It's funny you mention this. I had to drive from Las Vegas to LA (6-7 hours across the desert) last year in a rental car...alone. I had with me everything needed to listen to my TDK Mojo through a tape deck.

Bah. No sympathy for you -- I made the trek from Toronto to LA. Before I left, I boxed up all my CDs to go on the front seat (this was before I'd heard of the empeg). Then I picked up my rental for the trip -- a 14' UHaul truck with an analog FM radio. No CD player, no tape deck, one working speaker in the passenger side door, which ended up being covered up with a variety of stuff.

If you think Vegas to LA has no scenery change, you should try driving through Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska. I drove part of Nebraska at night, and when I started the next morning, there *still* wasn't anything to look at but the road. Through most of Nebraska, I couldn't even find a country station! After that stretch, Vegas to LA was like heaven...