a long drive home
Friday, turned out to be the last day. The drive from Vegas to Calico Ghost Town took about 2 hours, so we got there before noon. I was quite disapointed, although Denise said that she liked it. To me it was a bunch of locked buildings, with some shops. We went through the entire place in under 2 hours, so we were back on the road before 2PM. Since it was so early, we were initially planning to go to an outlet mall on the other side of Barstow. But while driving there I mentioned the possibility of just driving the rest of the way home that day. Denise didn't like that idea because she was concerned that David would never be able to function that late (since it would be roughly 7 hours more driving). I conceeded that she was right, however we decided that it was foolish to stay in Barstow that night when it was so early in the afternoon, so we planned to drive another two hours to Bakersfield.
The drive to Bakersfield was really scenic in my opinion, as we drove CA-58 across the northern Mojave desert. We passed by Edwards AFB, where the space shuttle lands, as well as some gorgeous desert expanses. As we were on the eastern outskirts of Bakersfield, Denise had a change of heart, and agreed that it would be best overall, if we just drove home. And so, I drove for another 4 hours, flying at nearly 90MPH up I-5. We got home right around 9PM.
The cats were fine, although love starved. We had a ton of mail. But we got home safely, and Denise is talking about going back to Las Vegas & Death Valley again some day. I had a really good time on this trip. The desert was beautiful, and Vegas was fun, even if we were limited in what we could do.
Last night I would have slept really well, had George not spent much of the night crying & scratching at the door. I let her into our bedroom around 3AM, but then she just kept walking all over me. I've spent much of today unpacking, doing laundry, and other assorted chores. Also, Denise got summoned for jury duty on 12/2. There's really no way for her to get excused, unfortunately, so we're going to get screwed badly.
I'm not at all looking forward to going back to work. This vacation was definitely good because it helped me to recharge my batteries a bit, but work is going to drain them far faster than they were charged.