Chapter 14

Most of the rest of the week passed much the same way. We went fishing one more time, and this time we caught six trout between the two of us and we just gave them to Kim and Jeff. And we spent a few hundred at the store getting some things that Becky thought we needed for the house.

And each night Becky would select a different movie from my old collection and play it. A few times we even made love as we watched them. But the last one she picked was the only sequel I had, “Candy Goes to Hollywood”, a followup to the movie we had watched the night before, “The Erotic Adventures of Candy”. And once again, we were both laughing as she hit pause. “OK Pete, what the fuck did we just see? Was that really a porn version of The Gong Show, with a chick shooting ping pong balls out of her pussy?”

“Yep, sure was. I even found out some things about this one later on, my old roomie was like a student of porn. If you notice, when she was ‘donged’ off, they called her ‘Wendy Williams’, as in the lead singer of the Plasmatics. Apparently, that was made right before the band was formed when she did porn. Oh, and the gal that plays Candy really was one of the girls that worked on the Gong Show.”

We both laughed as she collected up all the tapes, and we headed up to bed. We had all had a big dinner that night, with everybody over as we had a big final celebration. We had decided to head to Boise, then Reno on the way home. Taking things a bit slower, and enjoying it more. Kim had already said she would finish the laundry, all we had to do was start the wash before we left. And she would gather up any perishables and take them home also.

Bright and early I started the wash as Becky cooked us breakfast. And by 7 we were on the road. We had lunch then we parked downtown and took a walk around the Capitol building. The fact it was a slightly smaller version of the US Capitol surprised Becky, and she loved how much there was to see inside. I took us through various parts of the city, saying that we came to town at least three or four times a year, mostly in the winter for skiing. A lot of the mansions surprised her, as they were real turn of the century mansions. “Oh, and it gets better. This is Warm Springs Avenue we are on. These houses, they are really heated by hot water from a geothermal pool. Come here in the winter, you can see steam rising from the streets.”

“Wow, that’s kinda cool. That’s something you do not see very often, natural heat.” We then headed up to the dam, and I held her as we watched the giant “rooster tail” of water shooting up from the bottom of the dam. The sight is always impressive, with the water shooting around 100 feet into the air. “This is spectacular! But I have never seen this before, why do they do it this way?”

“Well, it lets more air get into the water, which is good for the fish downstream. And the water enters the stream at a slower speed, so there is less erosion. People love to come up here in the summer, all that water in the air makes it a lot cooler than most of the area.”

We spent two days in Boise, strolling the parks along the river hand in hand, wandering through the campus of the University right across the river from one of the bigger parks, driving the neighborhoods. We even drove through the “Poor Area” of Garden Grove, and she laughed when I called it “Garbage Grove”. And admitted it was strange how different it was, compared to just a mile or two away. No sidewalks, and the main road was full of bars, pawn shops, massage parlors, strip clubs, and a few porn shops.

She asked if we could see one, and I shook my head. “Sorry, these are nothing like what you see back home, Becky. Here the girls can not dance nude, so they wear bikinis. About the most racy thing you will find in the porn shop is magazines like Playboy, and made for cable TV cuts of porn movies. This is still Idaho, but if you want we can stop at some when we get back home.”

We had a nice dinner at a Chinese place, then walked through the historic downtown area. She loved that so many of the buildings were old, turn of the century, and still in use. She said if you replaced all of the cars with ones 50 years old it likely would look the same. I agreed, other than saying back then these were all 2-way streets, in the early 1970’s they had listened to some idiot that had them all changed to one way.

The next morning we were back on the road, and in the early evening we were pulling into the “Friendliest Little City in the World”. We picked one of the casinos right downtown and we stayed there. After making love we went down and pigged out on the buffet. We went to one of the tables, and we both played some 21. We had gotten some coupons when we checked in, so actually spent the next hour mostly gambling with their money, and walked away about $50 ahead each.

We went upstairs, and after I took my shower I laid back on the bed and watched a show teaching you how to play different games. And one of them was Craps. Now I had seen it played on the floor but never could make sense of it. The table was huge, and with like 100 places to put bets on. But they broke down the basic gameplay, and I realized it was not all as complex as I had thought.

And literally, every roll of the dice could be a winner or a loser. It all depended on where you put the bet and what was rolled. But in the basic game, it was quite simple. We had another day and night ahead of us, and I decided to check it out the next night. Becky came out of the shower and saw me lying on the bed and licked her lips. She moved down and slipped towards me from the foot, stopping when her face was at my groin. And she bent her head down and licked the head of my soft cock, then once the angle was as she wanted she took me into her mouth.

It did not take long to get hard, and even though I tried to get her to slide up my body or to turn around, she would not do so. So I let my fingers run through her hair, and was soon moaning I was almost there. I moaned I was close, and Becky took me even deeper and moved her head faster, so I knew not to try and hold back any longer. I swear I almost blacked out when I finally came and felt her swallowing as fast as I shot into her mouth.

