SPRING BREAK: ROAD TRIP
My spontaneous road trip was great. Great sights, great company. Angelo and I left around 11:45pm on Wednesday, gathering anything we thought we could use for the trip up. After taking enough clothes for a week, we were driving on I-5, appropriate that just before we lost 102.7 the OC song with the long stated California note was played and we blared it until musical beats turned into static as we found our way along a pitch black highway full of truckers and the occasional smell of cow dung.
Around four in the morning we found ourselves in a dark forest, where we got out to do a quick exploration, forgetting about such movies as Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Jeepers Creepers, and Joy Ride, as our Maglight became our vision. No sooner then when we heard a rustle in the trees we ran like scared chickens, all the way back to my car. Five am we were at the UCSC campus, woke up Joe with the pay phone, since none of our phones got reception and called him down to take our stuff up to his dorm.
UC Santa Cruz is very interesting, it has a beautiful campus, but we stuck out like sore thumbs, maybe it was because we didn’t look like characters from Lord of the Rings, or the fact that we aren’t Vegans-- regardless, Cory in his shorts and short sleeve shirt proved to be quite the tourist. We spent the whole first day touring the city, well walking along the board walk, seeing the sights, finding it interesting that the people on the beach replaced their board shorts and towels with sweatshirts and pants. Later on we did a search on XY and discovered there was a club in the area, unfortunately after Joe, Angelo, and I got all cute---didn’t take much in that city, we found out that the club had been closed, or was missing, one of the two.
It’s a good thing I don’t go to UCSC, I would become seriously overweight. Thanks to Joe’s meal plan, Angelo and I ate free every meal, all you can eat everything, yummy. The stuff was actually good, and you could mix match and eat whatever you wanted. Yes I did have salad and cereal for breakfast thank you!
After an eventful evening, hehe, we all got some sleep, Joe on the floor, Angelo and I on the twin mattress, and woke up the next morning ready for our next distant trip. After showering in the co-ed showers we all got ready drove up to San Francisco. The lack of sleep and frustration on where to go began to hang over our heads as we found ourselves driving in circles, up giant hills, down giant hills, trying to make turns on opposite one-way streets. We did however see the sights, Fisherman’s Warf , Lambert St, Union Square..etc. We drove across the Golden Gate bridge. On the other side we took loads of pictures, Angelo’s camera happened to be working finally. After much planning so no one would be watching we took our kissing picture in front of the massive masculine bridge. We made sure we stopped at the Castro district, or the West Hollywood section of Francisco. We flashed around our “we are from the OC” badges to everyone we met by the way we strut our selves. I don’t know why but we did. After walking around we went to China Town. Parking was atrocious, but finally we swallowed the idea of forking out more money to park. After shopping at China Town, getting gifts, we became hungry and tried eating at this Chinese place that we were literally pushed into. After finding nothing on the menu appetizing, especially for the prices, I told the waitress that we changed our minds and she told me I had to pay $3 for the tea that I took two sips of. So we went back to the Castro district, which was jumpin by that time. After eating at The Sausage Factory, haha, and me being stared at by all these San Fran hoes, we finally left Francisco.
On the way back to UCSC we missed our exit and had to turn around. It was horrible, no working cell phones, no map-quest directions to go back, I just wanted to go to sleep, or home, or the both. Finally we made it back to UCSC. We were suppose to leave SC at 11:45pm, Angelo had work the next morning, but because of getting lose we ended up leaving around one or two. We packed up our stuff, well some of our stuff, I couldn’t find my phone, and I later realized that I left my Abercrombie & Fitch cologne there as well. Angelo drove the first three hours, and then I woke up and continued the trip down I-5 as he slept in the back and my eyes slowly kept closing to the sun breaking over the mountains as we neared the Grape Vine, and my countless repetitions of the Clay Aiken CD were replaced with 102.7.
After 1,066 miles on my vehicle, leaving Joe behind with all the Hobbits, one lost cell phone, a memory card full of photographs, a bug stained windshield, and a mindful of mental memories, it felt good to be back home in Southern California. It was the first time that I went on a road trip without a older authority figure. And for that I have discovered the respect I should have given the times I went along with my Aunt on trips, the chaos that she went through, the madness of driving on end, for out of the way entertainment purposes. I also gained much more respect for Angelo, my little co-pilot, who took this spontaneous three day journey along with me, and for that, he will always be placed in a special part of my soul.
