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The Drive to Vegas

March 18, 2006 By

I’ve taken a few road trips in my life. Not really long and great ones. Usually when I needed to I’d just grab a few CDs and drive around aimlessly for a few hours. A few times a year there was the 5 hour drive to visit relatives in the mid-Atlantic states. Though I know that route by heart, it was usually the best road trip I could hope for on my extremely limited budget. I also have a friend in Toronto, and that 10 hour drive I’ve done a few times, most recently in 2001 about a month after being laid off. But I’ve never been on a real go-somewhere road trip, until I moved to Vegas.

Now, I was on a mission to get to Vegas, and since my dad was driving the van with all my belongings right behind me the whole way, I didn’t have a lot of time to dilly dally and actually see anything. So, the trip went something like this:

Day 1: Left early, drove from home to just outside of Columbus, OH. Checked into a Motel 6. Walked to Bob Evans to eat dinner. Food was tolerable, service sucked. Walked back to Motel 6. Wrote in my journal while Dad snored. Fell asleep.

Day 2: Left early, again. Drove from Columbus area to Salina, KS. Checked into Salina Inn (or something like that). Drove to some family style restaurant down the street for some mediocre meal, drove back to hotel. Wrote in my journal while Dad snored. Fell asleep.

Day 3: Left a bit later than usual. Drove from Salina to Colorado Springs. Got some relatives there. Arrived mid afternoon, so there was time to visit. Went to Garden of the Gods, back to relative’s house, ate dinner. Relatives have big house with million dollar view. Dad had his own room, so it was quiet while I journaled. Fell asleep.

Day 4: Left early. Said goodbye to relatives. Drove over Rockies. Dad had headache from the altitude. Utah is full of rocks, almost fell asleep. Dad drove right through a mean dust devil. Arrived in Vegas around 6pm. Unloaded bed, went to dinner at cheap casino restaurant, came home and went to bed.

So, as you can see I didn’t really get a chance to see much. We didn’t even get off the interstate except to pee. I would really have liked to see where so many of those other roads went. Like, in Missouri, where will I go if I get off at Road EE, where will I end up? I want to see the byways – I’ve seen enough of the highways. I want to see the guts of this place, the good people and the hideous yet fascinating roadside attractions. So, with that kind of thinking in mind, this is a bit more what my drive out here went like:

Day 1: Got up early. Said bye to mom and stepdad. Went upstairs to wake nephew to say goodbye to him. He wasn’t really awake, so I picked up his limp body and hugged him until his wicked sleepy dragon breath drove me away. Went in other room and kissed my sweet sleeping niece goodbye. Went back downstairs and hugged my mom until I told her to let go. As I was pulling out of the driveway, I took note of the song on the radio. I hadn’t yet put any CDs in, so the extreme appropriateness of this random moment will stick with me for quite some time. The song was “Drive” by Incubus. You can find the lyrics at the site I have listed in my links. But the song is about not letting your fears be in the driver’s seat. Oh yeah, that was powerful. I never really listened to that song before that moment. Sure, I’d heard it many, many times. I have the CD. But I’d never listened to it. I’m glad that DJ played it that morning.

Got to my Dad’s where he was waiting for me. I took a quick bathroom break and one last look around. Then we were off. Most of that day, we were on roads I was familiar with, and I was having a bittersweet moment all day. I was glad to finally be getting out, but sad that I had no idea when I would next see those familiar sights. Plus, it was a grey, dreary day, perfect for the reflective mood I was in.