She slipped up my body and rested her head on my chest, We held each other tight, and I asked what that was for. “Well, I wanted to thank my boyfriend for an amazing vacation. Most times I just took thee or four days off at home, because I had to use the days or lose them. This was the first real vacation I have ever had since I graduated, and it has been amazing.”

The next morning we had the buffet again, and I decided to try my hand at Craps. And I did pretty good, with the coupons I was up well over $150 by the time I was finished. Basically, they let me double my bet. I bet $5 and a coupon, and if I won I got $10 back. The $10 went into a different stack, and once I was finished with my initial $50 I left the table. And every time, I had more in the winnings side than I started with.

At 10 we went upstairs to look through the paper, but there were no interesting shows that week. And finally, we decided to go ahead and head out. So we packed up again, and once we checked out we were on the highway to San Francisco.

We stopped for a bit at Donner Pass, and Becky thought it was fascinating actually visiting a place she had learned about growing up. The beauty of the place with the small lake packed with fish was a contradiction to what had happened there a century earlier. But we were soon on the road again, and by 4 we were checking into a hotel near the Oakland Bay Bridge. Once we got everything in the room I made a call and after asking for Sergeant Delgado was on the phone with her. She yelped when I told her where we were, and she said to wait right there, she would be by once she got off work and changed.

It was almost 6 when Frannie knocked on the door, and she hugged both of us once she was in, kissing Becky’s cheek and my lips. She was wearing a hot looking red dress and insisted on taking us out to dinner. Of course, Becky had dressed much more casually and cursed at Frannie. And with little concern removed her jeans and shirt and pulled on a dark brown dress and quickly put on some makeup.

We ended up at a really nice seafood place in Jack London Square, as we caught Frannie up on what had happened since the show. Once dinner was done we went into a club nearby and I took turns dancing with both of them for a couple of hours, then we headed back to the hotel.

Becky broke out the photos we had taken and gotten developed in Boise, and she marveled at the ranch. She had seen the pictures of it years before when it was a ruin, and was amazed at the transformation. Especially of the construction of “my house”, and how I had managed to keep it a secret from Becky.

“Oh Pete, I would have killed you if you had done that to me!” she laughed, and Becky said she had thought of it. Then saying how she had loved it, and even how I had designed most of the basement, and it had a “killer” TV room.

Frannie told us to get breakfast in the morning, and she would pick us up for a tour of the area. They actually had a great buffet that came with the room, and at 9 we were waiting in front when Frannie pulled up. We both climbed in, and we were soon driving across the bridge. Frannie really knew the city well though, having been here for a year now. She took us to several piers and soon were in “Japantown”, which was several miles from Chinatown. And the place we went to was obviously one that Frannie frequented regularly, as they smiled when she walked in, and the waitress greeted her with a smile and welcomed her in, asking “The usual?”

And she then grinned at me when I greeted her in Japanese also and said “Hai” as I nodded in agreement. We were seated quickly, and without even asking the waitress brought each of us a cold glass of Asahi. We each toasted each other, with Frannie and I both raising our glasses and calling out “Tennoheika Banzai!” And about a third of the room returned that toast among much applause and laughter. “Becky, that is a traditional toast in Japan. Essentially it means ‘Long life to the Emperor’, but in less formal setting it can just be given as ‘Banzai’.”

“Wait, I thought that was the guys that did suicide charges in the war?”

“Oh, that is what we called them, ‘Banzai Charges’. But Banzai means basically ‘long life’, as in they would defeat their enemies and emerge victoriously, their enemies dead at their feet. But that is long ago, now to most in Japan we are kind of like a big younger brother. Kinda clumsy but we look out for each other. Kind of a love-hate thing.”

And a few minutes later we had three glasses of sake delivered, and we looked in question at the waitress and she said they were a gift. We had just picked them up from across the room a gentleman in a thick but understandable accent said “Long life and blessings to President Reagan!” We all turned to him and echoed it, then drank down the rice wine. Shortly after our food arrived. Three bowls of fried rice, shrimp for me, chicken for the girls, and a variety of meats and vegetables done in tempura. Becky marveled at the food, especially how light the batter was on the fried portion, and how they had even coated carrots, potatoes, and broccoli in it before deep-frying it.

“Pete and I used to hit a tempura place in Naha about once every month or so, is why I come here sometimes. But their yakisoba is not that great.” I laughed and had to explain that is like a beef bowl with noodles instead of rice, cheap food for workers. This was more “upper class food” we were eating, so suitable for tourists.

