Just Another Trip in the Day and Life of Jeff Pheffer and Dave Johnson
Team KC 
by Jeff Pheffer and Dave Johnson
I thought this might be a funny experience to share with all of you. Dave Johnson and I have been playing together for about 2 years now. We have traveled all over the country playing volleyball on the EVP tour. Last year we decided to play in the Huntington Beach tournament. We have had many funny stories to tell but this one was THE one to remember.
We board our usual Southwest Airline flight in Kansas City and make our way to LAX. After landing we make our way to the car rental shuttle to take us to the rental location. With reservation confirmation in hand I proceed up to the desk at Hertz. After providing my name the attendant asks for my license and credit card, which I provide. He looks at my license for an unusual amount of time. He proceeds to tell me my license is expired. I take a look and sure enough it is and Hertz will not rent me a vehicle without a valid license. I am thinking no problem, Dave has his. I call Dave over and ask for his drivers license and he says, “I don’t have one, it’s expired”. I say, “Dave, how do you expect to get into the bars without your license?” Now I know that probably shouldn’t have been my first thought, but hey many of your know me well enough. Anyway, Dave says he has his passport. I turn and ask the attendant if that will work and he says no. He informs us there is a company that will rent to us without a license. I say great, what is the number. I call the company and the charge for a 2 day rental is totally ridiculous. After talking with Dave about all possible options we decide to get a taxi and just head down to the beach to wait for our fellow EVP player Jon Gubera (Goobs) to get off work to come pick us up in Hermosa Beach. I figure we are close enough to the airport that taxicabs should be abundant.
We gather our bags and head outside. It’s probably one of the hottest days of the year so far in California. We are sweating our asses off just standing by the curb waiting for a taxicab. After about 15 minutes of standing there we had not seen one cab. We talk about options. One is to head back to the airport on the car rental shuttle and easily get a taxi there or just walk down the street to what we think is a major street about a half mile away. I say screw the shuttle and lets walk. Now the area we are in is not all that great. I am a little nervous but we head on down the street looking as touristy as possible wheeling our bags with us. We finally make it down to a major intersection and wait. We see a few cabs but they are full. Finally we see a cab and wave it over. We get loaded up and on our way. I tell the driver to take us to the Hermosa Beach Pier. We literally go one block and another car tries to squeeze between our taxi and the curb and ends up scraping the cab all the way down the side. So the foreign cab driver immediately gets out of the cab and walks over to start yelling at the other driver. After a minute or two of this he gets back into the car and says we have to pull over to exchange info with the other driver. We turn the corner and pull into a parking lot of a strip club. Dave and I look at each other and just laugh. We get out and just wait it out until the cab driver gets his needed info. He tells us we are ready to go. We get into the cab and on the way to the pier he tells us he would like us to meet with a representative of the cab company to tell our side of the story in person because we witnessed the accident. We tell him that we can meet with them at the pier whenever they need us and to call us when they are ready to meet. Dave and I get out at the pier and just head to our favorite stores to shop and grab a bite to eat at the Pita Pit.
We finally get a call and end up meeting their representative about 2 blocks away. Dave is a bit ahead of me and I really am not paying attention to who we are meeting. After Dave shakes the man’s hand I look up and could not believe what I see. I will try to explain what this guy looks like but it’s hard to even write about it. He stands about 6’7” with long grey hair in a pony tail and a long beard. He is very much overweight and looks like he hasn’t had a bath or shower in about a month. As I go to shake his hand, only because he had extended his, I notice his finger and toe nails. His finger nails were about 2 inches long and his toe nails were about 3 inches long and were yellow and curling to one side or the other. His teeth were very yellow and dirty and I swear I only shook his hand for about one millisecond before pulling it back. I almost threw up a bit right there. It was one of the scariest men I have every seen. I let Dave tell the story and he makes us sign a affidavit and we are on our way. Now you can imagine the conversation that occurred directly after leaving the scene. I immediately turned into a restaurant to wash my hands. Our buddy Goobs finally shows up about 30 minutes later to pick us up and train at the beach for a while.
Just one of the many adventures that always seem to happen to us while traveling to a destination on the EVP tour.