Vegas/Utah 2006 - I miss the mountains!

July 08, 2006

Whee! Everyone loves road trips, right?!

Here's what the trip looked like:

Saturday: Dallas to Grants, New Mexico - 821 miles

Sunday: Grants, New Mexico to Richfield, Utah - 484 miles

Monday - Richfield with mommy

Tuesday - Richfield with mommy, plus some exploring of the area, about 100 miles or so.

Wednesday - Richfield, Utah to Las Vegas, with stops at Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park (both beautiful places that I am incapable of describing but pictures will be coming soon) - about 400 miles

Thursday - Vegas!

Friday - Vegas back to Dallas, with a stop at the Grand Canyon for shits and giggles - about 1,400 miles

Total mileage - about 3,100. I got an oil change right before we left and now it's time to get another one.

Anyway, yeah, it was a neato trip, I have to say. Before I left, I did wonder if Josh and I were capable of being in a car together for a week without having some kind of fantastical meltdown. Well, we made it! There were some tense moments and one of us almost just got on a Greyhound to forget about the trip altogether, but we salvaged it and we ended up having a very lovely time together.

I have gone on a lot of road trips, and in the past these road trips have really been about one thing - go, take a picture, leave. That was really the motto of my, er, former traveling companion. I always hated that, but on this trip I kinda found myself doing the same thing. But after some tense discussion I discovered that Josh was not all about this and in fact actually wanted to stop and see stuff. So we did, and it was awesome and I'm happy about it and have some really good pictures. We went to Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park and the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam in the same week. Now, I think that's pretty cool.

The trip to Utah went well. My mom and stepdad got along really well with Josh. My stepdad and Josh had an extended conversation about yeast that I found to be rather fascinating.

We went to a fourth of july parade and that was good times, just in terms of observing people and such. Those mormons, they really love to get themselves hot and pregnant. Seriously. They're all hot. And pregnant.

It was nice to see my mommy. She'll be back next month but she's moving to Utah permananently next year. I am not looking forward to this, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Vegas was...Vegas. The same thing that always happens in Vegas happened yet again. We had a nice hotel room at the Hard Rock, I gambled and I won a lot, I gambled and I lost what I won, I got back up but made a really bad bet, got money out of the ATM and lost all dignity and humanity. It always happens this way...I enter Vegas excited and happy and I leave depressed and headed down a shame spiral. It's not pretty, but it's Vegas, and I'm not ready to give up on it yet.

The Grand Canyon was pretty goddamned cool. I've been there before but it was just for like 3 seconds and you really can't grasp the Grand Canyon situation in that little amount of time. It's really something to behold. When you first see it, you can't even really believe it until you stare at it for a great length of time. See it now!

Yesterday we did actually want to stop at a motel for the evening, but I guess it's a bad weekend for doing such things as every one that I stopped at were all full. I then looked for a rest stop to have a little nap, but no look there either. I was about to just fucking sleep in a McDonald's parking lot or something but I passed the Texas border and the sun was coming up so I just kinda made the decision to keep on truckin'. I am tired right now, I can tell you that for sure. Also, you'd think that once I hit my home state we'd be home in no time. Wrong! After we crossed the border it still took 7 hours to get home. Gotta love us some Texas.

The weather on this trip was awesome because it seriously rained pretty much the whole time. Even in Vegas a little bit. It's not supposed to rain in the desert! Come on, people! In Vegas, we stood on our little fake balcony at the hotel and watched the lightning over the mountain. That was one of my favorite things about the trip.

We also went to the Palms to see Superman. I enjoyed it. I was confused because I haven't seen any of the other movies, but damn, I could still appreciate the greatness. And, uh, anyone else get a hardcore Tom Cruise vibe from Brandon Routh? I mean, he even talked like him! It was kinda creepy.

Overall, it was a really nice trip. It was good to spend so much time with my sweetie and to see all the sights and visit my mom and all that fun stuff. And now I am so dreading going back to work. It's that whole vacation hangover thing that I know we're all familiar with. I am in mountain withdrawal. Why can't Dallas have any mountains, damnit?!

So, enough babbling, here's a few pictures. I'll have more at a later time, these are just some of my favorites...

Me driving, day one...