O.M.F.G.-I hurt all over and my lips are chapped beyond belief.
I feel like I have been hit by a bus, only getting hit by a bus would have been quicker than the 4 hour 3 mile hike down and back up the Grand Canyon.
The place is beautiful, don’t get me wrong, but that was way harder than I expected. You saw the video, that was my reality tv yesterday.
For months I have been mentally preparing for this hike, just not physically, so that was totally my fault. I had finally come to terms with taking on this huge challenge (after I had gone over all the pro’s and cons, the chance that I might get down there and not back up, what supplies we would need, etc). On the way to the Grand Canyon after all that preparation, Matt thought it would be a good idea to turn on the “Don’t do this hike if you think you might need to be rescued, because unless you die in the Canyon, you aren’t getting out” Grand Canyon Soundtrack. Way to go Matt, after months of working on my anxiety over this issue, it was back in an instant. Regardless, the hike worked out, I am still alive (hurting, but alive) and the weather was just amazing. Matt has a dream one day we will hike the 12 miles to the bottom and back up, I’ll keep you posted on whether or not that comes to happen.
We headed back to Williams, AZ to pick up the luggage. I basically took a baby wipe bath in the bathroom of the hotel, just so I would no longer look like just rolled around in the dirt all day. We headed towards the Hoover Dam. I am glad I got to see this iconic feature of Nevada’s statehood, but I didn’t want to spend much time there.
Remember this whole trip is about “first’s” for me. So heading to Las Vegas I was excited. I always had an expectation of what it would be like after hearing people’s stories. We came in on I-93, briefly passing Henderson to come over a hill which opened up a lights spectacular. It was a panoramic view of one big sheet of lights, I thought it was pretty, but didn’t realize what lied ahead.
Matt and I drove up and down Las Vegas Blvd. once. It took damn near two hours. I was so overstimulated by the people, cars, lights, and the heat, I immediately wanted to turn around and go back to the cool, beautiful, not many people National Parks we just came from. Needless to say, without much food for the day, the holy trinity of Misty started to rear her ugly head, and Matt got the rath of this.
(Misty’s Personality + Hunger + Heat=Holy Trinity)-Just an FYI.
By 1:00 am I was starving. I had only about 500 or less calories all day and probably burned god knows how many with that hike. So, my stomach was pretty much eating my back. We ate at the late night Cafe’ something or another at the Aria hotel, where I had to walk an additional 500 miles to get to it and then paid a ridiculous amount for two hamburgers, but at that point, I would have given a limb for something to eat.
We started out today by sleeping in, resting up from yesterday’s adventure. We just got back from an 8 hour stint on the strip, visiting hotels, the Auto Collection at the Imperial Palace, and the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay. We are gearing up for Round two this evening which will include dinner, a bit more gambling (I need my parents gambling JuJu for this), and of course photography from the Stratosphere.
Today just hasn’t been my day. I am not sure what it is, but my newfound optimism that I was supposed to be using during this trip failed me. I have really been in a grouchy mood all day, finding myself being very short and cranky with everyone. I don’t know if it is the idea that this trip is not yet even halfway over , or that I am just drained from this vacation known as adventure tourism we have been on, but somethings gotta give. I am hoping it gets better as we leave Las Vegas because I am really excited about the second half of the trip. Maybe I will win something in the casino tonigth to get the ball rolling.
Goodbye Las Vegas, here we come Los Angeles……
