Las Vegas

Again, no pictures. And that Grand Canyon pic took me all of three days to draw, so I didn't do any car drawings of las vegas. Instead, I will give you this:


We played Blackjack all night with this man. Once we realized we couldn't afford to do anything other than breathe the air on the strip, we decided to drink dollar beers at our hotel. Well, one thing lead to another and Ricky and I would up at a $4 blackjack table and Nathan told me when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em.

Eventually the cards got so bad for Ricky and me that we ordered blackjacks along with our drinks. "Excuse me, miss. We will have two gin and tonics and two blackjacks, please. PLEEEAAASE."

It didn't work, but it was a great time.

More importantly, though. I got to see the cousins. This was a pic taken at Thanksgiving of the whole bunch. We ate a dinner for for kings.

What I had at the buffet: Chinese stir fry and mac and cheese. Plus 150 desserts.

The next day we went swimming all day. I wish we could have hung out longer. They are the BEST!

We left Las Vegas and made it to the end of Route 66 yesterday. Will Rogers Beach in Santa Monica. Now we are in Oakland with Brad Pearson, getting ready to hang out in San Francisco for the day. More on that later.

Grand Canyon

Since my camera broke, I drew the grand canyon from an old WPA post card. You get the gist...

Guess whose camera broke right outside the Grand Canyon? Yup. So, we took a couple of sad sack pics with our phones and then we're on to disposables.

The top is me at the petrified forest and painted desert. Ricky is hanging off a cliff over the Grand Canyon.

The Grand Canyon was AMAZING. I thought I knew what it looked like but I was shocked. The first day, we walked about a mile into the canyon and huffed and puffed our way back out. We camped outside the park.

I made dessert of the campfire! I made a box of cake batter, hollowed out a grapefruit, filled it halfway with batter, wrapped it in tinfoil and threw in on the fire. 20 minutes later... boom! Dessert. Tasty, wonderful dessert.

Day two at the Grand Canyon we hiked around the rim, ate lunch on a cliff overlooking the southern edge and hit the dusty trail.

We made it over the Hoover Dam and into Las Vegas. More on that later.

Day four: Arizona

Welcome to Holbrook, Arizona, home of the Wig Wam Village motels. We couldn't book a room here, so we stayed at the $26.95 Holbrook Inn, also a Route 66 1950's original. trust me, nothing has been changed in this hotel since the place was busteling back in the 50's... including the sheets.

Han Solo on the dashboard has been guiding us along the way.

Car drawings

Ten hours a day in the car produces this:

Day three: Texas

Shamrock Texas was pretty much a bust, but the state redeemed itself with Cadillac Ranch. We drove out to the ranch near Amarillo and got caught in yet another epic thunderstorm. We drove back into town and waited out the rain at a Hooters (kids eat free on Tuesdays ?!).




It was unbelievably satisfying to spray paint these cars. We found half used cans, and stuck around for over an hour stagging such slogans as "Blow up your TV (John Prine)," "I once got busy in a Burger King bathroom (Humpty)" "ODB Needs Yo' Money" and "Can't Stop the Bum Rush (Will Smith, ha ha, ha ha)"

We spent the night in a podunk New Mexico town. Gorgeous views of a lake at sunset overlooking miles of desert. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures. We spent the evening drinking tall boys and watching reruns of "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" on my computer. God Bless electrical hook ups at camp sites.

More tomorrow!

First stop on Route 66: Carthage, MO

We made it almost through Oklahoma yesterday. Slept through a giant lightning storm in the car, got eaten by mosquitoes.

Yesterday we visited Will Rogers birthplace in Claremore, Oklahoma. He is my new hero and his museum in outstanding.

Now it's 10 a.m. and I am sucking down Cokes at some McDonald's because Ricky kept waking me up last night because he thought he heard a coyote.

Anyway, onward and upward.






What I have learned so far:
1. Always keep the ice in the cooler
2. AAA is useless. Maps tell you everything you need to know.
3. Will Rogers died in Alaska
4. Highways are rarely patroled
5. Just because it says "Route 66 landmark" does not make it so!

Father Strittmatter

The Jesuit Community at Creighton lost a member Monday. He was an educator at the retreat center rather than campus.

You can read his story here.

In other news, my mother is making us develop mantras for her yoga/spirituality class. Saint Francis' was "My God and My all." I thought of "Help me be me." Any ideas for mantras that I can use?