(no subject)
The last couple of weeks have been a ton of fun. I'm really missing you guys already!
Thursday May 23rd was my very last day at Crossroads (the dog training place). It was really sad, but it made me feel quite loved. We got a new trainer a couple of months ago. We really haven't worked together all the much (our days off are pretty much opposite), but she came in on her day off to bring in donuts because she new it was my last day. How sweet! The staff also bought me a cake and a card. The Kennel manager baked me a lasagna. And both of my bosses came in on their day off to take the training team out to lunch. It was a lot of fun. It was really funny: The owner of the company is in his late 40's. We were carpooling with him and as soon as he started the engine out comes hip hop of all things. He cranks it up and Diana, who's in her mid to late 50's and really kind of a prude in all regards, starts bobbing from side to side. It was hilarious! Later, during lunch, Dan had his camera out and Diana goes, "Dan, get ready!" grabs David's (who has personal space issues) face and kisses him on the cheek. The look on David's face was great! Sadly we didn't get a photo. Apparently Diana was impressed by David's strength as he struggled to escape. Anyway, Dan treated us all to lunch and it made for a really nice last day.
So, Saturday night Carolyn, Nikki, Sheila, Victoria, and I all hung out in Long Beach. We chilled in the dorms for a bit and sampled various alcohols (I brought Sabra, which is very yummy, for everyone to try and I tried the remnants from Victoria's b-day party). Eventually Victoria came home and we soon went out to a "Black and White" party at some huge house. It wasn't until we had been there for a while that I discovered it was actually someone's b-day party. I actually feel kind of bad that we crashed some random b-day party, but that's ok. We had fun and they had yummy food and the best Mudslide ever! We hung out until it started winding down and I made it home (pretty smashed on that yummy mudslide) around 4:30 am. Which maybe wasn't the very best idea because on Sunday...
Nicole and I finally went skydiving!!! Fortunately our reservation wasn't until 2:00 pm, but I woke up around 10:30 am and was slightly concerned about how well I might feel (though, fortunately, I am not prone to hangovers, especially anything remotely severe; but still). Luckily it was ok. We drove out to Lake Elsinore and got all ready to go. My parents ended up driving out to watch. It was so much fun!! It was surprisingly not scary, though I did start to realize what exactly we were doing during the ascent and while we were at the door. It was crazy, half way up they decided to randomly open the cabin door and one of the guys was just lying next it, haha. My instructor decided to clip on to me just in case. I was comforted. The exit was the best part, I think. We kind of tumbled out and had to flip around to right ourselves. It reminded me of a boat entry when SCUBA diving when your roll backwards into the water. While we were falling we also did a couple of 360* rotations. That was a lot of fun! I got to pull the ripcord (though it took me a second or two to locate it, heh) and he even let me steer the chute for a bit. That was exciting. We made lots of turns and I must admit I did start to remember the night I had had. =^P Fortunately nothing came of it. The landing wasn't even close to as bad as I anticipated and we actually set down quite gently (though I'm sure it would have been very different if I had been the one to land us!). The whole experience wasn't nearly as scary as one might expect, and so not quite as exhilarating as you might hope, but it was truly a lot of plain ol' fun. I would love to join an "aerobatic" (there must be a real name...) team. Ah, if only I had money and time!
That same night Sheila and I went to Ian's wine/hookah party. We hung out for a while chatting with the people there. I think Ian was trying to set me up with his Animal Control Officer friend (I've already forgotten his name... =^P). Soon the crowd started to thin so we moved inside (yay warmth!). We played a few games including word association (first thing that pops into your mind when you hear the previously spoken word) and stringing together a story. Ian taught us the Aristocrat game (basically you're supposed to pitch the most absolutely vulgar family stage show act you can come up with) and tried very hard to make me play. I'm afraid I'm neither creative, nor particularly vulgar, but fortunately Ian couldn't help but jump in a sentence or two into each of my pathetic attempts. Without doubt the highlight of the evening came near the very end. When it was just Sheila, Ian, Ian's girlfriend Jenna, and myself left we were sitting around trying to decide what to do next. Ian suggested, "Let's go jump of a bridge naked!" I laughed and admitted that I totally would. He asked, "Really??" and after a little more feeling out how serious each of us was, we decided to go for it. Sheila and Jenna opted to come as spectators. We grabbed some towels, piled into Ian's car, and drove a couple of streets down to the nearest bridge. It's about 2:00 am at this point and my greatest concern was how flippin' cold that water was bound to be (as it was, I had been all but shivering all night). We parked at the base of the bridge and scurried up to the top. I peered over the edge down to the black water probably twenty feet or so down. It seemed pretty high, but Ian assured me that the water was deep enough. After disrobing, Ian offered to boost me over the fence (which was a good thing; it was about chest level and spiked; I'm not sure how I would have managed on my own). He held out his hands and lifted me up to fence level. After doing the best I could to steady myself, I jumped off. I was sure the landing was going to be painful. About mid-air it occurred to me that Ian was probably going to ditch me. But he was true to his word and soon followed. And happily my entry was clean. We hightailed it to the boat dock and I very sexily hauled myself out, reminding myself not so much of a beached whale, but more of a walrus wriggling onto an ice flow - minus the tusks (Sheila, I really hope you've deleted that photo!). We scampered back up, where Jenna handed out towels and we dressed as quickly as we could. It was definitely the more thrilling of my two novel experiences that day. ;^) Fortunately no one was injured nor arrested. And I was actually warmer than I had started out! I find it ironic that I get into more "trouble" sober than I do when I drink!
