Running Diary: Drive to Vegas

7:57 PM: Biggie, Forrest Whitaker, and Abe Froman were just all referenced in the same short conversation.



7:39 PM: We're in the middle of the desert now, and we've been in the car long enough that we're starting to get a little loopy. It's also dark, so it's hard to type. Not sure how many more updates I've got in me. Anyways, just wanted to say that an Elton John song on the radio prompted one member of the road trip crew to use the term "Butt Bongo Soundtrack."



6:11 PM: Well, we finally made it through Bakersfield. We should be half-way now. While in Bakersfield Chris wanted to stop and say a quick hello to his children. We told him he could but we weren't stopping the car. So we pulled a "Little Miss Sunshine." We slowed way down, Chris jumped out with the van still moving, we circled the cul-du-sac a few times, Chris got back in and we hit the road. While the circling was taking place every neighbor quickly shut and locked their doors and windows. Probably had something to do with the whole "guy jumping out of van, van still circling, and if they saw in the van they just saw Aaron drinking a tall boy" thing. (Side note: Ross became the driver at the first bathroom stop). The high light of Bakersfield was definitely the sign that read "Hand Wash and Lube." Not much more explanation needed there. For those interested, we are driving a Kia Sadona. According to Edmunds.com, its highlights are "lots of cupholders and storage bins" and its cons are "Handling and steering response could be better." I think that speaks for itself.



5:21 PM: Made our first bathroom stop awhile back, some people decided to change outfits also. Aaron, Ross, and myself would like to thank our grandparents for making this portion of the drive possible. For Christmas they game us Exxon gift cards, problem is there are no Exxon's anywhere near the Bay Area. Well, we just stopped for gas in Bakersfield and guess what, an Exxon. The three of us could not whip out our Exxon cards (not a euphemism) fast enough. So far the biggest hit on the playlist has been "Africa" by Toto, one of Aaron's favorite songs ever.



4:08 PM: After a nap and some internet connection issues, we're back. It's important to get into the swing of the mid-afternoon nap for a long weekend in Vegas. We survived the Gilroy smell awhile (Gilroy is the garlic capital of the world, so the min van reaked of garlic for awhile) but not are immersed in central valley smell (As Aaron put it, it smells like an evil petting zoo). For those who wagered on any of the prop bets, the under covered the "when will the first alcohol be drank" (2:46 by heavy favorite Ted). We learned something very intimate about Ted - his goal during the next ten years is to beat the game "Jaws" on Nintendo. This is probably a good time to mention Ted turned 30 a few months ago. Chris was nice enough to organize a group "flip off" of a driver going to slow and blocking "3 lanes like this was Talladega Nights." We've got the good music going now via the mp3 player. Bon Jovi's "raise Your Hands" made an appearance on the playlist which lead to a discussion on which one of our co-workers looked most like Barf from Spaceballs (Chris, Ted, and I had a unanimous decision on that). We had a brief slow down for what Aaron said was a "completely burnt tractor trailer" but turned out to only be a van on it's side. We back to our cruising speed now though.


2:37 PM: We're on 152 now cutting through Gilroy over to highway 5. I just ate my sandwich so there's a chance there's a nap is coming on soon. We just passed a sign that read "free fruit baskets for bus drivers." We're tempted to start to see if Aaron qualifies for the free fruit basket. Ross divulged recently that he stopped by his office on the way to pick us up to get some brackets for the NCAA pool. Aaron is apparently "holding onto" that money for Ross. We'll see if that money makes it back into the pool or not. Speaking of NCAA pools, Ted and I had this exchange a few minutes ago:
    Ted: How many ESPN brackets did you fill out.
    Neil: Was there a limit to the number you could fill out?
    Ted: No. Six.
Aaron asked us if we saw the mini van's dvd player, reached over to pop up a console in te center of the front dash, only the console was completely empty. I'm pretty sure Ted wanted to punch him in the back of the head. Anyways, we discovering that Gilroy "has a lot of Mexican stations targeting Mexican Americans" (thanks Chris) so I'm gonna go setup the mp3 player to play us some real music. Back later.


1:48 PM: We are official on the road. A few minutes late, but not too bad. Depending on who you talk to the hold up was due to either a) The car rental place having bad service or b) Ross needing McDonalds. I'm going to go with "b". Aaron is driving right now, and doing an ample job of it. The early talk is pretty uninteresting, mostly basketball and filling in brackets. So far the internet connection is very good, so we'll have more later.

