Viva, Las Vegas – the trip out to Vegas Baby!

Well I recently took a trip to Las Vegas, the place that never sleeps and even if it did – it would stay in Vegas. That place is CRAZY!!! That is the only short way to describe the town. I was reminded by many of my friends that Vegas is nothing more than a jumping off point to many other things that are cool. I was reminded of things like, Hoover Dam, Death Valley, Mojave, Red Rock Canyon, the Panamint Range, Bryce Canyon, and a dozen more natural wonders. But for me, I was bogged down with a pretty intense technical conference. Maybe I should not have made it so intense, it was the crop of PBS and NPR engineers getting together to talk about (commiserate) about the state of our stations, the state of funding and the challenges we have keeping things running with no money. I learned a lot and am more optimistic than I was before I went but the same problems still exist.

So this blog is going to cover some things that I observed while I made my way to and from Vegas and some of the things that happened in between. I took notes along the way so I would remember moments in time that I found amusing, inspirational or just curious, I hope you do as well. When I left Jacksonville it was raining to beat the band, I was not looking forward to flying in the heavy rain. Bride told me later that those storms made the national news. The flight was unaffected by them though. As soon as I was inside the airport I went straight for the Cinnabon for a little piece of heaven in a box with a heart attack waiting at the bottom of the box. I love those things but only have one when traveling, any more often and your heart would stop immediately. I sit to enjoy my tasty treat and then make my way to the security checkpoint operated by the TSA. I was, like everyone who goes through, accosted. That process is not too far from the process shown in the Echo Chainsaw advertisement. click here

Once on the other side and safely into the Delta quadrant I realize that I no longer have my neck pillow. Yes I am one of those sissy’s who carry a neck pillow when traveling on the plane, get over it. I immediately remember leaving it on the chair I was sitting in when eating my Cinnabon – DAMN ten bucks down the toilet. Now that stupid Heart attack in a box actually cost me closer to 20 bucks and it was going kill me anyway – what a shame. Instead of leaving the security of the Delta quadrant to retrieve my sissy boy pillow I decided to spend another 10 bucks and buy another one, Cinnabon up to 30 bucks – DAMN! I thing started wondering what became of my pillow, was it seen as an unattended bag, did airport security swoop down like the fictional Jem'Hadar, the shock troops of the powerful Dominion from Deep Space Nine (Star Trek spinoff) and rush the “pillow” to an undisclosed location? Did they decide to blow it up in a precautionary attempt to save humanity? Were they scanning through the surveillance footage of the airport looking for the miscreant who planted a pillow bomb? My flight must have left before the storm troopers descended on gate A8, lucky for me I guess.

So my flight went through Chicago, yes the one booking the flight failed geography, not that there is anything wrong with Chicago but it is not normally considered a layover when flying from Florida to Vegas. No worries though, I thought I would make the best of it and enjoy a couple of slices of Deep Dish pizza while I was whiling away the three hours I had before my next flight took me away from there. I was eating my pizza and I am looking around and I see a woman that looks exactly like Bridget Moynahan, that is the woman who plays Tom Selleck’s daughter in the new CBS hit Blue Bloods. I took a picture with my Crackberry (discreetly) hoping to be able to compare a Google search later on. The camera on a Crackberry leaves a bit to be desired, especially if using the zoom function. I know it was her though. I remember once Bride and I were waiting in a Pittsburgh airport restaurant and we saw the guy who played Greg Brady, Bride asked and she got an 8x10 glossy of Greg Brady signed, “keep it groovy”.

The time spent in Chicago was for the most part uneventful, exactly how you want EVERYTHING to be when you are flying. There were no problems in or with the airport and there were no problems with the airplane. All was right with the world and I slept almost all the way to Vegas. Upon arrival I was reminded how much I dislike the incessant dinging of slot machines that start assaulting immediately upon departing the jet bridge. If you have ever been there you know exactly the sound of which I speak, if you have never been there is no way to describe it, other than awful.

Hard to tell but what do you think?