The One and Only Video!

Amazingly enough, the blog got finished, but it did take a while.  I also managed to finish a video for the trip.  However, it wasn't an easy process.  My computer is too old to make videos on newer movie maker programs, but my current movie maker is old and is no longer updated.  This causes numerous problems for me. 

I did finish one video though!  Hope you enjoy the video!

Day's 5 Through 9: It Had To End Sometime!

Sunday the July 16^th

“This is it, this is what it’s all about!” This is what Dwylin told himself as he rolled out of bed around 4:15 am to go watch a bunch of men play a game that we all kind of stink at. Did I also mention that we paid a lot of dollars to watch this event in person? If you were to ask any of us just one question? Would that question possibly be? Was it worth it? All our responses would be,

“ABSOstinkingLUTELY!”

We left our place of lodging approximately at 5:10 in the morning and headed south towards Pebble. First, we stopped at the same Denny’s that we ate at on our first trip to Pebble Beach. It was once again a surprisingly chilly morning, but there was coffee to buy at the course.

Oh, I almost forgot about the wives! The ladies did not wish to attend a second day of golf. They instead decided to stay up in San Jose and go hiking at Alum Rock Park. They also elected to splurge on themselves and went shopping at all and ate at Olive Garden.  

Now, back to the boys...

Our first stop, once on the grounds was to the Putting Green / Driving Range area. This is where all the golfers go to warm up. There were already a bunch of guys out practicing, by the time we got there. The biggest name practicing around us was a ‘Brit’ by the name of Tommy Fleetwood. At least he was the one we could get the closest to.

We headed out to the par 3 number 7. This however proved to be futile, because the other 50,000 people on the course had the same idea. So instead we went back to the same hole we sat at for most of the day on Thursday, number 5. We saw most of the groups go through here and we decided to stay in this spot till at least Tiger Woods comes through.
Sitting down beside the overcast ocean with the wind blowing in our faces, we all agreed, that this was definitely colder than the last time.

Once Tiger’s group was through the 5th hole. We high tailed it over to the 12th (also the same hole where we sat on Thursday). We sat here through a bunch of the same groups of golfers over again, which was pretty fun. We spent the majority of our time on the short par 3’s and we never saw a hole-in-one. We did, however, get very close. It wasn’t long after we sat down that a man named Jason Dufner sent one within inches of the hole.

Matt left our group because he wanted to try to get to the 18^th green. He found that he was too late, it was full, and had to settle instead for the grandstands by the 17^th green.

We sat on the edge of the grandstands and whoever was sitting closest to the ocean was always freezing, but the guys who were just beside him were at least 10 degrees warmer and had no wind. We just kept watching the crowd build and diminish all depending on who was coming through at the time.

Once the leaders got through the hole we hightailed it towards the final hole. Number 18 is where the next US Open champion is crowned. To our dismay and horror, we had the same plan as 25,000 other spectators around us. It probably took us 10 to 15 minutes to cut across the course from the 12^th hole. 

To our agony, the closest we could get was halfway up the 18th fairway. This is a long way away from being able to see anything of importance on the green. We had been watching part of the golf coverage on our phones via the “Fox Sports App”. This worked like a charm for most of the day, until this most pivotal moment. Then out of nowhere, we couldn’t get any signal. I guess 50,000 people on one golf hole kinda takes all the cell signal and chokes it down to nothing.

We stood in our spot alongside the fairway watching and waiting patiently for the leaders to come through. We watched the last four or five groups file through and it was obvious that everyone wanted drama. Brooks Koepka was two shots down from the leader Gary Woodland. Brooks played in the group just before Woodland, but everyone was in awe of Koepka. He is a chunk of masculinity, and seemingly invincible. He walked up the fairway to much fan fare. He ended his round by missing a birdie putt, and the lead stayed at two for Woodland.

