and I loaded up the car and headed south and west. Which was the complete opposite direction of the way that we needed to go to get back to The Land Behind the Zion Curtain.

However, it was the direction of the shining Mecca known as the Costa Mesa IKEA. *genuflect*

After brunch in the IKEA restaurant, we walked through the store. I am now convinced that IKEA either employs tesseracts for extra storage space or has mastered the are of time dilation. I have no other explanation for the way that time passes so slowly inside the store… but flashes past outside. “It’s just so bizarre,” to quote Dr. Rosenblatt. I came dangerously close to purchasing a new Poang chair – getting it back to Salt Lake would have required exercising my 3-D Tetris-playing skills with the other things in the back seat of the car. *sigh* Oh, well… another time. That didn’t stop me from making a few other purchases.

Back into the car and on to Trader Joe’s.

And then… back on the road. North and east, this time. May I just say that the ride from Victorville to Vegas is boring. Desolate. Dull. *thud* Lots and lots of nothing to look at. Except sand. There is a lot of sand. And some mesas and mountains in the distance. Other than that, bupkis.

There is a rest stop/gas station just outside of Baker that is my new favorite place on Earth. Mainly because it had a restroom. But that’s not the point. Well, actually… I guess that it is the point. Either way, if I ever make that trip again, I will stop there. The attendant (owner?) was pretty amusing, too. He chatted with us for a few minutes as we paid for a couple of bags of corn chips.

We rolled into Vegas and stopped for gas and food. We decided to go to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. They have a good Herb Grilled Chicken entree. From there, we wandered over to the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. I decided to try the roulette table there; it had been good to me in the past. It was good to me again. Not “quit your job and live the high life” good, but enough to recoup a bit of my vacation spendin’s.

  • : I played the 00, as requested. It hit.
  • : Yep. Roulette.

After fueling up, it was back to the blacktop. The ride through the Mojave Desert was boring, the ride through southern Nevada, the tip of Arizona and southern Utah – by the light of the moon – was equally unimpressive.

We got back into the Salt Lake Valley a little after 3:00 AM. It was a LONG drive. We came in and the cats looked at us as if to say: “Who are you? Do we know you?” But, when we started petting them, they seemed to lose a little of their indignation. Okay.. they lost all of it. They seemed rather happy to see us. They proved it by following us everywhere and playing around on the suitcases.

And so, Disneyland Vacation 2005 is at an end. I’m taking today off for rest, recovery and a little errand running. Tomorrow, back to the grind.

Namaste.