Dashboard Diary

The Original Dashboard Diary [Day 3]

May 4, 2011

Makin Money in Vegas

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

After the elk incident, we figured we should make a solid attempt to make money in Vegas, as opposed the losing money in Vegas plan that most people are so good at.

Our first attempt was unsuccessful to say the least:

We thought they might appreciate the help passing out their “flyers”

Finally, we were offered the opportunity to sit down and watch a pilot episode of potential future NBC series for the large profit of $20.

So, we figured why not?

The whole experience was actually pretty neat. You sit down, answer some questions, and just watch the show.

You get a red and green clicker that you are supposed to click when you see a part you like or don’t like.

The show was actually pretty good . . . but Josh clicked his red clicker every time Wilmer Valderrama came on the screen.

Notice his comments on Wilmer’s character written in green below . . .

We were surprised to actually receive $20 cash for watching tv.

I magically turned that hard earned “free” cash into $100 on the roulette table.

For breakfast/lunch today we went to our Man vs Food stop number 1: Hash House A Go Go.

We love Adam Richman!

All three of us got their famous Chicken & Waffles.

They cooked bacon INSIDE THE WAFFLES! mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

We ended up gettin to the Bellagio Fountains just in time for the show.

It was to the tune of “All That Jazz”, which I loved.

Much better than last time’s “Proud to be an American" even though we are, in fact, so proud to be Americans.

I also got to look at the ceiling flowers at the Bellagio.

Here’s some more random pictures of things from today:

Last time we never went in the Paris casino/hotel, but we did today and I’m obsessed.

I liked the bathrooms too for some reason . . . I think the style reminds me of mom.

And of course the cupcakes at the Sugar Factory in Paris . . .

We had dinner at Todai Sushi & Seafood Buffet, which we heard had the best sushi in town.

. . . and also the worst desserts in town.

Josh said that palm tree looked like it had good climbing grips, so we got in a few practice climbs for Yosemite.

This is one of my favorite pictures!

I’ve been playing around with the shutter speed and I think I’m finally getting the hang of it.

I need these light fixtures from the Cosmopolitan Hotel.

The Original Dashboard Diary [The New Plan]

May 2, 2011

Monday, May 2, 2011

What better way to get our $1,183.60 deficit back than by working the tables in the Elk-free city of Las Vegas?
Mom, we’re goin to Vegas.

Right now, we’re collectively running on 10 hours of sleep.

I’ve had 4, Josh has had 4, and Bart has had 2.

Since we left Louisiana.

We generally have three road trip rules:

1) Someone always has to stay awake with the driver

2) You can only eat at places that at least one person in the car hasn’t eaten at

3) Planning ahead might seem smart and beneficial . . . but it's not

Josh decided if we hit another elk we are gonna each pull a tooth, throw it in the car, set it on fire, then run.
The boys already made up another microbrew beer name for their future imaginary brewery:
I-40 Elk Smash and then under it in bold letters it will say “Get Wrecked”

Scenes from Phoenix:

We made a new friend in Phoenix . . . Will the bartender

We also ate some amazing food . . .

We sampled a bunch of great beer . . .

My favorite was the Peach Ale. Josh’s was Raj IPA. Bart’s was the Hop Knotch IPA.

Josh told me the picture below was gonna turn out like a typical tourist picture at the Leaning Tower of Pisa or the Giza Pyramids with me fake touching the tip of the cactus . . .
FAIL.

I just wanted a picture with a cactus . . . and I think we found the biggest one out there.

The drive from Phoenix to Vegas was pretty enjoyable.
Edward Sharpe’s album was the most appropriate for the scenery.

We aren’t quite sure of our plans after Vegas . . . all we know is that we need to be in L.A. by Saturday for the Fleet Foxes concert . . . and we’ve gotttttaaaaaa squeeze in the visit to Leonard Knight at Salvation Mountain.
Josh says who knows whats gonna happen now because the Great Elk has spoken . . . but what we do know is that planning ahead is forbidden.

Present day afterthoughts:

The comments from the original blog entertained me, I felt like I should include them.

The Original Dashboard Diary [Day 2]

When Life Gives You an Elk

Monday, May 2, 2011

Well...we have hit a rather large, hairy speed bump . . . literally.

We hit an elk . . . or an elk hit us.

5:45 this morning.
10 miles away from the Grand Canyon.
75 mph.
Every airbag deployed.
Shattered windshield.
The car filled with smoke and the stench of elk guts.

Josh has some airbag rash from his steering wheel airbag.

What we believe to be elk guts/poop on the side of the car

I’m not sure why Bart thought it was necessary to clean the windshield . . .

Some poop/guts even made it onto our bikes . . .

And some elk hair stuck in the door as evidence . . .

