National Lampoons Vacation Tour Day Four folks… We woke up to a beautiful site this morning…
It was an impressive #RestArea which honored #TheSleepingUteMountain…
Now I thought this was the sleeping Ute above but I was sorely mistaken… Doesn’t it look like an Indian lying on his back?
‘
This is what its supposed to look like…
I like my sleeping Ute better… lol… But this is the actual one above…
We hit the road, ready to head towards the four points, on our way to the next #NationalLampoonsVacation location… We decided to stop at this little coffee shop on our way…
Here’s another marijuana shop… Fully legal here folks… Soon more states will drop…
We will never wave the white flag of surrender now… Not after we have come this far… I can’t wait to see the improvements from legalization… We will see the real effects after 10 years… Colorado is already dealing with a surplus of money, lower crime rates and lower hard drug use… Makes sense considering in some places its easier to get heroine than to get illegal pot…
This coffee shop was really special…
I love little places like these…
Their sandwiches were named after famous movies and celebrities… I got myself “The Breakfast Club” without avocado…
Tracey has a friend in the area she lived with for a short time… So we went and visited her…
I couldn’t resist taking a picture of this brave little guy… He was making his way across the street… I love Preying Mantis… They are such magnificent insects….
Here’s another mountain that looks like an Indian lying down… this one even has arms… We actually drove through #Hesperus,CO last night… This is where they filmed the scene where Clark gets pulled over because he left Aunt Edna’s dog tied to the bumper… It was 11 at night, so we didn’t bother stopping but the location is near 1901 County Road 124 in Hesperus,CO…
We had quite a bit of ground to cover today…
Of course we couldn’t resist stopping at #TheFourCorners… I had never been here before… I believe Tracey had come with family in the past…
If you don’t know what The Four Corners is… First of all, you need to crawl out of that hole you have been living in and go do some #exploring…
The Four Corners consists of the meeting of four different states and the four corners is where each corner of the states meet…
Here is our lovely Vanna White to show you… You see Tracey is now in #Mexico…
And with a simple step she is now in #Colorado…
Oh wait, now she’s in #Arizona…
And lastly, she’s made her way over to #Utah… It was funny because there was a line to take pictures and I guess you are only allowed to take one… Well, we had a few people complaining to us that we were taking too long… I pretty much laughed at them… I hate #tourists! They think they are entitled or something…
If I’m driving my ass all the way out here, then you better bet I’m taking a picture of my girlfriend in every state! Fucking tourists! Oh wait, doesn’t this make me a tourist… lol…
I was also wondering what state is responsible for paying the workers’ wages at this tourist trap… And what state do the workers claim their taxes… I wonder if you can pick?
We soon entered Utah… It was a beautiful drive… Tracey and I were now traveling separately … I forgot to mention that we picked up her car on the 3rd of Oct…
It wasn’t an easy drive, by no means.. A lot of twist and turns… going up and down #mountains and hills…
But the scenery was breath taking….
Amazing #RockFormations everywhere you looked…
And now that brings us to the next National Lampoons Vacation location… Where Clark jumps his car off of the road and then decides to #hike through the #desert to find help…
Now I knew I had the right rock formations because these looked very similar to the movie… They were just out of order for some reason…
So, that led me to believe that we were not on the right side of the rock formations… And after doing a little research, I guess #HaroldRamis got a special off road location which was on private property… So, knowing this, we were aware we wouldn’t get the background shot perfect but we tried our hardest to get it as close as possible…
| Clark: | Rusty, come on up here. |
| Hello, russ. | |
| I’m going to have to hike down the road a bit I want you to stay here and take care of things, russ. | |
| Rusty: | Um, you’ll be okay, dad? |
| Clark: | Oh, sure, sure, sure. |
| You know, I haven’t had much of a chance to talk to you man-to-man, russ. | |
| Rusty: | Well, I’ve only been a man a few days, dad. |
| Clark: | Yeah. |
| You’re growing up so damn fast. | |
| I spent the last 15 years of my life developing newer and better food additives. | |
| I guess I’ve missed an awful lot. | |
| At first, I didn’t want to take this vacation, but now I’m glad I did. | |
| It’s given me a chance to spend a lot more time with you and .. | |
| Rusty: | Audrey. |
| Clark: | Audrey, yeah. |
| Rusty: | [ Sighs ] you know, it’s been real fun for me, too, dad. really. |
