Domestipithecus

…doesn’t stay in Vegas. Especially if you don’t do anything that needs to be kept secret.

Mr. Pithecus and I headed out to Vegas Friday morning. We took the mega scenic route heading down the 40 and then off of that and onto National Old Trails Highway, or as most of you know it:

(Some of these pictures were taken with my cellphone so they look a bit more grainy - please forgive me)
Our first stop was Ludlow, CA (I forgot to get off the 40 earlier so we missed Bagdad Cafe and a couple other things BAH!)

The old garage - certainly not used anymore:

I wonder what this used to be

Our next stop was Siberia, CA (at least I think it was - the standing ruins were removed years ago). Not much left of it but for the cement.


Apparently, a pastime for locals (I assume) seems to be to come out to this place and shoot stuff

There was more evidence of this, including shot up, rusted tin cans, used shotgun shells and

Then we were off to Amboy and Amboy Crater

View from the visitor center

The signs point the way

Getting closer

Lizards!

Wait. Did that say we had only walked 1/4 of a mile? It seemed like so much further. Maybe the weather had something to do with that?

At least we got good mileage.

Some more info on the trail

Here is where I felt we should turn around because our water was half gone and I feared my sunscreen was giving out!

We walked back to the visitor center, signed the guest log and, after pouring water over my head and pressing ice against my neck (I was HAWT) while eating an apple, we headed off.

Not far from Amboy Crater is Roy’s Cafe. It’s history is here.

We didn’t stop in though it looked like business was good. I’m sure we could have had fries (places like this don’t usually have vegan options!), but we were still soooooo exhausted from the Amboy hike that we just wanted to get on the road.

That ended in less than a minute when Mr. Pithecus slammed on the brakes and pulled over shortly after was pulled out of Roy’s parking lot.
SHOE TREE!!

All the rest of the on the road photos were taken by Mr. Pithecus and/or were just too boring and crappy (not that these are riveting and works of art, but you get what I mean).

The reason we headed to Vegas is a friend was having a bachelorette party there. I begged out of the first night because when we got to Vegas all I wanted to do was sleep. We did go down and buy one of them tall-ass frozen drinks, lost $40 in the slots (”the sluts”) and crashed.

We lazed about a bit on Saturday, I passed on the girly dinner at the seafood buffet, but met up with the ladies for… Chippendales. Yes. You read that correctly. And here is evidence. You can’t miss me. Really.

Then Mr. Pithecus and I drank too much (refills on them tall frozen things were nummy!) and lost more money.

Then on Sunday, we went to the Luxor to see the Bodies exhibit. It was very interesting. We enjoyed it.

Then that evening we got discount tickets to…

Woooo!!
There was the Penn & Teller Envelope Signing and Box Viewing Extravaganza where they invited the audience up to look at the box on stage (Teller popped out of it at the beginning of the show) and to sign an envelope (used later in the show).

Then after the show, the guys hang out and sign things and let you take pictures

The line for Penn was just too long and someone farted in the lobby area so we got out of there pretty quickly (after Mr. Pithecus purchased his metal. pocket sized Bill of Rights).

Monday we put some money down on Roulette for the Mr’s brother (it lost) and we headed home.

On the way home we passed the World’s Largest Thermometer, but we just wanted to get home so we didn’t pull off the 15.

It was 97 degrees when we passed it.

When we got home we crashed. We love road trips, but they do take a lot out of you. The Mr. drives most (all) of the time so it’s more rough on him.

I will do an entry on the yummy vegan food we discovered and enjoyed soon. Two words: Vegan Donuts!!!!!!

This weekend Boo and I went to the Gilroy Garlic Festival. We love food festivals, this one and the Oxnard Strawberry one being our favorites. Oxnard can be a day trip, though last year we stayed in the area), but Gilroy is a 5 1/2 hour drive (on a good day) so we opt to stay up there.

As I mentioned in a previous entry, this drive was pretty good, traffic-wise. The accident I mentioned was nearer to the end of the drive - about an hour or so out from Milpitas. This was the best picture I could get without looking like some lame person taking pictures of someone’s misfortune:

The drive to the festival from Milpitas was re-donkulous. It took about an hour to get from the freeway off-ramp to the parking lot. Couldn’t have been more than a couple miles. This was the final stretch - the red arrow is where the parking lot entrance is:

We made it!

I could smell the garlic roasting from here

Garlic Olympics?

We shopped around for a big hat for me because the sun was awful and it was freakin HOT. After that and some water, it was time to eat.

Being vegetarian at one of these things is difficult, I can’t imagine we should even bother once we go vegan. Well, garlic fries should be ok. Anyway…

We decided this looked like a good place

And we got amazing tasting corn with garlic butter. It was so crazy tasty we were surprised. The garlic fries were good, though the best garlic fries are at Dodger Stadium.

There was the Fruit Smoooooothie ($3 refills!!)

Then I saw it. It was calling out to me…

I practically sprinted to the tent and got about a head’s worth of delicious goodness

I added some of the garlic ranch they had there after this picture and it made it just that little bit better. I almost suggested a second serving.

There was some garlic dude posing for pictures. I hope he was wearing something under that.

We got 2 large garlic braids, I use it a lot in my cooking, garlic mustard and some pickled garlic. Then we got a fruit smoothie refill and a funnel cake and walked to the car. Once we go there we tried to eat the cake in the air-conditioned car, but that was a little messy. So we stood outside the car and ate it. And got powdered sugar everywhere. What is it with eating these things with forks? That never works. After a stiff wind blew a puff of sugar on me, I gave up trying to be delicate about it and dug in

We went back to the hotel and showered then wandered around the area where our hotel was. We had some wine with dinner and a beer before bed and slept hard.

On the drive home, we stopped at Casa de Fruta.

I love that place. We had some breakfast foods (though it was around 1pm) though I did get quite a frown from the waitress when I told her I didn’t want any bacon with my “combo”. She told me I could sub sausage I said, “No, no meat at all, thanks. I’m vegetarian.” Sometimes if you don’t specify the veg part they will bring it out on the plate and expect you to eat around it or end up just taking it off, cause yeah, I want flesh juices on my potatoes. *hurl* She looked at me like I just insulted her and her entire lineage. She never brought my toast either.

My Boo outside Casa de Restaurant

After we ate we visited their Casa de Sweets, wandered by the Casa de Choo-choo and the fruit & veggie stand, as well as the gift shop. We bought a bunch of taffy and fruit and stuff.

Then we did the long drive home. It was a good weekend.