesterday when we were waiting on the bus to head downtown in order to catch the Airport Flyer. I look at our paper tickets to confirm the departure time and notice that my ticket doesn’t have my name on it but instead is issued to one Monica Rosales!!! This is obviously bad. Very bad. I’m neither female or Hispanic and am utterly clueless as to how this could happen. Jade and I had gone to the United counter at the airport a few weeks prior to convert our vouchers into bona fide, confirmed tickets. The vouchers had our names on them and were corroborated by our IDs. I even think the lady said “Shannon and James, have a nice trip!” when she handed our tickets to us, so it’s inconceivable that I’d end up with a ticket for a seat next to Jade without my name on it!

Our bus ends up being late which in turn makes us miss the Airport Flyer. Luckily there’s a cab sitting there, so we hop in. I suppose the savvy cabbies wait around that spot just for the unfortunates like us. He’s a chatty one and on the way to the airport he recounts his worst travel experience ever. It took him 56 hours to get from Germany to Austin, with multiple nights stayed in airport terminals due to delayed flights. His airline? United.

At the airport is where the real fun begins as I try to explain how I’m not really Monica, I don’t know who Monica is, and, no, we don’t have a friend named Monica who I’m trying to switch the ticket for because she couldn’t go on the trip. All this because “we had to have shown something with Monica’s name on it because it doesn’t make sense that anyone could get a whole name wrong.” As I said, these tickets were produced from vouchers with our names so I thought maybe that would offer proof. However, the voucher entries are destroyed in the system as soon as they are redeemed for tickets. After a few “I don’t know what to tell you”s, she finally came back to us and said she would take care of it. There was never any indication as to what went wrong or that she had evidence that we were telling the truth. I believe our adamance paid off and she just changed the name. Whew.

Our troubles, however, would not be over with just this snafu. Oh no. Standing in the security line, Jade realizes that she forgot her birth certificate. It’s understandable because it’s not something you normally bring on a trip, but since we’re going to Canada it is absolutely essential without a passport. Our shuttle across the border won’t even allow us on without it! It’s too late to go back, too late for someone to bring it to us at the airport. Besides, one roommate left for Vegas earlier than we were up that morning and the other was at work. We call a few friends before finally reaching someone who would hear our plight and help! He agrees to go by our house, climb to the second story to gain entry, and Fedex the birth certificate to our hotel in Seattle. Now we just have to cross our fingers and hope that the package makes it hear on time before our Monday afternoon shuttle. If not, we’ll be extending our stay in the Emerald City.

Of course, traveling to the Emerald City also proved to be fraught with snafus. Our 3-hour layover in Denver turned into 7 hours after not one, but two planes were rejected by the captain due to mechanical issues. Ah, United.

Well, I’m off to explore the city now. Hopefully everything will go smoothly from this point on, but I have a feeling this is just one of those trips that result in blogs like this. We’ll see…

Jade: I hope there are no babies on the plane.

And then two crying babies are sat on either row around us.

Damn.

This is a LOOOONNNG blog. For that I apologize, but I promised the rest of the story and pictures today.

***WARNING: If any of the following offend you, please STOP reading now, DON’T look at any of the pictures, and go watch the 700 Club or something: drinking, sex, marijuana, male strip shows, nude sunbathing, gambling, dancing, or pantsless driving. Please DO NOT try any of this, except at home. We are professionals. We are also reckless, insane, and very lucky to have made it back to Texas alive. Lock your doors and keep your children away.***

Continuing our story, Bryan and I give away all of his furniture, pack his truck with everything he owns, and say our goodbyes to all the friends he’s made while working in Napa.

Heading to San Francisco we realize we don’t have any bud for the trip. Perhaps you can drive long distances without toking a lil’, but we can’t. So, in lieu of the green, shots were chosen as the vice of the day. Arriving in SanFran we find the first parking garage available and then go walking around downtown, soaking up the city for the last time, looking for a worthy bar to kick off our road trip. Granted, it’s only 11am, but that’s not too early for hard liquor, right?