Around four in the morning we found ourselves in a dark forest, where we got out to do a quick exploration, forgetting about such movies as Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Jeepers Creepers, and Joy Ride, as our Maglight became our vision. No sooner then when we heard a rustle in the trees we ran like scared chickens, all the way back to my car. Five am we were at the UCSC campus, woke up Joe with the pay phone, since none of our phones got reception and called him down to take our stuff up to his dorm.
UC Santa Cruz is very interesting, it has a beautiful campus, but we stuck out like sore thumbs, maybe it was because we didn’t look like characters from Lord of the Rings, or the fact that we aren’t Vegans-- regardless, Cory in his shorts and short sleeve shirt proved to be quite the tourist. We spent the whole first day touring the city, well walking along the board walk, seeing the sights, finding it interesting that the people on the beach replaced their board shorts and towels with sweatshirts and pants. Later on we did a search on XY and discovered there was a club in the area, unfortunately after Joe, Angelo, and I got all cute---didn’t take much in that city, we found out that the club had been closed, or was missing, one of the two.
It’s a good thing I don’t go to UCSC, I would become seriously overweight. Thanks to Joe’s meal plan, Angelo and I ate free every meal, all you can eat everything, yummy. The stuff was actually good, and you could mix match and eat whatever you wanted. Yes I did have salad and cereal for breakfast thank you!
After an eventful evening, hehe, we all got some sleep, Joe on the floor, Angelo and I on the twin mattress, and woke up the next morning ready for our next distant trip. After showering in the co-ed showers we all got ready drove up to San Francisco. The lack of sleep and frustration on where to go began to hang over our heads as we found ourselves driving in circles, up giant hills, down giant hills, trying to make turns on opposite one-way streets. We did however see the sights, Fisherman’s Warf , Lambert St, Union Square..etc. We drove across the Golden Gate bridge. On the other side we took loads of pictures, Angelo’s camera happened to be working finally. After much planning so no one would be watching we took our kissing picture in front of the massive masculine bridge. We made sure we stopped at the Castro district, or the West Hollywood section of Francisco. We flashed around our “we are from the OC” badges to everyone we met by the way we strut our selves. I don’t know why but we did. After walking around we went to China Town. Parking was atrocious, but finally we swallowed the idea of forking out more money to park. After shopping at China Town, getting gifts, we became hungry and tried eating at this Chinese place that we were literally pushed into. After finding nothing on the menu appetizing, especially for the prices, I told the waitress that we changed our minds and she told me I had to pay $3 for the tea that I took two sips of. So we went back to the Castro district, which was jumpin by that time. After eating at The Sausage Factory, haha, and me being stared at by all these San Fran hoes, we finally left Francisco.
On the way back to UCSC we missed our exit and had to turn around. It was horrible, no working cell phones, no map-quest directions to go back, I just wanted to go to sleep, or home, or the both. Finally we made it back to UCSC. We were suppose to leave SC at 11:45pm, Angelo had work the next morning, but because of getting lose we ended up leaving around one or two. We packed up our stuff, well some of our stuff, I couldn’t find my phone, and I later realized that I left my Abercrombie & Fitch cologne there as well. Angelo drove the first three hours, and then I woke up and continued the trip down I-5 as he slept in the back and my eyes slowly kept closing to the sun breaking over the mountains as we neared the Grape Vine, and my countless repetitions of the Clay Aiken CD were replaced with 102.7.
After 1,066 miles on my vehicle, leaving Joe behind with all the Hobbits, one lost cell phone, a memory card full of photographs, a bug stained windshield, and a mindful of mental memories, it felt good to be back home in Southern California. It was the first time that I went on a road trip without a older authority figure. And for that I have discovered the respect I should have given the times I went along with my Aunt on trips, the chaos that she went through, the madness of driving on end, for out of the way entertainment purposes. I also gained much more respect for Angelo, my little co-pilot, who took this spontaneous three day journey along with me, and for that, he will always be placed in a special part of my soul.