By kiki
It was late spring of 1972, and a bunch of us guys were, going on a camping and fishing trip to the Eastern Sierra, a journey that my brother-in-law Willie and our families had taken countless times; this trip was a guy's thing only, Willie was going, and so was his young son, Jesse. My brother Mando and my other brother-in-law Danny were also going. We were going with some other guys in a two-pickups/campers caravan. Danny had never gone camping with us before, so when I called to invite him, he quickly said yes and asked, "What do I need to bring as far as food is concerned."
"Danny, we're going to camp and fish for 3-4 days, so bring whatever you think you're going eat and drink in those 3 or 4 days," I told him.
We met at my place; Willie arrived early to help load my pickup/camper, and Mando and Danny followed soon. And since Willie cooked for our group, he was in charge of loading the food into the camper. He would get it all together and load it up so that he knew where everything would be at.
"Danny, where is your food?" Willie asked Danny
"Right here, Willie."
Willie got a small box from Danny with half a dozen eggs, half a pound of bacon, four slices of cold cuts, half a loaf of bread, a six-pack of beer, and a choice piece of rib-eye steak; Willie looked at me and shook his head.
"Danny, never mind the food, but is this all the beer you brought?"
"Well, yes"
"Watch this"
Willie drank all of Danny's beer in no time!
"Willie, you drank all my beer!" Danny cried at Willie
"Well, now you need to buy some more," Willie told Danny with a big smile.
Danny bought a case of beer!
We were heading northeast on Highway 395; we stopped at Little Lake Hotel/Bar to meet the other guys in the second pickup/camper, shoot some pool, and drink beer. In the middle of nowhere, Little Lake Hotel/Bar was a must-stop for us in those early years of going to the Eastern Sierra. Unfortunately, it has since burned down. Walking into an empty bar, Ernie, one of the guys riding in the other camper, notices an old piano in a corner and asks the barmaid if he could play it.
"Go ahead, it hasn't been played in years," the barmaid replied
Now, Ernie can play a mean Boogie Woogie, and after clearing off a few cobwebs, he played a few bars of "Buick 59" that soon had people coming out of the woodwork, all desert rats, of both genders.
After Ernie had played some tunes and we had downed some cold ones, we decided to get back on the road, but the desert rats had other ideas; they wanted Ernie to continue hitting the ivories. And Ernie was happy to oblige as long as they kept piling up the beers on top of the piano, beers that we guys would grab. Soon, the 2:00 a.m. closing time was quickly upon us, and with locked doors, we'd continued to party into the wee hours of the morning. We finally returned to the campers just as the sun was rising over the horizon. We slept till early afternoon before we got back on the highway.
We arrived at McGee Creek Campgrounds some hours later, where we made camp. Willie went inside the camper to get dinner ready for our group; Willie took longer than usual to cook dinner that evening. Finally, he opened the camper door and yelled, "Come and get it" We all got in line as Willie started passing out the plates with the grub; when Danny got his plate, he looked at it and saw a pork chop; he looked up at Willie and asked him "Willie, where's my rib-eye steak?"
Rubbing his belly Willie goes: "Yum, Yum!"
He ate Danny's rib-eye steak! That's why it took him so long to prepare dinner for the rest of us.
After dinner, while we were around the campfire drinking beer and tequila, I noticed Willie trying to chop up a good-sized log with what looked like a small Boys Scout's ax; Danny saw him too.
"Willie, what are you doing to my ax?"
"Danny here's what I think of your ax."
Willie threw Danny's ax into the fire; I thought Danny was going to have a heart attack watching the ax that he had had since he was a Boy Scout go into the fire and burn. However, Willie told me late that he had already broken the handle.
After a while, Mando and I ran out of tequila; let me say here that this was the first time drinking with my one and only brother; Mando had just returned from Vietnam, so yes, we were hanging one on. Running out of the agave, we went to the McGee Creek Lodge & Bar to get more tequila. After first refusing, the owner of the lodge/bar agreed to sell us a bottle of the agave that was a few shots short; we gave him 20 bucks for it. We then found a table to sit and drink at. Unfortunately, the owner's 15-year-old daughter would come and wipe our table clean and sneak in a shot; she got drunk, and so did we; I passed out and was dragged back to the camper, ruining my brand new cowboy boots.
When I woke up the following morning in the top bunk of the camper next to little Jesse, he was wet, and I was also wet; who pissed on who? I always wondered about that!... That camping trip was unforgettable in the annals of our travels up that famed highway, "395."
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