My next drive was from Colorado, across Utah, to Page, Arizona on the Utah/AZ border. If you have a GPS you may it programmed to show you the fastest route. The faster route might not be faster. I programmed my GPS to take me the shorter route, which was 70 miles shorter. 70 miles on an already long drive is an hour less of driving, and by
the end of the day you'll be thankful for that hour. I believe GPSs estimate that your highway driving time will be 55mph, most of the back highways
I drove had speeds limits of 65-70mph. In the end I honestly don't think the faster route was any faster, but I did save 70 miles worth of gas and saw some awesome scenic scenery I wouldn't have otherwise seen. All of my videos are posted on Youtube, just search "iahawkette" and all my public videos should pop up.
The next day I drove to the Grand Canyon 140 miles further south. For reference it is $25 to drive through and they prefer debit/credit cards as form of payment. There are probably 12-15 scenic places you can get out of your car and look out into the canyon. I probably spent 2 hours at the most getting out of my car and driving around and through the canyon, but you could easily
spend 4-5 hours there. I was on the south brim of the canyon. The north brim is only 10 miles away from the south brim, but by car is over 250 miles away. The north brim is 1000 ft higher, but is closed October-May due to snow.
I drove next to the Hoover Dam on the Nevada/AZ border. It had construction done in 2005, and I arrived after dark. However the dam is lit up at night, and I would have been scared to drive over that bridge if I would have known what I was driving over in advance.
I stayed at Circus Circus in Vegas that night. I got the room for around $33/night, which included the resort fee. Of all the hotels I stayed in last week it was the cheapest and nicest room. The hotel not only has a casino and restaurants, but an amusement park, massages, on the roof pool, etc. Parking in Vegas is also free and easy to find. The one thing I have never done before is wait in a long line to check into my hotel room.
I will explain the licensure process for California and Illinois later, but as of Wed my California license still wasn't issued. My company had contacted me by email on Monday night and I didn't get the message until Tuesday night telling me that because my license hadn't processed I couldn't begin my new job until Dec 6th. I was like, "Nooooo, I've already driven 2000 miles, haven't worked in 7 weeks, and can't afford to stay in a hotel for 3 weeks!" So Thursday I spent driving an extra 9 hours to go to the Board of Nursing in Sacramento.
Once again I drove the back roads. It was scary for awhile, because it was just me and God. I might have drove for atleast an hour before I saw another car or person in sight. The little remote mountain towns had gas over $4/gallon. The plan was to drive through Yosemite National Park, but all the roads were closed due to snow. I did drive through a couple other national forests and parks. One forest looked like it had been in a forest fire.
A couple years ago I went skiing for the first time. Afterwards I thought it would be fun to take a ski trip to Lake Tahoe thinking it was in Utah. Much to my surprise I found myself driving by Lake Tahoe on the California/Nevada border. If you have never driven into California before be prepared to stop at checkpoints as you enter in the state. No fruits/vegetables, firewood, or things made of ash are allowed into the state. Be prepared to pop your trunk.
I spent a night in Sacramento and drove Friday to Long Beach where I checked into my new apartment.
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