Day 2: Definitely no turning back now. The reality was setting in that this wasn’t a dream and I was really going. Left behind the Motel 6 in Ohio and drove through some really rural areas. Ohio, Indiana, southern Illinois, over the mighty Mississippi to Missouri, past lots of billboards for Ozarkland, then to Kansas City. Good thing it was a Sunday and there was no traffic. On the MO side, the highway turned and curved so often that I felt like I was on a roller coaster. I didn’t know which end was up. Then, over the border to Kansas the road suddenly straightened out, and stayed straight through pretty much the whole state. I popped in a CD that I thought was appropriate for the landscape – the Twister soundtrack – and kept an eye on the sky. It was mid-June, and I’ve never seen a tornado. Might be exciting, but not with all my worldly possessions in tow. This was also the most exhilarating part of the drive. Not sure why I thought so. Here’s a picture, maybe you can figure it out:

I felt like I could drive forever in this landscape. I could see for miles, nothing but green fields, along with a few barns and cows. Boring, but I really liked it.

Day 3: This was going to be a short day since we’d be stopping in Colorado Springs. Only 6 1/2 hours today, compared to 14 and 15 hours the last 2 days. We saw more of the beautiful Kansas landscape, then things started to get a little less verdant as we headed uphill into Colorado on the High Plains. Soon the Rockies were in sight, and I was excited since I’d only ever seen them in pictures and once from an airplane. There is something so harsh, though, about the Rockies. Something so unforgiving. Those who have actually spent time there know what I mean.

We took a nice break visiting with relatives (from my Mom’s side – my Dad had never even met these people before, but no matter). Saw a tiny bit of Colorado Springs and Garden of the Gods. Overall, it was a relaxing break from all the driving.

Day 4: It was 47 degrees out the morning we left. I put a sweater on as I said goodbye to relatives. Going over the steep hills and sharp turns of I-70 through the Colorado Rockies, there was still snow on the ground. I admired the scenery a bit, but the road here demanded a lot of attention.

When we got to Utah, wow. Beautiful, majestic, snooze-inducing landscapes. Yes, I nearly fell asleep behind the wheel. There are quite a few ranch exits, but that’s it. Oh, every now and then you come to a travel station. I stopped at all 3 of them. Ok, not sure of the exact number, but seriously, once you hit Utah, you need to stop every time you see one because the next one could be 2 hours off. And Dad thought I was being a freak when I said we’d better stop at every one because you never know when you’ll get the chance again.

Somewhere in the middle of Utah, I saw a dust devil. Not the handful of leaves swirling around in a corner behind the building that we are so used to seeing at home. This was awesome. This was the kind of thing they warn motorist about. It was maybe 10 stories tall (or taller – I had nothing to compare it to). When I drove by, it was in the median. Then I looked at my Dad through the rearview mirror. It was crossing the road. I saw the yellow moving van swerve into the breakdown lane, almost off the road. My stuff!!! Then Dad corrected and kept going. At the next rest stop, Dad was a bit upset at me for making him drive through a tornado. I had no idea, honestly! And he didn’t have to drive right through the middle of it! But we survived, my stuff survived, and we got to Vegas just in time for dinner. Did I mention it was about 105 degrees in Vegas? We went from 47 to 105 in one day.

So I got here, tired and wired. I wanted to see more, but I had to unpack and get the van back. Dad had one more day before he flew home so we went to the Hoover Dam, had lunch on the Strip, and spent one last day together before father and daughter would be living 2700 miles apart instead of 15 miles apart.

Filed Under: Las Vegas, Travels

There’s More to It

March 16, 2006 By

Like I said earlier, there’s more that goes into my decision to move to Las Vegas. The moving part was pretty much inevitable, but why Las Vegas? I don’t gamble, I don’t drink too much (a beer here and there is about it), I don’t go clubbing, and I really don’t care for pretending to be all that, like so many visitors and people moving here do. I do like having something to do past 6pm, but honestly, a few choice places to eat will suffice.

So back to the more part. That all started a little over a year before I made the move, when a man with piercing blue eyes moved in across the hall from me. I remember the day he moved in – I was on the phone with my mom, peering out the window at what was going on in the parking lot. “Hey mom, just peeking outside, new neighbor is moving in. Looks like a single dad, he’s got a couple of kids helping him. Ooh, he’s cute.”

