Today was the first day of our sudden, unexpected road trip to Las Vegas. The reason for our visit to Sin City is not open to the public yet, just let me say it is a happy occasion and leave it at that. And, this was the SECOND day of my vacation.
The First day of my vacation was...well, not much of a vacation. But it was a good day, nonetheless. I spent the better part of the (LATE) morning mowing my mother-in-law's yard. I was attacked by numerous mosquitoes during my yard work, and "gave blood" to the extent that I will not attend the community blood drive a few days from now. Anyway, I worked and fed hungry insects for about three hours. Then, after a quick shower and several applications of various anti-itch remedies, I was ready to run a few errands. By the way, did I mention that this was the first day of my vacation? So far it was very busy, not vacant at all.
My lovely bride was at home by this time, so I jumped in the truck with her and we raced off to do our errands. I forgot one very important errand, which I will describe later, but we got our other last minute things out of the way as we prepared for the unexpected road trip to Vegas. One way my bride persuaded me to agree to run errands with her was by promising food while we were out. You know what they say, the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. Well, it goes something like that. So, after we did all we needed to day (except for ONE IMPORTANT THING) we dined at our new latest hang-out, Chito's in Midland.
Back home after errands and dinner, there was last minute house cleaning, then packing, then it was time to "retire." So everyone "retired," except me. I was not sleepy - NOT IN THE LEAST!! And we planned to arise at 4:00 AM. Midnight...not sleepy. One-thirty, tired, NOT SLEEPY. I was so excited about the upcoming road trip. Too excited, it seemed. Two o'clock...FINALLY my eyes were getting heavy. I hit the sack, and at some point I went to sleep, because I was in the middle of an exciting police dream where I had caught the bad guy and was about to book him, when the alarm went off!
I jumped out of the bed, felt so refreshed and ready for the road trip. I took about three steps toward the shower, at which point my body abruptly quit working and I nearly hit the floor. My BODY was now ready to rest. And I suddenly could hardly keep my eyes open. I thought the shower would wake me up. Wrong! I nearly went to sleep while letting the conditioner remain in my hair for the required three minutes. I almost fell through the shower curtain but caught myself just in time. I got dressed, then my bride and I, plus Child A loaded all the luggage into the back of my lovely bride's pickup.
Here I have to point out that I had a stroke of genius, which may have been also a stroke of psychic premonition. I wrapped all the luggage in a large tarp, like a huge travelling taco. This information will become important later on. Well, not really, but I thought this sounded good.
Did I mention that I MIGHT have slept about two hours? My lovely bride volunteered to take the first "shift" at driving. I was so happy! So I took "shotgun" while Child A had to settle for the back seat, and we were off!
ROAD TRIP!!!!!!!!!!!
But here I would like to say that the trip did not exactly start out auspiciously. We had not driven the first mile when lightning flashed across the sky. There was no rain (yet), but I could only see two or three stars. The lightning was much worse by the time we drove through Midland...AND I forgot ONCE MORE to run that last pesky little errand. By the time I remembered that I had forgotten to do that pesky errand, we were just outside Roswell, New Mexico. And I had not slept a wink - I was watching the storm and watching the dark scenery. So we stopped at a little store in Roswell and got breakfast. When we returned to the pickup, I traded places with Child A so that he could stretch out in the front seat and I could lie down in the back seat. A little fuel in the stomach and I was out. Next thing I know we were nearly to Cline's Corner, AND it was lunch time. Lunch at Cline's Corner, then it was MY turn to drive. But I was up for it. We were headed for Vegas!
The scenery was we travelled through New Mexico along Interstate 40, then into Arizona, was truly spectacular, but I was driving so I had to NOT sight see as much as possible. Soon (not all THAT soon!) we had passed the Grand Canyon and were headed for Winslow. I was going to stop there, but that is another story. We had headed on towards Flagstaff and here we first ran into the rain that we had seen off and on for the entire trip. Outside of Flagstaff, on the huge downhill runs, the roadway was soon so deep in water that the truck was in danger of hydroplaning. I had just slowed from 85 mph to a reasonable speed for the conditions when a blue Tahoe raced past. My lovely bride commented that the vehicle was driving way too fast for conditions when the Tahoe swerved to the side then went airborne! It flipped nearly end over end came to rest on its side, luckily in the median.
