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May202010
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Driving Back to Phoenix |
I woke up sometime before 11 this morning. I hadn’t had enough sleep but I haven’t had much luck sleeping past 10, or noon in my native time zone. I waited around the hotel room until about three when Ami finally showed up. At about four we departed the hotel to head back to Phoenix. I drove out of Las Vegas at Ami’s request. She was rather tired still. It was unfortunate that we got such a late start because there were a few things I was hoping to do this afternoon but I had to abridge my plans. One place I wanted to visit while in Las Vegas was the Pinball Hall of Fame. It took a couple tries to find the location on Tropicana Avenue but I finally found it after driving past at least once, in spite of having the address. It’s a non-descript building with a huge collection of pinball machines, old, less old and new. Ami was dog tired and stayed in the car to nap while I went in. I could have entertained myself for hours but I did not want to leave Ami in the car for any extended length of time so I looked around, played a couple machines and left.
Fortunately I didn’t have any real trouble driving out of the city and down the interstate in spite of a lack of any significant driving experience. It was rather fun driving through the desert with my friend… even if she was asleep half the time. The traffic was light and the scenery was nice. The checkpoint at the Hoover Dam was no trouble. We stopped at one of the parking areas to have a look but it was on the reservoir side so it was not the best photo op. If I pass that way again I would like to stop to take the tour.
My only real mistake in driving was missing the turn on I-40 to US-93 which is a direct route to Phoenix. By the time I realized the mistake it was really too late to bother turning around. Instead we continued to Flagstaff and then turned on to I-17 down to Phoenix. That particular error probably added an hour on to our trip. We changed drivers outside of Flagstaff in Williams as the sun was starting to set. I think we finally made it into the city of Phoenix around ten. We picked up a little something to eat and then went to Ami’s Mom’s place to pick up Aly, Ami’s dog. We ended up staying for a few hours watching TV and talking with Jim, Lucy and Jim’s daughter Katie. It must have been at least two in the morning before we left there and headed back to the condo and finally bed.