Well you can guess what happened. We got involved. It didn’t take long; I found out later that he would peer out his window at me from pretty much the minute he moved in. He was everything I said I didn’t want. He was shorter than me – only by an inch, but still – and of course the single dad thing. I never ever wanted to date anyone with kids. But I fell for him. Did I ever fall for him. I don’t need to go into the gory details of our relationship, but it ended pretty much just as quickly as it began, and I was devastated. It should have been easy to pick myself up and get on with things, but he lived across the hall from me and still saw him on a daily basis. Here’s a tip: never get involved with someone you live so close to. After months of agony for me, we finally got to a point where we could be friends again. It was still really hard for me, since I still wanted to be with him. I thought he was The One. But I sucked it up and let the friendship take its course.

So what does Mr. Piercing Blue Eyes have to do with my move to Las Vegas? Simple. He has family here, and during our discussions about my decision to move, it didn’t take much for him to persuade me to pick Vegas, since I had already decided on the Southwest. The fact that his mom had a room for rent made it easier – then I wouldn’t be all alone in this big bad city. Plus I figured it would be the best way for us to stay close, since the way he worded things, us not being together was only “for now.”

Flash forward to today: I no longer live with his family. That only lasted a year. And I’m no longer friends with him. That I think I knew had to end long before it actually did. It was my decision, I don’t think he was happy with it, but he had a choice. He chose to accept my decision instead of fighting for me. I realize now that he was holding me back from, oh, I don’t know exaclty, but he was a roadblock. Or rather, a scenic detour that led to a dead end. Time to turn around and pick another road.

Filed Under: Las Vegas

Why I Moved

March 15, 2006 By

First of all, you’re probably wondering why the heck I moved here in the first place. Well, if you’ve ever been to Vegas, the thought of moving here has probably crossed your mind. Either that or you know someone who’s moved here and loves it. There are over 5000 people per month who move here. Not everyone stays, but still, the growth here is unbelievable.

As for me moving, you could say it was my life’s dream to move far away. When I was in elementary school in my not-so-small town, occasionally we’d get a new student – someone who moved there from far away. And once in awhile one of my classmates would move away. I always wanted to be that person, if for no other reason than the anonymity. Remember what I said about everyone knowing my name? Well, here’s part of why my family is so well known in town: my dear grandmother worked for the school system, and was the secretary of my elementary school. Oh yeah. I could NOT get away from it.

Now don’t get me wrong. It’s not like I have some deep dark secrets that my family can’t know about. I’m not a troublemaker for whom the family name keeps getting in the way (that would be my sister). I’m a pleaser, teacher’s pet, whatever you want to call it. Basically, I was a good kid, always trying to make all the adults around me proud. But I wanted to know what it’s like to live somewhere else. Not just to live somewhere else, but to move, to go through that process, to be the new kid in school. Kind of a weird life’s dream, eh?

In high school, I got a bit of a chance. My parents are divorced, and my mom lived about 20 minutes away. Halfway through high school, I went to live with my mom, so I had to change schools. That satisfied the itch for awhile, but get this – 3 other people in my graduating class were from my hometown. I wasn’t a complete unknown. Oh well.

Now on to college. I was aiming for a particular school over 1000 miles away, mainly because it had a campus in the UK and the study abroad was an option, and I really wanted to go. But of course my dad, who was paying for school (and btw, never really taught me to work hard and make and save my own money), was not keen on the idea of me going far away to school. So I ended up going to school in the next town. It was ok, but I still would have preferred to go away to school.

After college, with my associate degree in liberal arts in hand, I was well prepared for a career in – um, what? No clue. So life became a series of retail jobs until I couldn’t take it anymore. I signed up with a temp agency and got into administrative work. I don’t care for that either, but the hours are so much better and if you find a good place to work, like I have, then the job can actually be fun.

