Day 9 - Day 12: Pleasant Hill, CA to SanFran/Oakland, CA

Pitter-Patter

I always write when we’re on the road with my music blaring in my ears and coffee ruining through my veins (nothing inspires me like a venti toffee nut iced coffee). Tucked away in my little cocoon, I find it easy to escape for a little while. It’s only when I glance up to see everyone smirking and smiling at me do I pop an earphone out just to hear the tail end of one of Billy’s famous jokes. In this edition of “Billy’s Horrid Jokes,” he’s compared me to a Redwood tree after Kris explained how it’d be impossible to wrap our arms around one. Scuse me, I’m gonna go throw up my lunch…..Juuust kiddiiiin’. Speaking of lunch, we ate about an hour ago (5pm)…I guess that makes it BRUNNER (That’s breakfast, lunch & dinner for those who have yet to catch on.) Otherwise, we snacked on apples and BBQ chips which doesn’t exactly cut it for a Hendricks. I started feeling a little woozie, but I came back to life once I downed my taco salad…which took me 11 minutes 42 seconds according to Billy’s iPhone stopwatch. (Apparently I’m so fast that they decided to time me.) I was wondering what was so interesting under the table. Anyhow, I’ve got a full belly and KOL rocking out in my ears but somehow I still can’t exactly focus. We’re driving down Pacific Coast Highway (RT 1) and the view is downright breathtaking. I find myself looking up more than I did when we were rolling down the mountains of Yellowstone, and I’m beginning to question what makes my heart beat faster: the Pacific shoreline or Colorado vistas? We’re headed towards LA…expecting to stop right outside of it so that we just have a short trek in tomorrow morning, but who knows where we’ll end up. Heck, a couple hours ago I got a brilliant idea to fly to Hawaii, and a few minutes later we were on Kyle’s Blackberry looking at flight prices. We all decided we’d be willing to forego skydiving in exchange for a few days in the Sunshine State (we could skydive at home), but prices were about double what we’d spend to soar through the sky soo it’s doubtful, but Mom & Dad, don’t be surprised if you get a MMS of me in a grass skirt and coconut bra. ALOHAAA!! ☺ It’s been a few days since we’ve last posted and we got wind of a few complaints about the delay, but when we don’t drive, we don’t blog ☹ We can’t be spending our time on the mac when we could be out living! It goes against everything we stand for!! When we’re cooped up in the Durango, we will write faithfully…We promise ☺ I love to write. Actually, I HAVE to write. It’s the cheapest form of therapy. When I don’t journal for a while, I find myself craving it. Once I started blogging on Day 2, I figured that’d fulfill my need to write, but I thought wrong. It just doesn’t satisfy my soul. Yea, I’m writing about our adventures and even my personal reflections, but there are things swirling around in my head that aren’t exactly for the public’s eyes. I like to think of journaling as a place to unload your insanity – a place to say the things that you shouldn’t say out loud. So I have resolved: I will blog and supplement with a journal sesh here and there. Pleasant Hill was…well, PLEASANT ☺ We spent the past 3 nights in Pleasant Hill, California with Marg’s cousin Chris, his wife Cindy and their three kids: Bella, Fonzie & Ava Grace. (Marg is Tric, Kris and Billy’s momma for those who don’t already know.) We were blown away with their hospitality…especially considering we showed up on Wednesday night – two nights earlier than we had originally planned! The first night, we expected to say hello and head out to grab a bite to eat, but Chris started up the grill and treated us to our first home-cooked meal in 10 days – cheeseburgers & his famous garlic fries. We sat around chatting well into the night on the back patio. Somewhere in the middle of it all, I saw Tricia’s eye open up real wide and I turned around to see a raccoon 8 feet from us, trying to sneak into the open back door. I’m not exactly sure what happened from there on because I screamed like a little girl and ran up the swing set slide, but I’m pretty sure Chris scared him off. PS I just unplugged for a hot sec to hear Billy, Cobra and Tric’s own rendition of the dinner scene from The Break Up. “Amy – in the back seat. Amy – in the back seat. Kris – with the GPS. Kris – with the GPS. Cops – pulling over cars. Cops – pulling over cars.” To the tune “Gary – on the kick drum”….Basically stating everything they see. Kris is in the midst of calling hotels to find us the cheapest place