Brooks Koepka

Now maybe a good time to mention that we had some drunk men around us. Gary Woodland hit his drive and then a layup shot. He ended up taking his 3rd shot right in front of us. This is where the drunk guys come into play. As Woodland was taking his practice shots, one of the guys yelled out, “that water looks awfully inviting!” Needless to say, this did not go well with the other patrons. Someone else yelled back to the drunk guys, “tell us what it's like after we throw you in!” This did not phase Woodland in the slightest. He immediately put his shot on the green and putted out for a birdie and a 3 shot victory.

Gary Woodland

We made our way up to the 18^th green for the reward ceremony. We got to see the Woodland accept his trophy as the US Open Champion. We also got to see, our favorite young golfer, Viktor Hovland win a trophy for being the “Low Amateur”. He finished tied for 12^th but received no money, because he was technically a Non-Professional. So the following day, Viktor dropped out of college and became a professional.

We left the trophy ceremony and headed to the buses. The design flaw of the course came into play here. Every fan on the course had to cross the same bridge to get to the buses. To say this caused a log jam would be an understatement! We got to the welcome center and had to wait on Matt who was coming from the 17^th. We then got in line for the buses and we ended waiting around TWO HOURS! Honestly, it was the most civil line we have ever seen. Golf fans are simply a different breed of fan. Dwylin had an interesting conversation, with a man from the Los Angeles area, about Amish and Mennonites and people from the Midwest in general. While at the same time Landon and the rest were asking each other sports trivia questions.

We finally got back to our car and immediately started looking for food! We were so hungry, and there was nothing around. We had to drive 20 minutes north, and we relied on Dwylin’s southwest America fast food experience to guide our taste buds. He lead us to the amazing In-N-Out Burger. Dwylin was the only one that had been to one before and had been waiting 5 years to come back to one. He was so excited to try a Double-Double “Animal Style” again.

We got home sometime after eleven, and we headed to bed as soon as we got to the house.

Monday the July 17^th

We all woke up slowly between 6-8 in the morning. We started packing up our stuff and eating breakfast with our coffee. We had to be out of the Air BnB today, as well as return the van that we were using.

Jon and Heidi were scheduled to leave in the afternoon around the same time as Dwylin and Landon. Jon’s were scheduled to arrive at their home in Plains early the next morning, just in time for a quick nap and wake up and head to work just a few hours later. Jon and Heidi, however, were able to change their flight to an earlier flight. We all had to hurry up and finish our packing then head to the San Francisco Airport. Dan was planning on driving back with Matt and Linda to Missouri and on to Indiana.

We dropped off Jon and Heidi and headed out for some lunch because the other flight wasn’t leaving for another 6 hours or so. We headed for another one of “Dwylin’s Recommended” establishments. The Habit is the favorite burger chain that Dwylin discovered while he lived in Phoenix.

We ate our fill and decided to head back to the airport. Dwylin and Landon headed inside and Landon met a random airline pilot that he knew! He had gone to school with the man’s son. This did not, however, dent any of our waiting time. We had about a 3 or 4-hour wait until our flight was leaving. We basically walked around and just took in the size of the airport.

Eventually, we got to board our plane, and we were ready to head home. Now, a simple problem ensued from our four-hour flight. There was a man behind me on the flight that had no comprehension of personal space. Don’t be that guy!

 The feet did not belong to Landon

We landed around 2 in the morning, and we were ready to be home. We, however, had to find our luggage. It never showed up in baggage claim, and we were not wanting to wait hours for them to find our bags. We eventually figured out where our bags were hiding. As it turns out, because we arrived at the airport in San Francisco so early, and had to wait through multiple flights headed to Chicago before our own, our bags were sent with an earlier flight. There they were caged up after no one claimed them.

Landon made it to the bags first and didn’t realize any of this happened. So he went to the baggage claim office and waited. We waited in line for maybe twenty minutes behind a young Asian couple flying in from Toronto. They apparently had their luggage misplaced and it had been missing for a long while. Dwylin finally got bored of this and decided to go back to the baggage claim and figure this out. Dwylin saw the cages filled with luggage and asked some employees nearby about the baggage cages. They seemed to know exactly what the bag was that we were missing, and after hardly ten seconds had past… we had our bag again. The trip was saved and we could at last drive the last two hours home!

