Road Trip

When I quit my job at the law firm, I decided I needed to do something spontaneous while I had the free time to do it. I texted my friend Stephanie asking her if she was available for some spontaneity. She was.

We ended up taking a quick and fun road trip to Laughlin (NV), Oatman (AZ), and the Mojave Desert (CA).

Below the break are some pictures from our trip:

Laughlin, NV

We only spent one night in Nevada (Russell's home state!). We left Irvine, CA on Wednesday afternoon and arrived in Laughlin on Wednesday night. All in all, we were only in Nevada for less than a day since we jumped back into my Honda Civic in the morning and drove the 30 minutes into Arizona state.

Oatman, AZ

Two tortoise buddies (left) and an abandoned building (right)

We were able to travel on part of Route 66 to get to Oatman.

Oatman, AZ is kind of a ghost town. It's mostly a stop now for tourists to explore. They had quite a few burros calmly wandering down the streets and occasionally mobbing people who held burro food. 

Burros!

After Arizona, we began our journey back home. But of course we needed to go out and see the Mojave Desert. We drove a few hours back into California then stopped by a place called "Hole-in-the-Wall" in the Mojave Desert. The drive consisted of getting off the highway and driving close to an hour deep into the Mojave. We had no phone signal and were in the middle of nowhere. I just hoped and prayed we wouldn't get a flat tire and get stranded out there. We reached our destination and parked our car at a visitor's center. There was a one-mile hike to go see the Hole-in-the-Walls. The hike became one of my favorite parts from the trip.

This is what we saw:

The holes are a result from volcanic activity that covered the area and eventually formed holes within the rocks (Steph researched this once we got signal on our phones since we were both wondering why there were holes).

The place was beautiful and so peaceful. We sat there awhile and occasionally shouted at the rocks to hear our voices echo. It was so quiet. Sitting there in the middle of the rocks, not being able to hear anything (cars, people, etc.) was eerie yet cool. The rocks were tall too. Here's a picture with Stephanie in it to put the rocks into perspective: 

It was a very successful trip. After the Mojave Desert, Stephanie and I drove to Victorville, had some Korean food, then found a hotel to stay at. The journey ended on Friday afternoon when we got back home into Irvine. For a spontaneous trip, it was peaceful and enjoyable.