Ryan McFarland

On October 25th Cena and I flew down to Los Angeles to spend some time with Kevin.  We were routed through Juneau and had enough time to trek to McDonald’s.  They had started their annual Monopoly game — like i need an excuse to by more junkfood on trips.

We arrived a little early and our bags arrived quickly but Kevin didn’t get the text that I sent to him when we landed so we waited around for a while for him to arrive.  We dropped our bags in his apartment — a nice studio style apartment with a vaulted ceiling and a view of the Hollywood sign.  We then went out to one of his favorite spots - the 4100 Bar.

Kevin's apartment building

Sunday we drove to San Diego because one of Kevin’s employees forgot some paperwork that had to be at a job by Monday morning.  We followed the British sounding GPS lady’s directions to drop off the paperwork and then drove around looking for some beach access.  We had lunch on a rooftop bar/restaurant and then walked the beach.  We headed back to Los Angeles after a few hours.

Kevin checks a job

Beach photography

Monday Kevin had to work and we decided we were on vacation and would act it.  He rode his motorcycle in and so we were able to sleep in and then use his truck (and the GPS) to get around later.

Tuesday I went to an eye doctor and had an exam done.  I tried to get contacts but I was unsuccessful with putting the contact in my eye.  I just don’t like touching my eyes.  I want to have some contacts available for when I go backpacking (with the rain here they get all wet and steamed up) or when i’m wearing a costume and glasses just don’t fit the role.

By Wednesday Cena was ready to get to Vegas.  Kevin ended up with a late meeting he had to go to so I bought her a plane ticket to fly to Vegas and meet up with Britni and Tessa.  A last minute one way ticket and cheap hotel room not far from the strip wasn’t too expensive.  And since we were able to cancel the rental car we were going to take and then Kevin would drive back it was pretty close to a wash.

I slept in on Thursday and then bought the rest of the stuff for our costumes.  I thought I had everything collected on Wednesday after dropping Cena off at the airport but a pair of shoes that i bought ended up being two of the same foot so I had to make an exchange.  We didn’t leave Los Angeles until quite late and the traffic was pretty bad.

Cena checked into the Polo Towers and was given a packet of information about Legionnaires Disease.  It turns out that a few cases of the disease had been reported in the building in the previous few weeks.  The disease is spread via water vapor.  Their suggestion? Don’t run the air conditioning or take showers.  Hello.  We’re in from Alaska and it’s 85 degrees.  We’ll be needing the AC and definitely be needing showers.

We met up with Dan and Karna and kept a low profile the first night in Vegas. Our second day was Halloween. Kevin and I dressed as Mexican wrestlers — lucha libre. In hindsight wearing a costume in Vegas that involved a mask was unwise. We had to keep taking it off while in casinos. We had one encounter with a guy dressed as an American wrestler that was fun — his friends pretended to hold him back and we staged an improptu argument.

Kevin as the Blue Demon

Me as Dr. Mysterio

Cena as Xena

Dan and Karna

We gathered with Britni, Tessa, and some other friends of friends and collected quite a group.  Unfortunately we ended up spending a lot of time waiting for each other… pee breaks, spit among two cabs and a personal car, waiting for people to finish drinks… But we did spend a bit of time at bar in Circus Circus, a club at the Wynn, and finally a club at the Palms.

Despite a bit of drama I think everyone ended up having a good time.

We rested up on November 1st and played Pai Gow.  I won second prize ($100) in one of 4 daily drawings for a total of $1,000.  It came as four $25 promotional chips — i couldn’t just cash them in.  I also hat to play them on only three games — blackjack, roulette, and craps.  I don’t usually play any of them.  So i set one chip down on black and was given $25 in real chips but they took the promotional one.  Then I went to play balckjack and I gave Kevin a chip.  He lost but I won so i now had $50 in real chips and one more promotional one.  I went to the craps table and they split my promotional one into $5 increments.  I walked away from that having turned my $25 into $35 just using the pass line.  SO i had a free $85 to gamble with!  Time to slow things down.  We all sat at a Pai Gow table and spent a good hour playing.  I walked away with $150 — perhaps the most money I have ever made in an hour and a half.

Winner! But read the fine print.

That night Cena, Kevin and I went to Zumanity with Dan and Karna.  We then went to Sapphire.

The next day we had to check out by 10 (even after I asked for a late checkout) so Kevin dropped us off at Avis and we headed on our way toward Taos where Cena’s father lives.  We rented the car for a day and headed out immediately.  Traffic was backed up going over the Hoover Dam (there is a new bridge going in though) but then things were pretty light.  We drove until we were both too tired — fortunately that was in Flagstaff, Arizona.  We used one of the truckstop budget hotel coupon books that Kevin uses for travel to find one with wifi that was cheap and close to the highway.  We were doing the math and figured we had to be on the road at 7 AM to make it to Santa Fe and return the car within the day.  We lost an hour by crossing a time zone.  Ugh.  Another early morning (by vacation standards).  We settled on a Best Western affiliate the Kings House Inn.  I reasoned that a Best Western hotel would have decent standards.  We had just checked in and then heard a train a few hundred feet away.  Horn blasting as it crossed the nearby road.  Great.  15 minutes later another one.  10 minutes later another.  If you like sleeping with the sounds of nearby trains this is a good hotel.  If you like quiet then not so much.  Oh — and the wifi was busted.

We gobbled down some free breakfast and watched some election news in the hotel lobby and then set off on a chilly morning.  I think that it was at about 34 degrees.  We drove fast and stopped little but we still didn’t arrive at the Santa Fe airport to return the car until about 40 minutes later than we should have.  The guy was nice and didn’t even mention charging us for the hour.  We were ready to fight it with “how long is a day rental in hours?” and “well we crossed a time zone so we’re 20 minutes early!”

Santa Fe airport

The weather was warmish at the airport while we waited about 15 minutes for Cena’s dad to arrive.  We loaded up and drove to Taos.

We sat on their patio and watched the sun go down, the hawk hunt, and the livestock graze.  Then we went to dinner and then on to watch and listen to a local open mic night.  I met Mr. Lou — a 20 year veteran of the Marines that had an awesome fu man chu and is 74.

The next day we stomped around the downtown shopping district.  I bought a jacket that makes me look like a muppet.

Ski bench

We watched the election unfold with the news on TV and our laptops constantly refreshing.

We saw horses and even made arrangements to see white buffalo.

White buffalo, white buffalo calf, and normal toned buffalo

Cena petting a white buffalo

White buffalo

Buffalo and oxen grazing

I took a walk to a cemetery near Charlie’s house and took a few photos.

Cemetery cross

Watchful Mary

Possibly forgotten

Jesus

I nearly forgot that we also visited the Kit Carson house in downtown Taos.

Kit Carson Museum

Kit Carson house window