Dreams, Moments, Travels
Good morning, Uncle Woody.
You might have called this a dog day. Sure, we hit all the important favorites like Cajun Kitchen, Costco, Vons, and maybe even McDonald’s for a coffee, but it was more about taking Sophie out for walks and just hanging out at the house and chatting the day away. Sophie was my uncle Woody’s shepherd that was given to him after his Rottweiler Sarge passed away.
We can only be on Interstate 10 at the San Gorgonio Pass wind farm going west, and from the title, you already know we are heading out to Santa Barbara, California.
Jay Patel, in the center of the photo, is leaving Arizona to move back to India. After more than four years in America and extending his visa as long as he could, he’d reached the end of his extensions and had to leave. Jay made some lifelong friends in Arizona, which brought out many tears here at the last minute as everyone said goodbye.
It’s Saturday night in Phoenix, Arizona; what you gonna do? How about coloring our hair and putting on some dark lipstick and eyeliner for a night of Goth Bowling? That sounds like a great idea; get out your blackest clothes, and let’s go freak out the locals on a summer night.
Okay, did anyone give Rinku any lessons on how to throw the ball down the lane?
The sad looks reflect their sad scores, but don’t let the tears fool you; we all had great fun.
A plot to take Jay to Las Vegas without his prior knowledge was hatched just days before. Anju helped us out by filling in at the store while Jay joined me to pick up some packages delivered by UPS. On the way, we see three women hitchhiking. I stopped to pick them up; they identified themselves as Sandy, Mandy, and Candy, and so began our foolery to bring Jay on a surprise visit to Vegas.
We left Phoenix at 3:15 and arrived in Vegas at 7:45.
Jay hadn’t been to Vegas before, and as he was leaving America in a few weeks, he just had to go.
We went up the Stratosphere to ride the Bigshot and X-Scream at midnight,
Walked all over the place, goofing off until 4:30 a.m.
Goofing off until Jay passed out. Just kidding, we headed to our hotel to get all of 3 hours of sleep, figuring it was better than nothing.
We awake early and are back on the road at 7:45 a.m. to Phoenix so Jay can get to work by noon. Here we are at Hoover Dam on the Arizona side. That’s Caroline Wise, Jay Patel, Rinku Shah, and Raenu.
Today was Jay Patel’s birthday, and a couple of dozen of us got together with him at Maharaja Palace on Bell Road for dinner, cake, and celebration.