Day 4, 12/28 - Vegas or Bust

We woke up in Gallup, NM to 7 degree weather!!!! We were up on time and managed to get on the road by 7:40 am (Mountain time). Since we weren't far from the Arizona border we made it there fairly quickly. A stop at the AZ welcome center was necessary. This was another half decent one, but it was still so cold, Jolene thought her fingers were going to fall off! This didn't stop her from writing "Vegas or Bust" in the road dirt on the car. :-) Arizona is a gorgeous state with lots of rock formations that bring out here-to-forth unrevealed rock climbing desires in Jolene.
Our first side trip of the day took us to Meteor Crater, 35 miles east of Flagstaff. Wow! 50,000 years ago a meteorite smashed into the Arizona desert creating a massive hole 700 ft. deep & over 4,000 ft. across. Pretty impressive. Well worth stopping for. 'Lookit the Lookit the' approved!
Back on I-40 we can clearly see the San Francisco Peaks rising on the horizon. Pretty, pretty.
Wanting to refill our drink supply we stopped in Flagstaff, a bustling college town, and hit up a Safeway. Rick being the thrifty fella that he is, decided on some 12 packs of soda that were on sale. Only with the 'club card', of course. Being from out of state, we had no 'club card', but we know they usually have a generic one at the register. As we get to the cashier, Rick says, "Hi. We're from NJ so we don't have a 'club card', do you have one here you can scan?" To which the answer was a swift negative head shake. So we overpaid for our beverages. Grrrrrrrrrrr.
Found a nifty 'lil sandwich shop called Crystal Creek Sandwich Co. where we stopped for lunch. Humongous french dip for Rick & a super crystal veggie sandwich for Jolene, which consisted of avocado, artichoke hearts, cucumbers, walnuts, sprouts, tomatoes, lettuce, mayo, & Italian dressing. Yummy! Rick would've sampled some of their interesting beers had he not had to drive a few hundred more miles to Vegas.
Jolene's take on the Arizona landscape might be expressed as miles upon miles of vast open spaces then 'BAM!', city, then more open space. It also ranges from rolling fields to mountains to crazy rock formations. We saw plenty of fun and funky cacti, but have yet to see what Jolene pictures a 'real' cactus to look like.
We nearly ran out of gas on a stretch of I-40. Both of us quietly panicked, when finally an oasis of a gas station appeared in the nick of time. The Versa's thirst was quenched to the tune of nearly $30.
Jolene suggested we check out a little burg called Chloride to see if they had a Post Office at which she could buy stamps & mail out some postcards. Chloride has a population of 352 people. Very small and very run down. Alas, Post Office closed @ 4pm and it was quarter after when we arrived.
Back on I-40, Rick popped in a 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' CD to narrate our ride into Vegas. This would be short lived, as we soon came to a screeching halt at 3:53pm Pacific Time about five miles from the Hoover Dam & only forty miles from Vegas. Ugh. We were making such great time up until that point. The Versa crawled the next five miles over two and a half hours never getting above second gear. It turned out to be the result of a security checkpoint at the entrance to the dam. I guess all the terrorist activity of the last week or so caused the extra security and the horrendous back-up of traffic. Thankfully we looked harmless enough with our pink LBI magnets that we were able to make our way through without much ado. Dam looked mighty impressive, like something out of 'The Lord of the Rings' or 'Star Wars', but we were unable to stop due to Jolene's overflowing bladder.
Final miles to Vegas were uneventful. The view of the brightly lit city in the middle of nothingness as we came down onto the town was breathtaking. We had finally made it. Or so we thought. Finding the proper entrance to our hotel, the Luxor, proved challenging and we must've driven around the block at least four times until we found the correct approach. The bustle here is overwhelming, as was the line to check in. Rick dealt with getting the luggage where it needed to go & parking the car, while Jolene got us checked in. We were both slightly frazzled by the time we got into our room, but dinner, drinks, good conversation & laughs with cousins John & Sarah helped to calm our nerves.
Vegas here we are. It's going to be great to kick back & enjoy a city without having to drive hundreds of miles everyday.