We left the airport right around 3 and headed out of Chicago. We had two hours of driving ahead of us and one time zone change. We had some interesting conversations and at points sang some random southern gospel songs. We finally got back home at 6 a.m. on Tuesday morning. Now it was time for some quality time with our beds and eventually back to the work the following day.

Dan, Matt and Linda

After dropping off Dwylin and Landon at the airport, they headed out by car to Missouri. They had time to make a couple of stops on their way home. They stopped at Yosemite National Park for some sightseeing. They continued east and ended up spending a night in Las Vegas, which as it happens, has crazy nice and crazy cheap hotel rooms.

They left Gomorrah the following morning and made a hard push for Missouri. So Apparently, they may have pushed a bit too hard. Dan got pulled over for speeding somewhere in The Beehive State or The Mormon state, either one works.

They were on their way to Missouri to pick up Matt and Linda’s pull behind RV trailer at the property they were fixing up. The trio finally got to the fixer-upper and headed back out on the road as soon as possible. The group was split up for the last bit of the trip but they all finally made it home by Thursday, June 20th.

Matt and Lindas Trip from Indiana to California and all the way back again.

Epilogue Aug. 9th-12th

So as it turns out part of our group got together again. Honestly, because it took me so long to write this last chapter that we had another get together as a group. Dan, Matt, and Michael were working a job out in Chicago and some of us guys came out to visit them over a weekend in August. Dwylin, Jared, Landon, and Matt's wife Linda drove out to Chicago on Friday and headed straight north to Milwaukee for some food and baseball game. 

We drove back to Chicago that night after one of the longest baseball games in my life. We were mostly lazy on Saturday. Except for three of our group that was working on the Congress Hotel roof in the morning. We spent a nice long day walking around and being lazy. Dwylin, Jared, Landon, and Michael headed back home that same evening.

As the four guys left three more appeared in the morning. To help with the work and to have some fun of course. Dan's brother Jon and his wife Heidi. They also brought along Dan's girlfriend Rachel along as well. Dan was so giddy. They stayed for most of the week and went back home.

It is now the end of September as I write the finishing touches of this document of our epicness. So many things have changed. Dan has moved away from Indiana back to Montana. Also our buddy Nate Miller finally moved back from Colorado and is back in Ohio again. I guess it is like what all the old people like Dan always say... "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh me ALL the way back to Montana."

He never actually said that...

Day's 3 & 4: Some Cold Days In The Sun

Friday the 14^th

Today gave many new experiences, but first, we need to wake up. The coming morning was not easy to embrace, but we sluggishly welcomed the daylight and awoke for a new day in California. Our morning routines were all sorts of screwed up because there was a time difference for all of us. So the day started with Dan making coffee and Dwylin started blogging and Jon and Matt switching between watching golf on TV and playing ping pong.

It took a bit of time for us to decide on how we wanted to proceed with our day. We already had bought tickets for a baseball game that evening between the San Francisco Giants and the Milwaukee Brewers. So we headed north to San Francisco, and to see a couple of sights while we were there.

So we drove north for a little over an hour. Some good discussions were had as well listening to good music on our drive. When we left San Jose, it was sunny and around 75 degrees outside. When we arrived at the Golden Gate Bridge, however, it was overcast with blustery conditions and just plain cold. With the weather being uncooperative, it made the bridge look decidedly less impressive than we had anticipated. One of the funnier parts of the stop at Golden Gate was a sign that warned us against “Frequent Thefts”.

With the view being underwhelming and the frigid winds bouncing off the bay, we made the decision to go back into San Francisco. We were headed to find an early supper before the baseball game started. We settled on eating at Pete’s Tavern, which happened to be right across the street from Oracle Park. The food was by consensus, lackluster, and overpriced.

Afterward, we still had about 2 hours to burn before they would allow people inside the ballpark. So we walked out along one of the local piers and took pictures and admired the ocean vessels.

