Anna & Latoya, Part 2
Hi! It’s us again!
Here is a quick update on what we have been up to:
We spent our last hours in Lone Pine by the pool, curing our hang overs and flicking through last night’s pictures on our phones. Here’s some more from Jakes Saloon. Got to love that bar, so just like many before us (including our friends Petrovsky & Ramone who’s signature we found) we had to sign the walls too…
We decided to continue our trip and to head for Las Vegas. We went for the Death Valley – artist pallet route, even though a lot (and we mean a lot) of people warned us about the temperatures there that will make your blood boil.
Boy, where they right.
We arrived around 11pm, drove our minivan to the top of somewhere (no idea where, the night was never darker) and parked it at the side of the road. As soon as we opened the doors the extreme hot wind ( 117 – AT NIGHT!) hugged us like a blanket. Like a sauna with no exit. We felt like there was only one option: get naked, down a bottle of red wine and just go with it.
We tried to get some sleep (which is hard when you are sweating from places you didn’t even know could be sweaty) and set the alarm to try and wake up before sunrise.
Opening our eyes that morning, with that view – will most definitely stay in our memories forever. It was unlike anything, simply unreal.
We quickly went out, shot some photo’s, used one of our water-tanks as a shower, shot some more pics and we got the hell out of there before our bodies would melt. Also, we were damn near starving as we forgot to bring some food (wine yes, food no – our priorities and basic life needs just became clear).
A two-hour drive later (mind you we get very cranky when we are not being fed) we arrived at a cute little town called: Shoshone, were a wonderful man made us the most delicious pile of French toast ever. Just when we thought we couldn’t possibly be happier we found a sprinkler watering the grass next to the diner. (It was still 120)
If you are wondering what instant happiness looks like:
After sprinkler/breakfast break we continued our journey to Las Vegas.
There is no photographic proof of us being there since it was the most horrible experience ever and we don’t need any images reminding us that this ‘town’ is also a part of planet earth.
We got real drunk, slept, sobered up and got the hell out.
Plus side though, just outside Vegas we stopped for gas at the ‘Uranus’ gas station, shot a couple of photo’s, got some burgers, ended up talking to a guy that owned a monster truck…!
When you are on the road with no plan or schedule what so ever, you can do whatever the fuck you want. For us this means: stopping at e-v-e-r-y thrift shop that we pass. This is how we ended up in Kingman, where Latoya fell in love with a blue rocking chair, we met the nicest people, we sang Nickelback (we are so sorry, really) in the best Karaoke bar in the world and we got ‘adopted’ by an amazing old man named Orval who showed us around town in his truck, told the best war-stories & life lessons and let us sleep in his driveway. Kingman will forever be in our hearts.
The next day we continued on Route 66 to the Grand Canyon which for reasons unknown to mankind, Latoya kept referring to as Mount Everest an Anna, being very scared of heights, just made weird squeaky noises for the entire hour we were up there. It was in this moment, staring down the big hole in the ground, we realized we missed being in a house, with a bed and a shower, we missed being in civilization.
So we got back in our minivan and drove off towards Los Angeles.
To be continued…..
Check out more of Latoya’s work here!