TEN DAYS, THREE THOUSAND MILES...DONE

It is 1:33 am in Las Vegas. And I am tired and satisfied. We had one hell of a road trip. Las Vegas is our last stop. Yesterday we trucked from Yellowstone to Bryce Canyon and it was glorious and good. The red rocks of Bryce are incredible, and worthy of a longer trip in the future. We celebrated Charlie's 11th birthday at a greasy spoon- which was modest and fun. But we were all ready for civilization. We were ready for a real hotel. The hotel in Bryce was rough. I won't go into detail here, but the conditions were so pitiful that it motivated me to actually post a Yelp review about it. You can read it after the link if you have nothing better to do:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/bryce-view-lodge-bryce-canyon#hrid:rJhWAUUqa0l2QzPPitsFiw

But hey, you can't win them all, right?

But tonight we are in the MGM Grand. God I love Vegas. I truly do. I didn't think I really missed it while in the rural areas on this trip, but I truly did miss the "freak" element of my usual surroundings- L.A. Vegas offers enough of freak to make me realize it. Does that even make sense?

I'm ready to get back and tackle the next few months. While on my third martini tonight- the lyrics to a U2 song kept rattling around in my head:

I'm ready
I'm ready for the laughing gas
I'm ready
I'm ready for what's next
I'm ready to duck
I'm ready to dive
I'm ready to say
I'm glad to be alive
I'm ready
I'm ready for the push.

I am so fuckin' ready for the push!

So we dined at STACK in the Mirage, shopped at this wonderful magic store at Caesar's Palace called HOUDINI'S- Chase bought a magic trick and I urge all of you to ask her to perform it for you. Forget the trick, just watch her face. She enjoys every moment of performing that trick. Charlie bought a puzzle that she can't figure out- and she's torn between figuring it out herself or finding a cheat for it online. It's a unique type of fun/agony that only someone under 21 can have...

Then we watched the Penn & Teller show. I've been a fan of Penn Jillette for some time. In 2005 he wrote this essay for NPR that stuck to my ribs because I agree with his philosophy wholeheartedly. Here's the link to it. Read it -- or better yet, listen to him read it himself.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5015557

The show was great. Before the show started the audience was invited to come up on stage and inspect some of the magic props that would be used in the show. It's kid friendly- but just dangerous enough to keep them from feeling patronized... and then at the end, this happened:

Then, as one does in Vegas...we all went and had milkshakes at 11:30 at night.

I think my favorite moments were on the Klamath. I'd like to give one more shout out to Mr. Fucking Perfect, Rael. Here is his website. If you ever want to go rafting up in Southern Oregon- it would be a mistake not to use him.

http://www.raelswhitewater.blogspot.com/

___

It's becoming clear to me that there are two main things you have to give your kids to give them a chance at a relatively happy life:

1) The Opportunity to Learn at a College.

2) The Opportunity to gain relatively happy experiences that will give them their own unique worldview that, in turn, contributes positively to their surroundings.

I'd like to think that these last ten days have provided a little bit of number two. But who knows? Only they know. And maybe they don't even know it right now- but rather years from now. As a parent I'll never know. As a parent I only plant the seed, but can't sow those particular rewards. That's what keeps things interesting.

On an average day I only see Charlie and Chase for about two and a half hours. A half hour in the morning- helping them get ready for school and sometimes driving them to school. That half hour is all work. It's a complete task where nobody is in a conversational mood. There is no exchange of personal information during this brief morning blip that I share with them. Then, in the evening- who am I kidding- then at NIGHT when I come home, I have two hours to spend with them. And during those two hours it's about finishing up homework, getting some reading done, baths, showers, lectures, scolds, organizing, then getting them ready for bed. If I'm lucky...I get maybe a half hour of direct, focused conversation with them. I'm just not around enough for anything more right now. As the days blur together, sometimes we become nothing more than task masters and them the task conductors.

And that's why I loved these last ten days. We were all together. Trapped in a car, for many days up to eight hours. And yes there were video games played. But we had a whole lot of good conversation too. Here are some topics that we chatted about:

Profanity

Birthdays

Halloween Costumes

The difference between and hour and a half and a half hour

Frankie

Horses

The Great Spaghetti Monster in the Sky

Eddie Izzard

Death

The Afterlife

Volcanos

The Beatles

Next Year's Talent Show

Story Structure

Body Image

Body Hair

Funny TV Commercials

Green Day

Guitar Chords

Why the sulfer pots smelled so bad and made chase want to throw up

Futurama

Droopy Dog

The Future

Snoopy

Charles Schultz

Mormons

South Park

USC

Jail

Oregon Trail

American Indians

Candy

Politics

White Water Rafting

Gerardia

Stephen Hawkings

Poop

Make-up

The Bullshit of the NCAA

Rocks

Elvis

My Childhood

Tiffany's Childhood

Bear attacks

Camping Outdoors

How nothing is free

The Bill of Rights.

M&Ms

Like some sort of interpersonal crockpot- our car has slowly cooked us back into four people who know each other a little bit better now. Who can ask for more out of a trip? How can that be topped?

Don't worry...we will always keep trying...