Hi Everyone!
I thought this would be the best way to keep everyone up to speed with what's going on with me and my new adventure in LA. So let's get up to speed on what's happened so far...
Day 1 (5/27): I left beautiful Ballwin bright and early in the morning with my sights set on Denver for the first leg of the trip. Nala was all snug in the passenger seat and I was ready to roll.
My bike was on the back of my car and I haven't driven very often with my bike rack so I kept a watchful eye on it on the highway. I knew where the wheel was in relation to my side mirror and suddenly it was no longer in the same spot... so I pulled over on the side of I-70 about an hour into my drive. Let the adventure begin.
The bike had gotten loose so I reattached it (dumbly, the exact same way I had attached it before). I got back in the car and drove about 2 miles and felt the bike come out of its saddle. I pulled back over and this time I just attached it enough to get to the next exit and really strap the stupid thing down then. After that, I was officially paranoid about the bike for the next 29 hours of the drive.
Besides the bike adventure and missing the Salina exit for food and gas and having to turn around, Day 1's 13 hour drive went pretty smoothly. I arrived in Denver and got to enjoy pizza and a beer with my Aunt before complete exhaustion set in and I realized I had to do it all over again the next day.
Day 2 (5/28): Somehow the thought of googling how well Prius' do in the mountains had escaped me until my hybrid battery went into the purple (super low) on the first steep hill. However, after a stop for gas and water and a quick google check, I learned that it would be just fine. So a few deep breaths later, I continued through the beautiful Rocky Mountains. The engineering behind the Eisenhower Tower was incredibly fascinating even though I was ducking and hoping that the whole mountain didn't come crashing down on top of me. As I'm sure you assumed, it did not :)
Whoever says that Kansas is the most boring state to drive through hasn't driven through the first 180 miles of wasteland that is Utah. That was awful. I eventually made it to some cool canyons and then the mountains, but it didn't last long.
The drive through Arizona may have been brief, but driving through the bottom of the canyons was incredible. I've never been to the Grand Canyon, but I can guarantee that that drive is way more fun than staring at a big hole. And then after 12 hours on the road, I finally made it to my hotel in Vegas.
Then the next issue arose... there isn't any grass in Vegas. How do you teach a 13 year old dog that it's ok to pee on rock when she has only ever gone on grass?!? I had too many bags in my hands to let her figure it out so we went inside to check in and I jokingly asked the front desk if they had any tricks on how to get a Midwestern dog to pee on rock, but they didn't seem to understand. So we set our stuff down in our suite (thanks Dad!) and went back outside to try again. She would sniff the bushes like crazy and kind of walk around them, but couldn't find a good spot until she found a really short bush. She took 2 steps, stood right on top of it, and pooped on the bush. By the time we got back to the room, I was still laughing. Gotta love that dog. Unfortunately for me, that was the end of my laughter for a few days.
To be continued...
The drama!
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