Fear And Loathing in Fillmore: How The Trip to Las Vegas REALLY Went.

I should have brought the camera. This was a surreal experience.

As I said before, we were planning to leave for, The Las Vegas Bowl on Tuesday morning. That was until I watched the weather at 5 o'clock Monday night. They were warning of horrible weather all along the I-15 corridor the next day. This could make getting to Las Vegas an all day deal instead of the leisurely six hour drive it usually is. So I called, Phil and we decided that we should leave on Monday night and drive as far as we could stand to, so that if it was snowing the next day and travel was slow, we would still get to Las Vegas at a decent hour.

We decide to have dinner with our family's, and head out. Hoping to make it to Fillmore or Beaver before it started to snow and giving us a head start on the trip.

My friend, Diane came over just after we left, and so I came back to see her. She now lives in Las Vegas, but was visiting her parents. God bless her, she gave me a bottle of Maker's Mark for my birthday, told me to take it Las Vegas with us. Four hours later, we would be glad we had it. We left the Salt Lake Valley at 1900 hours. We thought we were pretty smart, to get out early and beat the storm.

Until we drove right into the teeth of it in Provo.

Snow was blowing directly into the face of the car. And even with the high tech lights and fog lights on the Audi, it was all you could do to see well enough to keep the thing in a lane. But by the time we got to Nephi, that didn't matter. There was only ONE lane, and the semi's in front of you were defining it as they went. And you either followed them, or took a big risk by passing them.

I decided a few years ago while driving to Denver to see the Redwings play the Avalanche on the day after Christmas, that the Audi has the best AWD system in the world if you are trying to stay on pavement in snow. I might not be what you want if you are hunting ducks, or trying to climb dirt trails, but for staying on the highway when everything from Suburbans to Subaru's are flying off the road in all directions, it can't be beat. And it served us well that night. I was even able to pass a couple of extra slow moving trucks when they gave me enough room. But even at that, the trip was made pretty much at 40 miles an hour.

When we hit Nephi, I told Phil we needed to make a decision. Do we stay there or try to push on to Fillmore? Because I didn't think there was a motel in Scipio, and I didn't want to spend the night in the car in a gas station parking lot. He decided we should keep going.

Easy for him to say. I'm driving and it's MY $50K car we are risking! I've been taking his advice for more than 30 years now and he's right WAY over 90% of the time, so I keep driving.

At one point, I'm in the right lane, well, on the right side of the road as far as I can tell, and letting a snow plow in the LEFT lane, lead the way when a big truck comes up behind me and is flashing his lights.

For those of you who don't know this, or don't travel a lot, flashing lights at the guy in front of you, when he is in the fast lane, means you would like to pass. It's not the equivalent of, "the finger". So I know what the guy is asking me to do. But I'm already in the SLOW lane! You want to go around? Your argument is with the guy in the snow plow! Not me.

I finally just slowed up enough to let there be plenty of room for him to go around me and get in front of me and pass the plow on the right. Easy for him, his rig weighs 80K pounds! The Audi is heavy, but not THAT heavy.

The stretch of I-15 between Nephi and Fillmore was a terror ride. A white knuckle, scary experience I hope to never have again. Every few miles, a car off the side. The only thing going past me were tow truck drivers in big assed 4X4's that had obviously done this a lot in this kind of weather, and who were racing to make a buck by beating the other tow truck drivers to some guy who needed to be pulled back onto the road, and some truckers who obviously felt like their load was heavy enough to keep them on the road no matter HOW much it snowed!

But the Audi stayed on course, never wavered. Even though changing lanes was scary, it just kept plugging away. Even when you hit the big piles of snow between lanes that would slow you down, it kept moving in a straight line. Other 4X4 vehicles I've had over the years would wobble a little. But not the Audi. It's German, so it just told the snow, "Neign!" when it tried to slow her up.

I've traveled this road a million times over the years. But only gotten off and taken Main Street in Fillmore a couple of times. It's a pretty little town. Nice park where the coaches made us get off the bus and run on the way to a high school football game in St. George. So, as far as I know, there are two motels in town. The Best Western on the north exit, who's, "Garden Of Eaten'" restaurant was probably the sight of the worst meal I ever ate. And a place on the south exit, next to, "Larry's Drive In" which I used to love to go to because they had the best chicken sandwich anywhere, but has gone down hill in the last few years, and now is just another small town greasy spoon next to the freeway.

I don't care about the food options at this point. I just want a warm place to sleep.

The Best Western is the first option. No vacancy. Now we're in trouble. I told, Phil that the chances are that the other one is full too, and we will have to just keep driving, or sleep in the car in a gas station parking lot.

So, in what turned out to be a good idea, I just kept driving down main street. I didn't want to get back on the freeway. It looks like the main street in Bedford Falls. Christmas decorations in all the stores. No other cars on the road at 9:30 at night. Actually very pretty.

And out of the corner of my eye, through the blinding snow, I see a bright red, "VACANCY". I don't even see the name of the motel. I slam on the breaks, and it takes the anti locks on the Audi a block to come to stop from 40 miles an hour. I pull a U turn and if it were not for AWD, I don't think we would have gotten into the parking lot, but we made it.

We go inside (and by the way, I looked at the receipt tonight when I unpacked my bag, and the place is called, "The Fillmore Motel") and despite the fact that no one running the place speaks a lot of English, they figure out that we want a room with two beds for one night and pretty soon we have a warm place to stay. I expected them to gouge us because of the weather. Nope. The room was $40. We get in in time to watch the news while we get ready for bed, and just as the news is ending, the cable goes out. No big deal, going to bed anyway.

Phil says he has to take some pills and wants to know if he can open one of the water bottles that we have in the cooler. Sure, but what's wrong with the tap water? He says, "You really think it's OK to drink?"

Uh, yeah. Just because the folks running the place are Mexicans, doesn't mean that's where the water is coming from. You're still in Utah. I don't think they're trucking it up. Knock yourself out and have a drink from the tap.

It's been a long night. This is where, Di's bottle comes in handy. We both need a drink before going to bed.

Later, part two. The rest of the trip, the strip, and the bad football.