We stopped immediately as did a couple of other cars. I was the first to the overturned Tahoe, and I shouted to the people inside. I heard a lady say in a surprisingly calm voice that she and her husband were both okay but were trapped. The vehicle was resting very precariously, and when the people inside moved, it nearly turned over again. By this time several people were there, so while one person went in through the rear door, the rest of us held the Tahoe steady. I have to say, if you are going to wreck, do so in a later model Tahoe. It had airbags in places I had never thought of. The couple were assisted out, and both only had minor injuries.
It was flooding at this time by the way, and we were all soaking wet, when lightning struck VERY NEAR to us. This huge flash of light, followed by the VERY LOUD thunder report very quickly weeded out the "fair weather rescuers." Several people actually ran away! Anyway, with the couple out of the car uninjured and covered with a tarp and umbrella, and the police on the way, we returned to the pickup and GOT OUT OF THERE. It was still flooding, and given all the rubber-necking, it was many wonders that there was not a huge pile up on the highway. So we were back on the road to Las Vegas, with an exciting story to tell. But the excitement was not over yet...
Just east of Kingman, Arizona I noticed a small cloud of what appeared to be sand blowing under the cloud cover. I told my lovely bride that I thought I could see a dust storm in the distance. My lovely bride, who was driving once again, said "Oh, no! Sand Storm!" I was not worried because it was very far away and appeared to be blowing south, while we were heading west by northwest. My lovely bride was worried; however, and began driving as fast as she safely could. At Kingman we turned north and head for Vegas on Highway 215. It was at this point that I noticed the sand storm was boiling over the mountains and headed straight for us. By the time we were within sight of the Hoover Dam, the sand storm had broken over the mountains and threatened to swallow us into its gritty wrath. But, alas, we outran the storm and made it to Las Vegas in one piece, AND not involved in any other tragedies, either our own or that of others.
Now, here we are in our hotel room, and my lovely bride has long been asleep. Guess what? After all the excitement, all the sights around the strip we have seen this evening....I AM NOT SLEEPY!!
Tomorrow...Road Trip: Day Two
The First day of my vacation was...well, not much of a vacation. But it was a good day, nonetheless. I spent the better part of the (LATE) morning mowing my mother-in-law's yard. I was attacked by numerous mosquitoes during my yard work, and "gave blood" to the extent that I will not attend the community blood drive a few days from now. Anyway, I worked and fed hungry insects for about three hours. Then, after a quick shower and several applications of various anti-itch remedies, I was ready to run a few errands. By the way, did I mention that this was the first day of my vacation? So far it was very busy, not vacant at all.
My lovely bride was at home by this time, so I jumped in the truck with her and we raced off to do our errands. I forgot one very important errand, which I will describe later, but we got our other last minute things out of the way as we prepared for the unexpected road trip to Vegas. One way my bride persuaded me to agree to run errands with her was by promising food while we were out. You know what they say, the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. Well, it goes something like that. So, after we did all we needed to day (except for ONE IMPORTANT THING) we dined at our new latest hang-out, Chito's in Midland.
Back home after errands and dinner, there was last minute house cleaning, then packing, then it was time to "retire." So everyone "retired," except me. I was not sleepy - NOT IN THE LEAST!! And we planned to arise at 4:00 AM. Midnight...not sleepy. One-thirty, tired, NOT SLEEPY. I was so excited about the upcoming road trip. Too excited, it seemed. Two o'clock...FINALLY my eyes were getting heavy. I hit the sack, and at some point I went to sleep, because I was in the middle of an exciting police dream where I had caught the bad guy and was about to book him, when the alarm went off!
I jumped out of the bed, felt so refreshed and ready for the road trip. I took about three steps toward the shower, at which point my body abruptly quit working and I nearly hit the floor. My BODY was now ready to rest. And I suddenly could hardly keep my eyes open. I thought the shower would wake me up. Wrong! I nearly went to sleep while letting the conditioner remain in my hair for the required three minutes. I almost fell through the shower curtain but caught myself just in time. I got dressed, then my bride and I, plus Child A loaded all the luggage into the back of my lovely bride's pickup.
