what happens in vegas...
we spent christmas in las vegas, which is the complete antithesis of portland. it's exactly like how you would expect, and is overwhelming to all the senses. maybe its busy-ness is more pronounced because we spent most of our time in the desert.peter, my brother, my father, and myself all rented ATVs on christmas eve. (one lingering question - is riding an ATV in the desert the southwest equivalent of driving a monster truck in the south?) once we got to the designated area, peter & michael immediately took off at a startling speed, quickly leaving my dad & me to fend for ourselves. there were probably 20 square miles of land available for us to ride on, with only one nebulous instruction: "when you see the red rock, don't turn left".
dad & i rode about two hours out - through mars-ish looking rocks, through scrubrush, and then even through sand dunes. we had reached the furthest point, and weren't sure where to go from there - the trail seemed to have come to a dead end. dad motioned to a valley on the left - "i think that's where we should be - let's shoot for that trail". i went on ahead, turned down into the valley, and then paused to let him catch up with me. a few minutes passed, and he didn't come. i turned off the ATV to listen for him, and it was completely silent. a silence that can only be experienced - where there is not even a hum of powerlines overhead, not even a fly buzzing around a bush a mile away. it's interesting when you're with someone, marveling at the quiet. but when you're alone and lost, it's absolutely crushing. i turned back up the trail i had just come down, and dad was nowhere.
the first rule when you're lost, is to stay where you are. however, it was only 1pm, and no one even knew i was lost yet, so i figured i should spend the remaining daylight hours trying to find my way out of this cursed place. i tried to retrace the two hour path back, but at points i grew frantic as i would hit dead ends or things would look unfamiliar. i consciously decided not to drink the remaining water i had, and also figured that if it started to get dark, then i would stay where i was - because surely then, my family would realize that i was lost and missing.
well, all that suspense for nothing. i ended up finding my way back, and sitting on a dusty gravel road, waiting for my family to return. and they did, with hugs and ham sandwiches in tow.
the puppy arrives on monday. new years eve weekend is shaping up to be a good one - go to katie & bobby's cabin in sunriver after work on friday, ski at mt. bachelor on saturday, recover on sunday, and then pick up our puppy on monday. laura said that she recently got kittens, in preparation for being a mother. however, she said that now pretty much all she wants to do is punch their face in when they whine. so um, i think we have a few more years until we're graced with little lauras.
posted by jessica @ 1:58 PM
3 Comments
