TheBanyanTree: The 2400 mile Pepsi Trek

[Monique]

This came in my email this morning. It's a good story.

Monique Colver
Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Stew Young" <youngmarketing at gmail.com>
> Date: September 5, 2011 8:17:17 AM PDT
> To: <monique.colver at gmail.com>
> Subject: Part 1 of the 2400 mile Pepsi Trek
> 

> Part 1 of the 2400 mile Pepsi Trek
>  
> Remember about 15 years or so ago, Pepsi came out with Crystal Pepsi? Well, my friends and I were eager to get our hands on some, but at the time it was only being test marketed in Texas, Florida, and Colorado. We lived around Sacramento, CA. So of course this meant… ROAD TRIP.
>  
> Part 2 of the 2400 mile Pepsi Trek
>  
> So my friend Jake and I decided that we could drive my truck from Sacramento, CA to Denver, CO to pick up a few cases of Crystal Pepsi to bring to the thirsty peoples of Yuba City, CA.
>  
> We geared up, with beef jerky, a large salami, and a few bottles of some putrid tasting sports drink. (We thought we were being so clever: Buy the cheap sports drink and save money to buy more Crystal Pepsi with! We should have stuck with Gatorade.) We loaded our snacks and some ice into an ice chest and secured it in the bed of my pick up.  We hit the road early on a Monday morning. The weather was nice (it was the end of April), and the roads were clear. The first few hours were uneventful, and we made it to Reno, NV in good time.
>  
> Part 3 of the 2400 mile Pepsi Trek.
>  
> I had just turned 21, and I wasn’t going to stop in Reno with out doing a little gambling. Around 10am on a Monday, the casinos aren’t very crowded so we made our way to a roulette table, and it only took a few minutes to figure out that gambling wasn’t our thing. The money that we had saved to buy the cheap sports drink was now gone, so we thought it’d be best if we made tracks.
>  
> Our next stop was for lunch in Winnemucca, NV. No real reason to stop in Winnemucca. It’s just a fun city to say you’ve been to, because it is indeed the middle of no where. We ate light, because having to find a bathroom between Winnemucca and where ever didn’t sound like it would be all that easy. And so, we continued east.
>  
> Part 4 of the 2400 mile trek for Pepsi
>  
> If you’ve ever driven through Salt Lake City, you know that it’s almost always under construction somewhere. When we went through, the main interstate west of the city was being worked on. I think it took us a good two hours to wind our way through only a few miles. By the time we hit the heart of SLC, it was early evening.
>  
> We were hungry and tired. Fortunately there was a Motel 6 right next to a McDonalds. Luckily, the Motel 6 had vacancies, and we grabbed a room and walked over the Mickey Dees.
>  
> I don’t know if it was because I had just been looking at Salt Flats for the better part of the afternoon, but that Quarter Pounder with Cheese was one of the saltiest hamburgers I had ever had. Jake agreed that his hamburger was also saltier than usual. But it was nourishment.  So we went back to the Motel 6 and crashed.
>  
> Part 5 of the 2400 mile trek for Pepsi
>  
> We slept good in Salt Lake City – which would be the last time we slept well for awhile. We hit the road around 7:30 am, thinking we’d leave early to miss most of the rush hour traffic in Salt Lake City. It was a good plan, and one that actually worked for the most part. Getting out of SLC wasn’t too bad.
>  
> About an hour and half or so into our drive, we decided that it was (a) time for gas, and (b) time for breakfast. I pulled off into a little city just inside Wyoming. I think it may have been Evanston, but I’m not quite sure.
>  
> As we drove around town looking for a gas station, we spied this little diner off the main road called The Outpost. It didn’t really look all that good, so we continued looking for a more chain-style restaurant. We found a Circle K for our gas needs, and after we filled up we asked the clerk if there was a good place for breakfast around. Of course, she pointed us to The Outpost.
>  
> And that’s when things got interesting.
