Waking Up in Vegas

I wrote this when I woke up in Vegas on January 6. I was on a cross-country road trip to Pasadena, California to watch the Texas Longhorns in the BCS National Championship Game. We had to check out of the hotel before I could finish the post, so I saved it as a draft, and now that I'm back in San Antonio I am publishing it. I'll write more about that amazing soon.

January 6, 2009
10:15 a.m. Pacific Standard Time
Excalibur Hotel and Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada

It's the morning of Day 3 of the Drive to the National Championship. Will Monterosso and I have been driving since 5:30 a.m. on January 4th from San Antonio, Texas. Altogether we have driven 1,450 miles, been through 3 states, seen snow, desert, mountains, and a whole lot of empty plain. Its the two of us in my brother's hatchback Dodge Caliber filled with fold-up chairs, coolers full of drinks, suitcases, sleeping bags, and, most importantly, two tickets to the BCS National Championship Game at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, to see our Texas Longhorns defeat the Alabama Crimson Tide and win our fifth football national championship. We are caravaning with Bregger, Aaron, Adam, and Philip who are riding in Bregger's Honda Civic. Our journey has taken us from San Antonio to El Paso to Albuquerque to Las Vegas. Today, we drive to Los Angeles to meet up with some friends before gameday, whose kickoff is only 31 hours away.

I have wanted to take a cross-country road trip from Texas to California since I turned eighteen. My family has spent some considerable time on the road. As a kid we would frequently drive from Fort Worth, TX to Del Rio, TX to Port Aransas, TX and everywhere in between.

To be continued...