Chapter 4 – A Drive to Park City, Utah

I woke up the next morning after a long night with the guys playing Madden ’13 all night.  We are going on a week-long trip to Park City, Utah on the last week of June before the 4th of July.  Victor Junior’s camping at an organization that handles kids like Victor’s disability and to also enjoy the great outdoors of the Rocky Mountains of Utah.

I would say that I have never been to Utah, just know it as “Mormon Country” with all those people that believe some kind of teenage kid saw God and Jesus back in the stone-age times.

The Applegate home is on the corner of Newport Avenue and 3rd Street. It was also a two-story/duplex style home with a massive main level and a half an upstairs with two rooms and two bathrooms.

On one-half of the house, as far as the main-level of the house goes, it took most of the space of the whole entire property; which in this case was a “big house” for any houses in Long Beach. Other than the swimming/hot-tub in the back yard, from the front door as you walked in, there was a big living/family room and a dining room that seats 12 people.

Beyond the dining-room is the massive kitchen with an island counter top in the middle; it is surely fit for any master chef. And behind the kitchen is a pantry room and a full bathroom across to Victor’s own bathroom.

But on the other half of the house was Victor’s own domain. His room was on the front end of the house where it used to be a living room with no front door, but with rather, a side door to the left side of the house. The room is bigger than my room with a low-to-the-floor king size bed fit to the “T” of the room and for easy access for Victor. On the mid-section of the house is a walk-in closet but more of a sit-down room with a changing table in the middle for dressing him in the day/night and the back-end of the house was the bathroom that looks like a locker-room with tile flooring and marble counter-tops and a walk-in shower; all three rooms were connected together by a pulling/lifting system that ran down the middle of the celling.

As I was over for the night, Mike told me about his family and how they were rich but kept a humble sprit within the Family. Their Mom was 34 and his Dad was 36 when they had him. But Maggie was 36 when she had Victor Junior and with complications had made him the way he was supposed to become, as she calls it.

During which both boys were growing up in the fast lane because their Mom started school at age 17 because she graduated high school early in Long Beach. She had, had a hard life as well but she always knew who she was. Maggie also had 35-years of schooling and a career in medicine; she wasn’t only a cardiothoracic surgeon but also a professor at the Georgetown University Hospital, she had a full-ride through college and promised to never go back to the old ways of growing up. In the end that is where she met Victor Sr. the love of her life because she was also working at a bar called the Ice Box, there in Washington D.C.

On the other hand, Victor Sr. who Victor Junior is name after is from Montreal, Canada and came to the US for school when he was 18. His families are of a French descendant from his mother’s side and moved to Canada when his Mother was 13 years old. His parents were smart people too and lived in Montreal until he went to college. From there, Victor Sr. became a businessman and held an executive position at General Electric for 36 years. He also has a Doctorate degree in International Business from George Washington University, where he met Maggie while he used to go to grab a drink at the same time she worked after school.

Now Victor is an Ambassador for Canada and they now reside in New York City while he works at the United Nations. After only a few months of retiring, at an early age of 54, the Canadian President wanted Victor Sr. to seek service in the UN and that is where they have been. Both boys didn’t like leaving Cali and their high school friends, so they convinced both parents to let them stay. As for Maggie, she still teaches now at New York University and still does surgeries from time-to-time at an age of 52.

Back at home, as I got up from the living-room floor to go pee, I noticed while passing Victor Junior’s room that the light was on and knew that he had a nurse that comes in every day to get him ready. As I went into the bathroom across from Victor’s bathroom, I noticed the double doors to the bathroom was open and as I was about to walk in and close the door behind me, I saw a cute girl nurse, that seemed about 24 years old, giving Victor a shower.

Victor then noticed me and with that look, he smiled from ear-to-ear. I could tell by reading his young 16-year old mind of his that he was enjoying every minute of it. Besides what guy wouldn’t like to have a cute girl nurse like that showering your chair-sitting-butt of yours every day; then of course my butt would love that too! And with that, I closed the door behind me and went on doing my own business to get ready for the day.

By 8:00am, I had come out of the shower to get my duffle bag of my stuff from the dining room and to my surprise there she was, in the kitchen making Victor Junior breakfast.

I stood there with just my towel around my waist and my still wet blonde wavy hair, as I was waiting for something to happen.

She spoke first, saying: “What’s your name?”

“Derek!” I told her with a blush face. I was not looking too good and for a split second, I rushed and got my bag, from the dining room; I then hurried my butt back and said: “Nice to meet you!” with the quickness to the bathroom before my towel fell.

“I’m Jennet Long!” she said as I was closing the door behind me.

Victor Junior then came through the door as I was dressing and with a smile on his face, said that I looked like a dog, ready to get some. I told him that he was a pervert. He then said: “If only I could have that dream that most guys have of beautiful girls showering them…oh wait, I have that…every morning!” And with a laugh, he rolled out to the dining room ready to eat.

By 8:35am, I went to the kitchen to make something to eat. Mike had been awake since 6:00am, and had just gotten back from filling up the Victor’s van to get ready for the long drive to Utah. I asked him who else was going. Mike said that it would be: Luke, Mary-Ann, Andrew, Michael, and I. Jennet was coming along too, not only because she was Victor’s nurse but because she was a volunteer worker over at the organization as well.

