Strangecreature's Excellent Adventure: Days 1 & 2
Otherwise known as 'the days where Megan was still mostly pretending to be a sane person in photos'.
Mom's final words as I headed out the door: "Try not to look like a yokel!"
Megan's first words as the airplane lands in Las Vegas: "OH MAH GAWD, PALM TREES!!!!1!"
Palm treeeeeees. The cars in Las Vegas are very, very clean, like they've all just been driven off the lot. It's very weird. Also, it is hot like a freakin' sauna.
Hotel! We were sneaky and got a perfectly gorgeous hotel, which was much cheaper because it was just slightly out of town. *bows* My dad and I think alike on matters like that.
So bright and early the next morning, we drove into the desert to begin our journey.
Happy Creature is happy in the desert! :-D (I has a shrubbery!)
And then we had to cross the Hoover Dam, where there are many security checks and people WITH REALLY LARGE GUNS who yell at you to keep moving if you stop your car on the dam. I'm not used to seeing security folks with anything more deadly than a baton! Needless to say, I tried to behave myself and slid my Cory Doctorow novel about thwarting Homeland Security a little deeper into my backpack.
FYI: This is what a bad guy looks like! Good thing they told me...
(I don't think everybody's buying it though...)
Hoover Dam! It is very very large and impressive and vertigo-making. (TAKE NOTE OF THE VERTIGO THING. Prairie-girl had not actually come in contact with Very Tall Things like this before and was not yet aware that she was kinda afraid of heights. This will be important in the next picspam when we get to the Grand Canyon. *G*)
*is still behaving self*
I'm in Nevada! \o/
And now in Arizona! \o/ Which I then proceeded to get confused for the rest of the trip.
Megan makes a friend! This is Samuel Lloyd, who roams the country because he's bored, and is an environmental surrealist painter. Also, he asked if my dad was in the CIA before he'd let him take our picture. We had a weirdly long chat and I was entirely smitten and kind of want to grow up to be this dude. (He drove a totally beat up Tercel which he liked because 'it's disposable', which had the window and passenger seat missing because a bear tore it out. A BEAR ATE PART OF HIS CAR, GUYS.)
So then we left Hoover Dam and started down Route 66, despite chlare's entirely accurate warning that there's not much along there anymore.
THERE'S REALLY NOT MUCH ALONG THERE ANYMORE.
Megan: *is jerky*
I'm in ur abandoned tourist trap, kickin' ur tumbleweeds!
Dad: *is a cactus* (The heat may have been getting to us at this point.)
If You Don't Know
Whose Signs These Are
You Haven't Driven
Very Far
\o/
"Oh my god, ewwwww, that's disgusting! ... WE MUST EAT HERE NOW, OKAY?"
And so we ate there, and it was good. *g*
Is this... a common problem? Guns at breakfast? O_O
Attempt at being artsy. :-P
So, okay, we get to our motel. It was the worst motel in existence, to the point where I couldn't stop giggling and just kept taking notes because if I ever have a character or two that I want to torture, that is exactly where they shall stay. There were blood spatters on the carpet and the door didn't shut all the way and the place was crawling with bugs. I'm not even squicked by bugs and my skin was crawling. There was mold and broken drawers AND THERE WAS ONLY ONE OTHER PERSON STAYING IN THE WHOLE PLACE. My dad was terrified, yo. It was so amazing. Also, for entertainment...
Worst. Playground. Ever. X-D
So obviously we weren't going to lounge around at that motel for longer than we had to, so we were out and about finding cool things to do for the rest of the day. Including finding some of the deepest dry caverns in America, which I'd been yapping about seeing because caves fascinate me about as much as they scare the hell out of me. I believe the Grand Canyon Caverns are something like 200ft underground? In any case...
IT WAS REALLY SCARY AT FIRST. (lol, hands wouldn't stop shaking!)
But then it got awesome and I was well pleased.
They had stuff down there! Like a little hotel room (for $700 a night) and a fall-out shelter that they figured wouldn't have actually done any good for keeping radiation out. I was duly charmed and we spent about an hour going through the place.
Mummified bob-cat! His name, of course, was Bob.
Entirely random T-Rex skull at top of elevator shaft down to caverns. There weren't T-Rex in the area or anything. They just liked it. *hands* Again, I was totally charmed.
Me and my pa, temporarily behaving ourselves.
And then dad noticed that there were trail-rides near here and geeked out like a crazy person, so we decided to do that too. I... grew up around rodeo, but I can't even remember the last time I rode a horse. The one I got was new on the job (her first week!) and kept going "WHOOOOO! THIS IS AWESOME! IMMA RUN AWAY NOW, OKAY?" until the trail-guide lady had to put us on a leash.
LEASH OF SHAME. X-D So I asked what my horse's name was, obviously. Thing was, since she was so new, she hadn't actually been named yet. After over an hour of riding around, the realization finally struck me:
I'VE BEEN ACROSS THE DESERT ON A HORSE WITH NO NAME. *cackles* Like, literally. How excellent is that? Am still on Leash Of Shame in this picture, don't be fooled.
And then we ate here, where there was only us, the cook, and a million-year-old cowboy who clomped in step by spur-jingling step like something out of a really bad western. It was so strange.
And then we went back to the Worst Motel Ever, where I awoke in the wee hours of the morning with an effin' sandfly crawling into my mouth. X-D
Conclusion: THERE IS REALLY NOTHING DOING ON ROUTE 66 ANYMORE. But I still loved the hell out of it.
