PHINS - Friday
Our plan for getting to Laughlin for last weekend's PHINS To The West event was simple. Roger was in Vegas for work already so Todd, Paula and I were driving up in Roger's car then we were all driving home together on Sunday. Todd, Paula and I were scheduled to meet at Paula's at 8 AM. I wasn't sure on how bad traffic would be so I left early and got to Paula's around 7:45. I parked in front of the house and waited for Paula to get back from dropping Marcus off. Time went by...I finished reading my newspaper, said Hi to Paula's neighbors, talked to Andrea on my cell phone. Basically, I was wasting time. Todd finally pulled up about 8:20. We started to load the car when Paula came traipsing out of the house. She'd been inside eating breakfast the whole time I was waiting. Doh!
After a short stop back at Roger and Todd's to get some sweatshirts, we were finally on the road. Paula (or the Control Freak as Todd called her) took the wheel and got us to Carefree Highway. She and Todd then debated whether we should get on I-17 or not. To settle it, I called The Human Map to confirm (which I'm sure gave him a big ego stroke, "She still needs me!"). I also called Tammy and they were on the 10 going to the 303, a route that didn't make sense even to me with my lack of geographic skills but that Yahoo told her to take.
I popped open my first beer at 10 AM and at our obligatory stop at the McDonalds in Kingman (Dang, I meant Wickenburg. Actually, I should say I thought it was Kingman but I was perhaps not correct- Kathy 4/15/05) we ran into Debbie and Terry. Yes, the Parrot Heads were phlocking...
Roger couldn't drop the car off in Laughlin so Todd was going to have to pick him up in Bullhead City. Of course, being Todd, he thought it was Boulder City and it took us a while to figure that out. Paula volunteered to go with him after we checked into the hotel.
We pulled up to the AVI, right behind Tammy, the Goat and RB. Hugs all around. Then as we entered the lobby, we saw Victor, Luis, Bob, Judy, Kathy, Sandi... I love these events! There's nothing more fun to me than to walk in somewhere and know everyone there. It's the Social Butterfly's ultimate dream.
We got into our room, conveniently located right off the pool and Todd went off to find his...and couldn't. He finally wandered back to us and we decided to just park his stuff in our room. Todd's phone was dead at this point so he and Paula had to now stick together for Roger's call. We were trying to make a plan and I was jonesing to hit the crowd. For crying out loud, there were 300 people to see and we were just putzing around! I was trying to be patient and finally, Paula said "Let's go to the pool. It's been 30 seconds since Pfister greeted anyone." About damn time...and it had been at least 15 minutes!
Off to the pool...we'd missed Mark's gig but caught Gary Seiler and Ray Cody. The Butterfly was in heaven saying hello to friends from Phoenix, Tucson, LA, Orange County, Puget Sound, Galveston Bay, San Diego and Salt Lake City. The beers were flowing and all was right with the world. The guy at the rental car place was nice enough to drive Roger over so Paula and Todd didn't have to pick him up. Very cool.
We headed to the Pavilion for dinner, music and dancing. There was concurrent music in the Pavilion and the lounge so we bounced around to catch Ray and Stars on the Water. Stars took a break around 1 AM. I finally sat down and realized I was beyond toasted so I told Paula, "I hit the wall, gotta go to bed." We went back to the room and she asked if I wanted to do some gambling. However, I was looking for nothing more than my bed and didn't even hear her when she came back later.
After a short stop back at Roger and Todd's to get some sweatshirts, we were finally on the road. Paula (or the Control Freak as Todd called her) took the wheel and got us to Carefree Highway. She and Todd then debated whether we should get on I-17 or not. To settle it, I called The Human Map to confirm (which I'm sure gave him a big ego stroke, "She still needs me!"). I also called Tammy and they were on the 10 going to the 303, a route that didn't make sense even to me with my lack of geographic skills but that Yahoo told her to take.
I popped open my first beer at 10 AM and at our obligatory stop at the McDonalds in Kingman (Dang, I meant Wickenburg. Actually, I should say I thought it was Kingman but I was perhaps not correct- Kathy 4/15/05) we ran into Debbie and Terry. Yes, the Parrot Heads were phlocking...
Roger couldn't drop the car off in Laughlin so Todd was going to have to pick him up in Bullhead City. Of course, being Todd, he thought it was Boulder City and it took us a while to figure that out. Paula volunteered to go with him after we checked into the hotel.
We pulled up to the AVI, right behind Tammy, the Goat and RB. Hugs all around. Then as we entered the lobby, we saw Victor, Luis, Bob, Judy, Kathy, Sandi... I love these events! There's nothing more fun to me than to walk in somewhere and know everyone there. It's the Social Butterfly's ultimate dream.
We got into our room, conveniently located right off the pool and Todd went off to find his...and couldn't. He finally wandered back to us and we decided to just park his stuff in our room. Todd's phone was dead at this point so he and Paula had to now stick together for Roger's call. We were trying to make a plan and I was jonesing to hit the crowd. For crying out loud, there were 300 people to see and we were just putzing around! I was trying to be patient and finally, Paula said "Let's go to the pool. It's been 30 seconds since Pfister greeted anyone." About damn time...and it had been at least 15 minutes!
Off to the pool...we'd missed Mark's gig but caught Gary Seiler and Ray Cody. The Butterfly was in heaven saying hello to friends from Phoenix, Tucson, LA, Orange County, Puget Sound, Galveston Bay, San Diego and Salt Lake City. The beers were flowing and all was right with the world. The guy at the rental car place was nice enough to drive Roger over so Paula and Todd didn't have to pick him up. Very cool.
We headed to the Pavilion for dinner, music and dancing. There was concurrent music in the Pavilion and the lounge so we bounced around to catch Ray and Stars on the Water. Stars took a break around 1 AM. I finally sat down and realized I was beyond toasted so I told Paula, "I hit the wall, gotta go to bed." We went back to the room and she asked if I wanted to do some gambling. However, I was looking for nothing more than my bed and didn't even hear her when she came back later.
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