My road trip across the states started on a Saturday night. I left my home that I have lived in on and off since my freshman year of high school. I said goodbye with more than a few tears in my eyes and drove to my friend Rachael's house in San Bernardino. Not the longest part of my journey, but a little head start on the way to the Grand Canyon and a good way to get some time in with her before I moved east.
Sunday morning started bright and early, I drove by the Wigwam Motel but didn't really see a way to take a picture I wanted so I continued on. I made my way to a Starbucks to get some oatmeal and give myself a little plan for the day. I decided a stop near Alien Fresh Jerky was necessary as well as one at Buffalo Bills on the Nevada border.
Before I got to Alien Fresh Jerky in the small town of Baker I stopped at an abandoned gas station that I had visited almost exactly a year ago with Dan on the way back from the Marine Ball. Old habits, and feelings die hard I guess you could say. The place looked as it had a year before, but I wasn't inclined to explore as much on my own so I drove up a couple exits to Baker.
I think it's fair to say that the drives and stops from that gas station to Buffalo Bills were definitely in a tribute to or a processing of the time spent there and the adventures had with Dan. Another step of closure maybe. All I know is that I wasn't about to drive past the Lo-Gas, Royal Hawaiian and Alien Fresh Jerky or Buffalo Bills without stopping. The writing that we had found so interesting was still there though what had seemed like blood around the broken edges of the glass had since been cleaned way. The doors were also closed so I quickly took the "welcome to hell" picture and moved on.
It wasn't long before Primm was before me and I decided to take a ride on the roller coaster. Honestly, it wasn't as fun as I remembered it being as a kid, the thrashing gave me a bit of a headache but that could have been due to the fact that I was the only, single, solitary one in the cart. Live large my friends, ride a roller coaster by yourself and you'll too know that you are i-n-d-e-p-e-n-d-e-n-t. Wooo.
After the bumpy ride I treated myself to a few rounds of skee ball in the kiddie zone and then continued on to Vegas. I hadn't yet decided if I was going to stop and see the huge ferris wheel but when I got there and the traffic was awful I decided against it. I set my sights on Zion National Park.
I'm going to stop here for a second and say Utah is absolutely gorgeous. By this point, when I got to Zion I had driven in California, Nevada, a tiny corner of Arizona and then into Utah. Utah's red rock formations had me wide eyed for miles and miles. As a little hint, I was wide eyed the whole trip for different reasons in each state, but it started in Utah.
I went a long way off a path to get to this tiny driving view of Zion and I feel like a little more research could have taken me where I really wanted to go, but the view I did have was still absolutely beautiful. I'm squinting pretty heavily in the picture because the sun was setting slowly and shining brightly in my face, but I was determined to have that background.
I decided pretty fast that I wanted to get as close to my night time destination as I could before the sun set. I'm not really excited about night driving on road trips. I like to get to my destination before the sun sets not just for safety reasons, but also because I want to see anything and everything that I can.
Despite my wishes I ended up leaving Utah (excuse the welcome to part of the sign, I had missed the leaving one) right about sunset and still had a good couple of hours before I was going to make it to my hotel in Page, AZ. I did finally make it after a lot of cruise control and the same mix cd for hours and hours. I got to my hotel hungry and decided to go get some Denny's before getting to bed. The time change was throwing me a little bit because my phone said something different from my car and the clock in the hotel said something different than that. But I figured it all out and settled myself in to get enough sleep for an early morning and a destination I had been looking forward to for months.
Up Next: Horse Shoe Bend
xoxo
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