Fairly Excellent Adventure Being a recounting of their May, 1998 Vacation
Deciding to take an extended Memorial Day holiday, Lloyd and Patty set out on a drive across the southwestern US. Since Patty has the summer off from her college job, she drove California-ward to visit Lloyd. Lloyd flew east to Albuquerque, NM to join her for the second half of the epic voyage. This page documents that second half in prose and picture.
Lloyd's brother, Mike, sister-in-law, Tammy, and brand new niece, Kaitlyn,
just happen to live in Albuquerque. Lloyd and Patty had a great time meeting
the new arrival.
The five of them headed out to Bandelier National Monument,
a large site of pre-Columbian Indian ruins.
After a number of days in Albuquerque, Lloyd and Patty set out westward.
They first stopped at the Petrified Forest National Park. Despite
the name, very few living trees were anywhere to be seen. The park is
instead named for hundreds of ancient petrified trees that have become
exposed due to erosion of softer soil and rock from around their trunks.
On the north side of the park are excellent views of the Arizona painted
desert.
Next on the agenda was The Grand Canyon. Despite arriving on
Sunday morning of Memorial Day weekend, the crowds were very managable,
exept at the park visitor center.
On the way to Las Vegas, lies a famous bottle neck known as The
Hoover Dam. Lloyd and Patty covered 4 miles of road in about 80 minutes.
When they finally made it through the backups at the dam, the final few
miles to Las Vegas passed quickly. Lloyd and Patty stayed at the
Excalibur, a medieval themed super hotel with 4000 rooms.
One of their main goals in Las Vegas was the new Star Trek
Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton. The show featured a large
collection of Trek costumes and props, a really nifty motion control
ride, and a prominade of shops featuring Quark's Bar.
After leaving Las Vegas, our two explorers headed on toward home, by
way of Death Valley. These pictures are still in their camera at the moment,
so check back later for exciting shots of sand dunes, cactii, salt flats
and more!