The Short Bus Post

Friday night Bruce and I headed out to Cocoa Beach to hang out with Henry for his birthday. Henry has a condo right on the beachfront that overlooks the ocean, and has a lovely view. We met up with him and his buddy Red, the bouncer for the Cricketer’s Arm’s pub and good friend of Henry. After presenting Henry with his various alcohol-themed birthday gifts we headed off to get some grub at Hooters. Planning on avoiding driving all that night we called up a cab- to our surprise we where greeted by a mini-school bus instead of the standard cab. It felt like we where getting on the dreaded ‘short-bus’ and was a little embarrassing clambering off the thing when we got to where we where going, but the novelty of having our own ‘tour bus’ was pretty funny. We got the guy’s name and number and called him up throughout the night as we bounced from various different bars, clubs and establishments. Red is a character for sure- and not to discount Henry and Bruce, who are pretty charismatic drinkers too- but this guy was a definite treat to go drinking with.

If I had to describe Red I’d say he’s half Mr. Clean, the other half Mr. T. He’s a huge guy draped in gold with a lit cigar behind his ear at all times; tattoos all the way up his arms and a voice that can best be described as Darth Vader with a New York accent. He told me he drank 86 beers in a 24 hour period once. Which I scoffed at (‘I’m pretty sure that you’d be 50% alcohol at that point and very dead’- was my response) but he seemed VERY serious about that fact and not happy that anyone would second guess him. Needless to say I didn’t contradict him for the rest of the night. Climbing off a short bus following him was pretty amusing, and I got some funny looks from people waiting outside the clubs as our rag-tag group stumbled from place to place. The guy was a machine though. I ended up face planting my bed a good few hours before the rest of the guys did, but even then I went to bed around 2. They stayed up till 5 apparently. We where all woken up at 6:30 by Red who demanded breakfast. I couldn’t believe it, but didn’t want to argue- so I crumbled into some clothes and we drove over to a little diner for some breakfast. I was a bit of a mess and had a throbbing hangover- my shirt was inside out which I realized half way through my omelet and my hair looked like I had been electrocuted. Pretty sure I didn’t smell too great either.

After breakfast we headed down to the beach where Red immediately started pounding Heinekens. The mere sight of which made me feel lightheaded. Bruce and I where in disbelief that these guys actually wanted to be awake, but bumbled down to the beach regardless. Henry (who apparently wakes up at 6:00 no matter what) taught me how to surf-fish in the ocean which was pretty cool. He caught a fair few feeder fish, but I unfortunately didn’t catch anything. Lazing about in the water and in the sun definitely helped get over the hangover a bit, but unfortunately the damn thing wouldn’t leave me properly until 4 o’clock-ish. After hanging out for a bit Bruce and I headed back to Orlando. Fun night out with friends for sure, if not a very taxing one. Needless to say I slept very well the following night.