As we were loading up to get ready to go, I wanted to ride with Luke and Mary-Ann but to my surprise Mary-Ann had brought more than was needed for the trip. She packed for a week wardrobe of camping, shopping in Park City, swimming, hiking, and dinner reservations for their two-year anniversary of being a boyfriend/girlfriend couple that Luke prepared for months in advance and of course they wanted the car to themselves without anyone else. Go figure!

We all piled into Victor’s seventeen-passenger bus; it was of course styled out to the “T” with all the amenities of living like a king. This blacked-out paint job ride had all the windows; it also was decked-out with its own wheelchair lift at the back end of the bus. Inside from the back it had a place for Victor to park his chair; from there it had a cherry-oak wood table beside him. He had his 17” MacBook and a table on the other side, each had its own place carved into the table and was controlled by an up/down button so Victor could set at a height he wanted.

From where Victor was sitting there was a two-bench chair in front of him that seated at least six to seven people but both benches was taken over by Andrew and Michael. So I took the lazy-boy chair right behind Mike and Jennet took the passenger seat.

By 9:00am on a nice Sunday, we were headed off to Las Vegas, which was a four-hour drive.

As we were driving, we were all doing something to keep our minds busy: Mike was listening to iTunes on his iPod; Jennet was checking her emails on her Dell; I was on my Mac watching episodes of the “Walking Dead”; Andrew was watching “Simpsons”; Michael was playing a game; while Victor was listening to iTunes and was reclined back in his power-chair sleeping.

Two hours into the drive Andrew and I were talking about our lives and growing up in LBC. I found out that Uncle Jay adopted him when he was eight years old because both of his parents were killed by a drunk driver and since then has been taking care of him. I also learned that Andrew is a year older than me at 19.  And that he is half French from his Mother’s side and his Dad was related to us.

At the third hour of driving, Luke and Mary-Ann called us and said they wanted to pass us, so they could stop in and do some shopping before we move onto Park City. We then heard Victor laughing his head off as he looked over. We were wondering why he was laughing, they caught up to where I was sitting and I couldn’t believe my eyes as they passed and the blackout window of Mary-Ann was rolled down. I notice that Luke was driving with no shorts but had boxers on. I guess when you’re driving in nice leather seats all you need are your boxers on. That’s when Michael said: “That’s probably because Mary-Ann gave him ‘something’ while on the drive”.

By 1:35pm, we reached Vegas. We went to the Sinclair gas station that was outside of the city before heading onto the strip. We got out to stretch and took a brief bathroom break while Mike was filling the bus.

As I was helping hold up Victor Junior to pee in the bathroom, three guys walked in and saw a brown butt and me holding him up. It took Victor a while because of his shyness, but then Andrew noticed this and decided to stand beside us and with that his pants and boxers were pulled down to his ankles. He didn’t have a care in a world and stood there with his sexy butt hanging out; within minutes we were out the door.

We called Luke and Mary-Ann to see where they were and were told that they parked at the Harley Davidson Café and walked across the street to Planet Hollywood Casino and Hotel to look around.

As we drove onto the strip passing Mandalay Bay, I was in awe to see a city such as this. I had never been to Las Vegas or on the strip except for the Las Vegas Airport once. As we got to the café and parked we got out to see what we could do because we were all under 21 and couldn’t gamble.

As we walked across the street, we were handed cards and on them were numbers to your “choice” of getting it on with a lady of your dreams and with that I threw them away because STDs and HIV/AIDS weren’t what I wanted in me. As we got into Planet Hollywood we met up with the dating duo and yes, Luke had pants on.

We decided to walk around the strip while the two “love birds” went off to do some shopping. We began to walk North while passing and dropping off Luke and Mary-Ann at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, we proceeded on passing Paris, while stopping by The Bellagio to look at their pond as it was playing Frank Sinatra’s own “Come Fly With Me”, we then went on to pass Bally’s, Flamingo, Caesars Palace, Imperial Palace, and Harrah’s Las Vegas until we got to The Mirage; all of which were on Las Vegas Boulevard.

As we got to the Harley Davidson Café and walked in it was already 2:45pm. We were hungry and decided to drive over to Gold Coast Ports O' Call for all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet for only eight dollars each. The place wasn’t that far and it was five minutes west from where we were and was on Flamingo Drive and Hugh Hefner/Golden Coast Drive.

As we got there, we noticed that it was by The Palms at Las Vegas. In the building we had to pass all the slot machines and tables because the restaurant was on the other end of the building from where we came in which was typical of all casinos in and around Vegas. As we were walking through the floor, we could smell the aroma of Chinese food from afar and before we knew it, we were there waiting in line.

After which, we all met up with Luke and Mary-Ann as they joined in on the fun. And by 5:25pm we were full to the rim and made a pit stop for the bathroom before we headed back onto I-15 East. As my eyes shut I was in dream-world listening to some tunes from my iPod as we drove on for another eight hours to the next and last stop: Park City, Utah.

Written by: Junior F.

Edited by: Alexa G.