Hood to Coast 2006

September 21, 2006.

Bloody Mary Morning

OK, so we make it to the other house and are greeted with Bloody Mary's. I've always heard of the Bloody Mary Morning but have never been part of one myself so I joined the gang. Spicy and the fact that I already drink tomato juice I found out that that really liked them, again expertly mixed by Jerry. Renee is neither a spice or tomato fan, so she opted out.

The table was again completely full with all of the regular morning flair one would find at a catered environment. Hotcakes, pancakes waffles and Scrambled eggs, Bacon, Sausage links, all the giving's for a perfect breakfast.

We had received the news that the restaurant we wanted to go to could not accommodate our large group, so they pointed us in the direction of this authentic Mexican place down the road. When I say authentic, I mean friends and family in the Back authentic. Most of us waited in the van while, Tom and Ann go in to make reservations, they come back out shortly saying Dan get in here we need your help. The owners understood the word 15 and had begun gathering menus and setting up the back area for our group. I interjected and told them that we would like to make reservations for 15 tonight. So Reservations set, we headed out to Nikeville.

I Hate It When My Kid Looks Better Than Me

The deal that afternoon was for an outing to the outlet mall nearby, more specifically the Nike Outlet. It was set in a large mall like atmosphere, all outlet stores. We hit the Nike store first. I really didn’t see anything I liked, Renee was trying to find a pair of sandals but had no luck, so the one that really scored was Brooke. We came across the Kids section and found for $20, a black and Yellow Nike windbreaker suite. Nike across the shoulders on the back, and Nike on the pants sides below the knee. We put it on and she looked like one of those catalog kids. I thought Dam why can't I look that good.

Well with the shopping over, we all head back, everybody splits off to do their own thing until Dinnertime. A large contingent filled the cooler and went to the Beach. The Beach we were at was beautiful, wide open with clean Sand. One cool thing about it is that at low tide, you have quite a ways to the water. When it’s like 90 in the valley there is fog on the beach. When you come over the dune you can't see the water but you can hear the waves crashing. It was a really neat sensation. Your walking into this fog, and I guess the sound must get amplified or something because I remember thinking these waves must be big, but they turned out to be just average normal sized stuff. When the fog would clear you were amazed at how expansive the beach was. I thought how neat it would be to be able to run. Between the houses and the beach was an expanse of saw grass that I say would be about 25-30 yards wide. It had small trees and was criss-crossed with trails. How cool I thought, if you wanted to trail run you had it. If you wanted to run on a clear beach you had it, If you wanted to run in the fog, that was also available most days, and then there was the neighborhood. It was beautiful.

Dinnertime rolls around and we head out to El Mariachi Loco - No Shit that was the name of the place.

Margaritas on the Cheap

We settle in and first things first they want our drink order. To make it easy we just order a mix of pitchers frozen and On The rocks -Margaritas. Can't remember how much they were but After talking to the manager and explaining things, I managed to get them to knock a buck or two off each pitcher, there was a nice surprise when they brought us an extra special one to our end of the table. Keeping Brooke occupied was somewhat of a challenge so I decided to take her out for a walk. We came upon some unsuspecting dandelions and picked enough for her to give all of the guys one. We all toasted, took pictures, and tried to keep Brooke out of the kitchen. They made her feel right at home by putting her to work washing dishes. We said our goodbyes till next year, and headed for the Beach for what would be for most of us our last night.

The Bonfire

By the time we got there the fire was already started by others in the group. Now I need to tell you about my dark Side. I'm a repressed Pyro, meaning if I had my way I'd a have a fire going somewhere nearby 24, 7.

My first order of business was to get as much firewood in the least amount of trips possible, i.e. The Margaritas were Very Good. So I loaded up the van with wood we had at the back of the house and proceeded. It was about 50 yds. to the fire. So what I did was take my jeans, spread them out and stacked wood in the middle of them. I pulled up the ends, making a sling. I was able to take all the wood in two trips. Would have made for a good Levis commercial I think. As I approached I would just let it scatter next to the fire, a mistake that would come back to bite me later. Were are all laying about the fire, nothing out of the ordinary comes to mind, the scene is perfect.

My Two New Black Toes

I get up, crouch next to the fire to move some of the pieces around. I got a little too close and felt the heat on my hand and the smoke in my eyes. I turn around abruptly and stagger a few steps away trying to gather my step when my cute little piggy, right foot, third from the biggie slams head on with one of the pieces sunk in the sand. I fall over muted by the intensity of the pain, and this is after many a margarita and at least two beers by the fireside. I cower back to the fire, find my place, and let the pain subside.

