Okay, so I discovered another bad time to visit Vegas. September! It was still near 100 degrees and I constantly felt as though I was being baked alive. And the traffic? What are the chances I witness an accident at almost the same spot two days in a row?

Day One, September 19, 2015

We set out at around 8:30 am for Las Vegas after my mom picked up our rental car and I dropped the old car at her friend’s house where I took some pictures while waiting for my mom to arrive.

Okay, we’re off on our 6-hour journey. By noon, my mom was feeling hungry. So she was determine to go to the Costco in Saint George, Utah. I’ve been there only twice, so I wasn’t really sure where it was and I was too busy last week finishing up with my school work that I forgot to check. You know my mom, she’s always depending on me for everything, except driving which she’s adamant that she does this task.

So we took the first St. George exit while I was hoping for a miracle that we took the right exit but we did not. We drove up and down the road full of people and shops looking for a Costco. It was terrifying. Several times, my mom was so busy looking around that I had to warn her about the red light or that there’s a car in front of us.

After a brief tantrum (my mom, not me), we got back on the interstate and just had to survive temporarily on veggie chips and chicken jerky, at least until we get to our motel about 2 hours later.

While my mom was calming down and indulging herself with jerky, I was busy taking pictures of the scenery.

After spending a brief 45-minutes passing Arizona, we arrived in Nevada.

That green sign literally photo-bombed the picture! Now Nevada shall be known as “Nevad”. I didn’t take any pictures until we took our exit during which time we made small conversations about the difference between the top 40 music that played on the radio in Las Vegas and Salt Lake City.

There’s a difference, actually. I can’t describe it. It just feels a little bit different.

After that conversation dissolved, I glanced over the dashboard and saw the temperature outside, 94°F! When we left that morning, it was 48°F. That is a big difference in temperature! My mom glanced at the temperature, too, and she was like, “Oh my god, that is hot!”

At around a quarter after one, we finally exited the freeway on N. Las Vegas Blvd. The two-lane road was so barren at first that it made me suspicious about whether Google Maps had gotten it wrong, that it had made us take the wrong exit.

About five miles in, we finally saw something we like, the towering buildings of downtown Las Vegas! Not long after, we came and passed the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and at last, we arrived at our motel.

The moment I got out of the car was the moment the heat got to me. It was like a punch in the face. “I feel like I’m melting!” I whined and mom laughed as I hustled into the not-so-air-conditioned lobby. I say not-so because you can only feel cool air when you’re standing in front of the window-air-conditioning unit.

We checked in and crossed the parking lot to our room. The room was okay-ish, not the nicest room I’ve ever stayed in but it’s okay. As soon as we loaded our single suitcase into the room and I placed my backpack on the table, I pulled my tablet from my purse and accessed the wi-fi, at least attempted to. It couldn’t do it. My mom’s tablet was even worse. We tried our computers next, no luck.

So I had to brave the heat and march across the parking lot to the lobby with my tablet in my arm. I tried again to connect in the lobby, it worked! So I went back across to our room but the internet was down again. It turned out the internet was down for our room. “Go tell the manager.” My mom ordered and once again, I crossed the hot weather to the lobby and told the manager.

“I’ll reset the router,” the manager told me and I crossed the hot pavement again.

My mom was certainly pissed. So we decided to go across the street to Nellis Air Force Base for a bite to eat. Everything was bigger there, its commissary, exchange, and even its food court. After filling the car up again, we decided to go across the street to Burger King where we had two Big Fish Sandwiches.

After that, we returned to the motel where we were hoping the internet would be fixed except it wasn’t. My mom needed to search for direction to Chinatown and to her friend’s house. Well, she knew how to get to Chinatown except she didn’t want to go that lonely route again and we had no idea where we were on the map. Sighing, I made my way across the lobby again. I must had made ten trips back-and-forth during the next hour.

Meanwhile, my head started to hurt. I think it’s the temperature difference but I bore it, thinking I was just tired. So at last as I got to lay down, my mom said, “Let’s go to Chinatown.”

I groaned, “Just let me have a couple of minutes.” It was already half-passed-four and we were supposed to be at her friend’s house at half-passed-six and there was a big accident on I-15 just south of us, near the exit for Chinatown. I didn’t want to go but I had to.

At a quarter-after-six, we were less than a mile from her friend’s house. My mom decided to stop by a supermarket to see if she could get a box of moon cake for our friend in Salt Lake City as a token of thank for watching our car. It turned out we were no longer in Chinatown but in Korean town. Koreans don’t celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival. So no moon cakes.

Less than fifteen minutes later, we arrived at her friend’s house. I wouldn’t call this a house, it’s more like a mansion with a magnificent pool and tennis court. I felt so bad not to have taken pictures there. It was like a fantasy land.

It must be over-a-million-dollars, I thought but as we were driving home, my mom told me they acquired the house some twenty-years ago, so it wasn’t quite expensive then.

The meal was one of the most elaborate meals I’ve ever had. There were two dishes of fish! And the chicken was incredibly tender, even the white meat almost melted in my mouth. And the baby-back-ribs, mmm!

As dinner ended and the adults dissolved into conversations, I began to check my blog but just as I was about to reply all the comments, my tablet was running out of battery. So I had to settle with watching TV.

At the same time, my headache was persistent. I tried meditating but that only worked for a few minutes. Still, I thought I was tired.

A quarter-after-eight, we said good bye and returned to the motel.

Continue onto Day Two

Related Posts:

Hello From Las Vegas!