[Christina] Day 1: Escape from Las Vegas

For our first night, we had decided to camp at Valley of Fire State Park, conveniently located only half an hour or so outside Las Vegas.  Getting there-- how hard could it be?

Problem #1:  Elizabeth's car radio had stopped talking to the car speakers.  Obviously, one cannot have a road trip without music, so some kind of fix was in order.  I remembered that there was a Fry's Electronics near the airport, so we set out to buy mini speakers.

Problem #2:  The relevant section of I-15 was closed.  We opted to take surface streets.

Problem #3:  These "surface streets" were, in fact, the Las Vegas strip.  Extensive stop-and-go traffic and yelling ensued.

We finally exited the Strip and approached the Fry's.  Just as a dehydrated man in a desert exults at the sight of water, so too did we rejoice at the Fry's sign.

Yeeeessssssssss!

 Problem #4:  We missed the entrance to the Fry's because it did not have a sign and were routed onto the freeway, which took us rather far away and then dumped us back out on the Strip.

Nooooooooooooooooooooo!

Problem #5:  See Problem #3.

Having learned from our mistake the first time around, we arrived successfully in the Fry's parking lot.  Obtaining speakers was uneventful, and we joyously piled into the car thinking that we would now finally quit Vegas.

Well.

Problem #6:  A massive traffic pile-up some ways out of Las Vegas caused us to move, on average, four miles an hour.

Eventually we identified the source of the traffic pile-up, some special event at the motor speedway.  The irony!

One might think that leaving the freeway and entering the wilderness would bring relief, but instead, this brought its own set of issues.

Problem #7:  Rabbits kept running out into the road in front of us.  Don't hit the bunnies! 

You can only imagine why, when we reached the Valley of Fire at 10:30 PM after having set out at 6 PM, we collapsed on our sleeping bags, too tired to set up the tent. 

The full moon rose over the sweltering desert night.  We were too zonked to notice.