Sitting in Vegas

I’ve been in Las Vegas for the past six days and if there’s one thing I’ve not done is gone to the strip. I can honestly say I probably won’t go to the strip in all the time I’ll be here and it’ll be for awhile. Call it a product of being born and raised  here; I simply have no need or desire to go there.

My friend who’s husband deployed recently asked me if I wouldn’t mind staying with her and her two kids for awhile, and after much thought, agreed. But first I agreed to a two week trial, because let’s be honest, two weeks with me is no walk in the park. I’m high maintenance and enjoy my quiet and alone time (which I warned her), and well, she has two kids, so we laughingly agreed to the trial, and I dove right in.

I’m seeing what its like with two kids. And I’m seeing what its like to walk out the door to take a drive while she stays back with her two kids. …kidding! Things have been fine here, and we’re getting along nicely. (she reads my blog so she’ll get the joke).

For me to get to Las Vegas, its an eight hour drive through the desert and if ever there was a worse drive, this is it. Though the drive from New Mexico to Texas ranks really high on the horribly miserable scale. There’s a certain point in the drive that I love though. Its held a lot of memories for me, and no matter what, I’ll always keep an eye out for it on the I-15 going to Los Angeles. I don’t know what its called, how it got there, or if there’s anyone else (other than my family) who sees it, but there’s a “cat” on the side of a mountain, I criss-cross promise.

Do you see it? The ears up top, then you’re looking at the back, and the tail swooping to the left side…
As a kid going to summer camp it would always be my marker to signify us almost there. This massive outline of a cat on an otherwise normal looking mountain just sitting there, never touched after over twenty years of seeing it. I’m always amazed it’s still there.

When I decided I’d stop to get a photo, I took the exit and planned on stopping right on the edge of the road. Only problem with that was this exit is in the middle of nowhere, and the edge of the road happened to (randomly) have another car coming to stop to get out to stretch. Honestly, what are the odds of another car getting off of this lonely exit?

Since I didn’t want to be a creeper and stop along side their car, I did the only other thing that came to me: drive right into the desert. Which I thought was a decent idea since the dirt was compact…until I began driving on it and learned it was in fact sand, and it was soft sand at that. Soon I was doing everything possible to not get my car stuck in the middle of nowhere on a 106 degree day. Of course, my thought process was to continue driving deeper and deeper into the desert because I was already “in it”, so I did, knowing there was no place for me to turn my car around, but I figured I’d cross that bridge when I came to it.

I finally stopped and enjoyed the hot scenery. Nothing was around me; just sand, weeds, and more sand. After driving for over 5 hours, I had the urge to run, and ran to a little slope for a better vantage point. Thinking now, I don’t necessarily recommend running in the middle of a desert with no water on a 106 degree day, (just in case you have the urge yourself), but I did it and loved having my legs move again.


When I got ready to face the fact of getting my car out of the middle of nowhere, I saw the other car was gone, and decided the best and only option for me was to put my car in reverse and keep my tires as straight as possible as I backtracked my way to the freeway; and thank the good Lord it worked.

It was a nice adventure that I was glad to have break up my long trip. Now I happily say I have a keepsake (and a story) of the cat on the side of the mountain.

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