First picture of the trip. Many more were to come.
Here's pops outside of a Flying J in Winnemucca. The slot machines in that Flying J also too my first few dollars.
Quick pit stop in Elko Nevada before we pressed onto Salt Lake City. This would also the last picture of the van before the accident.
Nice frosty tree.
Hastily taken after just as Pops and I were being into the Ambulance. Not much to see, other than the snow managed to soften our crash.
First shot in the hospital. The lady right next to me was also involved in an accident, though she was far worse off than both Pops and I. Apparently someone rear ended her, and just as she was getting out of her car to check it out, she got hit by another car. I certainly can't complain.
I didn't know how I looked until I took this picture.
Detail of my injuries. Not much, thank God.
I took this picture after being bored to death sitting in my room for like, 45 minutes to an hour. I wanted to know how many tiny squares was in this grate. There are 196 of them.
Pops and I were discharged from the hospital at around 10:30, 11 PM ish, and were taken to "downtown" Elko by a friendly Nevada Highway Patrol officer to get a place to stay for the night. All we had were the clothes on our back, lucky us, aye?
The casino in the lobby of the Red Lion Inn. This is a fairly common occurance around town.
I finally got to examine my injuries in a mirror. Not much really... basically I equate it with a rug burn on my face. You can kind see the circular spot around my left eye where I hit.
Pops on the phone with Mom. As you can tell, his arm is in a sling. He broke his clavical which needs to get operated on once we get back home. The seat belt is what actually broke it, and once you see the van, you can see why Pops got the worst of it.
The extent of Pop's inuries. Broken clavical, various cuts and bruises. He was spitting up blood at the time of the accident, but fortunatly all he did was bite the side of his tongue. Phew!
Pop's new hump.
FUCK YOU ICY ROUTE 80. SUCK IT
You can see how puffy the side of my face got. I tried to sleep, but couldn't. The whole ordeal took a while to sink in and I actually broke down and cried in the room. Awww what a BIG MAN I am! Who wants to buy me a pack of gum and show me how to chew it?
But seriously, it really didn't take long for depression to settle. I wasn't feeling to well in all of this... so I tried to eat something. It didn't help that it took 45 minutes for me to get my food. Fuck the resturant.
After downing a few pain killers, I finally went to sleep. The next morning Pops and I checked out from the Red Lion Inn and went to see the van.
Outside the Red Lion Inn
First though we stopped by Albertsons in order to get some plastic bags to toss all our stuff into.
Outside of Albertsons. Lots of people have trucks out here.
Our xxpunkxx taxi cab driver. Seemed ok, he actually said NOT having a seat belt saved his life. How odd.
And that's the van. Or at least what's left of it.
The driver side really was fucked up, as you can tell.
My side was almost perfectly fine. In fact, my window was one of the only ones not broken. As you can tell, it explains why I didn't get hurt as bad as Pops did.
Front end didn't get hit at all, which is why the airbags didn't deploy. Lucky us.
At least Jack managed to survive! Yay!
Pop's door. All crunched in and shit.
![Detail of Pop's door. In going through the wreckage, one couldn't help but recall the death of the Time Machine in then end of Back to the Future 3. Seeing the van in this shape after years of so many good times is really sad. [sniff]](elko-Thumbnails/29.jpg)
Detail of Pop's door. In going through the wreckage, one couldn't help but recall the death of the Time Machine in then end of Back to the Future 3. Seeing the van in this shape after years of so many good times is really sad. [sniff]
The console got ripped out, and so did a few other consoles in the van. My iPod was in that console when it got ripped out, but fortunatly it survived, though not without a few dents.
Broken side window. Most of my shit was in that seat when it crashed, so almost everything of mine flew right out the window.
Detail of the dent in the van's roof. Fortunatly the roof didn't crush us, AND no one was in the back seat to begin with.
The roof of the van. Leading water it was.
Back of the van, littered with scraps of carpet, my color pencils and other things. I found my cel phone back there, but had fallen apart. I figure when it was ejected from the car, it impacted and broke up. Fortunatly it didn't actually break, and is currently in working condition. Cool!
Trash in the van. All the junk we didn't want to take is still in there, including cans of soda, the cooler, and a bunch of towels. I wish I wasn't so meloncholic about leaving that stuff there though.
Almost all the windows in the van broke, with the sole exception of my passenger side window, and the back leftside window. Weird.
The axel was broken, this tire bent. The van is obviously absolutely totalled.
Despite all the broken windows and destroyed pieces, this sturdy van managed to survive two rolls after flying off the road at 60 MPH. We couldn't have asked for anything more, though not getting in an accident in the frist place would have been best. This is where my camera batteries went out, though fortunatly the charger was found.
I went to bed at around 7 AM Monday night, and woke up at 1AM Tuesday morning. Needless to say I wasn't feeling too well. Pops woke up at 6, so we went down to the casino and went to Starbucks for some breakfast.
Thoughout the day though, I managed to win a few extra bucks at the slots. Not only did I hit $40 on a dollar machine, but a few other machines were letting me win big. I managed to get a little bit more than I spent overall on the slots, so I can't complain.
DAMNIT! Look at this...
I almost won $100!!
We had planned to leave on Tuesday, but apparently we were caught in one hell of a snowstorm. Most flights out of Elko were cancled. We hoped ours weren't.. and it wasn't, so we left for the airport as soon as possible.
We spent one too many nights here... the Red Lion Inn wasn't bad. The beds were big, and the rooms were nice. Good times.
Pops and us leaving for the Elko Airport, hoping we could catch the next flight out of there.
Lots of Latino women joined us for the ride.
An Elko placemat.
And the Elko Airport.
Pops sitting around waiting for the plane to come.
We got into a car accident. What did YOU do this weekend?
Unfortunatly our flight got cancled, so we had to back to the Red Lion Inn.
Pops chattin' it up with our Shuttle driver.
Outside the Red Lion Inn. Later in the day, we went around town to pick up some supplied. I got myself another pair of head sets (after assuming my previous pair was lost in the crash), and some cake mix.
Woke up at around 3 AM Wednesday morning to try our luck with the airport again.
Finally at around 4:45 AM, we took another shuttle to the airport.
Pops chatting up with the Airport clerk.
We were supposed to leave at 6AM, but our flight got canceled. Again. So we stuck around until another flight came alone... the only way to get out of there was to go to Salt Lake City first. Bleh.
Good morning, Elko.
Finally our flight comes along to get us the fuck away from Elko. But even then, it takes a while for things to get ready. I was patient.
Our plane. Cool lookin', huh?
Pops taking a look outside.
Pops chats it up with a dude name Scott, who was another Californian unfortunatly stuck in Elko. We all agreed that there was this dark cloud following us through out our week.
Getting on the plane.
Bbmmmrr brrrmmm brrrrrrmmmmmm
Now we're in Salt Lake City.
But not for long. There was a poll between Pops and I, 100% of us chose Let's-Get-The-Fuck-Out-Of-Here.
A more healed Plip.
Finally we're in Reno. And I'm almost dead tired by now.
USA US--- aw screw it. I'm beat. We finally get home shortly after. Good bang.