Hey buddies!
It's been long...I apologize. I'm in the midst of 22 straight work days essentially...this is my 21st day. Anyway, I figured it was time for the next California update...chapter #3.
Day #3 started off with DONUTS…well for three of us at least. Fernando was too busy running…loser. Anyway, we were heading over to visit Sean Bishop. What a dynamite guy…just one of the nicest people you could ever meet. He was super cool to us all, just as he had been to my buddy Matt and I last year. Another super cool dude was over at his place working on prop stuff…so a big shout out goes to you as well, Doug. We sat around and shot the crap for quite a while. For those of you who aren’t aware, Sean has a beautiful Ecto as well:
So pretty…this was the second Ecto-1 we were seeing in 2 days. Sean showed us plenty of his other goodies and then we decided to go get food. Our destination: ROSCOE’S CHICKEN AND WAFFLES (VISIT #2, BABY!). Yes, it was good, but they didn’t have any French fries, and apparently it would have taken at least an hour to make them (I guess they had to grow the potatoes). This is what Sean gets for not ordering waffles like normal people…shame on you, Sean. We went back to Sean’s and hung out for a bit longer before heading out to visit Doc Brown’s 1955 house from ‘Back to the Future’ aka The Gamble House.
The garage is still there too. No, there was no time machine in it…bummer. From here we went to go search for some ice cream and ended up at the Stick Station. It was a hipster ice cream place. Fernando was introduced to hazelnut flavoring and the world is now a better place. Jonny wo
wed us all by explaining why there is no grape-flavored ice cream, and we went back to the hotel, and eventually day #3 came to an end.
Day #4’s agenda included a trip to Sony Pictures for the backlot studio tour, and Roger (the guy working on my car) joined us. His 63rd birthday actually fell on day#3 of our trip, so the tour was just the first part of our celebration. The home of Sony Pictures is really cool. If you stroll around the lobby, you may run into a few things you recognize…
They have some other screen-used items on display, and at one point they had another proton pack and one of Dan Aykroyd’s GBII suits on display, but those have been taken back to the archives to avoid any further sun-damage (and to hide it from some untrustworthy fans).
The tour started and we crossed paths with this beauty:
That is the screen-used Ecto-1. It looks good from a distance, but once you get close, you can see how she’s in need of another restoration (and hopefully a good one for once…if she gets another, that is). We had a few minutes to snap a bunch of photos, and because of my first trip to CA, I knew we’d be able to return to the car as it was right across from the Sony gift shop (convenient how the tour concludes with a 15 minute stop at the gift store…hmm).
The rest of the tour was cool. We saw one of the guys who is in a number of Adam Sandler’s movies (Allen Covert) and Bryan Cranston’s car (sadly, he was in his office and we didn’t get to meet him). We finished up the tour and then it was time for the next part of our birthday celebration: ROSCOE’S CHICKEN AND WAFFLES VISIT #3. Yes, we ate there three times in 4 days…and it was still just as awesome.
That night, Fernando had an awesome idea of going to get food at this place called Saddle Ranch (on the Sunset Strip). This place was really, really cool. Plenty of good-looking women, decent music, decent food, and a mechanical bull = a good time, for some. Jonny was very clear the moment we got there that he was brave enough to ride the mechanical bull, and, being a good sport, Fernando said he would too. Both of them required some alcohol to get ready for the tournament…yes, tournament. Every night, this place recruits around 10 people to ride the bull in competition (whoever holds on the longest in the last round wins). 8 people took part in the competition this night.
The first round was like a warm-up. The second round was pretty much for entertainment…if the rider agreed to ride the bull on the “hard” setting, they automatically advanced to the next and final round. Both Jonny and Fernando strategically agreed to ride on the “hard” setting to assure they’d advance to the final round. This was an intelligent decision, or was it?
Fernando actually finished in second place…missing first place by less than 2 seconds. If he had just held on a bit longer, we would’ve gotten a free meal. Nice going, Fernando. Day #4 of our trip was complete.