It didn’t take long until one or two in our group started desiring a pleasant treat called, “ice cream”. We ended up finding a place just about 7 or 8 blocks from the ballpark. So probably 15 minutes later we waltzed into a Ghirardelli Chocolate Shop. There was so much chocolate and they even gave free samples. The shop definitely had its own feel to it. It was a mixture of a high-class establishment and a Steak and Shake. Most of us got some ice cream and all thought it was pretty good as well.

Then it was time to head back towards the ballpark for game time. We got up to the gate and we were first in line to get into the stadium. When you go to a Major League Baseball game early and are willing to explore, some perks come with it. You can walk down into the lower levels and watch the visiting team take batting practice.

Our group had seats in the upper deck for the 7:05 first pitch. We got up to our seats and it was frigidly cold. The temperature was 55 degrees at the beginning of the game. As the game kept moving on, we found ourselves standing up most of the time as well as moving closer to the top of the stadium. As it got colder, we kept getting louder. We sang along with the music, and by the way, it was Beatles night. The Oakland A’s were also playing a game that night and we were seeing their stadium fireworks show right from across the bay.

As soon as the game was over, we were out of there. We took the stairwell, ran all the way down to the bottom floor, and in less than five minutes we went from our upper deck seats to outside the stadium and were now closing in on our rental van. We crossed the bay towards Oakland and saw the fireworks show going on inside the stadium that we just left. As we were driving, we suddenly realized that our van was running on empty. We immediately got off the highway and found a gas station to fill up and in drives a Ferrari. Then Jon noticed the license plate and not only that but also its county number was for Kalispell, MT. We got back on the road and headed back south toward San Jose. We kept driving and drove by the Oakland Colosseum and the Oracle Arena. We got back to the house and went to bed because our next day could hold any outcome.

Saturday the 15^th

Once again our day started with people waking up at random times to get coffee and welcome a new day. We also found some inventive ways of watching golf this morning. It took a while to decide what to do on this day. It was an entire day with which we could do what we wanted so we decided to see if there was a good beach in this part of California. We spent some time searching and we settled on Santa Cruz. Roughly a forty-five minute to an hour drive depending traffic.

So we headed out for the beach. Hoping beyond all hope that it would be warm this time. We wanted to eat before we got too close to the beach so we stopped at a sub sandwich shop called “TOGO’S Sandwiches.” It was a pricey but tasty treat that would hold us over for a while.

We headed out once again towards our ultimate goal, which was the beach. Heading through the mountains on Highway 17 we kept finding out that motorcyclists are very brave in California. It was not uncommon to be beside a car and out of nowhere have a bike pass in between you. Once again, California gives good drivers a bad name. Onward we would go inching closer and closer to the beach, but now something we didn’t consider. Where can we park? After driving around in stop and go traffic for what may have been a half-hour, we finally found our parking spot at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. It seems like it was a pretty big deal. They have rides and everything and we heard screams so you know they were good rides.

We left our vehicle and proceeded to cross the bridge over to the beach. We were there to throw Frisbee and to let the girls bake in the sun. This just also happened to be the very day of Jon and Heidi’s first wedding anniversary. They proceeded to recruit Dwylin to take pictures of them with his new phone.

Once the pictures were done and the whole group was back together again. A duel of words started spewing between the boys. Trying to figure NBA scenarios and who is the better player between Kemba Walker and Kyrie Irving. These arguments lasted the whole way until we got to supper that night back in San Jose.

First off we went to Red Lobster but we didn’t feel like waiting 30 minutes to an hour to wait to be seated. So we found another restaurant close by called The Kickin’ Crab. This place was strange and full of people wearing bibs and loud music. After we figured out how to order, we split into two different groups. We then waited for our food and were all very interested in how this would go. Our food inevitably did arrive and all of us were decently surprised at what we saw. We had two different orders and we were giving two bags with all our food in it. It was up to us to separate our food from the rest. This was an incredibly tasty and insanely messy. It was a meal that required oodles of napkins and multiple trips to the restroom as well as quite a few wet wipes.

Overall, the day was enjoyable and our day was only made better with us all back at the house watching the movie Happy Gilmore right before bed.