Road Trip

Okay, so we're really not spontaneous people. We're the guys who plan to make plans. But, one labor day weekend, one would've thought we were the true adventure-seekers we knew we always were deep down inside.

Labor day weekend was fast approaching and my friends Kim, Dave and myself were without plans. There was talk of driving to Vegas (a staple trip for any Los Angeleno) but we quickly came to the conclusion that this could be the weekend to break us of our fear of the unknown. We would pack up my Neon for a three day journey and choose the direction we would drive only once we set food in my red car aptly named "Lucy."

So, there we were on Friday night, geared up and ready for anything. We chose the direction - we would travel northwest to discover what the desert region held. The Grand Canyon seemed like a place we could eventually land and we were excited at our successful non-planning planning. It was about four hours into our journey that our spontaneously-planned trip took a different turn. Lucy popped a tire so we were forced to the right side of the road. Pulling the baby tire from the trunk, we felt lucky that we HAD listened to our fathers and were able to change the tire on our own. We used our AAA resources to point us toward a tire store so we could get the tiny tire exchanged for a real one. No baby tire would've ever made the journey to the Grand Canyon at 50 miles per hour in the dark desert. AAA instructed us to continue a few miles and we get off at a town named "Blythe." We were told to find Michael, a local mechanic, who would give us a new tire so we could carry on towards the Grand Canyon.

We roll into Blythe, a forgotten desert town. Dirt roads, one restaurant, a few chain hotels and one mechanic. Of course, as our luck would have it, Michael was not open and wouldn't be open until the next morning. We toyed with the idea of carrying on but we were nervous to travel further in the dark desert with flailing cellphone signals, the risk of overheating in the 100 degree desert heat and the infamous baby tire. It appeared we were patrons of Blythe for the night. We spontaneously embraced the forgotten town and set out to find a hotel room.