Viva Vegas Part I

I picked up Jonathan from work as early as he'd let me Friday afternoon and by 12:30 we were on our way to the city of sin.  Despite the occasional stop and go of US 60 (thanks to traffic lights) we were excited to be on the road until Jonathan turned down the radio to better hear the click, click click of what we were hoping, against all likely odds, was a rock.  Nope, as expected, this is what we found.  Such a lovely roofing nail, don't you agree?

Karma was certainly on our side because about 1/8th of a mile up the road we pulled into a Walmart Super Center, complete with tire center and an awesome tire guy.  Initially, due to the location of the nail and its perceived size, he was skeptical the tire could be repaired.  But after a little consideration, and perhaps some empathy for our situation, he decided to give it a shot.  He was hands down the hero of our day!  It only took him about 20 minutes to get the Mini on the lift, repair the tire and send us on our way, happy as little clams! Spending $10 was a heck of a lot nicer start to the trip than a $100+ special order tire.

About an hour later, just a few miles outside the center of Wickenburg we came across our second trip acquisition.  His name is Carl, and he is our welcoming Tiki to be placed in our urbanite walkway.  Despite all of the awesome tiki's this guy created Carl (whom we named, not the artist) is the ideal size, shape and image for our front walkway.  Carl doesn't make an appearance in this post, but will surely be seen during the walkway progress.

Anywho, back on the road we go. I hadn't expected the drive to be as hilly or as much of a climb in elevation but the Mini definitely got a workout.  Along our drive we enjoyed the Joshua tree scenic highway with the most Joshua trees I've ever seen in my entire life.Hence the highway's name.  I still cannot picture, even with squinted eyes, through a bug covered windshield how the person who named the trees saw a man reaching up to Jesus.  Perhaps this guys should have carried a little more water with him because he was clearly delirious. Strangely enough as soon as the Joshua trees dissipated the landscape became thick with Saguaros and scrubs with not one Joshua tree in site.

Nearing Vegas we drove over the new Hoover Dam bridge which was much appreciated for its convenience but greatly lacking in its scenic view, most likely for safety reasons.  I suppose that's what you get for driving a car commonly compared to that of the Flintstones. (Our return to the Hoover Dam will be discussed in Viva Vegas Part II).

After about 6 hours of driving we finally made it to Las Vegas!  I can't say the town is really the grandest site to see during the day, but alas we had arrived.  We met up with the Hupps, checked in, then headed up to our room on the 27th floor of the MGM Grand for a quick drop off of our bags before we made our way to dinner.  We enjoyed a fabulous seafood dinner then made a mad dash to see Steve Martin and his blue grass band.  However, it was only after we had arrived to the concert location that we learned the add at the MGM and the person who sold us the tickets was mistaken about the start time, which turned out to be an hour before we got there.  No worries, we're in Vegas, plenty to do. Refunded and ready to go we headed out to the strip and walked around for a bit.  We didn't stay out too long seeing that it was a good 50 degrees outside with a wind chill of just above freezing.  Ok, not literally just above freezing, but a 20 degree drop having come from Phoenix was pretty uncomfortable for this fragile flower.

While waiting in line to catch a cab back to the MGM we chatted with a birthday girl who was kind enough to offer Jonathan's mom some of her drink.  How sweet.  My favorite part of the conversation was when she mentioned that she could no longer taste the alcohol which we were currently getting a contact buzz from.  I guess something has to keep you warm when you're half naked and its below 50 degrees : )

Day two to come shortly...