The Jello-Shot Express Rides Again!
Bus Virgins
We had a lot of Bus Virgins on the Jello-Shot Express this time. 15 out of the 31 on board hadn't made the trip with us before. I had big badges for them and said they had to wear them until Midnight on Friday. It shows how much power I have, some of them had them off before we hit Wickenburg.
Virgin Badge
We were into the Jello by the time we hit I-17. Inger, one of the Bus Virgins was celebrating her birthday and Sonja had made her a multi-tiered Jello cake. Each layer was a different color and all of them included alcohol. After a group singing of Happy Birthday, we all dug in.
Happy Birthday, Inger!
A digression...for a group of people who got together because of a musician, I find it highly ironic that so many of us are actually really bad singers. I readily include myself in that category.
After our traditional McDonald's stop in Wickenburg, it was time for the Jello-Shot Contest. Judging this time were Saint Jello-Shot Queen (Tammy), The Jello-Shot Prince (Jeff), The Helium Queen (Karen) and The Princess (that would be me). It's a very important job and we take it very seriously. Every shot entry is given careful consideration. We even take notes and, sometimes, they're even legible.
The Jello-Shot Prince in all of His Finery
We had some great entries. Julie made a Sex on the Beach diorama that looked too pretty to eat. Charlie made Double Black Cherry Pearls which were the easiest to eat because when you pulled on the cherry stem, the entire shot popped out of the cup. Crime Dog, Vicki, Kim, Kay, Gail, Amy and The Babes also had entries. Crime Dog ended up winning the People's Choice award based on bus passenger voting with his Red Hot Shots and The Babes, as usual, won best presentation. We gave a special Achiever ribbon to Kathy O because she went a little nuts and got Mary a special outfit just for the event...after saying they weren't really going to go overboard this year.
After the winners were announced, The Jello-Shot Prince broke out his shots. He's in a class by himself. He made Tiramasu, Key Lime Pie, Creme Brule and Almond Joy shots. They were all fabulous! St. Jello-Shot Queen contributed to everyone's blood alcohol level with some Tequila infused olives. They were so frakking strong! It was like getting a full shot of the evil Tequila in each one.
Pirate Rick played tunes for us on the rest of the trip up while he wasn't bonding with our bus driver, Sal. Sal even let him look at the bus manual and I have no doubt Rick had it memorized before we hit Vegas around 2:45.
Conga Line on the Bus
The plan was to congregate at 3:30 in the lobby of Hooter's then head over to Margaritaville. Between heading to my room and getting back to the lobby, I ran into Gary from Utah, Scott from our club and Terry and Nancy from LA. I love these events! We were all milling around debating cab versus monorail vs walking when I made an Executive decision for my subset of the group and declared cab was the transportation mode. Jeff, The Babes, Greg and I grabbed a taxi and left the rest of the group still debating. Pirate Rick warned us a cab would cost $11, Mary disagreed and, much as it pains me to say (not really painful at all), Pirate Rick was wrong. Our cab was $9.45.
Once we got to Margaritaville, it was meet and greet time again. Jeff found some girls from the Idaho club that he met at PHINS, I saw my Utah pals and met some of the folks from the Inland Empire club. We hung out there for a while, had a couple of beers and nachos then it was off to Tommy Rockers for The Last Man Standing Party. There was the usual putzing around deciding when and how we were leaving so our subset (now with Gary included) headed off to the taxi stand.
Fingers
Last Man Standing is a hit or miss event for me. There have been a couple of years where it was a huge blast and a couple where it was kinda, eh. Stars on the Water was playing (with a fill in drummer since Randy has left the band...sad news) and they were great as usual. Fingers showed up and played with them but that's actually where the party started dragging. They would do one song then play a recorded tune then do one more song, etc. Norene got a long distance drunken call so she could hear what she was missing.
We were not even close to the Last Ones Standing...Greg, Kathy, Mary and I left a little before 10. We completely gave up the idea of going back to Margaritaville for the Nadira Shakoor show and just went back to Hooter's.
It seemed wrong to be in bed in Vegas by 10:30 on a Friday night, but, dang, that bed felt good. I read one chapter of my book and I was off into the Land of Nod.