My Summer Road Trip

By: Caleb Underhill

            I would like to share my personal experience of road tripping with my family to Las Vegas this past summer. I will also include things that you may expect on the way, as well as what you may want to think about ahead of time.

My grandparents decided to take my parents, my younger brother Logan, and I on a cross-country road trip to Las Vegas. This is something they used to do every summer, but as they have gotten older, they have had to go less often than before. However, they wanted to share a trip with us for many years, and my grandpa finally planned a trip. We stopped at many historical landmarks and cool places along the way. It was a lot of fun, but you have to really love your family to be crammed in a vehicle and hotels for two weeks!

First of all, you need to start out with an actual plan listing the dates and places you will stop and see on the way. My grandfather had this down well considering they have seen just about anything you could see, but he chose certain places that he felt my brother and I would enjoy.

While on a road trip, you are in the car for most of the hours, so you will certainly need to prepare for your entertainment and simple things to pass the time. I prepared many movies, mainly movies that were a series such as “Back to the Future” or “Star Wars”. We also played various games we used to play on the road when we were younger traveling on vacation, and you can easily make up games or things to watch and count. You also need to bring a camera because the world is beautiful, and it is great to be able to look back at the amazing places I have been to.

Below is the Rio Grande River.

Below are pictures along Route 66.

Here is a Gypsy Man in the historic town of Tombstone, Arizona.

The one thing I really wish I had thought about bringing was EAR PLUGS. I hadn’t thought about how my brother and I wouldn’t have a room to ourselves. As a result, we had to choose to sleep in my grandparents’ room, where my grandma sometimes talks in her sleep and my grandpa is a snorer, or my parents room, where my mom sleeps through anything and my dad is the loudest person I have ever heard snore in my life. It got to a point where I said I was buying my own hotel room because I couldn’t sleep. Luckily, that night was our last stop before Las Vegas. Logan and I got to share a room there because of a timeshare we owned.

Meteor Crater

Another thing to bring is money. There are many places very different from what we had been accustomed to. With these weird and different places come some very interesting and cool stores with things you don’t see every day at home so you might like to purchase souvenirs or anything else. One purchase I made was a poster of one of the Eagles tours in the 1970’s. It says, “Purchased on the corner of Winslow, Arizona”, referring to their hit “Take It Easy”. Below are pictures as well as a picture of the painted desert which is close by.

You would also need money to play games in Las Vegas, if you are 21 or older of course. Since he has been to Las Vegas so many times, my grandfather knows where to go to play games, as well as cheap activities you could check out such as “The Freemont Street Experience,” which is in downtown Las Vegas. My Papa insisted that the best place to gamble is in downtown Las Vegas, or the older part. He claimed the slots were looser, meaning you were more likely to hit on those machines than you would be hitting the slots in the large, newer casinos. Well he was right. On the third, day we had plans for all of the family to go to an old casino downtown, called The El Cortez,  to just play games all day. Many people become addicted to gambling and use all of their money, but we know it is just for fun, and we actually had good luck (knock on wood)! I started with $50 and walked out with over $300 on just slots and black jack. My younger brother walked out with a jackpot of $527. He was 19 years old at the time, which brings me to my next point. Not only were we winning more downtown, but obviously the security was very, very laid back. It was funny when Logan hit big, he brought me the winning ticket and jetted to the car.  Also, everything in downtown Las Vegas was much cheaper and less crowded. “Freemont Street”, as mentioned before, is the big attraction in the old part of Vegas. They have many stores and free shows going on. The whole “Freemont Street Experience” is famous for an overhead display covering all of the street. Four times a night you are able to see a 15 to 20 minute show right above your head, usually illustrating bands playing along with their music. Las Vegas is 110 years old and consists of mainly a poor to low-income population. While driving through the city, one may not realize how poor the population is. The many tourists almost mask the real citizens who call Vegas home. Therefore, you may have to stay closer together here due to it being an older and poorer part of town.

Here is our hotel view.

The last, and most important, thing I would say to prepare for, or bring with you, would be love, consideration, and patience. This trip really tested my patience because even being with the people you love things can get heated. A little argument can lead to a big fight. But you have to think of the big picture. You are all in the same boat together. Why not put yourself in everyone else’s shoes and consider what they would like to do too. You can’t do everything you want to, so try to make the best of everything you see and enjoy the time you have with your loved ones.

Here we are at the Alamo and the Beatles show LOVE.

I must say this was the best trip I have ever been on and highly recommend doing this to anyone. Maybe this will help someone to be more prepared about doing this or maybe even more informed if they are thinking about it.

For more information about Las Vegas, visit www.LasVegas.com