Whirlwind Out West

It's been a couple of days since I updated so hopefully I won't miss too many things along the way. Last Thursday, Wade "come on over to my place" Wisdom, Jeff "Deez Nutz" Elrod, and I traveled throughout Dallas and went to the School Book Depository and Sixth Floor Museum. We walked around the Grassy Knoll and acted completely irreverent. The museum was really well designed and I think I respected it a lot more than the last time I came in 1997-98. Dallas was especially great since Jeff could not handle the mixed master/spagetti Junctions in downtown even slightly. If you were to map out our journey through Dallas it would look something like the colorings of a three year old child with muscle twitches. Luckily, one of Jeff's many debacles led us to the Hooter's in downtown that housed two freaking huge lochmiel/rochmiel owls. Pictures were taken.
Day two of this post was spent driving 17 hours from Dallas to the Grand Canyon. We droved the entire length of New Mexico and most of Texas. The entire drive was suprisingly manageable and the scenery was awe-inspiring. I'm really glad to have gotten to do this particular part of the trip. The only mess up was the near gas on empty debacle that could've left us stranded miles and miles from a gas station. Luckily the car held up and we made to the gas station. Jeff got tired on the last leg so I took over for what looked to be about an hour drive. Unfortunately it turned into a 2 hour drive due to the fact that the closest South Rim campsite was completely full and we had to drive 25 miles along a windy road to the next campground. The drive was frought with dangers, especially the seemingly Mutant Deer, Raindeer, and Elk. We found the campsite and a spot for ourselves, I used my awesome Boy Scout skills to erect our tent and off to sleep it was.
We awoke with the sun around 7:30 and started off with breakfast at a Tusayan diner outside the park. re-entering the park, we opted for the 2-4 hike down the Bright Angel trail. The hike was absolutely breathtaking (pictures to follow shortly) and worth the entire time we spent walking it. Wade was a little girl whenever we had to walk pretty close to the cliff faces and got mad every time one of us slipped on a rock or tripped up a bit. Completely comical. Jeff decided it'd be a great idea to wear his little outdoorsy white button up that has the sleeves that role and snap up. Additionally, Jeff decided that everyone in the Grand Canyon wanted to see his manly physique and therefore chose to unbutton his shirt like a hair gel smothering, heineken beer guzzling Guido. At the base of the hike, we got to a usable toilet and water fountain; however, we were directed to turn around and walk back a few hundred feet because some one was being heli-evacuated out of the canyon. After watching the chopper land on this tiny area of land, we started the long, arduous, and completely taxing walk to the top. Once there, we drove to the Wendy's and decided to go to Las Vegas (game time decision baby).

Las Vegas was an interesting city to be sure. I felt really out of place basically having no money of my own to spend around the city and just being an observer of sorts. We walked up and down the strip, checked out some of the gaming floors, and enjoyed people watching pretty much the entire way. One driver in a low rider accidentally dropped the back of his car onto the ground and skidded to a stop, sparks flying everywhere for people on the strip to point and laugh at. We really want to know who the hell Danny Gans is, apparently he's the entertainer of the year. As we left, Jeff wanted to take a picture of the gaudy Mickey D's on the strip. For some reason he has developed this strange obsession with McDonald that quite frankly is a little creepy, but extremely annoying. Maybe he'll read this, maybe he won't. Guess we'll find out soon enough. Today, we set out for LA and tomorrow will be the one week point with no deaths among the three of us yet. Pretty good I'd say.