>  
> Part 6 of the 2400 mile trek for Pepsi
>  
> So there we are – Jake and I – in the middle of nowhere Wyoming, looking for a place for breakfast. The Outpost, which we had deemed as being too “red neck” for us was recommended as the best place in town. And the next town was a few hours away, according to the map.
>  
> So we ventured to the restaurant. The first thing we notice is there’s not a single car in the parking lot. Oh, the parking lot was full…full of large pickup trucks. Chevies, Fords, Dodges. All American made trucks, all with large 4x4 tires, and rifle racks. My little four cylinder Mazda pick up stood out like a sore thumb.
>  
> We opened the saloon style doors to the restaurant, and instantly everything went dead silent. Now is probably a good time to describe Jake and myself.
>  
> Jake’s 6 foot 2, 180 pounds. He has brown hair down to his butt. He’s wearing a “Megadeth” T-shirt, a flannel shirt on top of that, and blue jeans. I’m 6’3, about 280, wearing gray sweats and a blue t-shirt. My hair is cut short on the right side, and long on the left side, tied into a pony tail that’s been dyed bright red. One of the customers finally breaks the silence and says, “Look! It’s one of them there MTV type fellows.” I’ve never felt like the center of attention as much in my whole life.
>  
> Part 7 of the 2400 mile trek for Pepsi
>  
> So there we were getting laughed at in the restaurant. We were definitely outside of our element, but we were hungry. The waitress laughed at us as she showed us to our table. This was the local hangout, and the locals all wore denim and flannel and had their hair cut short. We were strangers in a strange land.
>  
> But, we ordered breakfast. It was one of those places, where, if we lived to tell about it, we knew we’d have a pretty good breakfast. I can’t remember now what all we ordered, but I do remember it being one of the best dang breakfast meals I ever had.
>  
> Jake and I were able to get out of there intact, and we hit the road and made tracks.
>  
> It wasn’t long before I saw what looked to be a giant hill that we would have to climb, and the little four cylinder engine in my Mazda was starting to struggle so I mashed the foot down on the gas and soon we were doing 75.
>  
> It wasn’t more than a minute that I saw flashing lights in my rear view mirror, and I was being pulled over by a Wyoming State Trooper.
>  
> Part 8 of the 2400 mile trek for Pepsi.
>  
> So, Jake and I are sitting there in the middle of nowhere Wyoming on the side of the interstate when the Wyoming State Trooper comes up to my window.
>  
> “What’s the hurry, boys?” he asks.
>  
> “Well, that hill in front of looks pretty ominous. I thought I’d need some speed to get over it,” I explain.
>  
> “You were doing 75 in a 65 zone, don’t ya know.”
>  
> “Yes, sir.”
>  
> “And you’re from out of state.”
>  
> Then it registered in my brain: He didn’t catch a speeder, he caught a Californian.
>  
> “It’s a $75 fine, boys.”
>  
> Now I wasn’t a world traveler at the time. I didn’t think too much of it. I pulled out three 20s, a 10, and a 5, and handed it to the trooper and he gave me a receipt. However, after thinking about it for the past few years, it occurred to me – in California, you don’t pay the ticketing officer at the scene of the crime. You mail in your check to the court at a later date. What would have happened if I hadn’t paid at the time of the ticketing? I guess I’ll never know.
>  
> Part 9 of the 2400 mile trek for Pepsi
>  
> So we paid the fine, and continued on our way…as it turned out, the hill wasn’t quite as large as I first guessed it to be, and it was a pretty gentle climb. But I thought, “Dang, that $75 is really going to cut into how much Pepsi we could buy.” But I needn’t of worried. Jake had brought extra cash.
>  
> The rest of the trip to Denver was pretty uneventful. The climb into the Rocky Mountains was a bit of a struggle for my little truck, but my superior driving abilities proved enough to tackle the mountain range.
