Zelma’s Trip

It got to 11AM which was slightly concerning as Chuck was meant to be collecting me at ten.  I borrowed someone’s mobile and called Brad who expressed concern that Chuck had not arrived having left an hour earlier in his car!  As I was on the phone Chuck walked in and it was cool to see him.  We left the hostel and headed across town to Brad’s house.  Brad is one of Chuck’s oldest friends and a very cool guy.  It soon transpired that Brad and Chuck liked to argue like an old married couple, much to my amusement.  I decided that, as it was Christmas Eve, snowballs were in order and headed out to buy ingredients.  I quite enjoyed the walk and was pleased by the number of Banksy’s in the area.  When I got to the store I waited to ask the guy in the alcohol section a question and realised that, not only was he English, the two people infront of me were also.  I’m not sure who was more bemused, me or him.  As it turned out they didn’t have advocat and I was sent to a store across the road.  When I asked a member of staff where their advocat was they thought I wanted avocados, which was useful.  It turns out that America doesn’t really do Advocat so I had to settle for some vodka and eggnog. 

Back at Brad’s he managed to make rather nice drinks given the slightly random ingredients.  Later on we headed out of town with Brad who was going to his relative’s for Christmas.  Brad was driving and the traffic was awful.  One source of continual amusement was Chuck and Brad’s banter, a large amount of which revolved around Chuck asking Brad if he was sure that he wasn’t allowed to smoke in the car.  Eventually we arrived at the parking lot where Brad’s brother and family were to meet him and Chuck and I left for Sandiego. 

After some time, a slurpee and a hot dog we decided that it was a bit late to continue driving and found a hotel by St. Clements.  The lady on reception told us that there was only one room left and that it smelled of mildew but that she could give it to us for fifty dollars.  Armed with a big tin of “Febreeze” we headed upstairs to check it out.  When we got to the room both Chuck and I were pleasantly surprised.  Although there was a bit of a tang, the room was huge and nice and I thought that the woman really should see some of the places I had stayed in.  We took the room and crashed out for the night on a comfortable bed in a room smelling of air freshener.