Road Trip, Day 6

After sleeping-in, Paige and I took our time to leave the hotel. First, we had to find our car in the Stratosphere's parking garage. One of the tricks of casinos is to make all guests come down to the casino floor no matter what and at all times. Thus, even if your car is parked on the fifth floor of the parking garage, and you are staying in the fifth floor of the hotel, you have to go all of the way down to the casino floor, walk across it, and then get into the special parking lot elevator. Tricky.

After eating a Saturday buffet at the Stratosphere, Paige and I headed out of Las Vegas around 12:30 PM. Remember all those warnings I had been given by the people at the Pontiac dealership? Well, we must of forgot, because we left in the hottest part of the day in Vegas, to drive through a desert or two, before getting to Interstate 5 of California.

Best part about this time in the car: about 15 minutes out of Las Vegas, we get into a traffic jam. There had been a huge automobile accident on the interstate. Traffic was creeping. So where do you think we are located? In the desert. Mind you, my Pontiac Grand-Am is as Black as night. So it is getting hot, and the engine temperature is sky-rocketting. So Paige and I have to turn the air conditioning off. You want to know what is not fun? Sweating your tushy off for about 40 minutes, in a jam packed Black Pontiac, in the middle of the desert, in a traffic jam, with no air conditioning or wind. Finally, traffic starts to move again. Phew! At that time, I was pretty concerned that we weren't going to make it.

However, we made it to I-5 without incident. But, it was there when our next melodrama began. Our "Check Coolant Light" kep coming on and off, and we didn't know why. I didn't know what it meant, so I read the Owner's Manual, where it said that if the light remains on, add coolant to your car. I didn't have any coolant with me, just all of the possessions from WI that I could fit in the car. Luckily, the light never really stayed "on", so I said, "screw it, we will stop when we need to get gas next before picking some coolant up." Paige however, was very nervous about the ordeal, and was driving at the time. She didn't want to be behind the wheel when the car's engine burst into flames. But she didn't tell me about her concerns, so she proceeded to drive, nervous-as-heck, for the next 4 hours. It was when she got out of the driver's seat that she told me how worried she had been. I felt pretty bad about the whole ordeal. So, we picked-up some coolant to carry in the car in case the light stayed on. It never did, so the problem was averted.

Around 10:00 PM, Paige and I arrived in Santa Rosa, CA. There, we were met by a happy Brad, Gail, and Cecil.

The end.