Leaving Las Vegas...

I had the alarm on my phone set for 10am, but didn't end up needing it. Our last night in Vegas and it's the worst sleep since we got here. I wake up Jimmie when the alarm goes off and he ends up falling back asleep. No worries. Plenty of time. I pack all my crap up and write the journal for yesterday. I wake Jimmie up again after I finish posting the journal. The laptop had frozen again. This has happened quite a few times when I try to start up MSN. Everything gets sorted and packed and we both shower. We get down to the front desk and check out around quarter to 12. We don't know it at the time, but we missed Eric by just minutes. He checked out closer to noon. Over to the El Cortez to pack up the car, then down to the cafe for our last breakfast. Looks like we're checking out just in time... Everything has gone up by a buck at Careful Kitty's. We'd heard a little about that the other night from one of the night workers. The thought of being cooped up in a car with Jimmie for about 24 hours decides me on what to get for lunch - A Reuben sandwich, loaded with sauerkraut. :) Jimmie, still not feeling well from the night before, goes for a simple bowl of soup. We leave Vegas shortly after 1pm, heading north and west, up towards Reno and the border with California.
The drive through Nevada is fairly uneventful. About the only thing of note was pulling in to that gas station so that I could clean off the windshield. If you took all the bugs that committed suicide on my car in just the previous hour, you'd have about a burger's worth of protein. Speaking of food, the gas station made a wide assortment of fried things, including some tasty chicken and some beef chimichangas that tasted even better. This ended up being the last real food we'd have until getting back to Coquitlam.
We head into California and take this nice, scenic drive that I recognize as being the same way Eric and I came down. Probably should have gassed up before we went in there. The drive through Peter Lassen State Park was very nice. They were doing a controlled burn in the park, and at times, the smoke was as thick as fog. As we were driving, we saw three deer walking around and one uhhh... "sleeping" on the side of the road. The drive seemed never-ending and as it went along I kept an eye on the gas gauge. It was just around the empty line when we passed a mileage sign saying 29 miles to the next town. That's when I informed Jimmie that we probably weren't going to make it to the next town. I had already been nursing the car for quite some time, and now did it even more, throwing it into neutral on the big hills to coast and cut down on the engine use. By the time we pulled in to the gas station, the gas light was one full-time and the needle was below the E. The station was closed (it was after midnight), but it had a pay at the pump feature that came in really handy. I could tell that Jimmie was relieved because he started talking again. After I had told him about the state of the gas tank, he clammed right up, barely saying a word. The rest of the drive through the park and California itself was uneventful. I guess all the stress of almost running out of gas got to Jimmie because he fell asleep before we got to the border of Oregon. He woke up off and on, more off than on, through Oregon and later Washington, waking up long enough to change CDs and when we were at gas stations. By the time we were getting in to Northern Washington, it was getting really hard for me to stay focused on the road and not get hypnotized by the hum of the road. My super-sleep-remover pill that I had been saving for emergencies was used and I found it to be not terribly effective. Meh. That's probably what happens when you let it sit around for over a year. It was enough to keep me going for the rest of the trip though, that and pretty much a gallon of water that I had bought in Nevada. Jimmie woke up by the time we got to Blaine, Washington. Just in time to sit in line at the border for a little over an hour.
We get to the border and the cars are in two lanes. Of course, our lane is moving at about a quarter of the speed as the other lane. I finally cut into the next lane and they both start going at the same speed. Someone must have opened up some of the other booths at the border. Yay. The cars are now in 4 lanes. From where we are, we can go into one of two of them. I let Jimmie choose the lane. Our lane was by far the slowest. Most likely had to do with the completely humorless border guard. We show him our drivers' licenses and he says, "They let you into the States with just your license?" Evidently, Sherlock, we're coming back from there.
On the way back into town, we drove by the Canadian Tire by my place and decided to stop for a smokie from the hot dog vendor outside the store. Felt good to have solid food again. I drive Jimmie up to his parents' house. They had gotten him a new (old) car (a Zephyr) while we were in Vegas. All he had to do was sign all the papers and get the insurance. It's quite the find. Just in time for the new, high gas prices.
I get back to my place around 4pm and hit the sack within an hour. In the next 36 hours or so, I spend close to 24 in bed sleeping. My bed... ahhh... so good. No pain at all getting out of that bed. Not that I wanted to, but I had to work Sunday night.

All in all, I enjoyed my trip to Vegas. It was probably about two days too long, but I'm glad I had the break. I can't wait for my summer vacation. :)