Worst Vacation Experience

My worst vacation experience happened in August, 1996. My boyfriend and I decided to drive across the country, from Baltimore, MD to Huntington Beach, CA to visit friends before going back to college in the fall. The vacation as a whole was fun but the trip out to CA was at times hell on wheels. We were driving straight through, only stopping a couple of hours a night to sleep at rest areas.

A day or two into the trip we were leaving CO early in the morning and planned to be in Las Vegas by 7 p.m. We were travelling on I-70 and got to the end and then got on I-15 in Utah. Oh and by the way I was terribly, horribly sick at the time. Also we had been on the road a long time w/o a shower in a 1987 Chevy Nova hatchback, jam-packed full of travel gear, AND w/o air conditioning. We got onto I-15 and within five miles we encountered total gridlock. After looking around we realized that there was a forest fire that was overtaking the road. The police were turning people around and I just kept saying in my sickness induced mania "You can make, just punch it!". So our plan to be in Las Vegas by 7p.m. was slipping away.

We backtracked on I-15 and backtracked on I-70 for a few miles to the detour. The detour was a single lane country road through the mountain which ended up taking 4 hours to get back to I-15. Oh and it had to be no less than 1000 degrees outside AND our car was beginning to overheat. We then had to turn the heat on in the car to prevent the car from overheating so it was like 2000 degrees in the car in late August in the middle of god-knows-where Utah. We ended up getting to Las Vegas at 3 a.m. After that experience we played the slots for a total of five minutes at the gas station as we were filling up.

We were totally miserable and at each other throats. We ended up continuing to drive and didn't stop until we got to Baker, NV. To the world's largest thermometer. Which in hindsight was a fitting end to a terrible day in 2000 degree heat. After we got to Huntington Beach, CA we had a wonderful two weeks and the trip back was less eventful. We haven't attempted a cross-country trip since and I still harbor ill feelings for Utah.

Tracy

 

 

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