Some people our age are unaware that birds are up at like four in the morning. And that is also when they start singing. Furthermore, many of us do know that man creates time, and in light of this, my traveling partner and I decided that 24 hours just would not do for a day, and we thus created a 48 hour day, and lived it to the last drop. And it was the birds that told us when to start. We awoke to the sound of the pre-historic birds. Ben, being young and agile, took the opportunity to climb the nearest mountain and awe at the coming sun. Jake continued to sleep, giving himself more time to absorb the complexities of his dreams, hoping that he could interpret his own haunting nightmares.
Ben burst into the tent at 7am, saying that they must quickly depart; and in 22 minutes they were driving away from the red dirt. They had a lengthy and complex agenda: Before the day would be done, Ben and Jake will have visited Arches National Park, the Northern rim of the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, Las Vegas, Hoover dam, Death Valley, and spot a bear and her cup in Yosemite National Park.
(Jake will be inserting pictures, hopefully in order, but he promises nothing)
Arches National Park was pretty cool.
There are some amazing geological mysteries. Obviously there are some arches, and just some other weird rocks. We took a short hike to see the Delicate Arch. We also bought a pass at this park that will get us into all of the other National Parks for free. We then left for the Northern Rim of the Grand Canyon.It took a very long time to get there, but when we finally made it, we were pleased to find out that it would not be possible for us to climb to the bottom of the canyon.
For those of you who haven’t seen this canyon, I recommend you go, because it’s hard to believe something like this even exists. It blows my mind thinking of it. You can see for like 70 miles around you and then you can’t even see the bottom of the canyon. Ben took some footage for Planet Earth, and I listened to the many different languages being spoken. We heard Spanish, Italian, French, and German.
Our next destination was Las Vegas, but to get there, we decided to take a route that would take us through another National Park. Zion National Park was really a treat. Solid rock surfaces with plants coming out. The road cut through it pretty nicely, and it all was made more impressive with the setting sun. We kind of sped through this one, but we had to make it to Las Vegas.
We arrived in Vegas at 11pm. We put on some polo shirts so we would fit in, and then looked for a casino to blow all of our money in. Going straight to the Bellagio, we quickly realized that we are the two lamest people to take to Las Vegas. I lost 5 dollars to the slot machines, and Ben gave me 4.50 that he had won off of slots, and I quickly lost that too. Ben wanted to play some Texas Hold’em, but the buy in was too high. So we went to one of the many bars in the casino to get a drink, but we found out that a beer was 6 bucks and every other drink was 12 bucks. Folks, these drinks were not in our price range.
We then decided to see what the street had to offer us, but we couldn’t find out how to leave the casino. We asked a man in a red suit for directions, of which he was happy to give, and then he told us to have a great day. But it was night. Not that it matters; this city never goes to bed. Ben and me waited for a fountain to give us a show, but it never did, so we walked around a few blocks and tried to figure out why we were so lame. I mean, we understood the concept of the city; it just wasn’t doing anything for us. So we left. Denny’s in Henderson, as suburb of Sin City, was our destination. I went inside to do some writing, and Ben took a short siesta in the car.
Ben came in Denny’s after he had finished studying his eyelids, had some pancakes, and we hit the road at 5:15am for Hoover dam. The birds were all ready singing.
Hoover dam is incredible. Me and Ben couldn’t remember what the architecture style was called, but we both agreed it was pretty cool.
And I wanted to run down the slope of the dam, but for personal reasons I decided not to.
Note to other travelers: if you get to the Hoover dam before 6 am, there won’t be anyone there to take your money, so you get in for free. After we had our fill of the dam, we hit the road for the land of Death.On our way to Death Valley, we put in the soundtrack to The Last Five Years. It is a great musical, and we both cried. I took a little siesta on the way, and Ben drove us through the Valley of Death. I would sometimes slip in and out of consciousness, and I am pretty convinced that Mephistopheles was in the car with us.
Death Valley plays tricks on your mind. There are sand dunes, desolate mountains, fields of salt, and absolutely no water.
Thankfully Ben never came under the spell of Death, and he got us through without a physical scratch, though I’m not sure if our psyche made it out unscathed.
From Death Valley we made our way to the quintessential American National Park: Yosemite. Ben had been there before, but it was all new to me. We drove in (for free because of our awesome pass), and found a camping spot. Then we hiked over some big rocks, I claimed some of them for Kansas, and we saw the mama bear and baby bear.
Then we took a trek down to the Valley and Ben showed me Bridalveil Falls and some other sites. Yosemite has been the most beautiful thing I’ve seen so far on this trip.
We drove back up to our campsite, ate some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and ended our 48 hour day.
This is all very surface level stuff, but hopefully it provides some basis for you to ask us questions later that will help us provide more depth to this epic.
