The Great Traveler

Driving from California to Vegas involves going through the Mojave desert area, a region with a completely different feel than the popular southern California cities. The Mojave was dry, sparsely populated with little signs of vegetation. With both of us being exhausted from our flights and midnight quickly approaching, we decided to get a hotel room after a few hours of driving. We walked into a motel and inquired about a room to which the clerk responded with a price of $84. As we laughed under breaths began to leave, he said, ‘let me check if there are any specials though.’ I said $59, he said how about $60, to which I agreed. And who says you can’t bargain in America??

After getting up in the morning, we found a computer and booked a hostel for 1 night in Vegas at USAhostels. $50 bucks - not bad we thought. We packed and continued on our trip, with only the open road and the mountains as our company. On the way, we passed a street called Zzyzx road. If they were to list all of the roads in the United States by alphabetical order, I have a feeling that would be at the very bottom of the list.

The drive itself was beautiful, and car trips are a great way to see the country. In the United States , the most beautiful drive I’ve ever witnessed by far is through the red clay of New Mexico. The Mojave is up there, however, competing with Highway 1 along the California coast and the nighttime drive towards South Beach in Miami.

After reaching Las Vegas, the first thing we did was check out the Monte Carlo hotel, where Lance Burton was performing later that night. Having been a huge fan of magic when I was a little kid, I had always wanted to see a real life show by someone like a Lance Burton or a David Copperfield. The performance was incredible, surpassing even my already high expectations. While the levitation acts were great, its difficult to shake the feeling that he is somehow using strings to perform those tricks. To me, the most unbelievable of all tricks are the opening acts, where he makes birds appear from nowhere and makes cages disappear over and over again. On those performance, I am completely puzzled.