Regardless, we eventually settle on the bar Sutter Station at the corner of Sutter & Market St. Upon walking in we’re pleasantly surprised to find that there are quite a few patrons already drinking. YES! These are my type of people! We shimmy on up to the bar and order two shots of Jagermeister. Mmmmm, tastes like Christmas as Bryan likes to say. Rick, the bartender (name changed for protection), makes small talk with us and we tell him we’re on our back to Austin, that Bryan’s lived in Napa for a year, etcetera, etcetera. Well, since we’re on a road trip and we’ll be doing LOTS of driving, Rick gives us another round of Jager on the house. Score!

A pool table is beckoning us, so we order a couple of beers, get some quarters, and go make ourselves acquainted. While I’m kicking Bryan’s ass in a game, Rick walks up to continue our bar chat. Eventually he asks us if we ‘smoke’ and if we have anything for our roadtrip. We don’t. Rick, it seems, is a very helpful bartender and he offers to make a phone call and have some bud dropped off! He then pulls a joint out of his shirt pocket and says we can enjoy that now. Wide-eyed and excited, Bryan and I look around and see no place discrete to smoke it. Rick says to just go outside on the sidewalk and light up out there. Ummmm, ok. We go outside, enjoy the joint in downtown SanFran, and then come back inside to find that the delivery has been made. SCORE again!

Feeling very accomplished, and slightly inebriated after two shots and 3 beers each, we head back to the truck and venture on to Monterrey. There we have lunch, walk along the pier, drink some more free shots, and I take a stupid picture with an anchor. What the hell is with all these places giving us free liquor when we say we’re on a road trip? Don’t they know that means we’re driving!?!?!!

Driving along Hwy 1 from Monterrey to San Luis Obispo, my mouth was slack jawed the entire time. It was un-fucking-believably gorgeous. I still can’t get over it. Sometimes it be like DAMN! and that was one of those times. Incredibly, it took us 12 hours to make it from Napa to SLO; a trip that should normally take 4 hours. I’ve heard that SLO is an amazing city but I wouldn’t know because all we did was crash out in the first roadside lodge we came upon.

The next morning we wake & bake before hitting the road again. Destination: Palm Springs! Some crazy shit happened on the way, as it always does, like the tweaked-out-of-her-gourd meth chick that wouldn’t let us enjoy our tequila and hamburgers in Ontario, but this blog is already waaaayyy too long. We’ll skip straight to the real fun!

Normally, what happens in Palm Springs stays in Palm Springs. Be honored that I’m sharing tales and pics from the inner-sanctum of this depraved little city. I’m gonna just give you the highlights…
* Practically as soon as we got to my uncle’s place, we started sun bathing nude. I’m now tan in places I’m not normally tan, baby! Yeah.
* Continuing our tradition from last year’s Palm Springs visit, we got pedicures. This time, however, the Vietnamese man missing his index finger wasn’t there. This may sound weird to you, but I REALLY liked the foot massage this guy gave. Something about that ghost finger rubbing all over my foot. Are you shuddering yet? good.

* We earned $200 helping this chick who was sexually assaulted in her apartment’s elevator move to a new house. Nobody who lives in a one-bedroom apt. needs SIX truckloads of stuff. Nobody. This girl’s mom kept giving us kisses and offering us Vicodin.
* We spent $100 of that hard earned money at Heaven, a gay male strip club. Bryan was happy. Janelle was happy. I got paid $20 to take off my pants. I didn’t want to upstage anyone, so that’s all I took off. Later, I was propositioned for sex by one of the strippers and had to tell him I was straight.
* We lost the other $100 at blackjack. I wanted to play craps, but learned that dice games were illegal in the state of California.
* Bryan had A LOT more fun than I did with A LOT more people. ‘nuff said.

I won’t reveal anymore.

I don’t know when, I don’t know why, and I can only guess as to what substance we were under the influence of when we made this decision, but Bryan and I decided while still in Napa that we’d make Arizona a no pants state. Wait, wait… I just remembered why. May 6th was National No-Pants Day! For those of you unfamiliar, you can learn all about this most revered celebration at www.NoPantsDay.com. I hope to see you in your underwear for next year’s Cinco de Mayo! Back to the story at hand, Bryan and I removed our pants for what would be the last time this road trip as soon as we crossed into Arizona. About an hour later we witnessed the engine of some poor sap’s truck blow up right in front of us. We would’ve stopped and tried to help, but that would just be silly without pants. Not to mention dangerous!

