TWILIGHT ZONE

Do you ever experience days that are just, well, a little weird? Our drive to Vegas on Friday was one of those Twilight Zonish days. The quick, 3 1/2 hour drive ended up being a long 6 weird hours. I felt like if we had driven 5 more minutes, we would have been in SLC.

We were stuck in traffic in L.A. for, oh maybe 2 hours. By the time we got to Barstow, we were starving and looking forward to dinner. We pulled into a ghost town. Eerily empty. All of the restaurants had their lights on, with no one inside or out. What? At first, we just thought In-N-Out was closed for some reason, but then no Arbys, Carls Jr. and finally Tommy's. We started noticing signs on all of the doors. The sign said something like this....DO NOT DRINK ANY WATER IN BARSTOW OR YOU WILL BE SORRY!!!!

Something like that. Seriously.. "Due to some nasty bacteria in the water supply, don't eat anything that was prepared with water or any food where the preparer was even thinking about water at the time. If you do, your intestinal tract and colon region will never ever be the same. Just to be sure, we are locking the door to every establishment in the entire city. It's THAT serious." As I read the note on Tommy's door, I turned around and noticed a news van across the street filming me reading the sign.

So, on to Baker it was! All of a sudden, every single one of us was parched, aching for water-- craving the cold, pure liquid that satisfies a scorched throat. Agony in the Blake car. Complete thirst. Once we reached Baker, our options were the "Mad Greek" (you all know the one..) or this new little number.

Good thing aliens had a parking spot here, because I snapped this shot below confirming how much aliens love this place. This one is scouting out a parking place for the hovercraft above his head trying to park.

Where the heck are we?! Only in America. (If you are a senior citizen reading this and are VERY close to me, I know you are happy seeing these pictures. You know who you are.)

We decided to bypass a meal with the little green ones and finally pulled into an Arbys. As we ate, a male customer kept asking if anyone had found his daughter's coat. "Nope," was the reply. He made the workers go into the bathrooms to check as well and had no luck. He left, very disgusted with himself, Arby's and everyone within a 5 mile radius of Arbys. Ten minutes later, he came back in saying, "She left it here! It doesn't just disappear! I'm not leaving until we find it!" At this point, the worker went back into the restroom, this time coming back out with a small white coat. "Sorry. It was in the garbage in there." ???? Who would shove a coat in the women's restroom garbage?

I could swear that I could hear the Twilight Zone music faintly in the background and am almost sure I spied Rod Serling, that quirky host, peeking in the windows from the desert parking lot.

By now, we're all drinking anything we can get our hands on BUT water (shakes, soda and the like) and are all feeling slightly "sick," most likely due to worry that somehow the bacteria at Barstow is seeping into Baker as well.

After another longish car ride, we arrived in Vegas. We walked into the lobby to a ceramic life-size Elvis. Finally! Reality!

The rest of the weekend was soooo normal. We just saw big fake elephants and gorillas moving in a rainforest as we ate. Kate didn't know what to do with herself.

...and rounded the weekend out with seeing people dressed as lions, hyenas, meerkats and warthogs in Disney's The Lion King. Quite the weekend.

Honestly, I am grateful to be out of Vegas! I always feel as if I'm doing something wrong just being in that city as if the earth might open up and swallow the entire place. A sign we saw advertising a new hotel pretty much sums up why I hate Vegas. Are you ready? Here it is.

COSMOPOLITAN.... The Right Amount of Wrong.

Are you serious? That is your logo?

Get me home. Back to safe, peaceful L.A.!!!!!