I also spent a lot of time not doing much else – I’d take drives to listen to music and clear my head, and I watch movies and TV a lot. I found a movie at the video store that really brought back my feelings of wanting to move. It’s an independent flick called Ruby in Paradise. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. I rented it so many times that I realized it would be less expensive to buy it, so I did. I still have that video, but I must burn it to DVD. It’s not out on DVD, and I really wish it would be. Anyway, it’s about a young woman striking out on her own. No real climax to it – it moves kinda slow as independent moves are known to do. But it struck a really deep chord with me.

I started fantasizing about moving away. I made plans, what to bring with me, how to pack, etc. I had this romantic idea about bringing only what I could fit in my car, which at the time was a 1988 Toyota Celica. Quite tiny, so my options were limited. The only thing I couldn’t figure out was where to go. I had a few ideas in mind, but none seemed practical. I also had too many ideas floating in my mind to be able to pick one. Also, this is before the internet was widely in use so being able to research any of the potential destinations was not easy. In the end, I decided to wait until I could figure out where to go, and also to figure out exactly why I was going. I felt too much like I was running away, and I didn’t want to get into a pattern of always moving away somewhere.

So over the years I worked the above mentioned retail and office jobs. Then something happened which meant I had to get out of my parent’s house (I had spent my adult life living with either my mother or my father, depending on which suited me). Now I was scared poopless because I had never lived on my own before, and I didn’t think I could afford to do it. An apartment was out of the questions, there was no way I could pay over $800/mo for rent, which was the going rate at the time. Also out of the question was a roommate. At 25, I really really really wanted to live by myself and have complete control over my domain. So after a bit of searching and some pep talks from those close to me, I found what would be my home for the next 3 1/2 years. It wasn’t much, it was a cheap condo that wasn’t in the best kept complex, but I could afford it all by myself. I liked my little home, but after a few years I started getting that feeling again.

After a few incidents at work that ended up getting me recommended to the Employee Assistance Program (as in, see a counselor please, you have issues), I did just that – went to a counselor. After I gave him a quick rundown of my life, he said that he saw a strong theme of me feeling trapped. Well that really got the wheels spinning.

Here’s what I was looking for: Definitely no family nearby, needed my own turf. Lower cost of living, more job opportunities. A city or metropolitan area with lots of options. And after the especially harsh winter we had, I couldn’t get the temp INSIDE over 60F. So I stopped looking at Milwaukee (my first choice) and looked south. Southeast, sure it’s cheap but it’s also humid and with lots of humidity comes much larger bugs. No thanks. How about the Southwest? Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas. Did some research and settled on Vegas, the world’s largest shrine to vices and tackiness. So here I am.

There’s a lot more that goes into these decisions, as anyone who’s planned a move like this will know. But that’s the basics of it. Later I’ll tell you why this place isn’t right for me.

Filed Under: Las Vegas

Putting It All Down

March 14, 2006 By

Wow, my first post. My first blog. Who’d ever guess that I’d be putting all my thoughts down here? Well, maybe not ALL my thoughts, just those pertaining to what I want to publish in my blog.

A quick background on me: I’m single, 30s, girl. I moved away from home in a New England town where everybody knows your name – well, everyone knows MY name and my family. I love them, but it was stifling. Especially when I’d be in a store and someone would tell me to say hi to my dad for them. Who the heck are these people? I had no idea. “Dad, someone said to say hi to you.” “Who?” “Dunno, I don’t recognize them at all.”

So I moved away, far away, to the glitz and glitter of Las Vegas. Really exciting, yeah, really. Not for a homebody like me. Not that I want to go back to New England. But this fast-paced, fast-growing, always open land of loose morals is not for me. I’ve known that since the minute I landed here. It’s been nearly 3 years now, and I’m still figuring out my next move. I think I have the where figured out, but not the how. Of course it’s the logistics of it all that’s got a practical gal like myself all tripped up.

So, there’s your intro. I’ve got to get my arse in the shower now so I can get to work on time. I’ll post more about my thinkings and sorting this out later.

Filed Under: Deep Thoughts, Las Vegas, My Blog