And the Traffic Stops for Miles

On the third day, we woke up early and got back on the road. It was another twelve hour driving day, and we were going to be camping, so we wanted to get to the KOA before it got too dark to set up the tent. We headed South toward Las Vegas and drove and drove and drove. Once we hit Arizona, things got incredibly beautiful. we were dangerously close to the Grand Canyon and the scenery was amazing. I kept trying to take it all in, without dying while driving on the treacherous mountain roads.

Not too long after that, we made it to Vegas. Coadster was crazy excited just to drive through the town. She would have loved it if I'd stopped, but we probably would have spent our entire budget, just walking down the strip, so we drove on.

After Las Vegas, we got into bad traffic. Apparently, everyone in the world drives from Vegas to L.A. on Sunday afternoon. Then we were completely stopped. At first, we thought there was an accident, but then we saw the signs. We needed to stop and get our fruit checked. Just so you know, getting one's fruit checked, isn't half as fun as it sounds. We drove up to the guy who asked, "Are you guys really from Iowa?" like it was some kind of joke. Then he asked if we were bringing in fruit, at which point, Stinky handed him our bag full of bananas, raspberries and apples. He looked them over and gave them back. Then he asked if we had plants or pets and I said,

"Only my daughters..." and he laughed while my daughter's cringed and we were on our way. Our way happened to be the Visalia KOA and if we thought the last Motel 6 was ghetto, this was a few steps below that. There was only a flimsy fence separating the tent campers from all the cars vibrating hardcore rap. There were also fire ants all over our site. We set up our tent, and grilled hotdogs over a fire. Stinky asked why we stayed at all these ghetto places, and I informed her it was because we were poor.

Here's a picture of the girls looking at a gigantic pine cone.

We were originally supposed to stay at the KOA for two nights, but I canceled our reservation for the next night and we decided to take our chances on the road.

We headed to King's Canyon and drove through some great vineyards and much to our surprise, cornfields. It was just like being at home, except for all the mountains and lack of greenery. Stinky was a little scared to drive through the mountains. She kept thinking we were going to drive off into a cliff.


But we made it to King's Canyon and did some hiking and saw some very awesome trees.

The girls weren't quite so into the hiking as I was, but they did like the cool trees and being able to say that they walked through one.

They actually got along for the most part too. Coadster kept calling Stinky Number 2, as if she were a bowel movement, but it's not like Stinky couldn't hold her own. There were only a couple of times during our trip that I made a talking moratorium and threatened to leave them on the side of the road. That's pretty good, don't you think?

After King's Canyon, we decided to head toward Carmel and stop at the first Motel 6 that didn't seem too bad. We made it past Fresno and to a town called Los Banos before we found a brand new Motel 6. It only cost 5 dollars more than the KOA and it was right near a Baskin and Robbins so it was a double bonus.