Ash Kelley

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

That's a big deal.

It is.

Now, even though their lives had led them in separate directions, Mark and his core group of friends from high school still managed to stay in touch through their college years.

And whenever they were home on school break or anything like that, they always got together.

Now in late winter of 1989, Mark and his friends Bradley Moore, Bill Huddleston, and Brent Martin started planning details for their spring break vacation.

They were stoked about this.

As soon as the semester ended, they were going to meet back in Santa Fe and take off together for a few days on South Padre Island, which is a resort town not too far from the Mexican border.

For Mark, that year was more exciting than the usual spring break trip because it also coincided with his 21st birthday.

Oh, what a lucky thing.

And remember, he didn't really drink or do drugs or anything like that.

So he's 21 now.

Yeah, he can have a little drinky poo if he wants to.

And what better time to have a drink than spring break?

Of course.

They had all attended spring break festivities in South Padre before, but this was the first time also that Mark and his four high school best friends were going to be visiting together.

So that was also like an exciting thing.

As soon as Bradley finished up his exams around noon on March 10th, he jumped in his car and jumped in it too.

And he drove to Austin to pick up Mark.