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My Booze-Soaked Hunt for Rattlesnake Tequila
In pursuit of Tequila con cascabel, I was reminded that all great adventures are about the journey
“The usual hero adventure begins with someone who feels there is something lacking in the normal experience available or permitted to the members of society. The person then takes off on a series of adventures beyond the ordinary… to discover some life-giving elixir.” — Joseph Campbell
“Are you crazy!? You want to go to Tijuana without me?” My wife stared at me in amazement. “On our anniversary?”
I knew I needed to work fast in order to deflect Cheri’s less-than-positive reaction to the suggestion we celebrate our wedded bliss in separate countries. So I did what husbands have done since time immemorial: I blamed a friend.
“It was Carlos’s idea.”
Carlos had always been that special kind of friend: loyal, fun, and quick to pick up the check or have your back. Hispanic by heritage and wild by nature, he had an unbridled Hemingway-like passion for life. The tall tales of his adventures usually began with: “I was drunk and surrounded by beautiful women…” All of this made him the perfect fall guy to take the blame for my wife’s anger over my own potential misbehavior.
I quickly launched into a plausible explanation. Carlos, who worked as a photographer for a large airline, was being sent down to San Diego for a quick photo shoot of a new plane. He had asked me to come along for free as his “assistant.” Once the photos had been taken, we would wander across the border to spend the evening in Tijuana.
The whole concept of this elusive potion was tied to my own wanderlust dreams of life south of the border.
My wife wasn’t buying it. She knew there was more to the story. “I don’t understand. What are you two going to do in Tijuana overnight besides get into trouble? You can get drunk and eat Mexican food right here in San Francisco.”
She knows me well. I was forced to sheepishly confess our real plan. “We’re going to try and find the snake drink.”