Here I have to point out that I had a stroke of genius, which may have been also a stroke of psychic premonition. I wrapped all the luggage in a large tarp, like a huge travelling taco. This information will become important later on. Well, not really, but I thought this sounded good.
Did I mention that I MIGHT have slept about two hours? My lovely bride volunteered to take the first "shift" at driving. I was so happy! So I took "shotgun" while Child A had to settle for the back seat, and we were off!
ROAD TRIP!!!!!!!!!!!
But here I would like to say that the trip did not exactly start out auspiciously. We had not driven the first mile when lightning flashed across the sky. There was no rain (yet), but I could only see two or three stars. The lightning was much worse by the time we drove through Midland...AND I forgot ONCE MORE to run that last pesky little errand. By the time I remembered that I had forgotten to do that pesky errand, we were just outside Roswell, New Mexico. And I had not slept a wink - I was watching the storm and watching the dark scenery. So we stopped at a little store in Roswell and got breakfast. When we returned to the pickup, I traded places with Child A so that he could stretch out in the front seat and I could lie down in the back seat. A little fuel in the stomach and I was out. Next thing I know we were nearly to Cline's Corner, AND it was lunch time. Lunch at Cline's Corner, then it was MY turn to drive. But I was up for it. We were headed for Vegas!
The scenery was we travelled through New Mexico along Interstate 40, then into Arizona, was truly spectacular, but I was driving so I had to NOT sight see as much as possible. Soon (not all THAT soon!) we had passed the Grand Canyon and were headed for Winslow. I was going to stop there, but that is another story. We had headed on towards Flagstaff and here we first ran into the rain that we had seen off and on for the entire trip. Outside of Flagstaff, on the huge downhill runs, the roadway was soon so deep in water that the truck was in danger of hydroplaning. I had just slowed from 85 mph to a reasonable speed for the conditions when a blue Tahoe raced past. My lovely bride commented that the vehicle was driving way too fast for conditions when the Tahoe swerved to the side then went airborne! It flipped nearly end over end came to rest on its side, luckily in the median.
We stopped immediately as did a couple of other cars. I was the first to the overturned Tahoe, and I shouted to the people inside. I heard a lady say in a surprisingly calm voice that she and her husband were both okay but were trapped. The vehicle was resting very precariously, and when the people inside moved, it nearly turned over again. By this time several people were there, so while one person went in through the rear door, the rest of us held the Tahoe steady. I have to say, if you are going to wreck, do so in a later model Tahoe. It had airbags in places I had never thought of. The couple were assisted out, and both only had minor injuries.
It was flooding at this time by the way, and we were all soaking wet, when lightning struck VERY NEAR to us. This huge flash of light, followed by the VERY LOUD thunder report very quickly weeded out the "fair weather rescuers." Several people actually ran away! Anyway, with the couple out of the car uninjured and covered with a tarp and umbrella, and the police on the way, we returned to the pickup and GOT OUT OF THERE. It was still flooding, and given all the rubber-necking, it was many wonders that there was not a huge pile up on the highway. So we were back on the road to Las Vegas, with an exciting story to tell. But the excitement was not over yet...
Just east of Kingman, Arizona I noticed a small cloud of what appeared to be sand blowing under the cloud cover. I told my lovely bride that I thought I could see a dust storm in the distance. My lovely bride, who was driving once again, said "Oh, no! Sand Storm!" I was not worried because it was very far away and appeared to be blowing south, while we were heading west by northwest. My lovely bride was worried; however, and began driving as fast as she safely could. At Kingman we turned north and head for Vegas on Highway 215. It was at this point that I noticed the sand storm was boiling over the mountains and headed straight for us. By the time we were within sight of the Hoover Dam, the sand storm had broken over the mountains and threatened to swallow us into its gritty wrath. But, alas, we outran the storm and made it to Las Vegas in one piece, AND not involved in any other tragedies, either our own or that of others.
Now, here we are in our hotel room, and my lovely bride has long been asleep. Guess what? After all the excitement, all the sights around the strip we have seen this evening....I AM NOT SLEEPY!!
Tomorrow...Road Trip: Day Two
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