>  
> We pulled into Aurora, Colorado, a suburb of Denver, and we spotted it – a 7-11 that advertised they had the long sought after Crystal Pepsi! We pulled into the 7-11 and made a dash into the store
>  
> Part 10 of the 2400 mile trek for Pepsi.
>  
> We had found it! The magical elixir that had taken us from Yuba City, CA to Aurora, Colorado was finally found in a little 7-11 store.
>  
> We dashed in and purchased a two litter bottle. (We figured 7-11 was too expensive of a place to buy cases of the drink.) We popped back into my car, and Jake took the first sip. “Dude! It’s Pepsi!” he exclaimed after taking a sip, followed by several chugs. He handed the bottle back to me and I took a swig. Yes! As advertised it was Pepsi, but in a clear form! But there was something a little troubling. There was sort of a citrus after taste. I hadn’t expected that, but wasn’t going to say anything to ruin our triumphant discovery of Crystal Pepsi.
>  
> But now we had to find cases of the stuff, and return home safely. Our mission was yet to be completed.
>  
> Part 11 of the 2400 mile trek for Pepsi
>  
> Jake and I found a Safeway store just outside of Denver, Co, and we popped in and saw cases and cases of Crystal Pepsi. This is where we’d stake our claim. We bought 8 cases of the beverage and stowed them in the bed of the pickup and wrapped a tarp around them and tied it down. It was a good thing too, because it was starting to rain.
> After our ordeal in Wyoming, we decided the best route back would be through the middle of Colorado and Utah, on I-70. We’d been driving since early this morning when we left Salt Lake City. It was now creeping up to 5pm, and we figured we’d drive til we got tired.
>  
> Too bad we got tired in a really spooky place…
>  
>  
> Part 12 of the 2400 mile trek for Pepsi
>  
> It was getting close to midnight and we had been on the road for about 18 hours. I was starting to get a little blurry eyed and fortunately found a city – Green River, Utah.
>  
> The first motel we passed didn’t have any vacancies. The second motel we passed didn’t have any vacancies. And I was starting to get a little concerned. Central Utah is a pretty desolate place, and I wasn’t sure how far away the next town was.
>  
> Then we spied this fairly good sized motel, and the sign indicated that they had some rooms for rent. We pulled into the parking lot and stretched our legs and headed to the office for one of our more interesting experiences….
>  
> Part 13 of the 2400 mile trek for Pepsi
>  
> So we walk into the lobby of the Bookcliff Lodge in Green River, Utah, and the first thing we notice is there are kids playing in the lobby. There’s one boy, pre-teen, laying on the couch sleeping. There are two 6 or 7 year olds playing with some toy in the corner of the room, and an older girl watching TV. We walked up to the desk and asked for a room with two beds and we were told that our room was in building D…which was down a walk way and up a flight of stairs.
>  
> I parked the truck in the parking lot, near where I thought the building was. It turned out it was about another 1/8 of a mile walk from the parking lot. During the walk I asked Jake, “Did that lobby just kind of creep you out?” He responded, “Dude, this whole place creeps me out.”
>  
> We found our building and climbed the stairs. What I saw next is just too hard to describe.
>  
> It was the carpeting.
>  
> It was red.
>  
> It was blood red.
>  
> It was shag.
>  
> My first immediate thought went to that scene in the “Shining” when the blood pours out of the elevator, turning the whole hall way red.
>  
> It was like that.
>  
> It was like stained with the blood of hundreds of visitors who were stabbed and left to bleed to death on the floor.
>  
>  
> As ghastly as that carpet was, it was no match for what we would see next in our room.
>  
> Part 14 of the 2400 mile trek for Pepsi
>  
> We were scared. This motel that we had found was really creeping the two of us out. And as we opened the door we saw more of the blood red, shag carpeting, but to make matters worse, the bed spreads were the brightest shade of orange we’d ever seen.
>  
> The room was dark, but these orange bed spreads practically glowed in the dark.
