THURSDAY:

Well I have now arrived to California and never had a chance to write about yesterdays adventures so I will combine today s and yesterday. So yesterday (Thursday) we set out towards Vegas at 5:52 a.m. .. Along the way to Vegas there were a ton of trains. I have never seen more trains in my life then I did along the way to Vegas. I must say that I wasn’t too fond of New Mexico and that Arizona is far better…I also spotted a town called Meteor Crater which I thought was just goofy and Indian Reservations in Arizona are a huuuge thing. And as I stated in my last blog how my papa wanted to take a detour—well we did just that. I thought as we started out toward Vegas he was forgetting this detour idea but I was WRONG! Soo we are driving along in Arizona, fill up for some more gas and I start driving. I’m driving along and my papa says we are going to take “Old Route 66”. Well old route 66 is the way people would get from Chicago to California back in the day. So I start out on Route 66 kind of annoyed because I’m just trying to get to Vegas and now I have to go 50 mph rather than the 85 I was able to on the high way. I continue to drive around this curves up the mountain (to this small town called “Oatman”) with no guard rails for a good 25 miles my grandma calls and I hear my papa tell her “Well after I show Ashley this town we have to go back to where we started and get back on 40”. I about drove us off of the mountain right then and there. I am now going 15 mph up a mountain with no guard rails, trying to compose my anxiety attack, going somewhere I don’t even care to go and find out we have to turn around right after we get there. I wanted to flip out right then and there. As you should know I normally would, but couldn’t do that to my poor papa. So we finally arrive to this town a good hour one old route 66. And to my surprise I loved it! Donkeys were literally roaming the streets and Native Americans ran this small town. There were little shops, a small restaurant and an itty bitty post office. (pics are posted). So I loved this little place and could hardly believe that people actually lived there. I couldn’t grasp it, I just kept saying “people really live here?” It was nothing like I have ever seen before.. Maybe something you would see in a movie. Well anyway we had lunch there I took mass pictures with donkeys and ended up having a great time.. Then we head back out of the town on old route 66 papa is driving now flying around the curves in the mountain I shut my eyes the entire time because I could have sworn we were going to fall off the side of the mountain. So we are driving for another hour and get to cross over the Hoover Dam. As we approach the Dam there is a security check point where they check cars that are going to cross the dam luckily, we weren’t one of those cars. If so I might have just died right then and there. We then get to Vegas a little after 4. Shower and get ready to hit the town. Well I try to tell papa we can’t drive to the strip he doesn’t listen and insists on driving well to prove me right there was no where to park, traffic was awful AND MY AIR CONDITIONING STOPPED WORKING. My day is wonderful at this point. Also, I’m bitch hungry at this point as well.. So we park the car and start walking we had a lovely buffet dinner at the Flamingo play some slots in the Flamingo explore at Caesars Palace walk around. At this point it’s like 10 and I’m so ready for bed. We ended up going to downtown Vegas “Old Vegas” which I loved because it reminded me of what Vegas would actually be. We played some more slots I came out even here at $20 and lost $20 at Flamingo and was so ready for bed at this point and its only like 11:15 so we head back just to have to get up and drive all over again.

FRIDAY: Not nearly as eventful as Thursday but I'M HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday we slept in a little later (6:45) and were on the road by 8:20. I really learned to love the west as I traveled the west all week. I like the desert west rather than Colorado west where it’s all green I loved the sandy mountains. But that’s besides that point. Well not really we traveled the desert for hours today. The ride was so lame. I was trying to figure out a gym to join so didn’t really enjoy it as much as the last couple days. I think I was just sick of traveling. Some funny things did happen though. Im busy on my phone and papa says “look at that beautiful sight ahead of us” I look and what do I see HOME DEPOT. For those of you who don’t know papa, he loves home depot. It’s by far his favorite store of all time. . As we crossed over from Nevada to California we had to go through a agriculture check point where they ask if you have any fruits or vegetables. The only vegetables we had were potatoes.. well potato chips that is.. and the fruit we had was nectarines the man told us we had to “eat it or leave it”. so of course we each had a nectarine as we crossed into California. We drove through San Bernardino which is the largest county in the US and was settled by Mormons in the 1850s also there were snow covered mountains throughout California and the temp was so much cooler then the hot weather in the desert. We of course got stuck in the LA traffic and didn’t arrive to my aunts until about 2:45. I got my life together and all unpacked then we went to the beach for about an hour but it is so chilly in Malibu today only like 65. Kind of a bummer..

I also talked to Nancy (lady in charge of my internship)today and I don’t have to be in to start my internship on Wednesday until 10 wooo. (she’s on vacay until Tuesday if you were wondering why I’m starting on a Wednesday).. I also joined 24 hour fitness.. maybe I can meet some friends there..

Welp that’s all for now. I will update you more when the internship starts :)