What Happened in Vegas.

I found something today that I wrote two years ago....  'I don't think this is what I am meant to be doing, but I don't dare step off the path.'  This was when I was applying for office jobs and thinking about how miserable my future work life would most likely be.  I realize that I have come closer to stepping off of that path, and now there is no turning back. 

Today ended my last hitch in Vegas before the summer season starts.  In a few days I am going up to Reno for orientation and the next week heading to Ely where I will be based for the summer.  Camping at a KOA on my off days.  I have never stayed at a KOA or lived in a small Western town and the curiosity is starting to set in.  I am less sad to leave Vegas than I would be a normal place, but I'm starting to think I might actually miss it when I'm gone.  Oh, Vegas.  And did I mention sister Nancy will be living in Great Basin National Park only about an hour away from me!!

Last week on my 6 days off a couple friends and I went to Arizona to do some camping.  We stopped at Sedona on the way to do a a few hikes.  It was beautiful there, and kind of looked like a combination of Zion, Utah and Red Rock.  That night we kept driving over to Fossil Creek where there was one of the clearest creeks I've ever seen and it almost looked tropical in the middle of the desert.  We heard there was a waterfall a short hike in the you can jump from, and I FINALLY GOT TO FULFILL MY DREAM OF JUMPING FROM A WATERFALL.  Unfortunately later I saw that skinny dip under a waterfall is on my bucket list and I missed out on that.  Fun adventure getting in to this place though.  We had to drive down a 14 mile windy dirt road to get to the place we wanted to camp, and going at about 15 miles per hour this was a lot longer than it sounds.  My friend Tony who was driving us realized that his truck problems were worse than we thought.  Halfway down this road we discovered that the battery was actually dying, and if the truck was turned off it probably would not turn back on.  The headlights faded and eventually went out but luckily we all had headlamps that we held out the window as a mock headlight.  This was pretty terrifying considering we were winding around sharp turns with almost cliffs going off the edge.  Smart as we are, we decided to keep driving and drop the others off to camp so then he could drive back out and park on the road until a mechanic opened the next day.  We were about three miles from the camping spot when the battery completely died.  We were all ready to sleep on the road and pay a million dollars to get towed out when by some miracle we realized that Tony had a battery in the back for a sleep apnea and although it was a different size we were able to rig up some crazy system to hold it in place.  Surprisingly it worked perfectly and we were able to successfully able to get all the way to a mechanics the next day about an hour and a half drive away.  It was pretty funny looking back on it.  After the truck was fixed we drove to Flagstaff which was on the way home.  Flagstaff is thee coolest town.  It's super local and you can walk everywhere and there are coffee shops and breweries everywhere.  Coming from a city like Vegas I have become obsessed with towns like this.  We went out that night (which felt a lot like Iowa City) and then slept in my friends friends backyard which was actually their neighbors backyard and woke up with a strangers dog trying to get into the tent.   

The last two 8-day hitches have been in Reno which is awesome, but kind of strange since it's an eight hour drive and we spend almost the entire first and last day of hitch driving.  Reno is cool, there are rolling hills and tall trees everywhere and snowed both times we were there.  On the last day of hitch we finished early and got to go to Lake Tahoe for the first time.  IT IS FREAKING BEAUTIFUL.  I think it's the snowy mountains and trees surrounding the perfectly clear lake so closely.  I almost cried thinking about having to leave.  Luckily I will be back over the summer at least a few times.  That's about it for now, who knows if I will find internet later when I am living homelessly.