Sat night 8pm-
we left and drove south and through New Mexico. I didn't see any of the city but stopped at a cool truck stop that had late night barber shops and my first snowglobe. We also went to Las Vegas, NM. It was exciting leaving my state for the first time in so long. I think I ran over a frog which was so horrible : (
Sun to Mon-Arizona
We arrived exhausted in Arizona and when I woke up from my nap in the car I was really freaked out- there are palm trees in Arizona! I had never seen them before and thought they were only in Cali. We fell in love with Phoenix- the mountains look odd compared to the Rockies and it's hot but there is something so pretty about the area and the city is huge with a lot of mosques- I read about a mosque in Tempe that is run by young poeple and is mulitculutral with frequent social events. We also went looking for the University of Phoenix home campus but it all looks like corporate office buildings so that was disappointing.
We stayed in a nice hotel [the attendant was kinda rude but whatever] and slept for a while after driving around town to get a feel for the place. We stopped by a Krispy Kreme which is no longer at home and later we went out and found our first In N Out burger- yummy! [though now I'm sick of burgers and fries] We also went the home of the Arizona Cardinals and the place my tutiion paid for, the University of Phoenix Statium. We also tried to find a park within the city but went at night and couldn't. I enjoyed walking around the hotel back area with a nice park and we tried in the morning to go to a Bosnian place "the Sarajevo Cafe" but a death notice was on the door and they were closed [God bless them]
Mon to Tues- Cali
We drove to California and saw the Mexico border in the distance- crazy! We passed by a border patrol and came close to running out of gas- my husband wasn't paying attention. There was beautiful sceanery along the way. Entering Cali was surreal- it felt odd to finally be in this oft mentioned place. We stopped by another In N Out. From there we went to the football game- very odd being the visiting team but there were a lot of Bronco fans there. We were very early but just walked around the statidum. The game was amazing and of course I represented by screaming and cheering my head off {I still have a raspy voice} and exchanged congrats with other bronco fans and even some barbs with Charger fans. From there it was dark and too late to visit Sea World so we drove around and ate at Weinerschniztel [open late- very cool!] and yummy!! We drove to Coronado and went across the bridge onto the island which was beautiful. I saw the beach for the first time, but it was dark and I was disappointed about our timing. We decided to drove to Vegas but when I awoke from my car nap, my husband said he was too tired and we got a hotel in Sun City, CA- overpriced but I didn't like the idea of sleeping in the car.
Tuesday- Nevada
We drove to Nevada and it was so fun to see the lights of Vegas- we drove through the strip and saw the Eiffel tower, New York New York, and the Stratsosphere, which I didn't ride on. The rumors on 'the food is cheap' is not true and the buffets were all $15 and up. I found out my drivers license was not valid [had a hole in the expiration and I forgot to bring the paper from the DMV when I went to get my replacement] so I couldn't get the hotel room I booked through AAA and after a lot of back and forth, all was settled and we got an upgraded hotel suite- awesome!!! From there we entered the land of inner rooms with flashing lights, slot machines, and casinos who don't want people to ever leave the inner building. I played some penny slots but it was confusing. My husband wanted to explore the other side of Vegas with me- yeah right. We walked the strip and saw the volcano show and the water show, went to the M and M store and passed way too many people hawking porn. There were a lot of different cultures in the tourists and we could hear the passing conversations in different languages. The bellagio was very nice with the conservatory and Paris had a pretty inner area with a sky ceiling. I saw some other hijabis and the next day went to the oldest mosque in Vegas that Mohammad Ali went to. One cool thing was going to the wax museum and the scary tour area of it. When we got back, my husband was tired so I went to the Fremont Street Experience- I loved being out with open businesses at midnight. We joined up and watched the light show and fussed at each other- which was at a minimum considering our previous trips. In the morning we ate at Weinerschnitzel a last time and went on the road
Wednesday- NV/AZ/ Utah/ CO
We drove through the remaining three states and Utah was very pretty with alot of cows but we could see the mountains again. I stopped by a gas station but it looked too country to my husband so we drove on. The frustrating part came in CO when we got lost on the way to my parent's house- a lot of arguing and wasted gas, and foggy driving with snowy streets- I really missed Phoenix at that point and when we got to their house and walked into snow- very cold. My husband's car got stuck in the snow and my poor parents helped us at 3am. We finally got home and it felt odd- I'm ready to travel again!