Preamble to a Road Trip

Last year about this time a bunch of friends and I made the trip to Vegas for the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament. It was amazing. It was fantastic. We had high expectations for the weekend and our expectaions were exceeded. The weekend started with a miraculous BC cover in the first game (double OT as 10 point favorites) and ended with my little brother Ross passing out in the plane's bathroom on the flight back. None of us could imagine not going back for the same weekend this year. Although we decided to take it up a notch this year and are tacking my buddy Brendan's bachelor party on the same weekend. Also, 5 of us (me, my brother Aaron, Ross, and my friends Ted and Chris) have decided to rent a mini van and drive to Vegas on Wednesday afternoon. This decission was made becasue a) I had never driven to Vegas and b) it's only going to cost each road trip participant about $30 each now to get to Vegas which means about an extra $100 to bet against Michigan State. Now, I am not silly enough to ever blog about the happenings of a guys weekend in Vegas, much less a bachelor party, but the plan is to use my laptop and wireless dial-up card to post here every hour or so on the drive out there so the home viewer can follow along. Now, there is a chance that through most of the central valley of California my wireless card will not find a signal and there will be no running diary of the trip at all. I am including that so that all the moms, wives, girlfriends, and nieces don't panic if there are no updates thinking we've landed in a ravine or something. Odds are my wireless card just is not playing nice. Also, for that same group of concerned people, please note that we will have a scrict policy that no one who has had any alcohol as a passenger will be allowed to drive at all. Those intoxicated will be limited to incohearent posts in this space. We will also be answering reader's questions from the road. If you have a question for us on our drive, please send the question to roadtriptovegas@gmail.com.

Before we get to the actual blogging, here are some proposition bets I've come up with to help entertain those following along at home:

(For time related bets, we plan on leaving San Mateo, CA at 1:30 PM)

- Number of times the mini van has to be aired out due to gasious odors filling the cabin: O/U 5.5
- Number of phone calls from moms, wives, girlfriends "checking in": O/U 4.5
- Time the first person will take the first sip of alcohol: O/U 3:30 PM.
- Who will be the first person to drink on the ride:
    Aaron 1/10
    Ted 1/10
    Neil 5/1
    Ross 8/1
    Chris 10000/1
- Time the first person will urinate in a recepticle inside the Mini Van: O/U 9:30
- Who will be the first person to urinate in some sort of container in the mini van:
    Ross 1/1
    Aaron 5/4
    Ted 3/1
    Neil 20/1
    Chris 100/1
    No One 5000/1
- Time we will stop at In & Out for dinner: O/U 7:10
- Time we will actually arrive in Vegas O/U 10:30
- Odds that someone will be so drunk upon arrival they will have to go right to bed: 10/1
- Amount of time Chris is the driver: O/U 4.5 hours

Super Bowl suXLI

Just some lingering thoughts at the conclusion of Super Bowl XLI...

- What a sloppy, unfun game that was. Even the commercials were just sort of unmemorable.
- Best part of the game day experience for me: cornholing. Apparently cornhole is big in Ohio. It's not what you're thinking though. It is sort of like horseshoes for dummies. Board with a whole in it, small bags filled with corn, throw the bag and get it to land on the board or in the hole. Not nearly as boring as I just made it sound. Lots of fun. I'm already looking forward to the rumored cornhole tournament that is supposedly taking place this summer.
- Another highlight of the game for me, when my mom called my little brother Ross and they had this conversation:
Mom: Can you kick a 3 pointer from anywhere you want?
Ross: Um....3 pointer???....sure...
Mom: And do they keep booing that guy (Muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuushin Muhammad) because he is Muslim?
- You know it's a bad game when it will be remembered more for how bad one of the QBs played rather than how good anyone else played.
- I know Rex's interceptions were bad, but his worst two players were when the Bears were only down by two and had second and one in Colts territory and he tripped over his own feet two plays in a row!!!
- The real MVP of that game for the Colts was Grossman. But since that might have been an awkward trophy presentation it should have gone to some combo of Rhodes and/or Addai. You could almost argue that the Colts made it through this entire playoff run in spite of Manning.
- Again, it is never a good Super Bowl when the overall feel is that one of the teams lost the game rather than a team actually going out and winning it.
- Jeff Garcia could make the Bears a legitimate contender next year.

Let's hope the highlights of Super Bowl XLII do not involve the word "cornhole," unless of course I am watching the game in Vegas.