We left early Thursday morning trying to get to Las Vegas in enough time to actually see Las Vegas. We hit one minor snag. As we were pulling into St. George (about 4 hours away) I looked at Johnny and he looked at me and we both said "ohhh crap" at the same time. We had forgotten our reason for going. Our tickets were sitting on the fridge under our UGA magnet!! We were so excited to go that we breezed right out of the house thinking we were sure the other one had grabbed them. After a few frantic phone calls I got a hold of a lifesaver and superhero of a step dad and Dave was on his way to our house to pickup and overnight the tickets to us. What a stand up guy right? This isn't the first time he has totally saved us and unfortunately I fear it won't be the last. But thank you thank you anyways Dave! While we were awaiting our fate of driving back to SLC or seeing if Dave would be able to send them we were able to drive around some of my old stomping ground and I showed Johnny the house we lived in while living in St. George for awhile. It has grown so much I couldn't believe it.
We reached Las Vegas at about 4pm their time. So we were still able to see a little of Las Vegas. It is an interesting city. After just being to New York I wanted to compare it to that, with all the lights, restaurants, and such. But Vegas has its own unique feel. We walked around the entire strip, I recommend the rail system they have. We found it too late to benefit us. The Bilagio water show is always cool and no we didn't win anything. Bummer. We spent the night at the Monte Carlo and got up early the next morning for a lot of driving and site seeing.
We arrived at the Hoover Dam around 10am. I hadn't been there since I was four and really didn't remember it, so it was an incredible experience to get to see this immense man made structure when I can actually recall it. It was beautiful with the backdrop of Lake Mead and the shear cliff faces. What an engineering and architectural feat. Everywhere you went, the gift shop, cafe, tour guides you could hear them all saying "Dam" this and "Dam" that. For instance when we bought our magnet the cashier said I hope you have a dam good day you dam well deserve it. It was a very cute saying and I got a kick out of it. We got some dam great pictures and then continued on our drive towards the Grand Canyon South Rim 5 hours away.
When we got there we didn't quite know what to expect. We were driving through these winding pine tree lined highways for a long time and then out of nowhere this shear drop off thousands of feet. We got out of the car at the first stop and visitors center. We spent a good two hours hiking near by trails trying to get the best view of this five thousand foot gorge of the Colorado River's design. There aren't really words to describe it. Scary. Immense. Majestic. Like I said there aren't really words. I hope the pictures will do it justice but I'm afraid it is just not possible. 
We stopped at every viewpoint. Hiked as many trails as possible. Stopped to watch every animal in their natural habitat. But still I couldn't get enough. I could live out on one of those rocky ledges with a view like that every morning, you could never get used to it. We arrived at our hotel in Tempe Arizona, got checked in and YES our tickets were there. (Thanks again Dave!) When the clerk found out what was in this envelope that had been sitting under his nose all day he offered us $2,000 and said he could sell them for even more if we wanted him too. We politely declined as this was our reason for coming, and most likely the only Georgia football game we will get to see live this year.
GAME DAY
We got up early and were pleasantly surprised by how many Georgia fans there were at our hotel breakfast. It was like a family reunion everyone high fiving and getting to know each other, talking about stats and how they thought Knowshon Moreno and Matthew Stafford would match up against Rudy Carpenter and the Sun Devils defense. We stayed and chatted until we needed to go get ready. We donned our bulldog apparel and headed out into the heat. When I say heat I mean 105 degrees with 26% humidity. It was scorching! We grabbed some lunch and headed to the stadium. They opened the parking lot gates at 1 and we wanted to see the whole tailgating experience. As much as you can get while traveling. We met some incredible people while walking around the parking lot. Some snide comments but that is to be expected.
The stadium gates opened at 2:45. We were one of the first to walk up the sloping ramp towards Sun Devil Stadium. We headed right for the water and slushy lemonade stand. Water has never tasted so good. We luckily were shaded by the press box. We sat on about the 20 yard line and had a perfect view of the entire field. The student section was the only section without a single drop of red. Otherwise bulldog fans could be spotted very easily throughout the stadium. The game started out slow for the bulldogs with a rather quick 3 and out, but they got into a rhythm and soon became the unstoppable machine that beat the Sun Devils in a 27-10 victory. I won't bore you with all the play by plays but Johnny got quite a few awesome pictures of incredible plays you will see below. I have never in all of my life seen a stadium clear out in the early 4th quarter. We had our entire row to ourselves with 10 minutes left in the game. ASU fans gave up and just started leaving. Pretty soon all you could see was red. I was impressed however by most of the ASU fans. On the way out they would pat you on the shoulder and tell you good game and that the Bulldogs did a good job. It was a very fun game to watch though. We stuck around until the very end and then by happenstance ran into Uga (Georgia's mascot, the actual dog.) We followed him to his bus and waited there for all the players to come out. We got to meet Matthew Stafford, Knowshon Moreno, Jarius Wynn, John Knox, Mike Bobo (offensive cor.) and as I mentioned before Uga. I would say well worth the wait.
The next day we traveled the 715 miles (12 hours) back to our cool (78 degree) home. We loved our trip to Vegas, the desert, the dam, the Grand Canyon, and to see our Bulldogs pull out a win through the heat, the long road trip and a semi tough Pac 10 ASU team. We will go again... but maybe during the winter. As for those Bulldogs, totally worth the trip. Good luck against Alabama this weekend. May you continue to win.
Goooooooooo U. G. A.
2 comments:
You guys are a couple of traveling fools!! take us with you next time!!!love you!!
you are like the travel channel :) how fun.
miss you.
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