I felt thoroughly refreshed and a bit like a queen waking up in an air conditioned room with a ceiling fan ticking gently above me and a beautifully soft mattress below me. We lingered in bed a while, after I woke up at sunrise thanks to my growing habit. The parents were both at work by the time we got up so we had the kitchen to ourselves while Dan made his egg, bacon and pancake special for breakfast. Wow, it felt good to be back.

We talked van mods over breakfast and by mid-morning we were out in the scorching hot sun to get to work. Dan had already installed the bed frame but decided it was sitting too high so we lowered it down to milk crate height. We had a few issues with one corner thanks to the shape of the sheet metal, but we got there in the end. The bed was solid as a rock, a huge improvement on the Presidential Lounge. We screwed down some plywood as the base and we were set.

Ready for lunch and needing to escape the heat, we considered our morning well spent and retreated into air conditioned comfort for a break. Dan was in the kitchen again this time whipping up alfredo chicken pasta for lunch. We downed an ice cold glass of coke inwhile it was cooking to quench our parched throats. The pasta was bloody brilliant.

Not quite wanting to face the outside heat again, we contemplated what needed buying to do the dual battery system. I was basing it off what I’d done and the fact that we wanted to be able to buy most things immediately. We ended up finding everything we needed and ordered some stuff online to be delivered over the weekend. Still procrastinating, we played some cards and before we knew it, it was nearly 6pm and time to head out to the movies.

We’d planned to see the most recent Fast and the Furious at a drive-in theatre before we split up last time, but never found the time and now we had the perfect opportunity. On the way there, we stopped in at a random Craigslist guy’s house to buy a mattress for the new bed in the form of a foam mattress topper. It was used and “pretty clean” but it turned out to be ok. $10 later, Dan had a mattress. We hit the servo for some beers and then a Philiberto’s for a breakfast burrito to sustain us over the course of the two movies we planned to see.

All our errands done, we were ready for the drive-in. Before we reached the entrance, I hid myself under the new bed frame in typical drive-in fashion so that we only had to pay $7.50 for the one ticket. Not only that, we arrived just before 8pm to see Pirates of the Caribbean before the 10:10pm showing of The Fate of the Furious. We were being total scumbags only paying half price to get in and also sneaking in two movies instead of one.

We pulled up infront of the Pirates screen just as the previews started showing, tuned the radio to the correct frequency, put the windows down, reclined our chairs and cracked a couple of ice cold beers. Our timing couldn’t have been more perfect. The night was perfect, still warm from the day but with a beautiful breeze blowing through the car. The Pirates movie was pretty good, it had both of us and most of those around us laughing. Just as the movie came to an end, we heard the inevitable voice of someone asking for some jumper cables nearby. No such issue for us.

Pirates ended right at 10pm, so we had ten minutes to suss out the eight screens around us to find out where Fast and Furious would be playing. I was on the radio scanner while Dan whipped around and around in his driver’s seat trying to determine the right screen. We agreed it would be best to drive away only once we were sure we had the right spot, otherwise we’d look suspicious driving around the lot.

I was pretty sure I’d found the audio for the right screen and when the previews ended and the opening credits rolled, there was no more doubt. We started the car and head on over. We had to drive right by the entrance booths but absolutely no one was the wiser. We pulled up in the front row at our screen, next to only a handful of other cars and sit back to enjoy our second showing, the one we’d come for.

It was everything a Fast and Furious movie should be, though not quite the same without Brian featuring. It was all action all the time, bloody brilliant. About halfway through, we were flabbergasted to find that we were the only ones left in the lot. Everyone else had left! Why? Beats me.

One thing you should know about drive-ins is that they have a snack bar and bathroom, but it is right in the middle of the complex and you obviously have to miss crucial plot points of the movie to relieve yourself. Dan’s solution to this is peeing in a big bottle, but that clearly doesn’t work for me so when I needed to go, I used Dan’s massive travel mug that also has a lid for sealing. Very dirtbaggy I know, but it gets better. After two bathroom breaks, the thing was full, so Dan being the gentleman that he is, emptied it for me outside the car.

Movies over, it was past midnight and time to head home. We’d managed to clean out most of the beers we’d bought and both considered it a great night. We crept into Dan’s house to avoid waking anyone and Cleo, who had been asleep right by the door, was sleepily happy to see us.