June 19, 2013

 

On the road again...  Come along for the ride.

 

Life is a journey, and I am constantly amazed how much I learn about myself as I travel through.  This year, Spouse and I decided to take our nephew Crew on a road trip.  These are places we would NOT normally go during the summer months, but because this is the last summer that Crew will be a kid, we decided to forgo our normal ideology about road trips, and make some memories for him.

 

I remember when I was a kid, and itty bitty kid at that, I dreamed of going to far away places.  My mom did her best, giving that she was a divorced mother of three with absolutely no money.  She took us to San Diego, San Francisco and to Crestline (up near Lake Arrowhead).  But those were all in California.  I wanted more.  When I was 15, my friend Nancy Jenks invited me on a road trip with her family.  Her brother wasn't going so I would take his place.  We went up the coast all the way to Vancouver, then east ending up at Mt. Rushmore, then west heading home.  I not only had several states to my credit, but another country in Canada!  The monster had been unleashed.

 

At that time,  I vowed to myself that I would see all four corners of the earth by the time I was 30.  Ok, the earth is round, but I was going to have multiple continents under my belt by 30, which I did, and I kept on going!  I once told Crew that I had been in all 50 states, and he thought that was pretty cool.  Given his less than ideal childhood, both Spouse and I figured we would send him off into adulthood with some exposure, experiences and memories that we hope will last through his lifetime.

 

I am pretty sure he would rather forget his first memories of this trip and that is him having to wash Hannah and help get her ready to go!  But he did the deed and we set off for the first leg of our journey; on to Las Vegas.

 

Spouse knows how to take a 5 hour drive and make it a 7 hour drive!  'We have more time than money' is his motto, so the speedometer is set at 60 and off we crawl.  Yes, we are towing so the speed limit is only 55 IN CALIFORNIA.  And we have to eat.  And he has to stop because he forgot to lock the bikes.  And he has to pee.

 

We get to Las Vegas and set up camp at Circus Circus which has a KOA campground.  We smuggle Crew in as they want $25 for additional people!  Really?

 

We then start to show him the sights.  He saw the aquarium at Mirage, the glass ceiling at Bellagio as well as the water dances,  he rode the roller coaster at New York New York.  He went to Paris.  He saw the animatronic statues at Caesars.   He saw lots of scantily clothed women, and street entertainers.  He was quite impressed with Wonder Woman's costume...  He loved the energy of the night as well as the crowds (which I could totally do without!).  But it was fun to see him soak it all in.

 

We took him to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner.  Although he knew of the restaurant, he never figured he would like it as it had 'cheese' in the title so everything must be smothered in cheese...  He needs some eyes to open!