random vacation events

departure time scheduled midnight; departed office 1:30 -- like the nation's flag carrier 'plane always late'? then again, the dynamics of individuals being what it is, it can be a minor miracle if plans start off without some sort of hitch.

especially for such a plan as very little planning at all. the only constants were the fuzzy destination of pangasinan (a province i'm almost sure i'd never visited before) and the route we would take -- edsa to the new north tollway beginning to end through tarlac of the cojuangcos (cory et al) to the goal at the end of a rainbow (well, not quite).

the final roster was not effectively known until the eleventh hour (literally).

and so the black and white company set forth northwards. south expressway to edsa, quite uneventful (which is always good). the mazda3 is a very nice car to be in. wish i had one.

edsa to north expressway (now privately operated, with tolls perhaps fit for a first-world nation to boot. then again, ever were the lopezes wont to stick it to the common man). the upside is that it is quite an improvement over memories of the previous state. now if it only went further than it does at present...

first pitstop at the shell complex on the northward lane. cinnabon and coffee for me and louie, and the others went to kfc, as i recall.

thence to the end of the expressway -- a much shorter trip than memory serves up. oddly enough. either that or people really drive like the blazes on the tollway these days.

after the end of that particular private road, i get completely lost. the pilot of the black mazda3 is now only following the four round taillights of the white civic ahead (the car of the production manager, piloted by her significant other). its a good a time as any to memorize the license plate of the lead car...

...to while away the time, louie had many tales to tell -- of particular interest was the one about a charlatan's effects on a barkada. life indeed can be stranger than fiction.

however, there came a point when the pilots of the cars could not resist the call of the sandman much longer. at the first opportunity, the company stopped at a gas station and parked; and most went to sleep. i could not, seeing as the cinnabon coffee was still at work.

sunrise saw us still at the gas station, and then we proceeded onwards.

somewhere on the road, i saw a sign. the name escapes me now, but the rest of the text certainly remains: "...and his dynamic orchestra." hmm. it struck me that the sign was affixed to the gate of a fairly sized house. hard to imagine a dynamic orchestra in there. we were going a mite too fast for me to read the rest of the text. maybe next time.

onward, onward...

...and got lost. we took a turn just one corner shy of the proper turn (a left; we took a right). it was a while before the lead car noticed something unfamiliar about the locale and inquired of a local... so a u-turn was made, and off we went again, to the unusual strains of biblical passages set to a moaning cadence on some local am station. some time later, that station fell to silence, and the radio was tuned to a talk show where the host had a wierd habit of hitting something, and not a drum, to punctuate his commentary. very strange. but not so strange as one comment made: 'si hudas, hinudas si hesus.' well, what else could he do, being the namesake, the progenitor of such an act?

back to the main road, left turn, and more turns out of memory, and we came upon our dwelling for the course of the trip. i suppose it could be called the 'dagupan garden/village hotel,' as it had both names, one on top of each other, on the entry sign.

so that's where we were. dagupan. memory attaches the name to a rather severe earthquake in a previous decade, and yes, indeed they had had one.

we were shown to room eleven, just across an entrance to the coffee shop.

the coffee shop, now there's a tale. but for another day.