Ride Board: Cal Bears Beat Bush Round III - Archived Entry

Driven by a shared desire to get Bush out of office, the whole lot of us drove way the hell out to a quaint town called Reno. Aside from a few episodes of Comedy Central's Reno 911, I was ignorant to the Nevadan city that would prove to be the home of a quite hospitable bunch of characters. While my official job was to energize the voters and hopefully get them to the polls, I found that simply discussing the voters' situations and listening to their tirades about bush produced a grand o' time.

Though a bit timid initially (as this is the first time I had ever done something like this), the very first door I knocked upon erased any worries I had for the day. My now good chum Darlene answered the door to the yapping of her wiener dog, whom she swore would not bite me. After being introduced to her roommate Mabel, I explained to them the purpose of Driving Votes. Darlene was quite excited by the notion that we would drive her to the polling station and requested we pick them up on election day, as I believe they see what many take for granted as a special outing. When leaving I was asked whether I wanted her small dog to accompany me on my quest to wrangle up some democratic voters, alas I declined and trudged on down Desert Peach Drive.

Despite the fact that I was mostly unsuccessful to persuade anyone to vote that first day, I feel my trip to Sparks (a suburb of Reno) was well worth the 6 hour round trip. Though I regret being out of town for Cal's homecoming victory over UCLA, I can now say that I was chased out of a cul 'de sac by a seven-year-old girl sporting vampire fangs; one more thing off my list to do before I die. From the long drives filled with discussions on bush's domestic doublespeak (clean sky's initiative, no child left behind, etc.), to kicking back with a Sparks man while he drank a Corona and told me of his plans for the future, the trip was a lot of fun.
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Travis Johnston, Berkeley, CA