Cattle Drive

Rumor through the grapevine (or is it cactus?) is that the Mariner content is frowned upon. Well good news for those people I didn't catch a second of the Cactus league opener as they were in Scottsdale and I have a strict Peoria only travel clause in my contract (sadly this contract still only pays me in work experience and a slight discount on Thunderbirds tickets as long as I mention Brad Adam). I did have some contact with the Mariners today so you can skip this part Ross. Apparently getting a major league player to take 3 minutes out of his day to shoot some hero shots is nearly impossible. I've never seen anyone want to get out of somewhere so fast, well maybe me when Wong and Stu reminisce about the Husky "glory" days. Dan was somehow named the director and let the power immediately go to his head by delaying the first shoot as he waited for Jussero to hand deliver his white chocolate mocha, seriously those 2 need help.

Not watching baseball meant I went with Wong, Jussero, and Dan on a story shoot that couldn't have gone any longer or more boring. Good luck editing that into a fun minute, I'd hate to be that guy. Oh wait, that's me? Damn it! At least dinner redeemed the trip.

The shoot took place at a Hotel/Timeshare/Spa/Pool/Horse Ranch/Fake Old West Village (I think that about covers it all). I'm pretty sure the main point of the story was Wong trying to score a free vaction for the family by giving this place free publicity. One of the high points was the first thing we shot, there were only 2 old people in this huge pool and we convinced them to go down the waterslide. Sure enough the guy got stuck, or better put the water didn't really push him down and it took 10 minutes for him to slowly make his way down the slide into the pool. Awesome! Up next came horse back riding for Wong, this was actually funny for the first 5 minutes. 55 minutes and less than a mile later the fun had long since galloped (or in this case slowly ambled) into the horizon. What would you expect next on this epic shoot? If you guessed hatchet tossing, pat yourself on the back. Who doesn't trust Wong throwing a sharp object? Well when his 2nd toss hit the upright holding the target, any "trust" (and I use that term real loosely) was lost. Not to be outdone Dan tried next and on his 2nd throw missed everything or just proved he has as much aim as any Vikings quarterback. Next was a lame shoot with a bull named "Stinky" that will probably never see the light of day. Finally, came a trip to the spa and Wong somehow coercing a message out of it, much to the dismay of the girls working. This paragraph was left intentionally long so you could feel my pain, thankfully February had 29 days this year as Wong needed every minute of them to finish this story.

So let's move on to happier times and in this case that would be dinner! It also leads us to the ipod song of the day "Cash, Culture, and Violence" by Rancid. Why this jaunty tune? Well dinner was at Wild Horse West who's sign advertises "Burgers, Beer, and Bait" it's near Lake Pleasant explaining the bait part. How about a picture?
This parking lot was of course gravel. With everything from trucks, to mini vans, to the pictured Harleys and ATV's. The patrons ranged from families with young kids, to bikers, to idiots (yeah, that'd be us) all sitting shoulder to shoulder feasting on delicious burgers and cheap beer. The only catch? Cash only, that's right no plastic, at least in your wallet I can't guarantee on some of the customers. In short it was the best dinner I've had in my 2 spring trainings. We didn't see any violence but I'm betting had we stayed later it might have resembled "Road House". You better believe we're going back!

Rumor has it television's Brad Adam has made his way down. But until I see him with my own 2 eyes I don't believe it.