Monday was fairly uneventful, though I still got no sleep because I decided to stay up until 3:00 am editing my sky diving footage.
Tuesday I was up bright and early to go into "work." But I thought Thursday was your last day..? Dan had arranged for us to take a field trip to go see his friend's menagerie. We rented a van for the day and the nine of us carpooled out to Hesparia. When we arrived we met the owner, who took us on a tour of the facility and introduced us to the animals. Our first stop was the cats. There were some absolutely gorgeous leopards, a lynx, and a mountain lion that reminded me of a big Takota (the one Nikki and I were helping to train). There was also a coyote who barked nonstop at Dan. Next we met an overweight female black bear. We got to feed her jelly beans (gee, wonder why she was over weight. ;^). She was very sweet and had a super soft tongue. We then went around and watched them feed the 40+ resident wolves. She brought one out for us to play with for a bit. We also saw her collection of gray, red, and mountain (or something like that; they were very similar to the Island foxes we had at the OC Zoo) foxes. I learned that foxes remind me a lot of otters: they're high strung, stinky, and like to nip. And both are very cute. We then went in and met some corgi puppies (she also breeds corgis and shepherds), watched a litter being born (what timing!), and got to play with a pair of fox kits. They were so cute! We soon took off, had lunch on Dan again (this is why I like traveling with him ;^), and headed back. Fun times!
That night I joined Sheila and Ian and co. once again for "a good time in the OC." That's literally what I was invited to, haha. Having hung out with Ian a couple of times already, I must admit that I was slightly concerned that we were on our way to an orgy. But it turned out to be a fun house party in Tustin. The house was pretty sweet. It was good sized and had a jacuzzi in the yard! We played a couple of drinking games then headed out to the jacuzzi. The boys lent all the girls a t-shirt (or, in my case, Doug's old "pirate costume" - which was a white t-shirt that had been shredded and marked with a skull and crossbones) and a pair of boxers. We all squeezed into the jacuzzi which was just big enough to fit everyone. And I have to mention, while we were in the jacuzzi Doug's brother stopped by with his two dogs, one of which was named Kaiya (one of my puppies' names!). We hung out in there for a while and played Never-Have-I-Ever. Afterwards people started trickling off, but a few of us hung out a while longer.
Thursday night I went to a free salsa lesson in Long Beach with Sheila. The room was crazy packed, but it was a lot of fun! I sucked and have the bruises to prove it, LoL. I then headed back down to Irvine to go see Pirates of the Caribbean at the Spectrum with Carolyn, Lauren, and Nicole. I enjoyed it, but I'm convinced that the writers were on something while creating the script. I am reserving proper judgment until I watch it at least once more.
Friday night I was supposed to get together with Doug, but I was having dinner with my parents until 11:30 pm and by this point in the week I was absolutely exhausted, so I called it off.
Saturday night Doug, Sheila, and I were supposed to go to another lifeguard party, but Sheila ended up not able, Doug apparently didn't have his phone, and I never got directions. Instead I took advantage of Danielle's new legal status and Danielle, Nikki, and I made a midnight run to the supermarket to stock me up on booze for the summer, ha ha. We sent Danielle to the register on her own so our lack of 21ness would not inhibit the purchase. I was alarmed to find her standing at the register with the cashier and the manager filling out some sort of form. Fortunately she was just signing up for a Ralph's card to save me money. We then sampled one of my new beverages and brought a bottle of "juice" down to our favorite lifeguard tower at the beach. We hung out there for a while then headed back.
