Road Trip Diary Day 24 Las Vegas to El Paso

750 miles is a daunting amount to cover in a day, but alas, we have to get to El Paso tonight. Our route plan is taking us along Highway 93 and I-10 through Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and finally Texas. Kenin and I want to get to San Antonio by the weekend to see his other brother, Mike. This means we have to cover over 1250 miles in two days. Getting a very early start, we pack up and say goodbye to Las Vegas.
We drove out of Las Vegas and stopped at the “Welcome to Vegas” sign. We didn’t get a photo on the way in since we entered from the other end. Kenin parked the car, snapped some pictures and then we were off. Driving out of Nevada, we stopped at the Hoover Dam. It seemed much smaller than my imagination made it to be. I was a bit underwhelmed by it. I was incredibly excited, however, by the big horned ram that were just wandering around the perimeter of the dam. They were pretty cute. We drove across the dam only to find out you can’t continue back to the highway, and had to do a u-turn. We then doubled back and crossed a neat bridge to get to the other side. I have to admit, if I had paid for a tour to see the Hoover Dam, I would have been disappointed.

Going in to Arizona, I asked Kenin if we could take a small detour. I have always wanted to get my kicks on route 66. We drove down 93 for a while and got onto 66. Most of it is now “old 66″ since the roads have been decommissioned once they added the interstate highways out here. There are a few museums and signs, but it was a little sad to see.

Roughin’ it

Once back on the road and in the middle of nowhere, Kenin and I were getting a little hungry for lunch. We had a pack of hotdogs and a pack of fresh salmon in our cooler. Oh what to do, what to do? A few days earlier I found these disposable mini grills on sale and we bought a few of them. We were in the middle of the desert with no one around for miles and nowhere to stop for food. We pulled over onto the side of a dirt road and fired up one of our mini grills. Ken asked me how I intended to prepare the hotdogs and salmon. Well, I had some mustard packets and hot sauce packets so I whipped together this quick recipe and it was delicious. We placed the hotdogs on the grill to cook off while we devoured the salmon for lunch.
About 5 minutes into my meal I see Zoe running by and attempting to hide under a 3 foot shrub. Then she zooms over to the car and gets in behind us trying to hide. I get frantic and start looking her over. Apparently she tried to snag a hotdog and the wind blew in her direction and charred some of her whiskers. She was fine, thank goodness, but a few of her whiskers on one side were now curled and I am sure her pride was hurt pretty badly.We finished our gourmet roadside barbecue, doused the fire (and Zoe’s snout) with water and packed everything up. We stashed the hotdogs in the cooler for dinner later on.

Isn’t the horsey cute?

After driving for a few more hours, Kenin decides that it is coffee o’clock. We stopped in a quaint little town called Wickenburg, AZ. Here they had an amazing local sandwich shop called Nana’s Sandwich Saloon. We stopped here and bought two lattes and a massive blueberry scone. We went out to the car to give the doggies some cold water and the guy hand delivers our order to us. What great service! The coffee was great, but the scones were out of this world. If you are ever in this area, try this place out. They did not disappoint.

Once we got our caffeine and sugar fix we were rip-roaring and ready to tackle the day’s remaining miles.  We drove through some amazing desert scenery. It was like nothing I have ever seen before. There were boulders out there  as big as houses and deep canyons all around. We passed miles and miles of deserted roads. I am not ashamed to admit, I took a nap at this point. Vegas caught up with me and the caffeine just plumb wore off. When I awoke, we were nearing the New Mexico border and the sun was setting. I have no idea what Southern Arizona looks like. For all I know we teleported to the border.

We drove through New Mexico at night, so all I can  say is it’s really dark, and you can see a lot of stars We headed along and drove into Texas not long after. The lights in Texas were breath-taking. It took Kenin and I a moment to realize we were looking at the American/Mexican border. From the highway, you can see the city of Juarez. We reached El Paso very late, unpacked the dogs and enough luggage to get us through the night and promptly retired for the evening.

Drive along with us through the gallery below. Please feel free to comment.

They are clearly not following instructions

Roughin’ it

Isn’t the horsey cute?