Day 11
Tuesday December 28, 2005
Dining:
For lunch today I went to the Palms buffet with Rich and Dawn for one last meal together before I went home. I used a POV 2 for 1 coupon and Rich the big spender that he is (haha) covered the remaining $3.49 with his points. The food at the Palms buffet is mediocre at best. I find it odd the Maloof had one of the best buffets in town when he owned the Fiesta but his Palms buffet is pretty basic.
With a long delay at the airport I needed to grab a bite to eat before boarding so hit the Taco Bell Express in the terminal. A 3 taco meal at airport prices cost more than most lunch buffets on the strip!
After I finally got out of Newark and headed home I made my normal stop at McDonalds on Route 17. I got the cheeseburger meal and was on my way pretty quickly. Go figure, a few short hours ago I was eating top notch food in Las Vegas, and tonight I’m eating effing McDonalds.
Rental Car:
I filled up the gas tank last night after I left the Cannery so I wouldn’t have to stop today. I rolled into the Dollar lot and it was pouring. Of course they only had 1 lot attendant doing returns. After a short wait I got my receipt and was on my way.
Flight:
My flight home today is scheduled to leave at 4:05pm on America West. When I arrived at the airport I used the automated check in. Things here were smooth but I noticed that my flight was delayed. Security moved well and I was at my gate in just a few minutes. The monitor said we’d be departing at 4:50 instead of 4:05. That’s not too bad and I can live with that. That was until an agent come on the PA and said our plane wouldn’t arrive until 4:50 and the crew wouldn’t arrive until 5:30. We finally left at about 6:15pm. Had I known there was going to be such a long delay, I would have hung out at the Palms a little longer with Rich and Dawn. We were flying at about 35,000 feet. I passed on the movie and I went to sleep. I think I slept for more than ½ the flight.
The flight was fine except for some old bag that found it necessary to keep kicking my effing seat. At first I thought it was a kid until I turned around and saw it wasn’t. It seemed like she was kicking the leg of the seat and it was going right through the seat and right through me. Once I realized it wasn’t a kid, I went to work. As soon as she got her second beverage of the flight I reclined my seat all of the way back and then slammed myself into my seat. She stopped kicking after that and then switched seats with her husband. We landed at about 1:30am in Newark.
Baggage claim went well and both of my bags came out pretty fast. From here it was up to the monorail to the rental car lot. They were doing maintenance on one of the lines so only had one monorail running the whole airport. It finally arrived and I boarded. Then for some reason the doors wouldn’t shut. After about a 20 minute wait the doors finally closed and I was on my way to Avis to pick up my ride home.
Ride Home from Airport:
As always I rented a car from Avis to drive home and drop off at my local airport. The last few trips I was able to rent a luxury car (Cadillac) for just a few dollars more than the smaller cars. That didn’t work out this trip and the luxury cars were very expensive. I was able to snag a premium car though for only a dollar more than a full size. I walked into Avis and saw my name up on the scoreboard and a space number. There was a Buick LeSabre waiting for me there with just over 10,000 miles on it. After a quick check of the car’s condition I was on my way home. The ride home was uneventful as it usually is at 2:30 in the morning. At about 4am I rolled into my driveway and yet another trip to Las Vegas was over.
Total win/loss for the day $0
Total comps for the day $7
Final Thoughts