Sunday I went up to LA to see Wicked at the Pantages. I enjoyed it. Our seats could have been better, but that's ok. The set was a little over the top for my taste (I actually used to prefer elaborate sets, but these days I really lean towards the-simpler-the-better), I was disappointed (though not surprised to be) by the singing of the actors playing Elphaba and Fiyero (only because the original cast members were so amazing), and the actress who played Glinda was a terrible dancer (not that I'm one to talk... but I probably could to better than she did, which is sad). The choreography wasn't really my style (think Brittney Spears on Broadway) and the guy playing the goat couldn't bleat to save his life. But the acting was good, the costumes were great (I really liked the Emerald City costumes), and there was a little more story line than the CD suggests. I particularly liked the ending. Oh, and the wizard was pretty cool. And of course I already knew that I like the music. I do feel like they could have spent more time establishing the characters, but I guess they figure you've see Wizard of Oz and can put the rest together throughout the play. I did enjoy it and would love to see it again - preferably this time with closer seats.
That night was, of course, Danielle's 21st b-day party, which many of you were present for. The food was very yummy! I was very sad to leave my best So Cal friends, many for the last time in I don't know how long it may be.
Monday I woke up far too early in order to pack. I finally got out of the house at about 12:00 pm. Just as I was ready to drive off, my dad decided that he should probably check my fluids for me. I conceded, though I was already about two hours behind schedule. THEN, my "helpful" family accidentally dropped one of the caps inside the engine area. Oy. We literally spent at least 45 minutes just trying to locate the damn thing and then nearly half an hour more trying to retrieve it. I ended up up to my shoulder inside the engine area. I finally grasped the cap, but was concerned I wasn't going to get my arm back, LoL. I finally took off and headed up to work to drop off some videos that I had been copying for Dan. I then made a Coffee Bean run (I love you! Miss you!) and FINALLY made it to the highway at about 3:00 pm.
I rolled into Phoenix just after 7:00 pm (go me!) and stopped to attend to my car. I then proceeded to Jackie's lovely apartment, met her adorable kitty, and accompanied them to drop kitty off at a friend's house (Jackie and her boyfriend, Brian, are in Bonaire on a SCUBA trip as I type this; jerks! ;^). From there we went to My Florist, a fun little cafe, for some yummy dinner and back to Jackie's (we also stopped by Brian's apartment both ways so he could work on copying movies). I stayed up with Jackie for a bit while she packed, then endeavored to go to sleep since I calculated that I would need to leave by 6:00 am if I had any hope at all of making it to San Antonio by 9:00 pm (even that was quite a stretch!).
Sadly I was unable to sleep, so at about 3:00 am I decided to stop wasting time trying to fall asleep and just hit the road. I stopped by the gas station and ran inside to pick up a couple of things for the trip. There were a couple of creepy looking guys standing outside, so I parked far away from them and headed in. As I was approaching, one of the guys started walking towards me, eying me and warned me that, "You'd better get inside." Pretty sure he was just being an ass, but I happily obliged, nonetheless. Sadly inside there was no attendant, so I stood at the counter for a while waiting. Creepy Guy comes in and waits with me. We chatted while waiting and he eventually went out and shouted for the attendant to come help me (I'm guessing they were buddies...). Once I had paid I hightailed it for my car and headed to the freeway.
I was slightly concerned about leaving while it was still dark out because I would not be able to spot speed traps. It actually turned out to my benefit in a way, because in Az they have undercover highway patrol that are in normal looking cars. HOWEVER, in the dark I was able to see their monitors glowing inside and I was able to surmise their true nature. I quickly checked my speed and assumed that "safe" position just diagonally behind the cop. Apparently that looked rather suspicious because they soon started to slow down. Concerned that their intent was to get behind me so they might pull me over, I slipped behind them instead (smart, huh?). They flashed their lights once, then pulled all the way over the side of the road. As I suspected, once I passed they came up behind me with their lights on. I cursed and started pulling over, but, conveniently, that entailed pulling off the exit-ramp. Apparently the fact that I was willing to be pulled over was satisfying to them, because they didn't pursue me up the ramp. I breathed a huge sigh of relief and turned around. Talk about getting my adrenaline going for the trip! I continued straight through to San Antonio, stopping only for gas and lots and lots of coffee (I swear, I consumed more caffeine in that 24 hrs than I did in the entire preceding 24 days! And that's probably not an exaggeration...). Finally made it in around 6:30 pm and that's more than enough story telling.
