Las Vegas 2004 - Monday

OK, so I know I haven't posted Sunday...but I did Monday mostly at the airport waiting for our plane so it's done...and if you're a total masochist, read on!

Monday

I get up a bit before 9. Glenn’s been up for awhile. When I stumble out I mention that the breakfast buffet closes earlier since it’s a weekend. I’m thinking that since it is open till 10:30 on Saturday and Sunday it closes at 10 on Monday. Oops, I check the guest services page…it closes at 9. Glenn has about 2 minutes to get downstairs and grab some food for the two of us, I don’t have time to get even halfway presentable. He heads out and I grab a smoke while reading the Appendices of JAG. He’s back pretty quickly with two plates of scrambled eggs and bacon. Joy! We eat, I post a little blurb on the Soapbox (www.soapbox.wilwheaton.net) about the trip and we start talking about checking out and getting to the airport. Glenn and I have yet to call the airport in advance on any trip we’ve made. We had heard that American had a major computer glitch the other day that grounded them for a while. I should have realized that it would be a good idea to call or check the website for our flight info. I didn’t do that however. We take our time, I take a shower, do the hair thing, pack everything into my check through luggage but my laptop and my purse. Around 11:30 Glenn says, lets go. Check out is at noon (again, Embassy Suites is the all around winner with a check out time that makes sense) but it won’t hurt to go ahead and call now for a cab, buy the time we’re ready to go and the cab is here it will be noon. Check out is a breeze, the cab doesn’t take too long and we’re off to the airport. Cabby is a nice guy, gets us there fast and we head over to the sidewalk check in with our bags. There’s a party of 5 or 6 ahead of us and the guy on the computer seems to be having some trouble with them. I’m resigned to a bit of a wait. Then American employee comes up takes our bags and checks us through. “You realize that your flight is delayed. It’s scheduled to leave at 3.” Hmmm. It’s barely noon. Oh well, plenty of time to get through security which, last year, was a nightmare and we nearly missed our flight.

OK, off subject for a moment. There is a bank of slots behind us. They’re the “Wheel of Fortune” slots. Every now and then the tape of a crowd shouting “Wheel of Fortune!” plays. It’s driving me nuts. Back to the story.

We wander off in the direction of security for our designated gate, D, and on the way we do some shopping. I bought a tee shirt for Erin at the Hilton…it has a cute little cartoon Vulcan with “Live Long and Prosper” printed under him giving the Vulcan hand salute. She is probably going to think I’m the biggest dork and may not wear it, but I loved it, so that’s what she gets. I hadn’t found anything to get Matt so I was looking thru the stores for his gift. We finally get to a Mr. Boxers store and I get him a pair of long jammie pants with a Las Vegas waistband and lots of loud colorful decks of cards printed on it. It’s totally Vegas . I jam the jammies in my purse and we’re off to the security gate. My shoes set off the alarm and I remove them. Meanwhile Glenn gets the full wand treatment over at his gate. I run over to pick up his stuff, get on the wrong side of the table and the security people start demanding that I go to the other side. It takes a few repeats for me to 1) hear it and 2) realize they’re talking to me. What would be wrong with getting someone’s attention? No, they just keep repeating themselves from several feet away. What if I was completely deaf? Would they decide to tazer me or something? Morons.

Glenn gets through his ordeal and we catch the tram across to the D terminal. At the terminal we see a restaurant and bar and decide to stop for a drink and snack. I get a frozen strawberry daiquiri and Glenn gets a Pina Colada. My first sip of the daiquiri is completely rum. Stir! The next sip is from the top and better, but it gives me a wicked brain freeze. (btw, I’m sitting in the smoking lounge as I type this one handed. It’s slow! Ok, done with the cig, back to gate D8 lounge, more on that in sequence) This one hurts all the way down my spine and then under my lungs to my chest. Damn! This passes and I slow down on the sips for a bit. We munch on chips with either salsa or guacamole and Glenn gets a second Pina Colada.

All done. We wander down to our gate, D11. There is a flight to Dallas that was supposed to leave at noon. They’re delayed to 2:30 and we can’t find a seat in the gate area. We wander down to D8, find a seat near a power source and up go the laptops. So I’m writing this real time. I was working on the Friday entry when rain started pouring down outside and I wanted to skip to now. It is pouring hard and there’s enough water on the runway for the falling drops to make a considerable splash. It doesn’t last too long and as I’m writing this the sun has come out and the runway is starting to dry off.

Announcements about the Dallas flight that was delayed contain the information that the flight maintenance folks need to check and possibly fix the air-conditioning. Great, wonder how much longer that’s gonna delay things. Glenn has found a wireless signal and he’s surfing the net. I figure I’ll just write ‘til my battery power runs out. Oh, yeah, I packed my power cord in Glenn's check-through bag. Doh! Guess we didn’t need to worry about finding a power source. I’ve got enough battery for about 2 hours so that should be long enough.

Turns out the a/c problem is in a different Dallas flight then the one at our gate. I don’t breathe a sigh of relief, however, that would be tempting the fates. So I’m practically up to real time on this. I mentioned the smoke break above and we’ve moseyed down to the now open seats at the correct gate. The passengers for the previous flight are all onboard their plane. I still see luggage going on board so a 3:00 departure for us seems unlikely. Erin has finally arrived home, left me a message with a request for a composition book, something chocolate and a cherry Coke. Sounds like she wants to journal her trip too .

Glenn sees a plane start moving in. It’s going to gate D8 but he thinks maybe it’s our plane. He’s right, we have to move gates. I pick up our stuff and we move to the new gate. People are starting to come off the plane, we’ll be boarding soon. Time to shut down. Dang, I was just getting on a roll back up at Friday 

The flight home is uneventful, as is the ride to the long term lot, the drive home. It’s good to be home with the kids and the cats. Erin has great stories to tell about her visit to Chicago, Matt has taken very good care of the home and the kitties. He also called in every day to let us know all was well. Now I just need to finish writing about Sunday!

Posted by Dawno at August 6, 2004 08:03 PM