Next up: Actual Grand Canyon! Snakes! The belated realization that Megan is Not Very Good with heights and the saga of face-pulling in pictures begins in earnest! X-D
Mom's final words as I headed out the door: "Try not to look like a yokel!"
Megan's first words as the airplane lands in Las Vegas: "OH MAH GAWD, PALM TREES!!!!1!"
Palm treeeeeees. The cars in Las Vegas are very, very clean, like they've all just been driven off the lot. It's very weird. Also, it is hot like a freakin' sauna.
Hotel! We were sneaky and got a perfectly gorgeous hotel, which was much cheaper because it was just slightly out of town. *bows* My dad and I think alike on matters like that.
So bright and early the next morning, we drove into the desert to begin our journey.
Happy Creature is happy in the desert! :-D (I has a shrubbery!)
And then we had to cross the Hoover Dam, where there are many security checks and people WITH REALLY LARGE GUNS who yell at you to keep moving if you stop your car on the dam. I'm not used to seeing security folks with anything more deadly than a baton! Needless to say, I tried to behave myself and slid my Cory Doctorow novel about thwarting Homeland Security a little deeper into my backpack.
FYI: This is what a bad guy looks like! Good thing they told me...
(I don't think everybody's buying it though...)
Hoover Dam! It is very very large and impressive and vertigo-making. (TAKE NOTE OF THE VERTIGO THING. Prairie-girl had not actually come in contact with Very Tall Things like this before and was not yet aware that she was kinda afraid of heights. This will be important in the next picspam when we get to the Grand Canyon. *G*)
*is still behaving self*
I'm in Nevada! \o/
And now in Arizona! \o/ Which I then proceeded to get confused for the rest of the trip.
Megan makes a friend! This is Samuel Lloyd, who roams the country because he's bored, and is an environmental surrealist painter. Also, he asked if my dad was in the CIA before he'd let him take our picture. We had a weirdly long chat and I was entirely smitten and kind of want to grow up to be this dude. (He drove a totally beat up Tercel which he liked because 'it's disposable', which had the window and passenger seat missing because a bear tore it out. A BEAR ATE PART OF HIS CAR, GUYS.)
So then we left Hoover Dam and started down Route 66, despite chlare's entirely accurate warning that there's not much along there anymore.
THERE'S REALLY NOT MUCH ALONG THERE ANYMORE.
Megan: *is jerky*
I'm in ur abandoned tourist trap, kickin' ur tumbleweeds!
Dad: *is a cactus* (The heat may have been getting to us at this point.)
If You Don't Know
Whose Signs These Are
You Haven't Driven
Very Far
\o/
"Oh my god, ewwwww, that's disgusting! ... WE MUST EAT HERE NOW, OKAY?"
And so we ate there, and it was good. *g*
Is this... a common problem? Guns at breakfast? O_O
Attempt at being artsy. :-P
So, okay, we get to our motel. It was the worst motel in existence, to the point where I couldn't stop giggling and just kept taking notes because if I ever have a character or two that I want to torture, that is exactly where they shall stay. There were blood spatters on the carpet and the door didn't shut all the way and the place was crawling with bugs. I'm not even squicked by bugs and my skin was crawling. There was mold and broken drawers AND THERE WAS ONLY ONE OTHER PERSON STAYING IN THE WHOLE PLACE. My dad was terrified, yo. It was so amazing. Also, for entertainment...
Worst. Playground. Ever. X-D
So obviously we weren't going to lounge around at that motel for longer than we had to, so we were out and about finding cool things to do for the rest of the day. Including finding some of the deepest dry caverns in America, which I'd been yapping about seeing because caves fascinate me about as much as they scare the hell out of me. I believe the Grand Canyon Caverns are something like 200ft underground? In any case...
IT WAS REALLY SCARY AT FIRST. (lol, hands wouldn't stop shaking!)
But then it got awesome and I was well pleased.
They had stuff down there! Like a little hotel room (for $700 a night) and a fall-out shelter that they figured wouldn't have actually done any good for keeping radiation out. I was duly charmed and we spent about an hour going through the place.
Mummified bob-cat! His name, of course, was Bob.
Entirely random T-Rex skull at top of elevator shaft down to caverns. There weren't T-Rex in the area or anything. They just liked it. *hands* Again, I was totally charmed.
Me and my pa, temporarily behaving ourselves.
And then dad noticed that there were trail-rides near here and geeked out like a crazy person, so we decided to do that too. I... grew up around rodeo, but I can't even remember the last time I rode a horse. The one I got was new on the job (her first week!) and kept going "WHOOOOO! THIS IS AWESOME! IMMA RUN AWAY NOW, OKAY?" until the trail-guide lady had to put us on a leash.
LEASH OF SHAME. X-D So I asked what my horse's name was, obviously. Thing was, since she was so new, she hadn't actually been named yet. After over an hour of riding around, the realization finally struck me:
I'VE BEEN ACROSS THE DESERT ON A HORSE WITH NO NAME. *cackles* Like, literally. How excellent is that? Am still on Leash Of Shame in this picture, don't be fooled.
And then we ate here, where there was only us, the cook, and a million-year-old cowboy who clomped in step by spur-jingling step like something out of a really bad western. It was so strange.
And then we went back to the Worst Motel Ever, where I awoke in the wee hours of the morning with an effin' sandfly crawling into my mouth. X-D
Conclusion: THERE IS REALLY NOTHING DOING ON ROUTE 66 ANYMORE. But I still loved the hell out of it.
Next up: Actual Grand Canyon! Snakes! The belated realization that Megan is Not Very Good with heights and the saga of face-pulling in pictures begins in earnest! X-D