Thursday May 23rd was my very last day at Crossroads (the dog training place). It was really sad, but it made me feel quite loved. We got a new trainer a couple of months ago. We really haven't worked together all the much (our days off are pretty much opposite), but she came in on her day off to bring in donuts because she new it was my last day. How sweet! The staff also bought me a cake and a card. The Kennel manager baked me a lasagna. And both of my bosses came in on their day off to take the training team out to lunch. It was a lot of fun. It was really funny: The owner of the company is in his late 40's. We were carpooling with him and as soon as he started the engine out comes hip hop of all things. He cranks it up and Diana, who's in her mid to late 50's and really kind of a prude in all regards, starts bobbing from side to side. It was hilarious! Later, during lunch, Dan had his camera out and Diana goes, "Dan, get ready!" grabs David's (who has personal space issues) face and kisses him on the cheek. The look on David's face was great! Sadly we didn't get a photo. Apparently Diana was impressed by David's strength as he struggled to escape. Anyway, Dan treated us all to lunch and it made for a really nice last day.
So, Saturday night Carolyn, Nikki, Sheila, Victoria, and I all hung out in Long Beach. We chilled in the dorms for a bit and sampled various alcohols (I brought Sabra, which is very yummy, for everyone to try and I tried the remnants from Victoria's b-day party). Eventually Victoria came home and we soon went out to a "Black and White" party at some huge house. It wasn't until we had been there for a while that I discovered it was actually someone's b-day party. I actually feel kind of bad that we crashed some random b-day party, but that's ok. We had fun and they had yummy food and the best Mudslide ever! We hung out until it started winding down and I made it home (pretty smashed on that yummy mudslide) around 4:30 am. Which maybe wasn't the very best idea because on Sunday...
Nicole and I finally went skydiving!!! Fortunately our reservation wasn't until 2:00 pm, but I woke up around 10:30 am and was slightly concerned about how well I might feel (though, fortunately, I am not prone to hangovers, especially anything remotely severe; but still). Luckily it was ok. We drove out to Lake Elsinore and got all ready to go. My parents ended up driving out to watch. It was so much fun!! It was surprisingly not scary, though I did start to realize what exactly we were doing during the ascent and while we were at the door. It was crazy, half way up they decided to randomly open the cabin door and one of the guys was just lying next it, haha. My instructor decided to clip on to me just in case. I was comforted. The exit was the best part, I think. We kind of tumbled out and had to flip around to right ourselves. It reminded me of a boat entry when SCUBA diving when your roll backwards into the water. While we were falling we also did a couple of 360* rotations. That was a lot of fun! I got to pull the ripcord (though it took me a second or two to locate it, heh) and he even let me steer the chute for a bit. That was exciting. We made lots of turns and I must admit I did start to remember the night I had had. =^P Fortunately nothing came of it. The landing wasn't even close to as bad as I anticipated and we actually set down quite gently (though I'm sure it would have been very different if I had been the one to land us!). The whole experience wasn't nearly as scary as one might expect, and so not quite as exhilarating as you might hope, but it was truly a lot of plain ol' fun. I would love to join an "aerobatic" (there must be a real name...) team. Ah, if only I had money and time!
That same night Sheila and I went to Ian's wine/hookah party. We hung out for a while chatting with the people there. I think Ian was trying to set me up with his Animal Control Officer friend (I've already forgotten his name... =^P). Soon the crowd started to thin so we moved inside (yay warmth!). We played a few games including word association (first thing that pops into your mind when you hear the previously spoken word) and stringing together a story. Ian taught us the Aristocrat game (basically you're supposed to pitch the most absolutely vulgar family stage show act you can come up with) and tried very hard to make me play. I'm afraid I'm neither creative, nor particularly vulgar, but fortunately Ian couldn't help but jump in a sentence or two into each of my pathetic attempts. Without doubt the highlight of the evening came near the very end. When it was just Sheila, Ian, Ian's girlfriend Jenna, and myself left we were sitting around trying to decide what to do next. Ian suggested, "Let's go jump of a bridge naked!" I laughed and admitted that I totally would. He asked, "Really??" and after a little more feeling out how serious each of us was, we decided to go for it. Sheila and Jenna opted to come as spectators. We grabbed some towels, piled into Ian's car, and drove a couple of streets down to the nearest bridge. It's about 2:00 am at this point and my greatest concern was how flippin' cold that water was bound to be (as it was, I had been all but shivering all night). We parked at the base of the bridge and scurried up to the top. I peered over the edge down to the black water probably twenty feet or so down. It seemed pretty high, but Ian assured me that the water was deep enough. After disrobing, Ian offered to boost me over the fence (which was a good thing; it was about chest level and spiked; I'm not sure how I would have managed on my own). He held out his hands and lifted me up to fence level. After doing the best I could to steady myself, I jumped off. I was sure the landing was going to be painful. About mid-air it occurred to me that Ian was probably going to ditch me. But he was true to his word and soon followed. And happily my entry was clean. We hightailed it to the boat dock and I very sexily hauled myself out, reminding myself not so much of a beached whale, but more of a walrus wriggling onto an ice flow - minus the tusks (Sheila, I really hope you've deleted that photo!). We scampered back up, where Jenna handed out towels and we dressed as quickly as we could. It was definitely the more thrilling of my two novel experiences that day. ;^) Fortunately no one was injured nor arrested. And I was actually warmer than I had started out! I find it ironic that I get into more "trouble" sober than I do when I drink!
