VIVA LAS VEGAS (And Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas)

Well I stayed within budget so I’d say Vegas was a success! Of course as I drove east towards on Monday, it kept getting hotter and hotter. By the time I got to Excalibur it was at least 100 degrees and it was around 6pm. Monday night Chris and I walked up and down the strip and exploring a few of the casinos in our area. We also accepted an offer to tour a timeshare and receive free David Copperfield tickets plus $50. I was grateful for the opportunity to learn about timeshares but did not enjoy spending 4 hours of valuable pool time indoors being pressured into buying real estate. But we got the tickets and had fun at the free show on Tuesday night. Wednesday I got in some serious pool time and then we had dinner and caught the Knights of the Round Table show at Excalibur, where we were staying. Unfortunately, I think the fact that I was traveling and in the process of this move affected my energy and desire to do more in Las Vegas. So NEXT TIME I’ll have to do it as just a vacation, and not a stop on a cross-country drive.

Our next leg on Thursday was 600 miles and had lots of stops, but it was beautiful. After getting into Arizona, we drove through Flagstaff, Sedona, Phoenix, and then stopped in Tucson for dinner. Once it started getting dark near Tucson, we got to watch a really cool thunderstorm in the distance. We stayed overnight in a town called Willcox, in south eastern Arizona. Formerly I would have made fun of how “small-town” this place was, but I am moving from Depoe Bay so I have no room to talk.

Today was probably our longest straight day of driving at 12 ½ hours. What made it even stranger was going from Arizona, which doesn’t observe daylight savings time, through New Mexico, which is on Mountain time, and then ending in Texas, which is on Central time. For a short time in the afternoon, each hour of driving was two hours of time added to the clock. The most notable part of the drive was the section of I-10 by El Paso and Juarez. On one side of the freeway are your standard businesses and city housing structures, and on the other side are dirt hillsides covered in make-shift houses in Mexico. And even starting in New Mexico, most of the patrol cars on the road were not highway patrol, but border patrol.

Tomorrow we have a short drive to Chris’s parents’ and sister’s town of Justin, Texas. And you’ll be hearing from me again early next week. Sorry for my brevity on the last few days, especially Vegas. I’m committed to journaling regularly so I have more to write about next time.

Thanks for reading!