After seeing a friend's post from "Venice" in good ol' Vegas, I remembered my gondola ride with my dear friend, Amy, whilst on our western road trip. Went to find the blog I had wrote and it was gone! This is what I get for not backing up my pictures. But thankfully someone else was smarter than I and archived the blogs on the now defunct travel pod site. Whew! Memories saved. If interested in some goofy pics and my early blog excursions, click on the right...

Ah, the majestic Grand Canyon. The long stretch of nothing along Route 66. Heat. Dust. Beers at a local watering hole to end the evening. This pretty much describes this stretch.

The first thing Amy would like me to point out was that the the drive to Vegas was @&$^&# hot! Well being we had to cross the Mohave desert, this was expected. However, Lou is a little weak on the air conditioning....and it did reach 118 according to the giant thermometer in Baker, California. And there sure isn't much to see though I found the desert driving kind of mesmorizing. Remember those B horror movies on Creature Feature. You know, the ones wher...

You are not going to believe this...but Amy was up by 6:45 am. Mentioned that already but it really is news! So, it was another quick jaunt into Yosemite and then it was on to the land of neon, gambling, hookers, and booze. But not before a brief stop (only a two hour drive into more mountains) at Sequoia National Park to drive thru a log. See video. We think it speaks for itself. Leaving Sequoia, Angie played like Mario Andretti and zoomed down the mountaino...

Day two...or was it three, finds us heading to Yosemite National Park. However, some backtracking first. We picked up the "camper van" Thursday in Redwood City...about an hour's Caltrain (think Metra) ride from San Fran. After a very quick instructional tour of how to pop the roof, work the stove, turn on the lights, etc...though we still haven't figured out how to turn on the little fridge, we were off with Lou (we had to give the van a name). To get...