Back from Vegas….

Yes, I’m back and it took me two whole days to rest up after our whirlwind weekend in Vegas. It started off with a monster headache which I did manage to get rid of before I left. I took some Benadryl about an hour before I got on the plane and it helped tremendously. TF and I sat on row 39 or 42 rows. I don’t think I have ever been on such a large plane. Twenty minutes outside of Las Vegas we hit some turbulence that lasted all the way to the airport. The man sitting next to me almost lost it, he was turning white and his hands never left the arm rests. I felt so bad for him. We made it thru the airport and headed for our rental car. The lady at the booth gave us directions to where we were staying, but we got lost anyway. After a few frustrations, we found the Westgate Flamingo Bay Resort where we were staying for the weekend.

Now, let me tell you about our room…..Wow! It was like a condo. The bedroom had a king sized bed with six pillows on it & there was a hot tub in the room. There was a nice shower in the bathroom and a dressing area. You could close off the whole area from the rest of the condo. You enter the condo thru a nice sized living room. There is a small full sized kitchen and dining area off to the right. To the left of the living room was a sitting area with a complete sound system and two comfy chairs. There were ceiling fans in the sitting area and the bedroom. Oh, I almost forgot, there was a washer and dryer off the sitting area. The couch in the living room was made of leather and it was a queen sized sofa bed. The floors were a terrazzo tile, except for the bedroom which was carpeted. I was completely impressed and felt very comfortable there. A telemarketing company had called two months ago offering a package in Las Vegas for $ 99.00 for the weekend if we would listen to one of their presentations. I would definitely say, that we go our moneys worth.

We got checked in and rested up for a while before venturing out for dinner. Just down the street from the resort, was the Rio Hotel where we decided to eat. We had been told that they had a good buffet and so we decided to try it. My favorite part of the buffet was the Prime Rib and the desert area. I circled it twice before I selected several things to try. Yummmmm…. We walked around the Casino for a while before heading to the grocery store for some goodies to put in our refrigerator in our room. TF picked out some cherries, sodas, cookies and some OJ and off we went to crash for the night.

The next morning we went to the presentation where they feed us free breakfast and tried to sell us a time share. After that we headed for the locksmith convention where we walked out feet off checking out all the booths. TF is specialized in the Auto industry so we walked quickly past the commercial and safe areas. He bought some tools and supplies and a few other things before we left. They were having a drawing for a vintage T-Bird (absolutely beautiful). We hung around for the drawing, hoping that we would win. It seems ironic that a man from Australia would win the car. I wonder how he took it home.

Both of us were a bit tired and hungry after leaving the convention so we went to the Paris Hotel and ate dinner at a small restaurant there. After dinner we walked our feet off checking out the water show at the Belagio, pulling a few slots, and just walking around on the strip. We had no problem sleeping that night.

The next morning we had to be out by 10:00am. so we packed and checked out, eating breakfast at the resort. We still had some groceries in the frig so we went to a 7-11 and purchased an ice chest to put them in. Since our plane wasn’t to depart till just after midnight, we had a full day ahead of us to kill. We drove around and ended up at the Sahara, where we parked the car and headed out for our day of checking things out. To make a long story short, we had a good time. We turned the car back in to the rental place and hopped on the shuttle to the airport. It was interesting when we went thru the radar detectors as they x-rayed TF’s bag with all the locksmith give aways inside. He told them what was in there and four people watched it as it went thru two more times, at different angles. There were several screw drivers and other medal tools inside and I guess they had to decide if he was a terrorist or not. TF offered to open the bag, but they decided that it was OK and let us go. We boarded our plane and landed, back in Houston, at 6:00am. on Monday morning. By the time we got home it was 7:00am. Both of us were exhausted and needed sleep. TF got about 2 hours before calls started coming in and I slept till 1:30pm. Back to the real world!

BTW: Did I mention that they were having a heat wave while we were in Vegas? It got up to 114 degrees while we were there. The strange part is that it was still 100 degrees at 11:00pm. It felt like you were walking around in an oven when you were outside. In Vegas you bake, in Houston you drip! It’s hot either way!

On a side note: I have been studying the first two chapters of my Ham radio book. I missed the first two classes so I am playing catch-up right now. I hope I can learn all of this by Saturday afternoon when the next class starts. This looks like it is going to be fun. Wish me luck!