Thursday Feb 14, while drinking the
night before we pretty much decided on driving to Mexico in the morning and
down to a tourist town James knew about. This morning we still didn’t see any
flaw with this idea so I started to unload stuff from the truck. We were not
exactly sure what you can and can’t bring into Mexico so we looked a few things
up. Basically the number one rule on going to Mexico is, never bring your own
car. Attached to that rule is don’t bring anything you need to bring back. James
had a project to do and needed his laptop. Not to mention all the other things
in my car. We still didn’t believe the hype too much so James called a friend of
his who lived in Mexico for most of his life. The first thing he told us to do
is get a rental car. So our beach side Mexican vacation was shot down. I had
some hiking spots picked out in southern Nevada. That lead to James saying he
had a friend in Vegas that we could probably stay with. So Vegas it is. We had
a bunch of running around before we left so we were on the road around 4. Along
the way James mentioned he thought he had some kind of time share that we might
be able to use. He called them up and sure enough everything would work out perfectly.
Right when we got into Vegas we decided to take a drive down the strip. And of
course, 2 blocks down the street some little chick in Daddy’s Audi can’t figure
out how lights work and hits the side of my car. It wasn’t hard and I really didn’t
care about a few paint smudges but I figured I would pull over and see what’s
what. I was in front of her trying to get in the right lane to get off the main
strip. That’s when she decided to go up a block and try to take a left at the
light. We were both stopped at the red turning light and I leaned my head out
the window to see is anything happened to my car. She messed up the paint a bit
but I still wasn’t too concerned. I figured we would pull over, apologize,
shake hands and go our own ways. As I was looking back at the side of the car
she puts her head out and yells, you know this is all your fault, can’t you see
the lines!! Now I’m pissed. Not only can the bitch not drive, but she arrogant
about it. So now I start to follow her, James points out that I have to report
this. If I don’t and she does its considered hit and run, and leaving the scene
of a crime. So that’s what we did. I pulled off in a parking lot and we waited
for the police to show up. I should mention I don’t care if a cop, even if
there to help me, I HATE talking to them at all. So after tripping over my
words for awhile he understood. James and I had to fill out a police report and
all that good stuff, but thankfully it didn’t burn up to much time. We drove
over to the Bluegreen Resort and checked into our room. I really couldn’t not believe
the room we got. Full kitchen, laundry, living room with pull out couch, and
king size bedroom. This was way better then my plan of getting drunk and
sleeping in the car somewhere. So we sat around for a bit sipping on some
cocktails and enjoying the place. It was getting late so he hit the streets.
Neither of us wanted to spend more money so we just wondered around the streets
for quite some time before heading back to the room.
We got
a slow start Friday and spent most of the day hanging out around the resort. Of
course I had to hit up the hot tub, we also cooked up some food. Through this
time share thing he actually has a ton of points he has to use up before
November. So we are thinking about a trip to Aruba. We spent some serious time
looking things up and it seems like it could happen. The hardest part is going
to be asking the boss for another week off lol. Again we spent the afternoon
sippin and walking around town. You are pretty much guaranteed to have a good
time. There are so many people walking around and just about everyone is happy
to be there.
We
checked out in the morning and started the drive to valley of fire state park. It’s
about an hour east of Vegas. I didn’t know anything about this place; it was
actually recommended to me by a man I met in the bottom of the Grand Canyon the
first year I was down there. He just so happens to live in Milwaukee and is
friends with one of my uncles. The park is in an area called the Muddy Mountains.
They are shorter mountains with very bland colors, green, brown, and grey. As
your driving through it’s hard to imagine something spectacular in this
landscape. But sure enough plants earth strikes again. All of a sudden there’s
huge fire red, wind worn formations everywhere, they are pretty hard to
describe. James has a nicer camera then me so I was glad he loves taking
pictures. I figured I would just steal them from him later. As you drive
through the rocks are different colors. You have a section called white domes,
there the red and white blend in different spots forming anything from purple
to yellow. It’s a really really cool place. We did a drive through of the park
and got some great pictures. On the way in I found out my little brother Elliot
made it to state for wrestling. The big tournament starts on the 21st.
but I didn’t think there was any way I could make it. We wanted to see Lake
Meed before dark so we quickly drove over to get a look at it. The lake wasn’t too
impressive, and we killed the rest of the day light. There was a sweet truck
stop next to the highway where we grabbed some food and killed some time. It
was pretty funny to see that the truck stop sold tons of fireworks. They also
had a huge lot, so people would buy fireworks and just walk outside and light
it up. We sat in the car and watched a movie, its embarrassing to say but we
watched Wreck it Ralph. After that we crashed out in the parking lot, with
fireworks going off most of the night.
Sunday
we were up really early. We wanted to set up a good place to get some sun rise
pictures. So we drove back into the park and hiked up to a cool over look. In
the morning Its only about 40 degrees by noon it was over 70. After we watched
the sun come up for awhile we drove over to another area of the park. It is
called 7 sisters. There are 7 rock formations that just stand alone. They
turned this into a picnic area with grills and tables. We cooked up some
breakfast here and made a game plan for the day. Next we drove up to the
visitor center and asked about some hiking. The best one seemed to be a 5.5 one
way trail, so 11 total. You park at a spot in the muddy mountains and hike up
and into a valley behind all the formations. You pretty much follow a wash out
parallel to the road but behind all the formations you see from the road. If
that makes sense? It was a pretty easy hike but the rocks were fun to climb so
we stopped to do that once in awhile. After the hike we drove back Vegas. With James’s
time share deal he can walk in and use the facilities at any of their resorts.
