This weekend seemed like the longest few days of my life. Friday was an absolute nightmare. We left home at 5:30 am, and it took us nine hours to get to Las Vegas. We stopped in St. George to fuel up (don’t get gas at a Sinclair station, even if it’s 10?/gallon cheaper than the gas station across the street), and we had to stop at several other places along the way so Traci could feed Bradley. Having a nine month old baby in the car on a road trip is just asking for misery.
After we finally got to Vegas, we were still an hour and a half too early for check-in at our motel (a dumpy little place just across Tropicana Ave. from the MGM Grand). We decided to venture out and find a department store to buy some things that we needed, and grabbed a bite to eat before heading back to our motel. After that point, we got settled into our room, then pretty much followed everybody else around, which turned out to be a big mistake. They decided to split up and meet for dinner at the Stardust, though they didn’t specify where–do you know how many places there are to eat at any given hotel/casino? We got lost on our way there (Desert Inn Road travels under The Strip instead of meeting up with it), and ended up being much later than we expected, then we wandered around the Stardust for nearly an hour before finding Traci’s family. The fucking assholes didn’t even save us a seat, so we ended up sitting in a booth near them (really feeling like part of the group, you know), and the food was pretty shitty (what should I expect, they chose the cheapest place they could find). After that, we went to Circus Circus for some shitty-ass free entertainment, then back to the Stratosphere where Traci’s sister (Michelle) and her husband-to-be were staying. Up until that point, the entire day had sucked, but Michelle said she’d watch Bradley while we headed out onto the floor and had a little fun.
After all that, we finally headed back to our room and crashed, after being awake and on the move for nearly 20 hours. Saturday wasn’t actually too bad. We woke up around 8:00 am, took our time getting ready, then headed to the Stratosphere where Traci was helping Michelle get ready for her wedding. After a couple of hours of just hanging around (and the groom almost missing his wedding), we headed to the Little White Wedding Chapel for the wedding. Afterwards, we went to the Bonanza for some souvenir shopping, then we just headed home.
I thought the nine-hour trip on the way down was long, but it took us 13 hours to get home. Luckily, Bradley slept almost the entire time, but we had problems with our car. The front-end alignment has been off for quite some time, and one of the front tires was worn down pretty far before we even left for Las Vegas. Well, it got chewed up even more on the drive down, though when we left Vegas I thought we’d be ok to make it home. After stopping again in St. George for fuel (NOT at the Sinclair), the tire looked quite a bit worse, and after stopping at a rest area just south of Cedar City, I decided that I didn’t dare to drive on it any further. I jacked up the Mazda and removed the right-front wheel, then lowered the spare tire and tried putting it on. Well, the damned thing didn’t fit–the center hole in the rim didn’t fit around the front hub. I thought the only thing left to do was to put the shitty tire back on and try to make it to Cedar City, where we’d spend the night and get a new tire in the morning. Traci tried getting ahold of my mom to let her know what had happened, but there was no answer at her house (which had us worried). It turned out that she’d taken Michael back to our house because his allergies were really bothering him (because of her cats). During all this calling around and trying to get ahold of somebody in Price, I realized that I could probably fit the spare tire on the rear, since the rear doesn’t have hubs like the front. So I put the bad tire back on the front, jacked up the rear, removed the right-rear and replaced it with the spare (it fit!). Then all I had to do was remove the plastic dust-cover thing from the rear wheel and put it on the right-front, and we were all set. I think we were at that rest area for a couple of hours while I changed three damned tires, but I’m glad we didn’t end up having to stay another night.
Since I now had four good tires on the car again, we hauled ass home, thinking we’d still make it in good time. Hah, wishful thinking. After meeting up with I-70 and stopping in Richfield for a stretch and something to drink, we headed over the mountains and through Salina Canyon. We started seeing a lot of deer right along the side of the road, so I slowed it down from about 75 mph to 65, but soon after, one of the headlights burned out. It’s amazing how much difference having two working headlights makes–I couldn’t see shit after that. I had to slow down to about 45 mph for most of the drive back, except for when we got past Emery, where I was a little more familiar with the road.
When we got home, my mom had been dozing on the couch, and Michael was sound asleep in his bed. He sounded really bad–his airway was constricted (sounded like asthma), and I was a little worried about him. We woke him up and let him stay up for just a little bit while we got ready for bed, and we didn’t get to bed until after 4:00 am (another 20-hour day).
Yesterday, we didn’t do shit. I unloaded the car, and we all went to the park to play for awhile, but other than that it was a lazy day. At least I got plenty of sleep last night. I don’t think I’ll be going to Las Vegas again for a very long time–I certainly won’t do it if any of Traci’s family is around, and I’ll also never bring a child there again. If I had it to do all over again, I’d have stayed home with both of the kids while Traci went with her parents. That way she could play tag-along, and I’d have the relative pleasure of staying home with my two sons.