We thought all the excitement was over until we looked in the rear view mirror and saw the red & blue lights. Shit. Bryan pulls over and an Arizona Highway Patrolman who didn’t appreciate our haste to return to Texas walks up to my window.
To Bryan: Would you go ahead and step out of the vehicle?
Bryan steps out.
Are you in your underwear?
LMAO!
This look of bewilderment combined with annoyance crosses his face. It doesn’t look like we’re getting of this one. He obviously doesn’t appreciate the comical nature of the situation caused by our lack of pants. I thought it was HILARIAL! This cop was taking forever to call in our information, leaving Bryan standing next to the interstate in his underwear. I was cracking up and the cop was not amused in the least bit.

We thought we were in the clear until we crossed the NM state line and got pulled over AGAIN for going 93 mph in a 75. Ooops. Once again, the comical nature of the situation was too much for me to contain. Especially when Bryan used the excuse that he had to pee really bad and the officer told him he could do it on the side of the road. So, he did and the wind kept blowing his t-shirt up showing his bare ass to the cop. I kid you not.

I’m wrapping this blog up before I incriminate ourselves anymore. Just know that this is the censored version of our trip and the craziness didn’t end until we pulled into Austin around 8am on Mother’s Day. We drove straight thru. 23 hours.

By the numbers:
# of times I heard NIN The Hand that Feeds: 26
# of miles driven without pants: 420 (coincidence? I think not!)

Things I loved about Cali:
*I was never once carded for alcohol. Not in the stores, not in the bars.

*No humidity! I could actually walk outside without breaking a sweat.

Things I hated about Cali:
*I was carded every single time I bought cigarettes.
*Everything is more expensive. You know those .25 cent packs of Wrigley’s gum? well, they’re .30 cents there.

And the fun begins…

If you ever find yourself at Sutter & Market in SanFran, stop in this bar. Maybe they’ll, ummm, hook you up.

SanFran from the Bay Bridge

“This is your captain. Welcome aboard flight 1482 from Austin, Texas to Los Angeles, California. We anticipate clear skies and smooth weather for the duration of the flight. Flight time will be 3 hours 15 minutes.”

Great. I sink my head into my book hoping this signal will be acknowledged and I’ll be left to myself.

“Whatcha reading?”

It wasn’t.

Already I was regretting leaving Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds back home. She would’ve been fun on this trip, I think. Hell, I may have even taken her on the flight. Something tells me that would’ve been a bad idea. You never know how she’s gonna act and combine that with airport security, close quarters, and long flights with annoying passengers and you have a recipe for a bad trip. Still, it would’ve been better than listening to Mrs. East Texas for 3 hours.

I close my eyes and pretend to sleep until we touch down in L.A. A connecting flight takes me to Sacramento where my friend Bryan is waiting for me. I’m relieved because the last time I was supposed to pick him up from an airport there was a little miscommunication as to where he’d be and he ended up walking home. Ooops, my bad. I’m still waiting for him to get me back for that one. After a quick hug we grab my bags and get on the road. He’s already late for work and we’re an hour away from Napa.

For the next week I enjoy all that Napa has to offer. We visit a few wineries, Peju most notably, for tastings where Bryan’s employment status at one of the area’s finest restaurants (Brix) pays off. We never had to pay for a tasting, we got hella hooked up on wine discounts when we bought a bottle, and we were given personal tours of the kitchens and back house areas.

I’m happy Bryan’s coming back to Austin. We’ve all missed him. However, I can completely understand why he had such a hard time leaving it all. Everything is sooo gorgeous and green there. The air is dry, fresh, and crisp. And the views! My god the views are breathtaking. There’s nothing like sitting on top of a hill, smoking a bowl, and looking out at Napa, Yountville, Vallejo, the bay, and San Francisco 50 miles in the distance all at the same time. Wow. To think he’s leaving all this just so he can save up money to move to Costa Rica with me. Now THAT is a good friend!

——————————————————–
Tomorrow, I will blog about our road trip down the coast to Palm Springs and then to Texas. This is where the real fun begins. Stay tuned for pantsless driving, male strip shows, nude sunbathing, gambling, drinking, dancing, and all around debauchery.

This is Bryan’s friend Sara. She wants to move to Costa Rica with us.

Rose bushes and honeysuckle filled Bryan’s backyard. The morning smell was like heaven.


Ahhhh, a classic Ryan pose: passed out on someone else’s couch. LOL