The first leg of the drive was pretty uneventful. I sat up front with Heather while Shim and Dan wedged into the back with all of Heather’s crap. We drove south through California, and at one point (in Barstow maybe?) we were driving in the midmorning traffic and we smelled something burning. We were all craning our necks around trying to figure out what it was.
Dan saw it first- and said there was hay burning on the side of the road. Then we realized it wasn’t hay. It was burning horse manure. But not like a big burning pile. There were small piles of two and three droppings that went on for about a mile. And they were all burning.
MMMMMMMMM. Breakfast anyone?
We drove though Joshua tree, which was kinda pretty but apparently I wasn’t overly impressed with it since I barely remember it. We stopped into a casino right on the CA/NV border, and it had a roller coaster, so we took a spin. It was tiny, but fun and scary, just like a roller coaster should be.
We pulled into Las Vegas at about 6 PM, and we wanted to see the pirate show at Treasure Island at 7:30, so that gave us some time to kill. We looked at our maps that we had and decided to camp overnight at Lake Mead. Heather was not old enough to go into the casinos, so we wandered around the strip. We saw the white tigers at the Mirage, where we also drooled over the pool. But being on very limited fundage for the trip, mostly we wandered.
We made it out in front of Treasure Island to get decent spots for the pirate show. It was touristy and fakey fakey, but entertaining. Then we watched a fountain show done to look like a volcano. That was cool- the red lights on the spraying water. After te water show, I found myself separated from my friends. I had no idea what to do- we had no plan for if this happened, and I did not know where the car was (this was before cell phones). It was all I could do to keep from wandering the strip in tears. I worked my way back to Treasure Island, and managed to find Heather, who said the boys had gone to get the car, and we were going to go get some groceries.
Our “groceries” consisted of a loaf of bread, a package of cold cuts, squeezable mayo and mustard, and a package of danishes, an a box of plastic knives. We were just Las Vegas gourmet…*barf*. We ate our sandwiches and went back down to the strip for a bit, why, I don’t know. I think because the boys wanted to. Heather and I sat on her trunk in the parking lot, and for some reason I can’t remember anymore got hassled by security, but there wasn’t really anything we could do, because we had to wait for the guys.
When they finally came back, we took off for Lake Mead. We pulled out our sleeping bags, and stretched out on the ground. Dan slept on a picnic table. I could not sleep on the rocky ground, and the flying insects were really bothering me, so I got up to sleep in the car. And let me tell you, sleeping in a closed up car all night is *not* comfortable. It’s very cramped and stuffy.
I actually hated Vegas. Probably because I was hot, tired, broke, and traveling with someone I didn’t really like and who smelled vaguely of urine.