You should never venture too far from your fire after Skinny Dipping in the Pacific because you just might not make it back to YOUR fire

In the interval there was a large group of kids, I say kids meaning high school or college that had established fires to the left and to the right of us. You can hear the laughter and someone seem to be trying to play the guitar. As our group was quietly enjoying its last hours together, All of a sudden Jim stands up and starts dropping Trow. I'm like what the F***? This was quickly followed by Gary then Sara then Ginny and Ann. Gary declares, yep, it's about time for our final tradition, the Bonfire Skinny Dip. So at the fire it was down to our skivvies and then off into the relative safety of the fog which was thick that night. Well, being the traditional kind of guy, and staying true to my motto, "If your going to go, go all the way" I stripped as I got to the waters edge. I go knee high when the temp began to register in my somewhat muddled brain. Dam this stuff is cold, I mean really cold. I took a Half Ass Plunge, literally speaking that is, because I thought I would have a heart attack if I got in any further. So I turn around get back out, and Problem # 1 appeared, couldn’t find my briefs. Oh well, worse things were about to happen. #2, I found myself staring at 4 relatively close fires. The fog was so thick it wasn’t as if you actually saw fire, they were more like four big orange balls of glowing light. I immediately discarded the one to my far left and the one to the far right, so now I was down to a 50/50 shot.

I must have been away for some time because the group began calling my name. You think it would have helped, but it really didn’t. I would have loved to have been able to write,” As I came upon the unsuspecting college girls I could only imagine their fright as this half drunk almost 40 year old busted toe of a man came stumbling into the fire" but alas I cannot tell a Lie.

As I approached I got my bearings and made it back to the correct camp. I came in the back way taking advantage of the fact that everyone was preoccupied looking for me and said, “Hey, I owe you guys one”, and gave them my best Ass Salute possible. I forgot I was totally naked so as I turned around to great the efforts of my endeavor, Rene came running up with a towel to help "keep me warm".

I was in the car that would be leaving around 4:30 that A.M. The Drivers, Ginny and Ann - To whom I'm am in great debt, had already left and now it was our time to go. We said our goodbyes, and were off to the house.

I must have laid down for a bit, then showered after Renee. It was here that I was able to see the full effects of my encounter with the firewood earlier that night. The Word Bloody Nub, best describes what It looked like, the nail, split down the middle. I kept thinking how the hell am I gonnna get into my dress shoes for the flight home. See there is a dress code for Non-Revenue travel, and Gym shoes or Sandals just don't cut it. So I pretty much left it as is, got dressed and went down to the car. I got in the Back with Renee; situated Brooke between the two of us and the next thing I remember we are at the airport.

The girls took off running because their flight was earlier than ours. We got our stuff and made our way to the check in. At check in, I presented Exhibit A, and was waved the Dress shoe requirement for the day. We made it through security, got some breakfast and waited for our flight. As the flight to ATL is usually full we were one of the last ones to board. I took Brooke with me, we had Aisle/Middle seats, and Renee had the Aisle seat a couple of rows up. About half way through we swapped, and mercifully Brooke finally fell asleep for the last 2 hours of the flight. The only real inconvenience was that the seat Renee was originally in did not recline, as she does not have any problem falling asleep anywhere, this was not an issue for her, for me on the other hand, it had me reminiscing of the days before Brooke, when we used to fly first class all the time. Remember the Seinfeld episode, Once you ride in First Class you can never go back, Well, It's True.

We made it back. Funny thing, directly in front of our arrival gate was a flight leaving for Portland, I turned around to Renee and said, “Oh goodie, let's do it again.

Final Thoughts

All I can say is that this is just a shadow of the Dynamic Group I was with. Try and find a tight nit clan such as this, have them take you at face value, and comp everything till it was all over. That's right. Everything was going to be split up individually after it was all said and done. I could have literally gone without a penny in my pocket and these people would have taken care of me. For some reason, the Gump phrase,” Life is like a box of chocolates.....” Comes to mind. You never know what you’re going to get until you get into it. Hey, that sounds like a good slogan for Nike.

Life, get into it.

True this could have gone terribly wrong and went in the other direction. Such was the case other years when the team picked up the chick that would sleep in the closet, and a different time when there was some kind of knife wielding event. But my point is, either way, your going to come out with some special memories, and need I mention lifelong friends.

Resulting from this trip, the following things are in motion, possible Iron Man Wisconsin participation with Betsy, A Swim Relay of the English Channel which is on Ginny's, Long Distance Swimming Husbands, list of things to do, Vegas will bring some people out, march in Atl for the ING Marathon looks like its going to be a mini reunion, and and then there is Utica 15k.

All of this from a spur of the moment, on the spot decision to open that box.

Life, get into it - I like the sound of that.

Braz

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