The Saga Begins

Vegas.

What a gloriously well-lit city. It’s a nine hour drive from Sacramento to Vegas, and I didn’t get in til well after dark. And, as it’s famous for, I could see the bright lights of Vegas shining behind the mountain from about 40 miles away. Awesome.

I get into Vegas, and I’m staying at the Luxor which is on the Strip. The center of Vegas, the one place you go when you go to Vegas.

Yes, of course I got lost.

I knew it was across from the airport (thanks to Google Maps; I LOVE Google Maps) and so I took the exit for the airport thinking it would be right around the corner. Well, it was, but I didn’t go far enough. So I call my Dad (really, what would I do without him?) and he directs me down this other road. I get on the right road and I get to the Strip and take a right. Yes! I’m on my way, it’s just up here.

Twenty minutes later, I’m still on the strip heading straight for darkness. I call my Dad back and I tell him I don’t think I’m going the right direction because the bright lights of Vegas are now behind me. He checks the map, and sure enough, I’m heading the wrong direction. Remember back when I turned right?

Left. I should have gone left.

So I hook a Uie (how does one spell that?) and go towards the light.

Thirty minutes later, I finally find the Luxor. Perfect!

Only now I can’t figure out where to park. I circle, loop back around, circle on the wrong road, loop around again, and finally figure out where to park. Yes, there are signs, but they’re very tiny and they’re RIGHT WHERE YOU TURN. How bout some advance warning?

Park in the garage, get all my crap out, and hike the half mile into the building, then the other half of the mile to the registration desk, check in, get to my room, and order room service. I’m texting Sarah, as she’s supposedly getting on a plane in a couple hours to get to Vegas tomorrow morning, when she tells me her flight out of Anchorage has been delayed, 2 hours. This is not a disaster, as they have a 3 hour layover in Seattle before flying on to Las Vegas, NV. So it’s 2am AKST before they finally lift off, 7am before they finally get to Seattle with 30 minutes to spare to make their connecting flight. I get much needed rest in a glorious hotel room, and I pick them up at the airport. We go back to the Luxor, rearrange luggage so I can actually fit the extra two people in my car, and play a few slots, take a few pictures, buy a few souvenirs, and eat lunch in the Atrium.

The plan after lunch is to drive from there to the Grand Canyon, where we will go on the Skywalk the following day. We have a room reserved 1 mile from the entrance, and we’re super excited. Of course we get a late start out of Vegas, so we don’t get to the Hoover Dam until just after dark. Still cool, just not conducive to taking pictures or stopping at the visitor’s center for postcards. So we continue on down the road towards Kingman, AZ, where we will hit the road we need to take to get to the other road we need to take to get to the Grand Canyon hotel.

About an hour out from the Hoover Dam, it begins to snow.

Yep, ya read that right.

It is snowing on us in Arizona.

Fantastic.

So it’s full dark, windy mountain roads, snowing, and getting later by the minute. It took us four hours to get from the Hoover Dam to Kingman, AZ. For those of you who have never driven that road, it’s about 70 miles.

Four hours to go 70 miles.

Once in Kingman, we stop for gas and pull out the map. How much further do we have to go? As we’re perusing the page, we notice the sign for the Grand Canyon Skywalk.

We passed the road to get to it 65 miles back.

We will not be doing the Skywalk.

We’re very bummed about this, as the Skywalk looks so cool, but there is no way we’re turning around now. Onwards and upwards.

So we take the road further, find our turn for the next road, and it begins to snow even harder. I’m talking blinding, driving, Alaska snow. In freakin Arizona. We finally get to Williams, AZ, where the next (and last, thank God) turn is and pull into a gas station to ask directions to the Denny’s so we can have dinner. It is 10:30 at this point, and we’re exhausted, frustrated, and disappointed. And now, there’s a foot of snow on the ground. At least we all have experience driving in the snow. Poor Sarah and Koji though, they take a vacation to the desert and get snowed on.

We get back on the road after dinner, find the turn off, and we’re very excited because it’s only 50 miles down this road to the hotel. Whoo hoo!

Only the road is icy, so we can’t go faster than 50. Ok, so it’s gonna be a little while longer til we get there. We’re on the right road, and we’re going forward. That’s what matters.

Then the fog settles.

I’m talking pea soup fog, I can’t see 10 feet in front of the car. So we are crawling down this two lane highway that is iced over through pea soup fog at 30 mph, laughing hysterically because it is now midnight and we left Las Vegas EIGHT HOURS AGO to go to the Grand Canyon. The fog lifts slightly and I pick up the pace just a little.

And almost run over a heard of elk.

Oh, come on!!!

We need a breather, so we pull over a little ways up the road, get out and look at the stars (the fog was only car level; I believe it was planned that way by the Right-Wing Conspiracy). They are beautiful. The moon is too bright to see more than a few, but still beautiful.

We keep going, and the fog alternates between patchy and pea soup. We roll into town doing 35, check in at the hotel, and fall into exhausted sleep at 1:30am.

Our journey from Las Vegas, NV, to the South Rim Entrance of the Grand Canyon took us 9 hours to complete.

Awesome.