>  
> We turned on a light switch – nothing.
>  
> We found another lamp – nothing.
>  
> We turned on the light in the bathroom – that one worked. But it didn’t help much. The room was now dimly lit casting weird shadows across the room.
>  
> But it didn’t matter… we were tired… we were hungry… we just wanted to get some sleep and get out of there as early as possible in the morning.
>  
> And then the wolves started baying….
>  
> Part 15 of the 2400 mile trek for Pepsi
>  
> We were tired and we were hungry. Remember that salami that we bought before the trip and put in the ice chest? Well, now was the time to eat it. But of course it had been sitting in melted ice water for the past day, and was a little icky.
>  
> I took a knife and carved off a hunk and tried eating it, but the texture had gotten too weird. Jake took a hunk, and he agreed that it was inedible. So while he got ready for bed, I took chunks of the salami, opened the window (which didn’t have a screen) and threw them out side in the direction of the howling wolves.
>  
> It wasn’t long before I saw two or three dark streaks run from the wooded area into the parking lot where the salami had landed, and rush back into the wooded area. I thought, “great! we’re going to die in this place tonight.”
>  
> We hit the sack and slept restlessly for a few hours…
>  
> Part 16 of the 2400 mile trek for Pepsi.
>  
>  
> Dawn didn’t come quick enough for us. But what it brought was the realization that this room was even more hideous than we could have ever imagined. The red carpeting, the orange bed spreads, and the walls were in done in some type of pink and white stripes.
>  
> We left quickly and hit the road…it was about 900 miles to Yuba City, CA and I was determined to make it in one day….
>  
> Part 17 of the 2400 mile trek for Pepsi
>  
> Driving through Utah is a very pleasurable experience – if you don’t have car trouble. Fortunately most of our troubles were behind us. We just had 900 miles to go.
>  
> We stopped in some little city in Utah for breakfast. A place I believe was called, “Moms”, and Jake and I thought, “How bad could it be. We survived the Outpost, we can certainly survive “Mom’s” “.
>  
> And sure enough we did. Mom gave us large biscuits with some really good gravy, and really strong coffee. We ate our fill and headed back on the road…
>  
> And drove…
>  
> And drove…
>  
> And drove…
>  
> Part 18 of the 2400 mile trek for Pepsi
>  
> And drove…
>  
> And drove…
>  
> And drove…
>  
> Part 19 of the 2400 mile trek for Pepsi
>  
> We went through Reno without stopping this time. It was about midnight, and we still had about another two hours to go to get home. And I was getting very sleepy.
>  
> Jake knew this so he kept talking about his family, keeping me awake. Which was a good thing, because there are parts of the trip from Reno to Yuba City, Ca that I really don’t remember. And this is a curvy mountain road.
>  
> I started pinching my arms to get the adrenaline flowing from the pain to keep me awake. We stopped for hot coffee some place, and the extra jolt of caffeine helped a little. But I swear that my guardian angel drove for a bit because I’m sure I nodded off a couple of times.
>  
> We made it back to Yuba City unscathed. I dropped Jake off at his house a little after 2am. We agreed that we’d meet back up the next day and divide up the Crystal Pepsi.
>  
> I got home and collapsed into bed – mission accomplished.
>  
> So Jake and I got together the next day and divided up the Crystal Pepsi and went to visit our friends at the local pizza hang out. Our friends all tried a can and the reaction was mixed. Some thought it was the next great thing for Pepsi, others thought it tasted like 7-Up.
>  
> Over the months and years, Jake and I agreed that it was as much like Pepsi as we fooled ourselves into believing when we first tasted it. And it wasn’t too long after that that Pepsi discontinued Crystal Pepsi.
>  
> But we still have the memories of a classic road trip, and I think Jake still even has a 6-pack of Crystal Pepsi unopened, waiting for the day to sell it on eBay.
>  
> The end.
>