San Diego Adventure

 Curtis had some business in San Diego the week of  July 18-22nd.  He had some friends that were there a week early and asked Curtis to come out early to prepare for the event the following week.  Curtis was back and forth of going not going, going... 

We decided we would drive out Monday afternoon just to get out of the heat.  I would stay a day or two and then fly back.  We left about 3:00 in the afternoon and it was a hot day. We were in the Tesla so we knew we would have to stop and recharge at least once.  The battery goes through energy faster when it is hot so we were on top of the charging thing.

We stopped in Gila Bend and got a quick charge while we went to the bathroom and grabbed some quick food at McDonald's then we hit the road again and did I mention it was HOT that day?

We get back on the road and we decided to charge one more time before we do the long stretch to San Diego.  We were getting off the exit to Tacna (the middle of nowhere podunk town) and we hear a bump.  We didn't think much of it until the car started showing low tire pressure etc.  UH OH do we have a flat?  Fortunately, we were very close to a Tesla charging station (our plan) where there was a Pilot station, mini mart etc.

We look at the car and it is more than a flat, we have a blow out.

We look at the clock and it is 4:55 p.m. in the middle of nowhere.  We called Discount Tire in Yuma, they don't have the tire, but luckily a very nice guy answered the phone.  He had already shut his computer down for the night,  he fired it back up and said he could order the tire from Phoenix, and hopefully, it would arrive by the next day.  Then we called roadside assistance to get towed to Yuma.  They said they would be to the middle of nowhere in an hour. An hour passed then two then three.  It turns out they accidentally canceled the call, and it was too late to do anything.  We called a car service in Yuma, and they came and picked us up.  Finally, we arrived at the Yuma Ramada Inn at 10:00 p.m..  The car would have to be towed in the morning.  It was not what we had planned but thankfully we were not stranded on the side of the road in the heat.  We were at a charging station where there was AC, bathrooms, and food if needed.  It could have been so much worse.

Curtis texted his friends in San Diego, one of which is from Yuma, and their reply was "Yuma in July is not good"  The next day the car was towed, and by some miracle, the tire arrived by 11:00 a.m.  I just decided to cut my losses rent a car and head home.  By noon the car was fixed, Curtis headed to San Diego and I headed home in a rental car.  That was memorable.

Curtis finally arrived in San Diego and he rented an air BNB with a few bedrooms.  A few days later he asked if anyone wanted to join him.  Derek was on a family vacation with his girlfriend, Jocelyn, Dax was finishing up summer school and Trey was done with trips and wanted to stay home.

I ended up Flying out to San Diego early Saturday morning.  I thought it would be fun to show up at the Air BNB address Curtis sent me and surprise him.  At 7:00 a.m. I arrive, knock on the door and nobody was there.  It turns out I was at the wrong place.  The owner sends out the wrong address for "security reasons"  I'm sure the people that were staying at the one I was knocking on felt secure with some stranger knocking on their door early Saturday morning.

The condo had kayaks and stand up paddle boards.  We met the Kaufmann's at the beach and played on the toys for a bit.

Tricia and Zoe

Zoe and Sophie

We cleaned up from the beach and walked about 2 miles to have dinner at "The Waterbar"  This is a restaurant that Curtis had been to before and he wanted to take me because they had the best "Poke Bowl"  We made the walk and we were ready to sit down by the time we got there. Curtis' back was hurting and my feet were tired.  When we arrive outside the restaurant there was a hostess outside, she told us it was about a 5-minute wait.  The restaurant is set up so you step inside and then walk upstairs to the actual restaurant.  While we were waiting we heard a commotion, we saw people falling down the stairs, and security comes running.  There was a scuffle then 3 very large men were tackling a guy (a few of which fell down the stairs with him)  they wrestled with him then eventually got him outside and threw in on the ground and were restraining him.  I don't know what triggered it but there were two people with the man telling him to calm down and knock it off.  That went on for a few minutes,  I thought the police would come and arrest the guy but they eventually got off him and released him.  Then the jerk man continued to insult and call the bouncers names.  That was a bad choice considering there were 3 on 1 and a crowd of witnesses emerging.  He then went off on how he was so wealthy and had lawyers back in Chicago that would sue and they would lose their jobs etc.  I thought those bouncers remained very calm and practiced a huge amount of restraint after what the loser was yelling at them. He then said he could come back and kill them all in about 2 minutes.  It was at that point a large crowd had formed to watch the spectacle and cell phones were capturing every threat he made.  His friends finally got him to walk off.    Then the hostess turns to us and says "ok you can go in now" like nothing had happened. Once we get in the restaurant there was another hostess who just said " nothing like dinner and a show"  Nobody ever said what triggered the event, but I'm guessing it was fueled by alcohol.  We had a nice dinner after that and a good story to tell.

I spent all day Saturday and Sunday, then flew home Sunday evening.  The condo was very close to the airport and we watched the planes fly over as they took off.  After I boarded my plane I told Curtis once we had liftoff.  I texted him landmarks that I could see from the plane.  He was watching outside and he got a video of my southwest plane flying over.  It was kind of fun doing a fly-by.

Curtis doing his Presentation with a beautiful beach backdrop

Friends Fred and Kevin

Chillin at the beach in athletic shoes.