We managed to leave Breckenridge before noon! Shock and awe! I’ve never actually driven from Colorado to California before. I did a road trip with my parents as a kid, but I slept in the back seat. Driving the whole way is very different. After you leave Colorado there’s a whole lot of nothing for miles. There’s a huge stretch of Utah that has nothing but off-ramps that disappear into the desert. Despite our early departure, we made it to St. George after 10pm.

The next morning we got a relatively early start and headed back to the Grand Canyon, this time headed for the West End, where the famous Sky Walk is. The highway takes you through three states, only to go back into Arizona. The National Park around the Hoover Damn was really green considering it’s bordered by desert. It felt very much like an oasis between the short mountains.

The Sky Walk was crazy to get to. It is way off the beaten path, and a chunk of the road is winding and dirt. Most of it goes through a Joshua Tree forest. Considering the insane trek to get there and the cost of the Sky Walk (which requires a pass to enter Tribal territory), it’s debatable how worth it everything was. There’s lots to see, but if you don’t care about Native American stuff, then I wouldn’t recommend it. I could have stayed there longer, but Dad’s only concern was the Sky Walk. Unfortunately you can’t take pictures on the glass itself, unless you pay for the guides on the bridge to take one for you. There’s a few more places to stop while on tribal land, however, Dad had seen what he wanted and rushed through everything else.

On the last leg of the trip, we made it to Whiskey Pete’s, the last casino on the border of Nevada and California. It was my first experience in a casino as an adult, but I didn’t gamble. Between my lack of money and Dad’s religious beliefs, we just wandered around talking about some of his trips through Las Vegas. I’ve always known about Dad’s checkered past, but it’s so interesting to learn about it. The hotel had Bonnie and Clyde’s getaway car and a whole collection of memorabilia from their crime spree, from news paper stories, all the way to personal items. Next to the Bonnie and Clyde display was Al Capone’s car riddled with bullets. It was neat to compare the two cars. Bonnie and Clyde’s was riddled like Swiss cheese. Al Capone’s car look like it absorbed the bullets – kind of like the Terminator. The glass was bulletproof and completely untouched. I don’t have pictures of these cars. The combination of the loud casino, awful country band, and thick fog of smoke, kept our stay near the casino short and left our cameras in the room.

In the morning we loaded up the car and drove through California to home. It got beastly hot through the Mohave Desert and the traffic was heavy, but we made it to familiar territory. Back home, we spent our last couple of days looking at family photos and watching some of his favorite shows. My last days in California I got to eat at my two favorite fast food places: In and Out, and El Pollo Loco. It made the perfect end before the plane trip the next morning.

Thanks to ants farming aphids on Dad’s tree hedge, morning coffee got lost in helping to spray the trees. He gave me enough to buy a cup at the airport, but the crazy people took so long I almost missed my plane. Fortunately I made it for last call at the last minute. The co-pilot’s name was Patrick Stewart. I had to ask the stewardess if I’d heard right, and she told me I had. We shared a laugh about it. The flight home took me over our entire journey. The Grand Canyon from above was even more massive, and the aspens had turned even more amber since we’d left them. The next journal will be the last in this travel log.