Behind The Times

Yes, yes, I'm a little behind, but we've had a busy weekend and a difficult time finding wifi... here's a brief recap/highlight of all the fun stuff we've done recently.
So, after we left Ventura, we drove down to Valley Center, spent the night with my awesome uncle and aunt, Chris and Amy, and then went to lunch with Chris down by the beach at one heck of a restaurant at the end of a *very* long pier. Probably had the best milkshake of my life there. We intended to camp one more night in California, but we ended up driving a little further to see Las Vegas at night. It was kinda cool, but definitely not near as impressive as I thought it'd be for all the hype it gets. It definitely wasn't worth sleeping in the car at a Wal-Mart. The next day we got up and saw the Hoover Dam (which is pretty crazy big, in case you were wondering) and drove to the Grand Canyon, where we camped early. Originally, we'd intended to hike down, camp, and hike back out, but because of technical difficulties and government red tape, we were unable to obtain camping permits for inside the canyon. We then decided to hike the canyon anyways, so we got to bed early and got up even earlier... comparatively. Pictures will follow, but in a nutshell, we did one of the toughest things any of us have ever done. If you've never hiked the Grand Canyon, understand that it's steep, it's very very very hot, and it's a very long hike. I drank the least of all of us, and I had somewhere between 5 and 6 liters. 16 miles round trip, and a mile in elevation change from the rim to the Colorado River... there's a reason they post signs warning people to *not* hike the whole canyon in a day. It was pretty grueling, but I'm glad we did it. After we made it back out, we went to a steakhouse and each ate a ton of steak and fries and potatoes and beans and other manly stuff (we felt pretty ruffy-tuffy.) We ended up copping out and going to another KOA to camp for the showers... unfortunately, it was the second worst night sleep-wise I've had on the trip, because the tent campground location was all gravel. Seriously, who sells a tent lot on gravel? Needless to say, I was not impressed. Their wifi didn't work very well, either.
We headed up to Mesa Verde the next day. We passed a site that claimed, "Dinosaur tracks!" Sure enough, it had recognizable dino tracks... of course, *when* they were made and by *whom* was questionable. It was sort of cool, I guess. We drove past Four Corners, which is a monument that marks the joint corner of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. We meant to stop, but it was gonna cost more money, so we skipped it... we'd already been in all of those states anyways. :D
Mesa Verde was really cool, but by the time we got there the park was about to close. We managed a few pictures, and that was about it. :( Once again, proper planning for time (or lack thereof) kind of ruined a cool stop. Trouble is, it's too late to fix these now.
All in all, it was a pretty cool weekend... I mean, as far as weekends go. Weekends with two friends. Weekends with two friends on a road trip across America. *shrug* I guess it was ok.