Could be due to the anticipation of an 8-hour drive or simply a strong desire to leave Wuksachi Lodge, we decided to say goodbye to Sequoia National Park in the middle of the night last night and head back to Las Vegas for the last few legs of our trip. Driving through pitch-black, icy-conditioned, fog-covered mountain roads at 4 in the morning was enough adventure to last me a while – different kinds of horror films played in my mind for most of the hour and a half it took us to get down to normal ground. Come to think of it, the lack of wifi up in the mountains may have been the one main reason that pushed us to leave ahead of the crowd – it was like sipping peanut butter through a straw as Teko eloquently put it – what a relief it was to be back to ‘civilization’ once we were both able to connect normally when we made our first pitstop near Bakersfield. From there it was only a little over 4 hours to Sin City, about as far away as metaphorically possible from the green canopies of Sequoia.

I can feel the end of our trip coming now.