Thursday 8/18/2011

We went to bed at 9:00 last night at the motel and got up at 7:00 am. That is how tired out we were. I was still thinking about going to Sea World anyway, even though my head was "swirling about", I figured get me a couple of cups of coffee and I would be good. Caleb got up and asked if we were leaving. I said no, not right away. Well, what are we doing, then?

I had asked him the day before if he wanted to go to Sea World and he definitely wanted to go. But looking at him this morning and hearing his tone of voice and "body suggestions", I figured out quickly that he was not into doing anything but going home. I brought up the subject but gave an out. He smiled and said yes, rather go home. In looking at him - I quickly assessed that going to Sea World all day long and then coming home and then - trying to go to work tomorrow probably would not be a good idea, so I said let's go - home that is!

Not much more to the trip home, I offered to let him drive and he didn't want to. No biggies, I get the trip over with much faster, lol.

A few things I didn't offer in the last entry, mostly cause' I was bone tired and didn't want to write anymore.

There is a rest area not far after you get into California. It is in the middle of the Interstate. It is desert and it is ugly. I pulled in there to go to the bathroom and another 2 vehicles worth of people also pulled in at the same time. They got out of their car and were giving me some strange looks. It was pretty weird and at least slightly uncomfortable. I went to the glorified outhouse, took care of business and came back out. They walked quickly away from my car as I came out of the restroom.

They then fixed their gaze on me. I was wondering if maybe I should have put the S&W40VE in the trunk after all. They neither looked nice or evil, it was REALLY strange. I got in the car and Caleb said they had come over and were taking pics of him and the car. ??? I sat there and looked at them. They were not from the states, I came to the conclusion after finally hearing them talking in some language I did not recognize and observing the vehicles they were in are rented. I blew it off, no aggression, just extreme curiosity. I didn't get it, but they weren't asking so we took off. That was on the way into California, not out.

The woman in the elevator. I was on my way down from the 2cd floor of the motel and got into the elevator with this black woman who was already in it. I did a triple take. This was no woman. "She" had long, black hair, painted lips, eyebrows, eyelashes, a top like a woman's and women's style jean cutoffs on - but this was no woman. This person was clearly a man by the bone structure and muscle, definitely not a woman at all. Just the curious things you see in life, I said nothing and "she" met with another - one - out in the parking lot.

People in general. There was an extremely obnoxious man on the fishing boat. I heard him talking to others - close quarters how can you not - and it was pretty disgusting talk coming from his lips. I made it a point to steer clear of him.

I did, however, get into conversations with all kinds of people on that boat. None of the people I talked to were from anywhere else, they all live in or near San Diego. Curious that there were no other vacationers there, at least I thought so. A man was smoking a cigar. I had thought about bringing one but then thought they probably don't allow smoking. Half the people there were smoking, what was I thinking? That guy came up to me and we struck a conversation. He said he had an old cigar left that was probably dry, but I was welcome to it. Yup, I even offered to pay for it, but he just handed it to me with a lighter and I enjoyed the thing. Real nice older guys on the boat, too. One of them was snagging fish left and right. They were using lures, of which I didn't have. I was using the bait on the ship. Not that I cared that much, I was there for the experience of being on a boat in the ocean, far from land. At least, far enough that you couldn't see land, besides the Coronado islands. Hardly land, but beautiful. They jut up from the ocean surface and not much a place to climb onto if the need arose, ie: sinking ship.

We were in Mexican waters at that point - and yes, you need a Mexican fishing permit. The Mexican Navy showed up. There were several other boats fishing in the same area near the islands. I thought it quite strange that a Navy was sending out rubber rafts with military, apparently, on them to ask for fishing licenses, but that they did. We saw them go to several boats, but they didn't come to us - that being the captain fired up and left. But not because of licenses, they had licenses for everyone on the ship, we paid for them in advance. It was because it was late and we HAD to get moving. It was a rather large ship that was sitting over there, still quite amazing that a Naval ship would want anything to do with checking fishing licenses.

Bird poop. I will post a couple of pics of it. The Coronado islands? Spots on them that look like snow. IN actuality, the rocks are so covered with bird droppings, they are pure white from it. A nasty thought, indeed.

Another group of young guys - 20's - started drinking at 7 (drinking beer, that is) am and did not quit the entire day. It wasn't that they were obnoxious after they got very drunk, they were still able to maintain a pleasant enough disposition. This was on the boat, fyi. I figured there would be all kinds on there and knowing in advance that beer was available, well, I knew there would be drinkers on-board. No biggies. It was what they did after they had been drinking for 11 hours straight. I saw them in the parking lot. They got into their vehicles and drove away. I wondered if they would make it to their homes okay in such a condition, behind the wheel.

In fact, a large number of people got drunk. I did not partake, neither did I want to. I take it back, my back started hurting after about 8 hours of standing at a rail that wasn't high enough to support my body, throwing my back into an awkward position and was hurting - I drank 1 beer and yes, the pain disappeared and I went back to fishing, lol. Ummm, I didn't even finish the beer now that I think about it. I got 3/4's of the way through it and that was enough.

Caleb had a problem at first - or perhaps the entire time, I don't really know, in seeing fish "die". Though, he seemed to like hauling in the 2 fish he did catch. So not sure about that. I personally have no problem gutting a fish, cutting off it's fins, filleting it and scaling it, but that's just me. As far as I'm concerned, it's meant to be consumed and by golly, I am going to consume it. I don't hold it against people who have a problem with animals dying, but I wonder what, if at anytime, goes through their head when they're eating a hamburger that a big ole' honking cow had to die for to give that person that burger? Or that Tuna fish sandwich? Or that chicken devine? Pork chops? Thanksgiving turkey? Just curious. I guess seeing the act of an animal dying, drained and gutted is a different story than seeing the end product on the supermarket shelf or the local Jack In The Box.

Driving in San Diego, I thought the drivers there to be MUCH more courteous than ANYTHING I see here. Indicator lights for changing lanes, not a lot of cutting off, no eagles. People actually moved over for faster traffic. Amazing.

What, exactly, are people doing in motel rooms all night long that they are making that much noise. The thought crossed my mind after going through that. Oh, yeah. Drug dealers, whores, all kinds of things. Perhaps just night owls. But the pounding on the floor was not that of a night owl, I wouldn't think. What, do they walk back and forth and move things around and bang things all night long, in a motel room?

Living on the beach. I thought, well, California probably not the place. The water is too cold. You wanna go in the water for any length of time, well, you are going to have to either be VERY acclimated to cold water or you are going to have to have a wet suit on. I would LOVE to retire on a beach somewhere. That's all I'm saying in musing upon things that may or may not happen in my lifetime in the future.

Well, 3 full days left of this time off. I am still thinking of going up to the mountains for a day and visiting my mom. But I ain't calling her and asking if she is going to be around until I am firmly decided on whatever morning that I am going to actually get in the car and make another drive somewhere out of town.

That's it for now. More but not necessary to go into here. I am not tired - I haven't gotten that much sleep in 1 night in quite a while, but, it's time to go to bed anyway.

ben