Leaving Phoenix - Road Trip Part 1

Beth & Karon - sisters

I left Phoenix with my sister, Beth this morning we headed to Vegas (Henderson really) to see our younger brother Scott. Scott is a helicopter pilot, living part time in LA, part time in Vegas where he flies tours over the Grand Canyon. Beth and I are 14 months apart and look so much alike - right? HA! Its rare that we get to spend this time together as the last 14 years I lived in Seattle and she in Phoenix so didn't have much time together. Beth is riding with me as far as San Francisco where we will visit her oldest daughter, my niece, Amber.

Stopped in a town called Wikkiup - no Starbucks but the ice cream parlor has coffee - but it really sucks. We spotted Elvis coming out of the AM/PM in Kingman. I don't know why people live in Kingman but they do. Maybe its because Elvis is there. We did find a Starbucks in Kingman but they don't pull long shots - didn't even know what they were. Beth thought perhaps living in Seattle so long that I had NW Starbucks lingo but I arguesd the point that it was common not only to Starbucks and in fact I hadn't discovered long shots until I was in Oro Valley.

We passed thru the Joshua Tree forest and had to listen to U2 of course. Beth posed in the tree - I guess just because she could. Helps to get perspective though. Overall, it was a pretty easy drive, especially with the company of my sister and all of her good tunes from her ipod. And then we got close to the dam and the traffic completely stopped. We thought there must be an accident as we were still quite a few miles from the dam, but after an hour of stop and go traffic where people actually got out of their cars to pee at the side of the road, we finally crossed the dam but the back up seemed to be just from people slowing to cross the dam. Just didn't seem right.

I was shocked at the change in the Las Vegas area since I had lived there back in the early 90's. The housing developments alone were overwhelming. Geez it has grown. Glad I don't live there anymore. Found our brother and settled in for the night. In the morning, we're heading to San Francisco. Yippie! The road trip continues.