The Colorado Trip
Have you ever seen the movie 'The Three
Amigos'? If you haven't, don't, because it sucks. But it is funny if you watch it with the right
crowd. This means anybody who can recite at least 90% of the lines, and do the buttercup dance. More
specifically, this means either Jolene or Janette. (Yes, the same Janette of the
aluminum fame.) For some odd reason, it's their favorite movie. Janette owns a DVD,
and Jolene mysteriously "acquired" a VHS copy from the local Citgo station. She has some long winded
justification for it, but either way she's guilty.
Anyway, we were sitting around Jolene's townhouse one night watching the movie. It ended, and everyone
left except for the three of us (me and the J's). We were sitting around being us, quoting lines
from the movie and talking about the upcoming summer. Janette would be marching with Spirit once again,
I would be painting, and Jolene had no plans. We'd often talked about going on a road trip somewhere,
but we could never decide on destination. Once again the conversation drifted that direction. But this
time it was different. This time, Janette had a destination proposition. 'Hey, you guys should come
out to Denver in August, watch Finals and then drive me home.' We laughed and said 'Sure!' and started
quoting more movie lines. But the seed had been planted.
A few weeks later, we were eating lunch and the subject came up again. Janette asked if we had been
serious when we said we would do it. I thought about it and decided that I had been. For some reason,
it was was never fully established, planned, or decided until about a week before we actually left. This
is actually rather typical for us. Since the next few months are extremely awkward, boring and
unimportant, lets skip straight to August.
Actually, this was important, and it happened in May, so skip back for a second. The plan was to drive
out, see the show, then drive back, this time with Janette, b/c after Finals she would be done and
have to come home anyway. At the time, Jolene didn't have a license so she wouldn't be able to help
with the driving. We needed a 3rd person. (4th, if you count Janette) We had someone in mind: Caelin.
She'd marched Drum Corps before, she was fun, and would totally be up for a trip across the country.
Unfortunately she had a family reunion that weekend and couldn't get out of it. After a few weeks
of asking around, we found Courtney. She was from Michigan, knew Janette from freshman year and was the
roommate of a mutual friend. It was good enough for us. Regardless of the fact that neither Jolene
nor I had ever met her, we signed her up and counted her in.
To Continue Skipping Straight to August, Click Here
