Pamwatch : Articles : A Trip to Baywatch pt.1

February of 1996 was a cold month in Calgary. There was snow all around and the average temperature was around -20 Celsius. When we were invited down to the sets of Baywatch and Baywatch Nights, we wasted no time and made travel arrangements!

Myself (Jay Irvine) and my business partner (Mark Mooney) left at about 11:30 pm (MST) on a Friday evening with hopes of driving straight through to California. An estimated 24 hour drive. Between the two of us, we figured it would be no problem. The following picture-diary is an account of that trip.

Our adventure began with a rather boring drive down to the Canada - United States border. "Coutts Crossing" as it's known to the locals because it resides in a small town called Coutts. Usually when you go to the border, they ask you if you have anything to declare, meaning... are you bringing anything you shouldn't be into our country?. Then they ask you how long you're staying, where you're going and what your business is in their country. 99% of the time, you get in and out of customs inside 10 minutes. This time was the exception, the 1% that we dreaded.

United States customs wanted to know EVERYTHING about us, what our business in the U.S. was, why we were traveling at that time of night.. you name it, they wanted to know it! When we declared our computer equipment, a Apple Powerbook 190cs and a Kodak Digital Camera (DC50), they wanted to see receipts and we had to use a broker so they knew we wouldn't sell the equipment in the U.S.. Of course, the broker cost us quite a bit of money. After all, the total value of the equipment we went in with was close to $8000.00!

Once out of Coutts, traveling on interstate 15, we entered Montana. This picture was actually taken on the way back, but it's still shows the beauty of Montana. The great thing about this state is that there is NO speed limit there. In other words, if your vehicle can travel at high speeds, this is the state for you! After Montana, if memory serves correct, we entered Idaho. This was easily one of the quietest states I'd ever encountered. Mind you, we WERE traveling while it was still dark so you couldn't see much. We did however run out of gas near Idaho Falls. We ended up sleeping outside in the truck because nothing was open. This little town we'd found ourselves in, just outside Idaho Falls... was definitely a God fearing town. There was a HUGE illuminated cross stuck in the side of a hill, overlooking the town. It was pitch black, all except this cross. It was one of those things that makes you think you're in a Stephen King novel or something...

Utah came next in what would later be called "The Trip". I expected Utah to be very clean, very biblical.. I am not sure why, I think it has something to do with the fact that the Mormon Religion calls Utah it's home base. What we found was the complete opposite. No offense if you live there, I am sure you're real happy and granted, we did not see ALL of the state. Who knows.. maybe we just passed through the dirtier areas. There was this "smog" that seemed to hang about everywhere, and the traffic.... sheesh... who would have expected the I-15 to have gridlock!? There were industrial plants all over the place while traveling through Salt Lake City and we even saw a federal jail not more than 300 yards from the interstate! Correct me if that seems normal to you. Like I said, I am sure Utah has it's great sections... just we didn't see any of them.

I don't know about you but Arizona has got to be one of the coolest states in the U.S.! The sunsets are amazing.. the rock formations (if you're into rock formations) are spectacular and best of all.. the roads are long and windy. On our way down there, we were traveling at about 120 mph through the canyons. What a BLAST! I am a law abiding citizen like the next guy but when a chance like this presents itself... well, we took it. Mark and I took turns at the wheel of his 1992 Toyota Forerunner... passing small "economy" cars like they were still on the assembly line.

We had been driving for about 16 hours now and we were starting to feel a little edgy. We couldn't wait for a gas station or truck stop to pull over and get some decent food instead of the junk food we'd been eating.

It's been called Disneyland for Adults. Las Vegas is certainly that... and more!. Nevada came in the night, we didn't even know we were out of Arizona until we started seeing these bright lights piercing the darkness. It was like a search party had been called for us or something, there were three or four spotlights blasting into the heavens. It was quite the sight, the anticipation was tremendous, we didn't know what they were for.. at first the idea of an airport sprang to mind.. but we quickly dismissed that. After all, why would they be blinding their pilots? It turned out to be a Casino just outside Vegas, talk about your "attention getters". Once past the mini-Vegas-strip-mall (that's what it seemed like), we ventured further down the I-15 towards our final destination... Los Angeles. We stayed overnight in Las Vegas, driving throughout and then after finding a hotel.. we walked through all the casinos we could.

The MGM Grand, The Excalibur (the one that looks like Disneyland), you name it, we went there. The photo of Caesar's Palace was taken on the way back.. in the day as you can see. I took the picture just to solve the age old mystery of "Where do old Rock Stars Go?"... CAESAR'S !!!! I mean seriously... Huey Lewis and the News !!?? And you expect me to PAY YOU FOR THIS!!??? haha.. WHATEVER!!

We did have probably the best steak we'd ever had though at the Flamingo Casino. Only $3.99 too! haha.. God Bless loss leaders! We tried our luck at the slots, and like most.. came away worse off then when we started. I had a winning streak going for awhile, Mark on the other hand... let's just say the Casino Gods were angry were not on his side that night. Of course like any good friend, I rubbed it in as best I could.

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