We were about halfway through lunch when three gentlemen came up and asked us where we were from. We explained how we had both spent three years in Okinawa, and they nodded. All had visited the island, and they were here on business for Sony. Some kind of CD drive they were making for game systems and wanting to sell to other companies as well. It sounded interesting, but I had no idea why somebody would want to add a CD to an Atari 2600 or Nintendo.

Finally, they took their leave, all of us wishing each other well. We then went to walk through the area, and Becky asked if that is what Okinawa was like. We both laughed and said this was kind of an Americanized version of what a tourist might think it was like. Here the few women we saw in kimonos were obviously like that to attract business and give “flavor”, and the gals likely went upstairs at the end of the day and changed into jeans.

We then drove through the old hippie neighborhood of Haight-Ashbury. And it reminded me of Berkeley years before. Middle-aged hippies still trying to push dried flowers and tie-dyed shirts on the street, in front of a shop selling now outdated punk rock items. I even joked that if Valley Girls had taken more of a hold, we might see in a decade middle-aged Vals doing the same thing. Selling leg warmers and cans of Aqua Net on Ventura Boulevard in a few years.

But at least Golden Gate Park was close by. We spent some time wandering that area, and we both thanked Frannie for spending the day with us. “Well, I know you had been here before Pete. I thought you might like a tour like those you gave us. Avoiding the big tourist areas you probably already saw, and seeing some of the lesser-known areas.”

Seeing as we were watching a herd of buffalo inside the park, that was very much true. She then asked if we wanted to see something related to the military, and I was surprised when Becky said she did. I agreed, and Frannie then drove us under the Golden Gate Bridge, to the old Civil War era fort literally under it. We spent about an hour exploring it, and it was kind of cool. We took some photos from the roof, then Frannie asked if we were up for a walk. We agreed, and she drove us to the top of the cliff and parked.

“OK, follow this path up, it will take you right to the Golden Gate Bridge. Go on up and start walking, I will drive to the other side, and park there then walk back and meet you. But wear your jackets, trust me. Becky, want to change to sweats real quick? I have some in the trunk.”

Becky just shook her head, and so we got out and after walking the stairs we started to cross the bridge hand in hand. And it was cold and windy, I got what Frannie was telling us. Becky soon wrapped her arm around my waist and was pressed against my side, I think as much to get out of the wind as to be close to me. But it was enjoyable, and we really understood how much the bridge moved, as it was constantly swaying slightly as we walked across it.

We took some pictures and paused a few times to look out over the bay. I even pointed out at something low and dark in the water and used the camera to zoom in on it. “Look honey, a submarine.” I pointed to the low dark shape moving towards us, and she did not seem to believe me. “No, really, look through the camera. That’s really a submarine!”

I am glad I had bought the 200mm zoom lens, as she then gasped, it really was a submarine. She asked me what kind it was, so I took the camera back and looked again. “Well, the deck behind the conning tower is rounded, so I would guess that is an attack submarine. Maybe one of the newer Los Angeles class ships.”

At that time we heard Frannie ask for the camera. She looked through it a moment and handed it back. “Nope, probably a Skipjack class. See how far forward the conning tower is? The LA sits farther back, so it has a really long nose. They work on them over on Mare Island, I was planning on going by there later on actually.”

We walked the rest of the bridge together, and Becky said that even though her legs were cold, she was glad she took the walk. We then paused to take a few pictures of the submarine before we left the bridge. Then we got on the freeway and right off again, and Frannie told us this was Fort Cronkhite, an Army fort until the decade before. We drove through the remains of the fort, and it was sad seeing most of it just sitting empty and falling apart.

Then we stopped and it was an old NIKE site. There was no tour, but Frannie told us that there had been nuclear air defense missiles here until about ten years ago. I found it fascinating, then was brought up short when Becky nodded and said we had those where we lived also.

“Wait, we did? Where?”

“Oh, I forget you are not originally from LA sometimes. That Air National Guard barracks at Woodley and Victory? Right by the Japanese Garden? Those used to be based right there. I remember going there once with my dad when I was young, and they actually had one of the missiles raised on its platform and were doing something with it.”

“They actually had nuclear missiles right in Van Nuys?” I exclaimed, shocked at the thought.

“Well, they were protecting the Van Nuys airport and all the aerospace around there. Litton, Boeing, Northrup, Grumman, Hughes, you know. Heck Pete, your dad works for one of them, ask him.”

We then went to the cliffs overlooking the ocean and went into an old artillery position. The view was great, and I said that might have been a cool place to be posted, other than the fact they would have really been nerve-wracking during WWII when they were looking for real for Japanese ships.

We headed along the north side of the Bay, and the view was amazing. Salt marshes, and a great view of the bay. And towards the end, there was a really tall arched bridge. But before we started up Frannie pulled off and told us to get our ID cards out.

