Like I said, it wasn’t so thrilling. In fact, I wrote about it last night, then I lost interest, so I saved the post…or so I thought.

The only two moments I want to recreate are:

1) The super-intense (and very knowledgeable) woman at the tourist office in Las Vegas telling me that she’s a big supporter of the Jews, because, well, without the Jews, there wouldn’t be any Bible. Then she told us some anecdote involving a child saying something cheeky-but-oh-so-true about Jesus. This came up because we’d asked the whereabouts of a Jewish cemetery someone had mentioned to us earlier.

2) We stopped at a U-pick raspberry farm, and got some raspberries. They were good and all, but that’s not the point. More fascinating: I believe this is the first time I’ve ever been doing guidebook research and gotten somewhere during the correct season. I am forever peering in windows at dustcloth-covered furniture, taking photos where I hope the “closed” sign isn’t too obvious, and wrapping my sweater tighter around me as I look out at the lovely Caribbean Sea.

It’s an extension of a road trip I took with my friend Chris in college, where we drove all over the South and managed to hit every scenic spot after the sun had gone down. Oh, and we were in the botanical gardens in Birmingham way too early in the spring. If I’d known my life would continue to be like that, I think I might’ve not bothered to renew my passport, and maybe gotten a library job like I’d been considering.

On my next trip, I’ll actually be in Mexico for the Day of the Dead. Could this be the start of a new era?