Road Trip- Days 3&4

Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Arizona again, Nevada.

We were prepared for Day 3 of our road trip to be the longest day ever. It was also the day that we entered the great desolation that is the desert. Once we trekked through the last portion of Oklahoma we entered Texas. I am sure Texas is great, I know people from there, I have a friend who is there now and everyone knows that "everything is bigger in Texas"

...but Kaley and I traveled through the panhandle of Texas (just the tippy-top) and I can say with the utmost certainty that the panhandle is probably the worst part of Texas, ever, ever, ever- at least from what we could see from the highway. Let me introduce you to the panhandle:

Fun, right? I guess since Texas is such a big state I can excuse them of the tiny area we traveled through. This is how I felt after driving an hour or so through it.

This is how Kaley was feeling.

Next, we entered the "Land of Enchantment" (as they call it), New Mexico. I must say, new mexico was a welcomed change. It was still the desert, but it was pretty.

The red cliffs and sand were unlike any terrain that either of us had experienced before. It was beautiful in its own deserted way. We also found old route 66 in NM and drove on it for about 30 seconds.

The downside of New Mexico was that bathrooms, gas stations and fast food were few and far between and cell phone service was just about obsolete. Little did we know, this is how it would be pretty much for the next 12 or so hours of driving.

We drove through the painted desert and passed by the petrified forest in the dark. We were only mildly disappointed by this but it got us to talking a lot about geography facts of the desert. We quickly learned that neither of us know much at all really when it comes to that sort of thing. We bravely asked Ben a few of our geography/Native American history questions and he could barely hide his disgust with our lack of knowledge. Oh well... We arrived in Flagstaff Arizona that night and went to bed almost as soon as we got there.

We woke up early for Day 4 of driving and it was freezing. Something we learned about the desert in November-- in the shade or in the dark it is cold enough that it snows and doesn't melt. In the sunshine, you might sweat if you are wearing long sleeves. So we drove, though even more desert.

We were headed to the Grand Canyon! We went up about 8,000 feet above sea level and drove through winding roads and eventually, out of nowhere, we hit a forest. It was pretty bizarre. The GPS (our trusty guide which we aptly named Sacagawea) had led us all the way to Arizona without a hitch. We asked her to lead us to the Grand Canyon (the biggest hole in the earth) and somehow, we got lost. Lost, trying to find the Grand Canyon.

Her leadership skills failed us, and this is why: As clueless East Coast women we trusted her, but eventually learned that any advisement to follow "unpaved road" was not good.

With the help of our own navigational skills, and directions Kaley had printed out from the computer, we found the Grand Canyon (thank goodness)!

It's something I have always wanted to see, but never thought I would go because I figured there really wasn't anything in Arizona other than the Grand Canyon. I was right about that, but I am SO glad that I go to see it. And I am very thankful to Kaley that she was willing to go and even spend a considerable amount of time there so that I could take 6,000 pictures.

This is how I felt when I first saw it:

This is kind of how Kaley felt about it:

I loved it. The Grand Canyon. Wow. It was so quiet and peaceful and gigantic. And God did it. Wow.

We even saw a heard of wild bison.

After a full afternoon at the Grand Canyon we headed, back into the desert to our night's destination- Las Vegas! We learned that because much of the Mojave Desert has nothing but sand and mesa formations and is made up of many Indian Reservations, we could not drive straight into Nevada. The roads didn't go that way -- so to arrive in Las Vegas we went from Arizona, through a small part of Utah and then into Arizona again before finally arriving in Nevada. Utah was a blessing though, it provided us with food, gas, and toilet. Thank you Utah!

Then, out of complete darkness came Las Vegas!

We stayed at the MGM Grand in beds that felt like marshmallows.

We just simply enjoyed the ridiculously bright and busy strip. We treated ourselves to Serendipity's signature frozen hot chocolate- hopefully just as good as it is in NYC! We certainly thought so.

We flirted with Sinatra and tried to be like Marilyn.

The fountains at the Bellagio...

We felt like swanky city girls just for a night. I had such a good time with her, even in the "city of sin", as it were...