The boys had to change a tire before we could get on the road to the nearest Land Rover dealership.
. . . 2 hours away in Phoenix

Not sure how the car made it to Phoenix in one piece, but it did.
From what we are told, we are lucky to be alive.
Many people stopped us and told stories of how they knew people who had died from hitting an elk head on, causing it to flip forcing their hooves through the windshield.
Dad told us that as much as he hates that Josh’s car got damaged, of our 3 cars, his was the best one for this to happen to because it’s built for this.
If we would have swerved and not hit the elk, we most likely would have flipped, and Josh’s insurance would most likely count it as reckless driving instead of animal manslaughter or just an unavoidable accident.
As terrible as today has been, we feel very lucky and blessed for everything to have played out the way it did.
God took very good care of us.

After 5 hours of dealing with Josh’s insurance company and the lovely rental car people . . . we end up with this beauty . . . for the bargain of $1,183.60 for 20 days . . . roughly $395 a piece. What a steal, right? thanks to Bart the Dart, we got a deal :)

Now we are making up for missing breakfast by grabbin a bite and a few much needed drinks at Four Peaks Brewing Company. It's a microbrewery in Tempe that happened to be just what we needed after this long day. Amazing food, wonderful homemade drinks, and a great great great staff . . . the bartender Will even bought us our first round of drinks and gave us tons of great travel advice after we chatted for a while about our day.
After we ate, it surprised us to find out it was only 2 pm here . . . it feels like 9pm.
We are having to completely re-route our plans for the next three weeks . . . check back later to see what we’re scheming . . . we’re thinkin Vegas? You can’t beat a $30 a night hotel room on the strip.
I remind Josh weekly of the fact that we didn’t get to see The Beatles Cirque du Soleil show last time we were there, so now might be the perfect opportunity for him to redeem himself. Too bad Elton John’s shows don’t start until later this year.
We may have to scratch Jackson Hole and Havasupai from our plans in order to be back in Phoenix to get Josh’s car from the shop, but thats alright . . . just means more time in California.
Josh swears there’s some force trying to keep him from ever getting to Havasupai, after enduring this situation and his last failed attempt to go there last summer with Michael and Taylor.

We’re more than willing to take any travel ideas or advice!

Afterthoughts:

I'm shocked I left this part out of the original post, but literally hours before we hit the elk, I was sleeping in the front passenger seat, without a seatbelt on.

We had just changed drivers and I swapped seats with Bart and moved to the back so I could stretch out on the backseat.

The elk hit the front passenger side of the car.

Had I been in that seat, without my seatbelt on, we may had a free ride to Phoenix via ambulance or helicopter . . .

SO blessed.

The Original Dashboard Diary [Day 1]

May 1, 2011

The 24 Hour Drive to Havasupai
Sunday May 1, 2011

Once Josh was finally able to pry himself away from Charlie’s pitiful pouty puppy faces we headed west

Driving sucks but I don’t mind . . . I would rather drive 1,000 miles straight than be studying pharm any longer. I’m just happy to be finished studying for a whoooooole month.

Naturally, Josh ran in a gas station to surprise us with “treats” for the road. Bart and I were completely prepared to be forced to eat circus peanuts or stale Peeps again, but he actually got something nice and stunned us both with Rockstars. Sugar free for the diabetic, black for bart because he’s pale and thinks he’s irish, and pink with an attached straw for meee.

I’m not the biggest fan of i-20 . . . but I thought the sign below was appropriate and picture worthy.
I think the green sign hanging on the pole in the background was actually supposed to say I Hate 20 west, but they couldn’t fit it so they just abbreviated.

We made a quick stop in Dallas to spend all of Josh’s bazillion dollar REI dividend he accumulated last year and had lunch at Fuzzy’s Taco . . . which was amazing (and cheap!)

By the way . . . it's freezing outside.
18 degrees in May?
Why did I shave my legs this morning? Oh well.
We won’t be able to blog for the next few days because we’ll be campin at Havasupai . . . so be on the lookout for an awesome post with some amazing pictures on Wednesday!

. . . and i figure i might as well give Ellie a birthday shout out today since we will be 10 miles deep in the Grand Canyon on Tuesday . . . and I guess I owe her a public declaration of how much I love her since she did the same during her pageant top 5 onstage question

Soooooooooo . . .

HAPPY 17th BIRTHDAY El!

You are getting soooooo old!

I love you to death and you are the smartest & prettiest person I know...and I guess you have pretty good taste in music too.

Here’s a virtual birthday cookie dough cupcake from those I made the other day that some very rude ants decided to eat during our intramural game . . . even though you hate cupcakes.

How are we related again?

Follow up afterthoughts:

It's a little eerie seeing the time on the dashboard picture above as 3:46 am combined with our excitement to camp at Havasupai Falls.

It was literally two hours before the incident that spun our entire trip into a 360, quite literally.
It gets good tomorrow, so stick around . . .