It was 9 o’clock on a Friday night in the middle of May, and a few friends and I were sitting in our cars in a Burger King parking lot trying to think of something to do. A couple ideas were thrown out there but just as quickly discarded like candy wrappers at the movies. Then I remembered our friend Mike was attending Chico State. So I spoke up and mentioned it.
“Hey guys… we should go to Chico. Come on! We haven’t seen Mike in months and Chico’s party central...”
After some deliberation and a few phone calls, we were on our way to Chico State! Our number one priority was food and drinks. So we stopped off at a gas station to get a few snacks and some energy drinks to start our little adventure.
We were on the interstate for a good twenty minutes, music’s blaring and we’re all singing at the top of our lungs having a blast. Next thing we know there are flashing lights in the rear view mirror. I’m thinking to myself “this is just my luck… we’re fucked.” My friend pulls the car over and rolls down the window as we watch the cop’s shadowy figure walk up to the car. We get the routine license and registration spiel as he’s bending down, then I hear my friend Britny yell, “CODY
YOU ASSHOLE!” Our friend Cody is CHP (California Highway Patrol) Officer. He had just gotten off duty and saw our car, thought it would be a cute little joke to pull us over. Ha Ha very funny. We sat there and conversed for what seemed like months, finally I butted in and said, “Hate to cut your party short but… we still have 2 more hours of road to cover.” And we were off yet again.We get about half an hour away from the college and what do you know, we get lost, which was inevitable since there were four people in the car and none of us knew exactly how to get there. We drove around like tourists in San Francisco for a while and finally got back on track forty minutes later. Three and a half hours of bad alignment and ten energy drinks later we found the college. Now it was just a game of “Where’s Waldo”, we still had to find Mike and a place to park. After some minor delays, a game of phone tag and driving around in circles we finally found Mike, it was time to have a little fun.
We walked around for a few minutes watching the aftermath of party central before we bumped into a group of Mike’s friends. There were a lot of pointless introductions because once you’ve met one person you’ve already forgotten the name of the guy or girl you just met. All of us new comers were a little disappointed that it was only 12:30 and all the parties had been over for the past hour. Our stampede of people walked up to a circle of benches and out of now where a guy brings out this glass vase-like object with hoses coming out of it. I looked over at my friend with a confused look, she smiled and a girl behind me yelled, “HOOKAH!!!” I had heard of hookah but I’d never done it or seen one obviously. Someone sparks up a coal and fills the bowl with tobacco then covers it with foil. Everyone is cracking jokes and telling stories, passing the hoses around. It finally gets to me, I take a hit, and I immediately fall in love. It was like cotton candy with out the mess.
We spent about an hour at the benches telling jokes and getting high off each others energy. Slowly but surely our mob of incoherent people started to break apart. So we decided it was time to change the scenery ourselves. Mike took us on a little tour of Chico, so he took our tiny group down Main Street showing us all the little shops and diners and ended up in town square. We ran into a couple homeless folks along the way and had some rather bizarre conversations with them. Eventually we sat down and began our own conversations. Then at some point Mike and I got up and began to wrestle in the grass, and of course a cop drives by. So he’s flashing his flashlight at us, asking us what we’re doing, the usual. (Who could blame him, if it was five in the morning and you saw a guy and a girl fighting wouldn’t you pull over?) We explain ourselves and he brushes it off and goes on his way. Mean while, all of our friends are standing behind the two of us laughing like a pack of hyenas. We decide it’s time to move on, and walk a little further and end up back at the car. By this time it’s almost seven in the morning and we figure we’ve stayed long enough. So we say our good byes and get directions back home. The sun is starting to come up and my friends Sal and Colton are already passed out in the back seat by the time we get out of the parking lot. We get about an hour away from home and I’, fighting to stay awake to make sure my friend Britny stays awake because she’s driving. I have the head nods going and she’s having caffeine spins from all of the energy drinks. We dropped Sal off at home and decided to mess with Colton, who was still passed out. So we go down one of the back roads and Britny jerks the car left and right and at the same time we both yelled, “CCOOOLLLTOOOONNN!”
He jumps up and screams, “WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!?!” looks around, sees us crying from laughing so hard and says, “That’s fucked up…” and falls right back asleep like nothing happened. Britny and I looked at each other a little confused and just laughed.
We finally make it in the drive way. She and I don’t even bother to wake up the Colton in the back seat. We walked in the house and I made it to the couch and I was down for the count.
There’s nothing like a spontaneous road trip with a few good friends. Since then we have had many more, but I must say our trip to Chico
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