We handed them to a guard and were soon driving onto Mare Island. I suddenly remembered that this is where Curry said he was going, and asked if we could visit the Marine Barracks and Frannie nodded. She pointed out their PX complex, which was rather small as we then drove down a street with 100 year old mansions on it. “Admiral’s Row, the Navy took care of them back when this all was built.” Then we were near the shipyard area, and took a turn and were pulling in front of a huge building. Three stories of massive sandstone, it was huge. We walked around outside a bit, and it was impressive. With a flagpole that looks like it had come off of a ship, and a huge grass parade field in front. Then we went up some steps and onto the quarterdeck.

A Corporal on a large raised platform that looked like it came out of an old police movie asked if he could help us, and I asked where I could find Sergeant Curry. He asked us to wait, and about 10 minutes later he came in through the front door. After giving me and Becky a hug I introduced him to Frannie.

Nate said he would give us a quick tour and explained how it was built in 1917, and was the original MCRD on the West Coast. That actually surprised me, I had thought it was always in San Diego. The “Breezeway” was basically a large enclosed patio on each floor and ran from one side to the other. We walked through each floor, and he explained how it was arranged, with the top two floors being where they lived. “Squadbays for most of the jokers, thankfully being a Sergeant I get my own room. Still use the communal heads like everybody else though.”

We then went down to the basement, and he showed us the old Marine Brig, which was now their armory. I asked him what he did, and he said he ran the rifle range. He got back into a truck and we followed him down there, and it was a typical rifle range. We had some coffee at the Quonset hut and met the others down there, including another crusty old CW4. And he then gave us a tour of his “baby”.

“This was the original rifle range, see this line? This was the original 600 yard line, for when they used the M1903 Springfield. We never use it anymore, but sometimes it is used for competitions.” We walked towards the butts, and even at the 500 yard line Becky marveled we could hit a target so far away. We all laughed and said it just took practice.

She then thought we were all insane when we got to the butts, and she saw the target carriages. “Wait, you all are actually standing around down here as they shoot over your heads?” She looked at all three of us as we admitted we did it every year.

“It’s quite safe Becky, honest. The targets are 6 feet by 6 feet and are way up above us. All you hear is a sharp crack, like a whip and the bullets all land in that berm over there. We have been doing it like this since before WWI, and I have never heard of anybody getting shot yet down here.”

We got back and they told Curry to go ahead and take off for the rest of the day. He told us to go ahead and wait at the PX, and he would get changed and meet us there. Becky thought the store was nice but small. About the size of a drug store, not the small mall I had described them as being. “Oh, this is about normal for most bases, we have a really big one at Travis, about 30 minutes north of here. And here we can easily shop out in town, not like in Japan.” I asked Frannie what the one was on her base, and she said about like this one.

When Nate joined us, Becky asked if there were any good seafood places around. The two locals discussed it, and it was decided we would all drive to the hotel, then Nate would leave his car there and Frannie would drive us all back to the city. We headed to Fisherman’s Wharf and had a great meal. Then we ended up at a little blues club a mile or so along the waterfront. The place looked great, like it came right out of a detective story from 40 years before.

The music was great, and we even danced for a few hours, trading partners several times before Nate said he had to head back to base as he had to run the range the next morning. So Frannie gave us all a ride back to our hotel, and all of us exchanged hugs. Nate said he was glad we all stopped by, and he said he would come down and visit us sometime. Frannie also gave us the address for a place she said we had to check out on our way out of town.

We got back upstairs, and Becky said she needed a bath. So I started the water and filled the large tub as she removed her makeup and put her clothes in the dirty bag we had. Meanwhile, I quickly stripped and climbed into the tub. She came in and scowled at me until I said there was room in there for both of us. She grinned and turned off the light, and slid into the tub also, my legs around her waist as she was sitting in front of me.

The bathroom was lit by the soft light from the main room, and she said she had a great day. “I’m so glad we came here instead of staying in Reno. I really like Nate, and really got to know him better tonight. And it was nice seeing Frannie again, I really like her. I can see why you two had a thing, I’m kinda surprised it was so short.”

I sighed. “Well, mostly that was timing. I was with my ex when we met, and we became good friends back then. Frannie and Lisa are really the only two I kept in contact with since then. Then she was dating somebody when I got together with Jacki. Then she was single, and when Jacki ended she was dating somebody else. And we both admit that the love we share is not that kind, even though it was a fantastic weekend we had.”

“Yeah, I got that. She more or less told me the same thing, you are like a brother she had sex with.” We both laughed, and I kissed the back of her neck which caused a soft giggle and she cuddled back against me. Becky used her foot to turn on the hot water as the bath started to cool, and I reached down to cup her breasts in my hands.

Her nipples responded quickly, and I lightly teased them, pulling occasionally as she moaned softly, and asked me what I was doing. “Hmm, it’s not obvious? I’m trying to turn you on.” I moved my right hand down, and felt her bend her knees up as I slipped it between her thighs and started to caress her pussy.