Day One, My Dam Road Trip

Since high school, I have wanted to do a cross country road trip. As somewhat of an entertainment addict, I've seen plenty of movie and tv characters take to the open road and I always experienced traveling the country and/or world vicariously through them. For once, I wanted to stop watching others having adventures and start having adventures of my own (not that college at USC wasn't an adventure, but it didn't involve traveling far from home as I plan to do now).

Six or so months ago, the idea of taking my very own road trip adventure was born. Over the past few months, with a lot of knowledgeable assistance from my dad, my route across America began to take shape, starting in my home town of San Diego and most likely ending in North Carolina. The route's main path was formed using several major attractions that for me are must sees: Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore, Chicago, St. Louis, and finally Wilmington, North Carolina (which has a relatively unknown, but active local entertainment industry). There are of course many other cool stops along the way, but I didn't want to spoil all the surprises on the first day!

Speaking of the first day, let me give you a quick update on how it went. I was prepared physically, had all my supplies, clothes, and a detailed route mapped out, but I was suprisingly a little emotional as I said goodbye to my family and got ready to leave this morning. I think it was a combination of sadness, but also of relief that this trip that I wanted so badly to happen and worked so hard to make happen, was, well, finally happening. Fortunately, once I got out on the road, I started feeling less sad and much more excited and carefree.

I felt such a sense of freedom and independence driving along I-15 in my little blue Honda, such a rightness, that I knew everything would be ok.

I guess now would be a good time to introduce you to my travel buddies. I know you all thought I was traveling alone, which is partially true, that is, if you don't count O'Fortune and Wall-E.

I know what you're all thinking - it's only day one and she's already bored enough in the car to take these pictures while driving, but you would be too if all you had to look at was tan rocks! Besides, they're cool pictures!

Since I'm not used to long drives, I made sure to stop several times even though it was only a 5 hour driving day. My first stop in Rancho Cucamonga worked out great. Without realizing it at the time, I got off at Route 66 (aka Foothill Blvd.). I love when things like that happen, whether due to fate or karma or luck or whatever you want to call it!

The trip was smooth sailing, no traffic because most people were heading out of Las Vegas since it's the end of the weekend - good planning on my part I suppose. I had previously booked a room at a Super 8 outside of Vegas, but drove by it on my way to Hoover Dam and decided it wasn't quite up to my standards (I should have known when the room was only $38), so that was a slight glitch that was a little stressful, but I was able to cancel the reservation and head out to the Dam, knowing I'd be able to find something in Vegas later on since it's a big enough place.

The Hoover Dam was awesome!!! It's just so unique and such an amazing engineering feat. Plus, several of my favorite movies have filmed there (Fools Rush In, Transformers) and it's always cool to see the locations in person. I went on the Dam tour, bought some Dam water, and of course bought my trademark Dam shot glass (for those that don't know, I have started collecting shot glasses as souveneirs from places I've been, they're small enough to fit in a suitcase and great to display, I wouldn't know if they're good to drink out of because I've never had a shot before, maybe I'll have to change that over the course of this trip, although since it's a road trip and I'm driving maybe that's not the best idea....moving on). It was extremely hot, but I didn't let that stop me from walking across the Dam. The only bummer was that unlike in the movies, there wasn't an official border line drawn to delineate between Arizona and Nevada, but I know I walked from one to the other and back again and that's what matters!

After leaving the Hoover Dam, I went looking for a place to spend the night and ended up finding a hotel on South Las Vegas Boulevard - a Microtel. I know, it doesn't sound much better than Super 8, but trust me, it is. I basically have my own studio apartment for the night, flatscreen TV, a little kitchenetter w/ mini fridge and microwave, and a hot breakfast in the morning! And it was under $75 and only a few miles from the strip, it was a sweet deal! Since I was so close to the strip, I couldn't resist going to my favorite hotel, New York New York, for dinner - a slice of NY pizza and a root beer, and some Haagen Daaz for dessert. What a great way to end the day!

Tomorrow I'm heading to Page, Arizona, one step closer to the Grand Canyon. My main destination/attraction for the day is the Vermilion Cliffs, which are supposed to be beautiful, colorful rock cliffs. Should be a pretty easy day, fingers crossed!

For more pictures, go to http://www.snapfish.com/ - username: jessa.shannon@gmail.com, password: hollywood. There are lots of duplicates that need to be deleted, but for now I'm just posting them all on Snapfish because it's quicker and easier so bear with me!