Day 6: The Turnaround

Here we are on the edge of Nevada. It’s been a long day of driving, but RaeRay hasn’t been disappointed with the sights and experiences. Morgan put a foot in the Pacific and vowed that she should never leave. In fact, a couple from Boston suggested that she should be one of the locals. She crawled on the rocks that extend into the ocean along Imperial Beach, but she never had a chance to rollerskate along the streets. Coronado was a beautiful island connected to San Diego by the Bay Bridge. Residents and shopkeepers were especially friendly.

RaeRay began driving from there about 10 a.m. local time heading east toward Las Vegas. The plan – although not on the itinerary – was to visit the Grand Canyon if possible, but we realized that would be too far out of the way if we intended a stopover in Denver. We decided a quick visit to Hoover Dam, known as the eighth wonder of the world, would suffice as a substitute. It didn’t really. We took an additional 90 minutes to see the dam from the lower side. The massive façade that appears in most photos was obscured by power lines and towers. We didn’t have time to drive to a bridge far overhead that was lined with gawkers. Surely the view was better from there.

We made it to Las Vegas about 6 p.m., parked in the Aria public parking lot and walked the strip. We spent $14 apiece to ride the roller coaster atop New York New York casino, watched the water show at the Belligio, and played slots for about 15 minutes. I put in $20 and left with $34. Morgan donated $12 to the one-armed bandits. We quit with a net gain of $2. A Famous Nathan’s hot dog, order of wings, and a soft drink cost $23 for dinner. We decided to cut a few hours off of tomorrow’s drive and head east on I-15. We could go no farther than Mesquite, Nevada, because of the darkness. We would have been unable to take our state-line photo when we reach Utah. That will come early in the morning. The drive to Denver will take at least 10 hours.

So far, we have covered 2,909 miles in six days. That doesn’t include our trip from San Diego to Burbank. Our host, Tessa, drove us there and back, which would have added 130 miles each way. That brings the total for RaeRay’s Great Adventure to 3,169miles. Only 1,936 to go.