| Well, except for aunt edna. | |
| Clark: | Oh, she doesn’t mean to be a pain in the rump. |
| It’s just the way she is. | |
| Let’s not let it spoil our fun, huh? | |
| Rusty: | I won’t. |
| You know, maybe she’d be a nicer person if she had a family of her own. | |
| You know, instead of always having to glom on to someone else’s. | |
| Clark: | You’re a pretty bright little guy — excuse me — man. (sobs) |
| Rusty: | it’s okay, dad. |
| Clark: | You know what I want to do? |
| When I was your age, my dad shared a beer with me, and I thought it was about the best thing in the world. | |
| Yeah, when I was a boy, just about every summer, we’d take a vacation. | |
| And, you know, in 18 years, we never had fun. | |
| But now I have my own family. | |
| And, well, we’re on our own vacation. | |
| And you know something, russ? | |
| Rusty: | What, dad? |
| Clark: | We’re going to have fun. |
| [ Burps ] we’re going to have fun. | |
| [ Stifled burp ] hey, don’t let your mother smell that beer on your breath. | |
| She’ll take it out on me. | |
| Well, I better get a move on if I want to get us out of here by dark. | |
| Rusty: | Right. |
| Clark: | Good talk, son. |
| Rusty: | Good talk, dad. |
And this took us some time because we kept on stopping and taking pictures hoping to get the exact same shot as in the film… It was fun but got a little tedious after a while…
#Donkeys! Or #Burros… Whatever you want to call them…
There was a whole herd of them feeding near the road this evening… You have to be really careful at dusk because these donkeys like to venture out into the road… If you don’t watch out, you will hit one…
| Ellen: | Clark? |
| Clark: | I just had a good talk with rusty. |
| You’ll be in good hands here, honey. | |
| Ellen: | Where are you going? |
| Clark: | Well, there’s got to be a phone or a gas station around here somewhere, honey. |
| Ellen: | Well, all right, .. |
| Clark: | I’ll be fine. you’ll be fine. |
| I’m sure this sort of thing happens all the time. | |
| A patrol car will be by any minute. |
This road was shortly after the last picture taken above and we think this is the private road Harold Ramos used to film all of the desert scenes… The shot below looks pretty damn spot on… Only if we could travel down the private road a little ways…
| Clark: | we pass a damn gas station every 100 yards for 1,000 miles, but when you really need one — this is no way to run a desert! |
| Oh, jeez, I’m going to die! that’s it! | |
| A. Indian: | What an asshole. |
Well, thank god Tracey was with me because I probably would have ventured down that private road just to get a picture… Minutes after Tracey talked me out of it, a truck came barreling down the private road… We avoided a very awkward encounter that may have involved the police…
It was getting dark again and we hadn’t finished our days work…
So we gave up on any closer, more accurate shots and made our way to the next location…
Now this one was extremely difficult because it was dark out and the exact filming location could have bee in a few places… But since it was dark out, we didn’t have the mountains in the background for a guide… But after looking around and discussing, I believe this gas station is a renovated version of the one in the movie where #ClarkGriswold finds Ellen and the kids after a long, thirsty hike through the desert… And its the gas station where Clark gets ripped off by some shifty mechanics…
| Ellen: | I’m not sure of his exact height and weight. |
| All I know is the man was a saint with children and a genius with food additives, and he was — clark! | |
| Clark: | Aah! |
| Aah! | |
| Ellen: | I’m so happy! |
| Clark: | Russ! russ! russ! |
| Audrey! audrey! | |
| God, have you grown? | |
| Ellen: | Are you all right, clark? |
| Clark: | I feel fine. what happened to you? |
| Where did — how’d you get here? | |
| Ellen: | Well, these two nice indians and a man on a camel called us a tow truck. |
| Clark: | A camel? |
| Hey, kids, are you thirsty? | |
| Yeah. I bet you are, too. | |
| You said it. |
And The Hampton Inn is where they filmed the #FamilyTruckster with wobbling tires leaving the gas station… Those two Gas tanks in the background are still there…
And this was another gas station that we thought may be the old Mechanics station from the movie… I think its the first one but thought I would put a picture of this one up for shits and giggles…
After a long day of traveling and exploring, #TheTravleingMac headed up towards the #GrandCanyon… We figured we would get as close as possible and park in a pull off, overnight… We found a nice one with Navajo Indian stands set up to sell their homemade crafts and jewelry… Another mysterious home for the night… I can’t wait to see what sites I wake up to tomorrow… I’m sure they are going to be magnificent considering where we are parking…