Route 66 Vaya Con Dios Vegas

February 14,2010 Road trip USA
Well we're in Arizona.  

Jen and I had about 4 hours sleep at the side of hwy 93 last night."Desert Rose," you knew here once as Jen, and I (I don't have a snappy nom de plume yet) are in a 50's dinner about a 70 miles east of the Hoover Dam.  The Suns still low in the east but it's warming my bones. The coffee is poison, and I'll bet the eggs will be runny, but the folks are friendly. Though they are giving us slight sideways looks as we must look as rough as the road that brought us here. A splash of cold water in the face, brushed teeth and we're good to go! nothing quite as invigorating as a roadside dinner wash-up.


We took a driving tour through LasVegas last night.  Well what can I say about that place?  Instead of pyramids and pirate ships they might consider an Ark.  If that's where society is going, we're going to need one!  The strips a incestuous coalescence of glitzy kitch, extravagance and obscene ostentatiousness set against a gritty backdrop of seedy desperation, ignorance, and just plan old bad taste. I'm thinking, Rome as it was collapsing.  Whats left of the old Vegas was cool to see.  I'm certain it has more to it, we simply weren't in the mood and didn't have the time. All I really wanted was a descent meal and some gas; found the gas. We were going to get re-married at the Elvis chapel, but they couldn't fit us in; true story.


Took a couple of photos of the dam at night (an eerie place).  The clock is winding tighter on New Orleans & Mardi Gras. 

Despite the time restrictions, we decided we couldn't come all this way and not at least drive through the Grand Canyon. It was a fast tour, I've been their before, nothings changed much. It would be nice to take a couple of weeks on horseback exploring the canyon; maybe another life time.  Our visit planted the idea of a visit to the Copper Canyon in Mexico. We'll see how the time goes. We haven't found warmth yet, but the sun is shinning.

It's so hard to capture the scale of the place with an DSLR.  I've include for ground, mid and background to try to illustrate it but it always falls short.  I'd like to come back and try with a tilt and shift lens on a Full Frame camera.  I suspect it'll fall short of expectations but who can carry a view camera around with them.