After a soak in the tub and a hot shower we cooked up some couscous in the
parking lot. Lots of weird looks and one guy said he’s been working here for 22
years and has never seen tailgating here. James has been to Vegas 50+ times and
has never gone to Fremont st. While we were here I’ve heard of it twice but
never really knew what it was. So we drove over, it has the biggest TV screen
in the world. It’s the width of 4 lanes and stretches a little over 2 blocks.
The street is actually closed off and there are tons of venders with everything
to sell. There were a few cool things to see. The spray paint artist is
amazing. In a matter of 5-10 minutes he makes these beautiful paints with
scenes of the Vegas strip. Then there was a guy who would carve your face into
clay. You would end up with a mini head of yourself. But by far the craziest
thing I saw in along long time was as follows. There was a DJ at one end
dancing and playing music. There was a crowd of people in front of the stage.
And they were a group of the weirdest people I’ve ever seen. I’m still very
confused by what I saw. I saw them all drinking so I figured they were drunk,
but then I think they were all on drugs, but then I think some were actually retarded,
but then I think there was a homeless convention. James and I stood there for
quite some time trying to solve this conundrum. Still don’t really know what
was going on, that could just be what you get in Vegas. The other strange part
to this was that it was 7:30 pm. The only thing that could make sense to me was
that they were still up from the night before? After that sight were walked
around the street a few more times, listening to the music and watching the
street performers. Then we had a decision to make. Either we start drinking and
stay the night or call it a trip and start the drive home. We were both warn
out from the weekend of drinking, hiking, and no sleep. So, back to Ventura. We
finally made it around 2 am and crashed.
Monday,
when I finally woke up, we rearranged everything in the car. This really took
some time. The bottle of booze in the cooler leaked a bit and everything was
sticky and smelt pretty bad. Next we watched some TV shows for awhile. I looked
into driving to Elliot’s tournament and back, which came out to over $1000 in
gas alone. So I’ve been looking into flights and I finally found a decently
priced one and booked it. This whole time I’ve been telling my parents that
there’s no way I was going to make it up there, so it should make for a pretty
good surprise. When I get back I will be driving to Phoenix to see my friend
Mike. And the cheapest tickets I could find were from Vegas to Chicago. Which
should work out just fine. Tiffany came home after work and they both had a lot
of homework to finish up so I just looked things up for awhile. When Tiffany
finished her and I headed to cold stone to pick up some ice cream. I’ve never
been there and I was pretty much over whelmed by the choices. How is someone
supposed to choose from like 100 different things to add? I ended up with a
peanut butter cup type thing, and it was delicious.
James
had to get up around 430 in the morning. And tiffany got off of work at 7 in
the morning. Her and I went to grab some breakfast at a place around the corner
called Allison’s place. We showed up and there were 3 squad cars in the parking
lot. That’s how you know the food is good. It’s your typical greasy spoon with
great food. They give you these 2 huge fluffy biscuits that could be a meal all
in its own. After breakfast I said good bye to Tiff and started the drive back
to Vegas. That night I just got ready for my flight in the morning and watched
some movies.
Wednesday
morning I ate a quick breakfast and drove over to the parking lot and packed
up. I took the shuttle to ticketing area. Walked up to the counter, and found
out I’m fucked. For some reason my flight was booked for March 6th-16th.
I checked my email confirmation and sure enough I seriously messed something
up. I still don’t understand how. I typed in the 21-28 and scrolled down a bit
and clicked one. After paying a painful rebooking fee I got a flight leaving at
8 pm to LA then to Chicago at 1159pm. So if anyone is paying attention I came
from the Grand Canyon, to LA, to Vegas, to LA, to Vegas, just to fly BACK TO
LA!!!! But on the bright side everything was still going to work out fine.
NOPE!!! As im getting back in my car the zipper on my pants break. How does
that happen? Something comes by and stabs you, and then something else has to
come by and twist the knife. I didn’t feel safe doing anything so I watched
movies for the day. I made the flight to LA and things started to go smoothly.
I had a 3 hour layover so I was able to get some typing done. The seats on the
flight to Chicago didn’t recline at all, so sleep really wasn’t going to
happen.
Thursday
Adam was able to pick me up on his way to work around 7 am. It was great to see
him but I was not happy about the weather. Simply it sucked, cold, cloudy, and
windy. Adam headed right to work and I took his car in to the dealer for a tune
up. The dealership had free internet so it gave me time to take care of a few
things and do some typing. Adam only worked half a day so I drove back over by
him at noon. Then we started the drive to Madison. We spent the time catching
up and planning out the weekend. When we arrived Adam was going to meet mom at
the door to the stadium. He walked up and told her that he found a bum at the
air port. My mom was pretty shocked to see me and we all headed inside. My dad
was surprised but he later said he had a feeling I was going to show up. Elliot
saw me sitting by everyone and came over to say hi. It was great to see
everyone and I was glad I made the trip. We watched Elliot’s first match and he
did really well. He won!!
