Back in the spring of 2008, I was in high school, and as it goes in spring, we had a spring break where we had 2 weeks off (which is a week more than most schools got, but that is just the schedule that our school district fell into). My best friend, Josh, and I decided to go on a road trip in my Jeep. Our parents were hesitant at first, but they ultimately agreed to it since we were both pretty good kids who didn’t get into too much trouble. And so we were off! It was an amazing rush of freedom to truly go out on your own and be on your own, states (which in the USA can mean thousands of kilometers) away from your normal safety nets.

We left from Jackson and drove south to Utah, where we first visited Josh’s grandparents, which is where we took the following pic:
So much for being responsible, huh? I am not sure where the bras came from, I think we bought them from a dollar store or something as a joke. After hanging out in Utah for a couple of days, we really went off on our own and drove further south towards Las Vegas.

The way to Las Vegas

After a while of driving, we pulled into Las Vegas a little later in the evening. We weren’t sure where we should stay, and “The Strip” (which is the main street with all the casinos) looked a little too expensive for our budget. We moseyed around in my Jeep, taking in the amazing lights and sights before we wandered a few blocks from the strip where we found a Motel 6. What a shady motel that was. It was the sort of place you expected the desk clerk to let their contacts know of people who looked suspiciously wealthier than their average clientele, and who would then later burst into your room and rob you. It didn’t help that as we were unloading our things from my Jeep, a hooker(I initially wanted to say “working girl,” but I really am not sure of which nice/unoffensive term to use) approached us from the street past the parking lot, asking if we wanted a good time. I hate to sound so crass, but I wouldn’t have wanted a “good time” with her. That line of work can wreck havoc on people, and after this event, I can now look back with empathy and feel sorry that she was in a position that pushed her to do things like that, but at the time I was simply put off. She was too skinny, her teeth were gangly, and her skin looked pocked. It was obviously the effect of drugs, with possible other influences. She pressed us to have a good time with her, and we initially politely turned her away. She was somehow persistent though and kept pushing for us to spend some money. We eventually backed off, saying we had no money and rapidly closed and locked the door to our motel room for a good few minutes before venturing back out.

Regardless, we were in Las Vegas baby! This was the first time I was in Vegas other than when I was a small child. When you were so young, there wasn’t much to do (and I was so young the last time, I don’t even really recall much other than watching the pirate show at the Treasure Island). We were still in high school still, and not quite of legal age, so we still couldn’t do that much. Or could we? With nothing else to do, we walked up and down the strip. We saw some cool street performers, one of which I developed a crush on while we were there which Josh teased me about a few times. She did an amazing show where she got thrown into the air and landed on a bar held by two guys, and Josh caught me looking at the video I recorded a few times… We also saw a really cool light show above Fremont street. There is a good chunk of the street that is covered with a screen, and every hour they have a cool show that is definitely worth checking out.

We also found a street named after me, Bridger!

Josh also had to look gangster in Las Vegas. Go Pokes! (That is the fan-term for the Wyoming University football team, which is actually called the Cowboys.)

We went into a few casinos as we were walking up and down the strip, but every casino we went into used some chips or tokens, or something like that, and we were afraid to go to the counter to get money since Josh was 18 and I was still only 17, but still both below 21, which is more or less the legal age to gamble and be in casinos. We wandered up the strip until we eventually poked our heads into the Circus Circus, which was a casino where you could still just use normal quarters (which is a $0.25 coin for non-Americans). We had a few quarters on on us, so we boldly, yet timidly went in and threw some quarters into some slot machines. I was a little busy winning an impressive 4 or 5 dollars worth of quarters at the slot machines. I felt like a champion – never before had a I actually won money like this. I was only 17, it wasn’t allowed, and the thrill was incredible to be doing making money in a place I shouldn’t have been in. I was overjoyed when the slot machine gave its payout and quarters started raining out of the machine, much to to my delight.

What was Josh doing? Doing what Josh does best, which is doing thing at least 10 times better than me. I had my meager earnings. I figured I had made some money and I was stressed that some security would come to stop me since I looked so young, so I threw the quarters I had earned into my pocket and looked for Josh, and oh did I find him. He was at a slot machine, and if my “rain” of quarters was a standard to go by, then he was experiencing a 100 year monsoon of quarters. His collection tray was packed full of quarters and he needed something to actually carry them out in. He had to go up to the counter that we so feared and ask for a bucket to actually grab all the quarters. We were scared to go to the counter to actually exchange the quarters for cash, lest they check our IDs and find out that we weren’t allowed to even be in there. After scoping it out, we saw that they weren’t really checking IDs, so we went up to the counter and exchanged the bucket of quarters for cash without any issues. He had won about $80 worth of quarters, and we decided to leave at that point and go back to our motel. It almost felt like a heist to go into a casino when we were only 17 and 18, and yet still walk out with a cumulative $85. We took a few shots of the Circus Circus clown on the way out.

Josh gingerly caressing the clown

Me making straight up sweet love to it

And we then made our way back to the motel, but not before making one last photo in front of the Riviera Hotel & Casino (apparently the person we asked to take the photo didn’t manage to get it in focus, but oh well).

Which bum is the best? I think either 1 or 9

We finally got to our motel after walking the few necessary blocks away from the strip and went to bed. The earnings from our escapade in the Circus Circus casino were nice as they paid for our hotel that night, breakfast the next morning, and we managed to top off our gas tank.

I recall our breakfast the next day because we went to a Denny’s. It’s not that Denny’s itself is that remarkable, it’s actually quite the opposite as a cheap breakfast diner. What was funny is that they had an offer to sign up for their newsletter in order to get discounts. So what did I do? I signed Josh up for that newsletter of course, much to his dismay. I remember him fighting with that for months, trying to unsubscribe from it forever. It took him about 6 months before he managed to stop them from harassing him with emails. Either that, or he changed his email to escape from their newsletter.

After our one, albeit successful night in Vegas, we continued on to the Hoover Dam on our way to Phoenix. The Hoover Dam was impressive, and we spent the majority of the day there. The Hoover dam was the tallest dam in the world when it was finished in 1936, and if my research on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_dams is correct, it remained that way until the Mauvoisin Dam was constructed in 1957. The Hoover Dam also produced the highest amount of energy when it was finished, but that was also overtaken by another dam. Here is Josh checking out the backed up water in the Colorado River.

Josh taking a photo of me above the cliff of the dam.
I particularly liked this photo because Josh’s reflection is clearly in my sunglasses, although I am not sure how noticeable it is now that I have uploaded it.

And the view looking down the dam to the Colorado River below.

After spending the day checking out the Hoover Dam, we continued on to Phoenix, Arizona, where my grandparents lived. We arrived in Phoenix later in the evening and we stayed the night at their house for night after visiting with them before continuing on the next morning, but I will leave the rest of this glorious road trip for the next post!

Check out Part 2!