Road trip...back...

Heading out east from Southern California, through a piece of Nevada, we stopped at the Hoover Dam on the border with Arizona. Quite the site, I have to admit. We first checked out the new bypass bridge – The Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge. Until this bridge was built, all traffic on US Route 93 had to drive across the 2-lane road on top of the Hoover Dam, a bottleneck and accident-prone area. The bypass bridge just opened in 2010, and is the second highest bridge in the US at 840 ft above the Colorado River – a little anxiety provoking as you walk across, with 4 lanes of traffic zooming by on the other side. Another fun fact - it is the first concrete-steel composite arch bridge in the US and the longest arch bridge in the Western Hemisphere. And the Hoover Dam is pretty cool too.

View of the The Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge
from the Hoover Dam and then the other way around.

We made it to Williams, Arizona that first night with plans to check out the Grand Canyon the next day. I decided to do an early morning hike down into the canyon, while my mom opted to check out the sites on the rim. With just a sweatshirt for warmth, I was pretty well-chilled after my not-strenuous-enough hike 1/5^th of the way down into the canyon via the Kaibob trail. Despite the cold, it was pretty amazing. And after chatting up the ranger that led my hike, it is now my goal to do an in-and-out hike one day. Who’s with me?

A beautiful drive through Utah got us to Grand Junction that night where we stayed with Caroline Knox and Mike Lindow. It was great to catch up as they are planning a wedding for later this summer, preparing for their chief year and try to figure out what to do post-residency. I hope to make it back to Colorado again soon, winefest or music festival possible, and Jodi’s wedding for sure in June.

Early on the road, we fortunately hit no snow in the mountains and made it to Denver in time to get an oil change and grab some lunch. Then right back on the road – we didn’t want to be late for South Dakota. We did stop at Mount Rushmore, but it was raining and we tried to snap a few pics of the guys in between clouds. We skipped Crazy Horse due to the rain, and I wonder if and when they will actually ever finish it, 63 years and counting.

After we finished 3 audio books, we turned to our music collections – with ABBA and Vanbot making the cut! We spent the night somewhere in the middle of SD, because my mom vetoed a straight-through effort, and as we were making our way back the next morning we called Dad to make sure lunch would be ready when we arrived. Right. Good news, though, they finally made it in the field while we were gone – mid-May – and were busy.

It was a fun, and productive trip. I found a place to live, met new friends and caught up with old ones, explored tourist destinations in my own country, and shared it all with my mom!

My mom and I in Ventura