Monday was fairly uneventful, though I still got no sleep because I decided to stay up until 3:00 am editing my sky diving footage.
Tuesday I was up bright and early to go into "work." But I thought Thursday was your last day..? Dan had arranged for us to take a field trip to go see his friend's menagerie. We rented a van for the day and the nine of us carpooled out to Hesparia. When we arrived we met the owner, who took us on a tour of the facility and introduced us to the animals. Our first stop was the cats. There were some absolutely gorgeous leopards, a lynx, and a mountain lion that reminded me of a big Takota (the one Nikki and I were helping to train). There was also a coyote who barked nonstop at Dan. Next we met an overweight female black bear. We got to feed her jelly beans (gee, wonder why she was over weight. ;^). She was very sweet and had a super soft tongue. We then went around and watched them feed the 40+ resident wolves. She brought one out for us to play with for a bit. We also saw her collection of gray, red, and mountain (or something like that; they were very similar to the Island foxes we had at the OC Zoo) foxes. I learned that foxes remind me a lot of otters: they're high strung, stinky, and like to nip. And both are very cute. We then went in and met some corgi puppies (she also breeds corgis and shepherds), watched a litter being born (what timing!), and got to play with a pair of fox kits. They were so cute! We soon took off, had lunch on Dan again (this is why I like traveling with him ;^), and headed back. Fun times!
That night I joined Sheila and Ian and co. once again for "a good time in the OC." That's literally what I was invited to, haha. Having hung out with Ian a couple of times already, I must admit that I was slightly concerned that we were on our way to an orgy. But it turned out to be a fun house party in Tustin. The house was pretty sweet. It was good sized and had a jacuzzi in the yard! We played a couple of drinking games then headed out to the jacuzzi. The boys lent all the girls a t-shirt (or, in my case, Doug's old "pirate costume" - which was a white t-shirt that had been shredded and marked with a skull and crossbones) and a pair of boxers. We all squeezed into the jacuzzi which was just big enough to fit everyone. And I have to mention, while we were in the jacuzzi Doug's brother stopped by with his two dogs, one of which was named Kaiya (one of my puppies' names!). We hung out in there for a while and played Never-Have-I-Ever. Afterwards people started trickling off, but a few of us hung out a while longer.
Thursday night I went to a free salsa lesson in Long Beach with Sheila. The room was crazy packed, but it was a lot of fun! I sucked and have the bruises to prove it, LoL. I then headed back down to Irvine to go see Pirates of the Caribbean at the Spectrum with Carolyn, Lauren, and Nicole. I enjoyed it, but I'm convinced that the writers were on something while creating the script. I am reserving proper judgment until I watch it at least once more.
Friday night I was supposed to get together with Doug, but I was having dinner with my parents until 11:30 pm and by this point in the week I was absolutely exhausted, so I called it off.
Saturday night Doug, Sheila, and I were supposed to go to another lifeguard party, but Sheila ended up not able, Doug apparently didn't have his phone, and I never got directions. Instead I took advantage of Danielle's new legal status and Danielle, Nikki, and I made a midnight run to the supermarket to stock me up on booze for the summer, ha ha. We sent Danielle to the register on her own so our lack of 21ness would not inhibit the purchase. I was alarmed to find her standing at the register with the cashier and the manager filling out some sort of form. Fortunately she was just signing up for a Ralph's card to save me money. We then sampled one of my new beverages and brought a bottle of "juice" down to our favorite lifeguard tower at the beach. We hung out there for a while then headed back.
