The previous night, when we travelled to Bishop from Yosemite, the rental car’s oil maintenance light came on. I, being naive about cars, wanted to ignore it; a rental company wouldn’t provide us with a car that needed service. Becca, the slightly nervous one, wanted to get it checked out and taken care of. She spent quite some time on the phone trying to get answers as to what we should do. With a tight schedule we decided to take our chances and drive to Las Vegas where, unlike the small town of Bishop, we would have better luck finding a dealer.
So we were on our way again. In the beginning of the drive our route crossed Death Valley. It’s no wonder were Death Valley got its name. The roads were windy, more so than Yosemite with elevations rising and falling. We crossed a few open range signs, and sure enough there was a cow in the road, moseying his way along. This road was made to accommodate the landscape, at one point the highway turned to one lane with no visibility of the other side- yikes! The cautious speed extended our time in what seemed to be a short distance, yet made the drive more interesting to what laid afterwards, miles and miles of nothing. The maintenance light hadn’t changed and it was a good thing we left with a full tank of gas because there was nothing in sight for a while. But the drive didn’t seem long and we were soon passing Vegas and heading to the Hoover Dam.
We thought we were making great time in comparison to what was estimated earlier by our google search. Little did we know, they were calculating the traffic that we soon got stuck in. We did however have a great view of Lake Meade as we moved forward inch by inch. At the dam we got our first come first serve tickets of the tour and learned about the inner workings of the dam. It was a dam good time.
With plenty of time and Becca still anxious about the car, we found a Nissan dealer to check out the car. It was a good thing. The car was over 3,000 miles due for an oil change. We wouldn’t have gotten much farther without major complications. The expert did us a great favor by fixing the car then, when normally we would have to return in the morning. I got a little heated to think about the rental company allowing such a thing to happen.
And then back to Vegas we went. Some may wonder why we back tracked, but it only seemed natural to experience Vegas at night. We stayed with our cousin, Lindsay, who was already in the process of making dinner when we arrived; steak with a side of hamburgers, watermelon for dessert. Showered and ready, we headed to the strip with Lindsay and new friends, Ray and Joey. Unlike Becca, this was my first time to Vegas, so she wanted to make sure I saw it all. We walked the strip passing by lights, people handing out flyers to our male acquaintances, we caught the end of the fountain show in front of the Bellagio (this reminded me of Ocean’s Eleven) and passed people in all kinds of sorts. Even on a Monday, Vegas was not disappointing. Linds took us to her favorite bar, Carnival Court. The bartender flipped and juggled the liquor, mixers and cups which almost distracted us from the fact that a drink costs $11.00.
Satisfied with the Vegas bar experience, we headed back through the casino to find our car. Becca stopped to play the penny slots and thanks to Ray, I played two losing hands of poker (I was also scolded by the dealer for bending the cards, oops!). With an early morning planned we said our good nights. Lindsay couldn’t believe we only planned for one night in Vegas, but with so much to see, what’s one to do?
351.1 miles
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