Waking up on the road yet again, this time in our final City, we were excited to see the sights. We slept for just a few hours and were up and at it again. This morning however…it was hot! Like super hot..it was Vegas hot. We had made it. We covered 10 states in two days. We had driven through the night, through the rain and bright sun and all sorts of other things as well. We had some basic plans of what we were going to do and try to see before I had to get to the airport to head home. First things first was getting some breakfast. Road Trip Buddy knows that I am a huge Foodie, and asked at our hotel when checking out about a great place to grab some breakfast. One of the places that she was told was one of the first restaurants to be featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives! Its called the Coffee Cup, and it was awesome. The atmosphere and the little area its in say…welcome to town, and have a great time! The wait was nothing, the service was a dream, and we had some of the best food we had in days. From there the plan was to head to…HOOVER DAM!!!!
I had mentioned before that I remembered my Daddy saying Hoover Dam, loud and silly and with a lot of emphasis on the O’s. I just could not remember why. It lead me to ask my mom and sister what it was all about. Apparently, it was during an episode of Jeopardy and I guess the person that had the question didn’t know the answer, but my daddy did so he shouted it! It’s funny to me the snippets of life that we have tucked away in our minds. Well anyway, it became quite the running joke in the car, and I even got Road Trip Buddy and her daughter into it too. We got in the car and headed that way. The drive up to where you tour the Hoover Dam is a little scary, and you are up in some mountains and caverns and what not. When we did finally get there, it was really breath taking, and HOT. We were sweating bullets within minutes of being out there!
Hoover Dam was built in the 1930’s was dedicated by President Roosevelt, and was originally known as Boulder Dam, being renamed after President Hoover in 1947. It sits along the border of Arizona, and Nevada, also putting it in two different time zones. This was fun, and also a little confusing for us travelers!! We did not follow a guided tour, rather we walked along on our own, and read the placards along the way. We learned some more information, and stopped to take some fun pictures as well. Soon we needed water, and went to the gift shop to grab that and some souvenirs and headed out. We realized time had run out, and we needed to get me to the airport. I really should have taken a later flight, but we just didn’t think it through enough.
I can honestly say that the goodbye at the airport was one that I don’t think I can even explain. I was tired and road weary, but I did not want to say goodbye. We felt like we still had some more days left in us, more miles we could conquer. That we could have packed up the truck and pushed on to see more, do more, and experience more. This little trio of travelers had bonded and there might have been a few tears as she drove away into the Nevada sun. The airport was huge and terrible and I was man handled by the TSA and accused of hiding something in my shorts..I was not. But soon I was at the gate, and made some new friends. A group of guys that had just had a bachelor party and were a ton of fun. Now what is really really funny, is that my Friend was in Vegas the same weekend I was. She was celebrating her birthday, and actually ended up getting married as well! I spoke to her earlier in the day and found out that while her flight back home left from Vegas a few hours before mine, we were on the same connecting flight in Atlanta, GA!!!!
Landing in Atlanta, I knew that I had a huge airport to navigate but never having been there, I did NOT know what all I had ahead of me. It is huge, and I had to take like a metro train to get from one section to another, total madness really. I was texting with people letting them know my where abouts, and knew that it was a short flight until I was back home. Pretty soon I was walking up to the gate where my flight was to depart and there was my friend and her new husband! We started talking like some sorority girls and laughing and sharing stories of our trips, and sat down on the floor together. The weather had been not that nice when I looked out the windows in Atlanta, especially in comparison to the warm sunniness that I had left behind in Nevada. It was so ugly in fact, that we were now being told that the flight was delayed. All I could think was ..great this is my life right now. It was due to the lightening that was happening and the fact that they were still trying to track where the storm was headed. It only ended up pushing us back about 45 minutes, thank God! I had Handy Fellow waiting at the airport in Jacksonville, and I was ready to be home! Once on the flight, I waited to see if there were going to be any empty seats and sure enough the third seat with my friend and her husband was open, so I relocated and sat with them. The flight crew was super nice to us, as they felt bad about the delay in us leaving, and we even scored some free headphones!
In no time at all really, I was on the ground, having finished the final leg of what was a whirlwind week of traveling and an amazing last two days of cross country shenanigans. When I saw Handy Fellow sitting in the waiting area, I knew I was back where I belonged, and I just let out a sigh. Regardless of how fun a trip is. No matter how much you learn and explore and gain new perspective, there is always something great about coming home. We went to pick up my tiny sidekick Waylon. He had been having a couple day long play date with some of his fave people and doggies; and then home to unwind and catch up on some sleep.
What did feel strange to me, is that I knew that even though I was home, and my journey was over for now; Road Trip Buddy was in a new place, a new time zone and starting a totally new adventure. I felt like something was missing without her and even went to tag her in posts on social media the next day, almost as if I was forgetting that she wasn’t with me anymore. It was something that took me almost a week to really adjust to.
Please remember this friends.. Not all that wander are lost, and not all lessons are learned in a classroom. I am far more enriched from days and nights spent on the road than I am from months spent studying at school, and I have never been too lost to find something interesting to spend some time on. If you never take the chance, you will never get the reward.
Diaries of Suzy Doozer 
Leave a comment