Sunday I went up to LA to see Wicked at the Pantages. I enjoyed it. Our seats could have been better, but that's ok. The set was a little over the top for my taste (I actually used to prefer elaborate sets, but these days I really lean towards the-simpler-the-better), I was disappointed (though not surprised to be) by the singing of the actors playing Elphaba and Fiyero (only because the original cast members were so amazing), and the actress who played Glinda was a terrible dancer (not that I'm one to talk... but I probably could to better than she did, which is sad). The choreography wasn't really my style (think Brittney Spears on Broadway) and the guy playing the goat couldn't bleat to save his life. But the acting was good, the costumes were great (I really liked the Emerald City costumes), and there was a little more story line than the CD suggests. I particularly liked the ending. Oh, and the wizard was pretty cool. And of course I already knew that I like the music. I do feel like they could have spent more time establishing the characters, but I guess they figure you've see Wizard of Oz and can put the rest together throughout the play. I did enjoy it and would love to see it again - preferably this time with closer seats.
That night was, of course, Danielle's 21st b-day party, which many of you were present for. The food was very yummy! I was very sad to leave my best So Cal friends, many for the last time in I don't know how long it may be.
Monday I woke up far too early in order to pack. I finally got out of the house at about 12:00 pm. Just as I was ready to drive off, my dad decided that he should probably check my fluids for me. I conceded, though I was already about two hours behind schedule. THEN, my "helpful" family accidentally dropped one of the caps inside the engine area. Oy. We literally spent at least 45 minutes just trying to locate the damn thing and then nearly half an hour more trying to retrieve it. I ended up up to my shoulder inside the engine area. I finally grasped the cap, but was concerned I wasn't going to get my arm back, LoL. I finally took off and headed up to work to drop off some videos that I had been copying for Dan. I then made a Coffee Bean run (I love you! Miss you!) and FINALLY made it to the highway at about 3:00 pm.
I rolled into Phoenix just after 7:00 pm (go me!) and stopped to attend to my car. I then proceeded to Jackie's lovely apartment, met her adorable kitty, and accompanied them to drop kitty off at a friend's house (Jackie and her boyfriend, Brian, are in Bonaire on a SCUBA trip as I type this; jerks! ;^). From there we went to My Florist, a fun little cafe, for some yummy dinner and back to Jackie's (we also stopped by Brian's apartment both ways so he could work on copying movies). I stayed up with Jackie for a bit while she packed, then endeavored to go to sleep since I calculated that I would need to leave by 6:00 am if I had any hope at all of making it to San Antonio by 9:00 pm (even that was quite a stretch!).
Sadly I was unable to sleep, so at about 3:00 am I decided to stop wasting time trying to fall asleep and just hit the road. I stopped by the gas station and ran inside to pick up a couple of things for the trip. There were a couple of creepy looking guys standing outside, so I parked far away from them and headed in. As I was approaching, one of the guys started walking towards me, eying me and warned me that, "You'd better get inside." Pretty sure he was just being an ass, but I happily obliged, nonetheless. Sadly inside there was no attendant, so I stood at the counter for a while waiting. Creepy Guy comes in and waits with me. We chatted while waiting and he eventually went out and shouted for the attendant to come help me (I'm guessing they were buddies...). Once I had paid I hightailed it for my car and headed to the freeway.
I was slightly concerned about leaving while it was still dark out because I would not be able to spot speed traps. It actually turned out to my benefit in a way, because in Az they have undercover highway patrol that are in normal looking cars. HOWEVER, in the dark I was able to see their monitors glowing inside and I was able to surmise their true nature. I quickly checked my speed and assumed that "safe" position just diagonally behind the cop. Apparently that looked rather suspicious because they soon started to slow down. Concerned that their intent was to get behind me so they might pull me over, I slipped behind them instead (smart, huh?). They flashed their lights once, then pulled all the way over the side of the road. As I suspected, once I passed they came up behind me with their lights on. I cursed and started pulling over, but, conveniently, that entailed pulling off the exit-ramp. Apparently the fact that I was willing to be pulled over was satisfying to them, because they didn't pursue me up the ramp. I breathed a huge sigh of relief and turned around. Talk about getting my adrenaline going for the trip! I continued straight through to San Antonio, stopping only for gas and lots and lots of coffee (I swear, I consumed more caffeine in that 24 hrs than I did in the entire preceding 24 days! And that's probably not an exaggeration...). Finally made it in around 6:30 pm and that's more than enough story telling.