Random Travel Update 1

Original location: Washington, DC

Arrival Date: August 2003

Departure Date: August 2007

Last location: Las Vegas, Nevada

Arrival Date: August 8, 2007

Departure Date: August 9, 2007

Current location: Zion Park, Utah

Arrival Date: August 9, 2007

Departure Date: August 12, 2007

Next Stop: Tucson, Arizona

Photos available at http://community.webshots.com/user/lmn8co2

This will be the guinea pig letter to use an animal-unfriendly metaphor. Please let me know if you would like to be removed from the random-travel-update list or, alternatively, if you know of someone who should be added. Also, confirm that this is the email address to which you would like updates sent.

Thank you to those of you who came to my going away dinner, who sent very nice departure notes, who stayed up all night to help me pack, who let me borrow their car and didn't get upset when it was rear-ended in the U-Haul parking lot while I was off moving boxes to Fedex, and who woke up at 4:15am to patiently wait for me and then equally patiently drive me to the Regan National Airport in the nick of time to catch my 6am flight Wednesday morning. You guys are the best.

To those of you who wrote emails to which I never responded, my apologies, it has been a hectic week and a half. But I did read them all and appreciated all of your advice, goodbyes and random notes.

If you ever get a chance to leave DCA around 6am right as the sun is rising over the city, I recommend it. The flight, which ended two days of nearly no sleep, was reinvigorating. I ended up in Las Vegas six hours and three time zones later in a daze, but fittingly so, me being in Vegas. My parents met me on the strip Wednesday night and we ate dinner at Go Raw http://www.gorawcafe.com/ before going to see "Love", a Beatles tribute preformed by Cirque du Soleil. It was impressive, as usual.

Has anyone heard of Ronald's Doughnuts? I got lucky and found this place on Happy Cow http://www.happycow.net/ right before leaving Nevada. I am still attempting to limit my refined sugar intake, but couldn't pass up the opportunity to sample vegan doughnuts. And these aren't the kind you get sealed in plastic and shipped from Pangea. No, these are real doughnuts, sold at a real hole-in-the wall type doughnut joint. Fresh, the kind that deflate a little the next morning. Believe me, they were worth every sugary calorie. Though, in retrospect maybe I shouldn't have bought 12.

Next stop was Zion National Park, Utah for my family reunion. I am here now. It is Friday night, though none of you will get this until Monday, since there is no internet access here, or cell phone reception for that matter. Zion is a beautiful place. I can't describe it, look up pictures online: http://www.zionnational-park.com/images/album2/index30.htm . You can also view pictures on my Webshots page under "Family Reunion Zion Park": http://family.webshots.com/album/560276451Yxtajf. I will try to keep my Webshots homepage page updated as my travels progress.

Please send me your full home address when you get a chance in case I get around to writing the occasional postcard. I don't know how much postcard-writing time I will have, but it is always best to have addresses up front rather than having to track them down while on the road. Don't forget to reply to any emails I send with the name of the email in the subject line. For example, all emails responding to this one should read, "Re: Random Travel Update 1 August 10, 2007". This way I can find them when I go to respond to several emails at once.

Love,

April/Melissa Meyer