for us to lay our heads tonight so she’s not enjoying the song as much as the others. I’ll pretend my music is too loud and smile every couple of minutes ☺ That ought to suffice. Bahah. Anyhow, back to business – Chris and Cindy helped us decide what we would do with our time while we were in the area. We originally planned to tour SanFran that following day (Thursday), but as they spit out random ideas, Cindy mentioned, “You guys should go wine tasting in Napa Valley!” Tricia’s pupils dilated on that fifth syllable and it was decided from there. Only thing standing in our way: Billy. We knew he wouldn’t want to ride around all day just to look at vineyards and watch us sip on wine. There was only one way around it: kill him. Just kiddiiiing ☺ Instead, we’d make it sound like we would selflessly wander around Napa Valley to kill time so he and Kyle could go golfing (Billy’s absolute faaaav hobby.) Well, it worked! Thursday, June 3rd marked a pivotal moment in Durango Drifters’ history – we’d part ways for the day. After our breakfast FEAST, we hugged the boys goodbye as us girls headed to Napa Valley and Billy and Kyle left with Chris to shoot 18 at Tilden Park. Friday was spent in down town San Francisco. We debated over Alcatraz, but decided against it considering everyone we’ve talked to about it has said it’s a tourist trap and not worth the 32 bucks. Our next thought was a boat tour that went under the bridge, along the coast, and around Alcatraz. The posted price was $15/person, and Tric got him down to $12/person without even bartering. She said she could get him down to 10 but we decided against it for 3 reasons: 1. Pieces of the boat were masking-taped together. 2. The guy looked like he may have escaped from Alcatrez. 3. By the time we seriously considered it, we would be cutting it close to make it back to Oakland for the A’s game! (tix were generously donated by Chris and Cindy!! THANK YOU THANK YOOOU!) We toured the city and found that we didn’t need to PAY for entertainment. Tric glanced to her left to see a man painted ALL SILVER. She kinda jumped as he passed….not to be rude, but simply because she didn’t expect to see a SILVER MAN walking by. She gasped and unknowingly said, “Oh my god!” He screamed back something about how she better call out to her ****ing god and some other unnecessary profanities. Anyhow, once he was a solid hundred yards away (far enough away to run if needed), it was quite amusing. Later on, I had my own run-in. I was strolling along, enjoying the beautiful weather and chatting with Tric when a BUSH (a homeless man holding a bunch of branches) freaking jumped out and growled at me. I screamed and ran until the initial scare wore off, and I realized a crowd of people were laughing at me and taping my reaction. Ohh, how I wish I was not oblivious to the world. We actually ended up joining the crowd for a bit and watching people freak out. You would think it’d get old….but it doesn’t. Later that evening, we headed into Oakland to catch the A’s vs. Twins’…Yes, TWINS. As in Tricia’s new team, TWINS. As in Jesse Crain, TWINS. I hate to say it, but Tric is officially a groupie. We purposely got there early just so that she could hang over the outfield screaming “JESSE!” as he caught fly balls during warm-up. Her efforts did not go in vain. He tossed her ANOTHER ball. She’s in love. I keep trying to remind her that he has a wife and two kids…..but then again, so did Tiger. We just pulled up to a Quality Inn in Santa Maria, CA. I’ve got to help unpack and get this laundry going. Random Snippets: -Peet’s (Cali coffee) doesn’t hold a candle to our beloved Starbucks. -Apparently you’re not supposed to do ‘bottoms up’ when your'e wine tasting. -When we first checked in here in Santa Maria, we had 13 minutes before the pool closed so Tric, Kyle, Billy & I threw on our suits & headed down…Only to realize we needed a key to get in. I began to run back upstairs...only to realize we needed a key to get back in the hotel. With our phones in the room, our only option was to hoist Billy up to our balcony where Kristina stared at Bill through the glass and fumbled with the door for a solid 8 minutes only to realize one of those safety bars was in place. -The Durango got its first car wash/vacuum! -I am proposing that the Twizzlers get stored in the FRONT of the Durango. Billy asks for ONE Twizzler like every 7 minutes...Just when I finally get everything organized again. It's malicious. -We got to watch fireworks from right field after the A's vs Twins game!!! Much love, a.hendricks