We planned this vacation when we had more money. We also thought we’d have jobs by this point. When March finally came burnout was still having its way with us, and the tickets were already paid for…

We drove to Boston, parked the car in a friends garage, and set out to visit family, and just get out. Go, and do something different.

We drove dune buggies…

And discovered the wonders of Vegas

Including visiting the Neon museum with Dachary’s cousins Aubrey, who took over camera duties for the trip.

[Side note: Do not walk to the neon museum. It’s in a kind-of sketchy neighborhood.]

Before we left we each spent $20 on slot machines and agreed that gambling wasn’t for us.

The plan was for us to drive back with them to their home in Idaho, and fly back from there, but there ended up not really being enough space for us in their vehicle. We ended up renting a car, getting much more leg room, and made a road trip out of it. Of course, we had to stop at Hoover Dam because neither of us had been there.

That evening involved some of the hardest driving of my life. We’d booked a hotel at the north end of Salt Lake City, but ended up in the middle of a nightmarish snowstorm. We thought “it’s not much farther”. I think if we had had any clue just how difficult it would be we would have pulled off at the first hotel we saw and just said “fuck-it” to any cancellation fee. I tried to keep the vehicle going the right direction and Dachary ended up as the “line spotter” helping make sure I stayed in the lane. It was too difficult for one person to spot the lines and keep the vehicle going forwards.

Driving out of town the next morning was beautiful.

When we eventually got to Idaho we were amazed by the mountains. I’d never seen mountains that emerged so abruptly and steeply from the ground. In New England, and Colorado it’s difficult to say where exactly a mountain starts. Not in Idaho. It was flat ground and then “right there” a mountain would shoot up out of the ground, steep and pointed, like a crude pictogram of the idea of a mountain.

One day we spent some time away from the family, drove up into them, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

It was a short trip, and we tried not to think about how much it ate into our savings, but I don’t think either of us has regretted it for a moment.