My Two Week Trip Began and Ended with All-Nighters

When is the last time you pulled an all-nighter?  I remember when I was a freshman in college in a dorm my roommate and I stayed up all night to cram for a test.  Actually we may have slept from 3:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.

Hubs does not know this but when he and the boys left for the trip Out West and I joined them a week later, I ended up never going to sleep the day I met up with them.  I was laid off from work on a Tues afternoon and the next day they left for the epic road trip.  I then had till the following Wed when I joined them via plane ticket I had already bought (actually got for free as a result of opening new credit card previously) to chill out, send out my resume and network, clean house, and put into a pile the items they forgot to take.

Instead of an evening flight to Las Vegas according to Delta if I called at 5:30 a.m. on that Wed I could get on the 8:30 a.m. flight if there was room and pay $50 to make the switch.  Suddenly Tues night I had a lot to do before making that 5:30 am phone call and then getting picked up by neighbor at 6:00 a.m. to take me to the train station bound for the airport.  It just didn't make any sense to try to get to sleep at 2:00 a.m. and then worry about waking up at 5:00.

So I made coffee at 2:00 and stayed up all night long.  It was strange.  I lead a wild life.  It worked out perfectly.

The flight was on a huge plane which I loved because although there was turbulence it wasn't as obvious.  The guys were waiting for me in Las Vegas at a hotel/casino on the very south of town--they had just camped two nights previously on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  Hubs said, "Wait till you get your first glimpse of it!"

Actually this was my first glimpse:

(Part of the Grand Canyon can be seen out by the plane's wing by that 2nd from top pointy engine thingy).

When the hotel shuttle took me to the hotel and I joined the guys, I was all ready to explore, even though I had not slept at all I had not yet collapsed.  But they were chilling by the pool which made sense after Hubs' driving from Atlanta to Vegas and over mountains in NM and to Four Corners, Monument Valley and more.  They had spent 3 of the prior 7 nights tent camping.

That night we drove along the strip and had fun seeing the sights from the car.  Saw the Pawn Star building but parking lot was empty.

Saw the rides on top of the Stratosphere--they freak me out even looking at them from the ground and I get sick watching them on Youtube.  Saw some signs that cracked us up.

I crashed at 10:00 p.m., which was like 1:00 a.m. to me, after having never slept the night before.  The next day was huge.  But before I describe that, I have to say that on the last day of the trip we ended up not sleeping at all.

We ended up sleeping in Amarillo, TX on our last night.  One the way out west the guys had stopped at Cadillac Ranch and spray painted (which is encouraged) their names on these 10 Cadillacs.  They say within a day or two it gets covered up by others' spray paint  When we pulled into Amarillo at dinnertime we visited so that I could check out Cadillac Ranch.

At dinner we all decided that we'd drive a lot the next day and sleep outside of Memphis so that for the next day we would be home around 1:00 p.m. and the boys would have the rest of the day to be at home.  Everyone thought it sounded like a good idea.  It took forever to drive through Oklahoma.  I drove for only 1.5 hours in that state and had to wrestle with the steering wheel as the wind was so bad.  Then in Memphis I was driving again as we crossed the bridge over the Mississippi.  I don't do bridges well but in all fairness this is the only bridge of scores of them that I was not driving.  Actually I only drove a few hours of the entire 6,000+ trip.

Except for the guys' first night and the two nights in Vegas, all other hotel reservations were done by me on the fly.  Well, I had a booklet and a phone number for Choice Hotels which promoted buy two nights and get one free.  Outside of Memphis the hotels I wanted were booked so I reserved one that wasn't my 1st choice.  We arrived at about 10:00 p.m. because I had insisted that we stop at 7:30 for dinner earlier.  I didn't like the looks of the hotel.  Hubs and I entered--every other time arriving at a hotel I would check us in to a hotel and he/boys would begin loading our bags onto a hotel cart.  But Hubs had a feeling about this one.  The clerk told us there was no hot water and in the lobby the pipes had burst and were dripping water.  He says to me, "It is a sign"--we went outside and told the boys to settle in as we were driving straight to Atlanta."

The "we" was actually him because he was on a roll.  So we went to Nashville and the next leg was to Chattanooga and then to Atlanta.  It is usually a race track with hundreds of trucks....but 90% of them were pulled over resting.  I stayed awake because I have to be alert!  We pulled into our driveway at 6:00 a.m. after a 20 hour drive and went to bed for 4 hours.  Three days later we drove 7 hours to Florida for a long-planned family reunion.

(this was the morning of my b-day by our campsite in the Grand Canyon and the boys are happy because they were told that was the last time they had to pack up a tent and campsite).

So that is how my two part of the 3-week road trip began and ended with all-nighters.  But the rest of the trip was more exciting--still sorting through photos!