Grand Canyon, Lake Mead, the Hoover Dam, and Vegas

Aiden thought I was edging too far off the precipice of a rock jutting out above the Grand Canyon. 

“You mean this rock?” I asked as I skittered a stone off the ridge to see it careen toward the canyon floor. My son finally could see that I can be as wild and adventurous as any cowgirl who desires to experience the Wild West.

“You’re not that.” He said as if he heard my thoughts again.

Grand Canyon

 you mean this rock?

Some people do aspire to experience a little Cormac McCarthy; maybe they desire to meet a Preacher, run a town to the ground, or put a shewolf out of her misery. I mostly wanted to see what this desert really looked like beyond my imagination.

Out of our little arguments, my son’s favorite was when I said that the Colorado River at the Lake Mead Recreational Park was really Lake Mead itself. Aiden and I argued until we got to the Hoover Dam, where he finally showed me the satellite image of where we were just standing earlier, which was in the water at Willow Beach in the Lake Mead Recreational Park, between giant gray rocks, an unforgiving desert, intense heat, and wild rams straddling the ledges above the river.

He laughed himself crazy because he was right and won the day. At the Hoover Dam, we got reflective as we noticed the water line that significantly highlighted the water problems this area of the country faces. The Hoover Dam in June was baking, like walking on a pizza stone under a hot lamp beside a glass of water, so it was time to leave.

We had some pictures taken of us there. I told Aiden that I didn’t like them. I looked large and pasty. And this was when he said, “Mom, it’s one thing for you to not like a picture; you can just say, ‘I don’t like that picture.’ But when you say it’s because you look ugly or fat or whatever, it’s not okay. You’re beautiful. You always look beautiful in these pictures.”

Tears ran down my salty cheeks and I hugged him, thanking him for being such a sweet young man. I didn’t say another word about how a picture of me looked the rest of the trip.

 Lake Mead Rec Park...not Lake Mead. Colorado River.

Hoover Dam

Damn hot at this dam

Dusted off the desert for Vegas

That night we went to Vegas to see all the lights, MGM, New York New York and the Hard Rock Café. Aiden easily let two half naked cowboys grab me for one of those tourist catching photo ops and continued his laugh-fest.  It was comedy hour for the two of us dining at the Hard Rock Café, where he ate the “world’s best macaroni and cheese.”  I was convinced the table beside us received a stash of drugs in a bag from the server, but Aiden said it was just Hard Rock T-Shirts, and after a couple hours, we had enough of Vegas, especially when it seemed pot was seeping through the sidewalk cracks and I was fussed at by a casino host for having my son too close to the black-jack table. I think the three-year old in the stroller was the youngest there in MGM Grand but who knows if the family knew what time it was, or even what day it was. Aiden now can say his first time in Vegas was with his mother—what every boy imagines.

HOT 100F

I lost a dollar

 Fortune telling