Canned Beer
Tour 2001
Sponsored by Chase Credit Card Company
First, let me explain that the next set of pictures shows
predominantly MARK'S friends. His HIGH SCHOOL FRIENDS. This means
that these people have the following in common: partying and ... well, pretty much only
partying. The following set of pictures in no way implies that
I ever act like this. Or that I condone acting like this. These
are MARK'S friends. They are really nice people, but they are MARK's
friends.
Okay. Here are the pictures of Mark's and my historic trip to the
west coast.
So it's April 13, 2001, I'm sitting on the patio of a cool
Italian place in downtown Denver eating lunch with my slightly less stable friend, Mark. It's
a beautiful day and it sucks to have to go back to work. It's a Friday
and, despite the previous night of drinking (or more likely because of it), we
were talking about how nice it would be to not have to go back to
work.
Well, Mark, hasn't been too excited about his job in a
while. He's been daydreaming forever about blowing it off. Me, I
kind of like my job. It's better than I can expect and I think I do well
at it. But Mark's carrying on about how he'd like to go on a
road-trip. Well, I love road-trips and so I amuse him with
agreement. He says that a bunch of his high school friends are meeting in
San Francisco for a weekend party/reunion. He would love to make it out to
San Francisco to surprise all of his friends. Well, that sounds pretty
adventurous, and although I'm not serious, I agree.
Soon we are "joking" about just calling work and
saying we won't be in the rest of the day, packing up "Cherry", his
Pathfinder, and hitting the road. Denver to San Francisco is about 20-22
hours we surmise. Even though his friends planned on being there tonight,
Friday, we could make it by around noon if we left within the next couple of
hours. Ha ha.
Well, anyway, by the walk back to work, he's getting more and
more serious about the idea. He tells me straight out, "Listen, I've
been sick of being an actuary for years. I have friends in San Francisco
that I haven't seen in years and I may not see together in many more years to
come. I'm serious about taking off today. I know you like your job
and you don't want to quit, but I'm going to San Francisco."
Yiikes... Okay, so I'm going along with him, letting him think
for a while that he's really going to go. He's going over all of the
necessities out loud. He needs all of his camping gear and he needs to get
paperwork to pay his bills on the road. He doesn't know how long he'll be
going. Could be months. He's quitting his job, so he won't have any
real obligations in Denver for a while. Savings, and his Chase credit card
will finance him.
Well, while he's carrying on about all of this, it's sounding
fun to me. I told you how I love a good road-trip. San Francisco for
his friends, LA to see Lija, San Diego for the beaches, shoot back up all the
way to Seattle for another friend of his, Vancouver because it's Canada and the
girls start drinking at 18. Hey, it's really sounding pretty exciting!
So we did it. And here it is:
We left Denver by 4 pm. Okay, so it took a little while
longer to leave. But just after sunrise, we were at:
LAKE TAHOE !!!!
Yeah, Mark brought his guitar. He thought maybe some
girls would find him irresistible at 7 in the morning.
Yeah, it's kinda hazy at Lake Tahoe in the morning, I
guess. Maybe all the emissions from LA come all the way up to Lake
Tahoe. Wow. That's bad. It was the first time at Tahoe for
both of us. It's pretty cool. But we're heading to San Francisco.
These are Mark's high school friends. Oh, that's me
lying across them. From left: Dave, Mark, Jon, Ed (Uncle Eddie hiding in
there), and Lazy Larry (hey, that's what Mark calls him!). I think that's Big C
leaving the picture to the right. Smart guy.
So, yes, there was drinking.
And singing. That's Dan Fink posing for the
camera. Mark is obviously singing to someone on the couch. I think
that it's Jen. That's Ed's silhouette on the right. Dave singing
next to Mark, and Jon monitoring the situation next to Dan. Get used to
Mark and Dave in that corner singing. It went on all night.
Here's Ed and Big C (he's also named Mark, so I'll just call
him Big C).
There was dancing also. Yes, Dead-Heads like to
dance. This is Mark and Dave, again. Even I got to dancing to the
Dead and if you know me, you know this MUST have been some kind of party for
that to happen.
Okay, yes, this is Dave picking Mark up and Mark is playing
his leg like it's a guitar. I told you there was both drinking AND dancing
going on!
This is a more solemn moment between the two of them.
Yes there was a girl here. Just because this is San
Francisco, don't think... oh never mind. This is Mark proving his
heterosexuality by dancing with Jen. They're old friends. I
affectionately call her a "hippie-chick". I think she appreciates it.
Well we all knew this would happen.
Dave used to be a Marine. Used to be.
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