And so it begins....

I  The first day of this trip was incredibly aggressive. Up at 5 am for 5:45 car service. I swear the driver had to use the restroom in a big way. He kept doing the "oh-my-god-I-have-to-pee-so-bad" shuffle in the drivers seat.  I felt bad for him, but on the flip side, he got me to JFK in record time. I arrived in LAX six hours later around 1 in the afternoon. I picked up my rental at Avis and got a pretty sweet GMC Terrain. It's a welcome change to be up high and actually see the road ahead of me. I think I'm going to enjoy driving this vehicle across the country.

I must vent for a moment. I honestly don't know how people can enjoy living in the Los Angeles area. I don't mean to offend anyone, but seriously, the traffic is so much worse than NYC or Boston traffic on the east coast. It took me six hours to reach Laughlin, Nevada, which usually is a four hour drive.  I was so glad to see the "Welcome to Nevada" sign and put California behind me. 

The one thing I enjoyed seeing again were the endless double stacked train cars that snaked their way on the sides of hills and below the highway. As the sun was going down, the sight of seeing an incoming westward train with the lead car beaming the path ahead was just an awesome sight to see. 

I stayed with friends who live in Laughlin. What a great time we had catching up. We headed to a casino for a bit of fun and I walked away with an extra $12 in my pocket. Not too shabby. I learned how to play Craps, which I found to be very enjoyable once I got the hang of it (and of course, winning a few $$$ also helps).  Finally called it a night around 1 am. Phew! 

It's now close to 7 am on day two and I'm awake and ready to get todays journey started.

Ramble on down the road.....