Focus Trek Day 1

Focus Trek… the final frontier! These are the voyages of the 08 and 03 Ford Foci (plural form of Focus). Our continuing mission to seek out new commands and new civilian life styles… to boldly go where few sailors have gone before!

Captains Log date December 8th 2008. This is day one of our coast to coast adventure from San Diego to Washington D.C. The silver Focus sidenumber 2008 is being piloted by Brandy Crossno (callsign “Princess”) with RO (Radar Operator…well GPS operator) Christopher Gronde (callsign “Foamy”). The Blue Focus sidenumber 2003 is being piloted by Bobby Gronde (callsign “Probation”) with RO a Pink Penguin Princess got in Busan, Korea (callsign PinkPeng). PinkPeng is operating Probation’s laptop as entertainment since the radio antenna is broken. He’ll be sure to bring that up with the AM’s when we get back. According to Probation, PinkPeng seems to quite the stereotypical Korean since all that seems to be playing on his laptop is Techno music. Well, like everything that I’ve ever done, this adventure had to begin as painfully as possible. The morning began with a fight with the Personnel and Disbursing offices on USS Ronald Reagan who, like usual, refuses to help anyone that isn’t a master chief (thanks again ETCM for your assistance). It’s the day of our transfer and Disbursing has not paid us for our move yet and they had NO paperwork saying they NEEDED to pay ME at all. But after a two hour battle and a lot of strong-arming from ETCM, we should get paid in 48 hours. Then came issue number two. We still have a 5x5 storage compartment that we were going to get a trailer from UHAUL and tow behind the 08 focus, but when we reserved the trailer they didn’t reserve the HITCH we ordered. Then they found a hitch that was an HOUR away that they wanted US to go get and bring back so they could WELD it to Brandy’s focus. Uh…yeah you can eat a dick if you think you’re gonna WELD it cuz you can’t find the right hardware….so we went to the storage shed and with some expert TETRISing from Bobby (my brother), Brandy, and I; we fit all the Christmas stuff and some other important stuff into the car (we will be back to get the rest) and started our trip at about 1420 Pacific time and headed for our first stop... the Sin City! This will be Brandy’s second time there (she doesn’t remember much of her first since she was so sloshed [YES I DO! IT WAS MY BIRTHDAY, SO I WAS PERFECTLY ALLOWED TO BE SLIGHTLY INEBRIATED… BUT I REMEMBER IT ALL!!]), my third time and bobby’s first but he isn’t 21 yet, so won’t be TOO much of a good time. We’ll see what Vegas brings when we get there.

After five hours of driving and Princess Rocking out to Styx “Too Much Time on my Hands”, my Snoop Dogg “Ain’t Nothin but a G Thang” rendition, and us both rocking out and singing along to Whitney Houston’s “I’ve got Nothing” we made it to Las Vegas, Nevada. Our hotel destination is the Excalibur, which is one that I haven’t stayed at yet. The rooms are rather nice. Not as good as the Mirage but better than the Plaza which are the other two that I stayed at. Poor Princess has some type of a head cold so she can’t breathe… between that and her opting to pilot for the first day, so she was a little cranky and we were all hungry so it was time for food. After one absolutely crazy fast $20 cab ride later we were at the Nascar Café in the Sahara, but when we got there they were already closed, so I decided to go to Planet Hollywood since I know they’re open until at least 2300. When we got there we sat down and ordered our favorite drinks. Princess and I got “Gorillas in the Mist” (which is basically Khalua and banana liquor) and Probation got a coke. Waiter didn’t even card us. Well the drinks took a while and then after they got here and we ordered the waiter came back and said “hey the bartender screwed up and made two extra would you like them on the house? Seriously? You’re asking two sailors if we would like free drinks? Put ‘em down! Well after we started eating and I boy was I enjoying my L.A. Lasagna (one of the best things they make), the waiter came back and said hey I’m not trying to get you guys drunk or anything but the bartender made this blue lagoon for no reason. At which point he handed it straight to Probation. He looked at me, I looked at him. And then he began to drink it. So the night was saved by free drinks. And GUARANTEED the waiter got a good tip! We later went back to the hotel and grabbed the 1 gallon jug of distilled water that is now Pishy's (Princesses Pink beta fish that she had on the ship throughout deployment) temporary travel home) out of the car to bring inside and looked at mapquest and realized that the next days “mission plan” to go all the way to Albuquerque was 11 hours and a little too much driving, so we changed some things around and decided instead of going through Four Corners we’d hit Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon, and then stay the night in Flagstaff. Stay Tuned to see what happens tomorrow….

If you have Yahoo Messenger feel free to IM us on my phone at screenname “NvyGuardsman” or “nvybaby82” to get live updates on our trip….