By the time we were leaving the Sequoias late Saturday afternoon we were shot! So Barstow, California was our next pitstop for the night and would set out for Vegas the next day. There's no need to talk about it, we were in the middle of nowhere, again! Sunday morning we set out for Vegas. At this point we were both tired and pretty irritable but excited to get to civilization. Driving the Mojave desert is pretty surreal. There's absolutely nothing for seemingly endless miles and the landscape is just so different from anything I've encountered. Then the most bizare thing happens after driving through nothing for hours... Vegas just pops up in all of it's lit up, grandiose tacky glory!
As with most things in life we were late. Our plan was to stay at the Hard Rock and go to Rehab that Sunday to meet up with a few of my NY friends but arriving in Vegas at 3pm rendered that plan useless. So the Hilton it was, not too shabby, and it was cheap. Finally we got to relax poolside with a cocktail this made us both happy especially because we weren't getting along very well. That night we ate Thai food and went our seperate ways. Jessica decided to do a little gambling at our hotel and I went to drink with my NY friends. Monday morning rolled around quick as did the reality of how far we were from Orlando and that I had a flight to catch early Friday morning. Next stop was the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon then we had to get a move on! Luckily the Hoover Dam is en route to the Grand Canyon so we drove right over it and the canyon was another 9 hour drive after that.
The after the Hoover dam had become really monotonous, we were tired and were ready to go home. We arrived there in time to watch the sun go down it was absolutely amazing. That gaping hole in the ground is a site to see, I'd recomend it to anyone! As for the rest of the week... It was Orlando bound! I drove through the night that Monday, we switched around 5am because I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. We almost broke down around 6:30am in Northern Texas. My short nap was disturbed by pulling over to the side of the road and Jessica telling me the car wont move when she puts her foot on the gas... AWESOME! We spent about a half hour sitting there clueless as to what we should do. When we started the car it went though, so we drove to Enterprise to see what they could do for us. Enterprise told us to go to Firestone where we spent 4 hours playing hurry up and wait. After sleeping for an hour and brushing my teeth in a tire/mechanic bathroom I was a little cranky. The guys there told us we probably just had some bad fuel and that we'd be alright. By then it was around noon on Tuesday we decided to drive as far as we possibly could. Oklahoma was next, we drove straight through into Arkansas were it was decided a shower and bed was needed. The hotel we stayed at in Little Rock was by far the worst! Once we put our bags down in the room we actually checked the box springs for drugs and or dead bodies. The room had the an undescribable smell but we were so tired we didn't care. Back on the road early next morning
into Tennessee... we drove by Graceland but opted to not pay the 40 dollars to go in. Mississippi had good barbaque and I finally tasted sweet tea, it's no wonder the obesity rate down south is what it is. The rest of the day and night was spent driving. I'm not a fan of Florida but when I passed the state line around 1am I celebrated! Our arrival to Jessica's apartment was around 7am Thursday morning. After a brief nap we cleaned the rental car that just had over 8,000 miles on it and returned it. As per usual it was time to eat and drink. Happy hour,sushi and reflexion of the journey we'd just finished. I think we fell asleep that night by 8pm. Never in my life have I been so happy to get on a plane the way I was that Friday morning... Home :)
This trip was a check off the bucket list that Jessica and I both agreed had to be done. We laughed, cried, faught, saw amazing things, and had an adventure we'll talk about when we're 80! I think everyone should see what our own country has to offer there's a whole lot to see.
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