Day 4 starts at 12 midnight on Friday. Fair warning, this is probably the least exciting day we had. We pretty much had to drive straight to Vegas overnight to make sure we got there in time to pick up Maria from the airport. You see, originally she was supposed to land at 11am so we had to be there early. Her flight ended up getting delayed a few times and everything worked out so… moving on!

As I was saying, at midnight we were definitely somewhere in New Mexico. It was pitch black out so there weren’t any exciting things to see or anything. All we had was the radio and each other’s company. However, it was late and had been a long day and I couldn’t fight it anymore so I fell asleep. Lyle was a trooper through and made the drive all the way through New Mexico. I woke up at some point and we switched so that he could get something to eat. I didn’t last long driving though. With Lyle already asleep, I didn’t have much to keep me awake or entertained. I decided it was best to stop at the next place I could find to rest. We stopped at a gas station about an hour into Arizona so I could sleep. There were a few truck drivers who had stopped here as well but for some reason I was too paranoid to sleep. I would pass out for maybe 30 minutes and then wake up. Finally, I could see the sun coming up and decided to just get up and go get breakfast. I went inside the gas station and was pretty disappointed to find out I was too far west to get breakfast tacos. Instead, I had to learn to settle for a breakfast “burrito”. They’re basically the same thing though; equally delicious and definitely satisfying.

After coming to terms with the fact I couldn’t sleep, I decided to take off around 6am. I drove for a bit until Lyle woke up and we switched. I slept maybe an hour before he woke me up so I could see where we were. I woke to see we were driving through a forest area in Flagstaff, AZ. He knows I get super excited over things like this so he said he had to wake me up so I wouldn’t miss it. We found out there was a meteor crater nearby, tried to visit, but it was closed. We didn’t want to wait so we just kept going. There really wasn’t much else to say about our drive through Arizona. It was mostly a lot of mountains and forests so it’s safe to say I definitely still enjoyed the drive and the views.

We crossed into Nevada around noon. Since we were no longer in a rush to get to Maria, we decided to stop and take our time to take in some more views. We had stopped at an overlook and since Lyle knew I had never been to the Hoover Dam, we spontaneously stopped there next. I was pretty excited about that. So after we explored around there, we were finally en route to Las Vegas!

We got to our hotel and unpacked and relaxed for a bit. I actually had to give Sadie a bath because she had spent the past few days adventuring around the red dirt of Palo Duro and sandhills of Monahans and her paws and fur were filthy. She was definitely due for a bath. While that was happening, Lyle headed to the airport to pick up Maria! Let me back up a bit. She had a bunch of days off because of her birthday so she decided to take the trip out to Vegas and Cali with us because why not?! So once they got back, we went to eat at a Mexican restaurant in the New York, New York hotel. We were all starving and ended up ordering more food than we could eat. So after that, we went back to the hotel and Maria and I ended up taking a nap (oops!). But hey, I only had about two and half hours of sleep that night so a nap was way overdue. I woke up later that night to Lyle and a friend of his (who actually lives in Vegas) talking. After struggling to wake up, we all got ready and headed out for the night. And we’ll just leave it at that! 😛

So we may or may not have struggled waking up the next morning. When we finally got things going we packed up the car, stopped to get food and were on our way to LA. The next few days were nothing but unpacking, cleaning and organizing. Maria had to leave on Tuesday so we took the day to hang out in Santa Monica. We went to Third Street Promenade, walked around downtown and then headed to the Santa Monica Pier for a bit. Then, we grabbed lunch and headed to the airport to drop off Maria. Can I just say that I have the best friend in the entire world. She flew across the country on a whim just to help us move into our apartment. I’m super thankful to have someone like her in my life.

Anyway, we have officially reached the end of our trip moving west. It was an eventful and emotional time but Lyle and I are super blessed to be able to say we’re one step closer in making our dreams a reality. I hope you enjoyed reading about our adventures and felt like you took this trip with us! Also, what’s a trip without a travel vlog to go with it? Be sure to check out the video down below and as always, let me know your thoughts! Love you guys and thanks for coming with us!

https://player.vimeo.com/video/148033563