Day 13
Well once we were up this morning and motivated we finished packing up our things. It’s sad how fast the last 12 days went. It seems like yesterday we were meeting in Newark for our flight.
I called home to see what the weather was like back east and my father looked it up on the net. Everything seemed ok but I wasn’t sure because the reports on TV weren’t good.
We decided we’d go to the airport to look at the monitors. We parked short term and went in to check. The monitors didn’t go far enough so we went to the check in area. An agent told us as of now everything was on time for our flight. We decided since there were no lines we’d check in now and then leave to take care of the rest of the things we wanted to do. We went back to the car to get our luggage and back to check in. Everything went well here and I was amazed at how few people there were in the airport.
Since we had 5 hours before the flight we went to have lunch at Terrible’s at the Bougainvillea Café. I ordered the Corned Beef Hash & Eggs. It also came with toast and hash browns. The food was good but at one point Dee thought they forgot our order since people that came in way after us were already eating. Just as she said that though the food arrived.
It was now time to gas up the rental car and then head back to the rental car facility. Returning the car was easy and nothing went wrong. In just a few minutes we were boarding the shuttle bus back to the airport. It was nice to not have to drag our suitcases on the shuttle. I might do this again in the future.
We had plenty of time to get through security. When we got there, there was a small line that moved quickly. Here, as always, it was more of the same crap that I always comment on. The best was the jerk off that tried to get through with a bottle of Gatorade, 2 bottles of Orange Juice, and bottle of wine and a bottle of water in his bag. What the hell?
We had quite a bit of time so I whipped out the laptop and we surfed the net and checked e-mail until it was time to board since McCarran has free WiFi in the terminals.
We finally got to board and made our way to our seats. This is flight 1069 scheduled to depart at 4:37pm and arrive in Newark at 12:17am. I wasn’t happy about this flight because originally we had booked a red eye flight home. Not only did we lose 1/2 a day in Vegas, now Dee has an effing 12 hour layover before her flight back to Canada. Because of this we had to get a hotel in Newark because I refused to let Dee sit alone in the terminal for 12 hours and I sure the hell wasn’t going to sit there with her. I’m actually going to contact Continental about this along with a few other things. The part that pisses me off the most is if I would have called them to change my red-eye flight to this flight they would have charged me $150 to do it, plus any fare changes.
Tonight’s flight was uneventful and I managed to sleep though a good portion of it. The only really bad part was the rude lady next to me that continually coughed without covering up. The meal was a small salad, M&M’s, and a Pierre Chicken Sandwich. I slept through most of the flight except for when a baby started screaming. We ended up landing at 11:57pm and taxiing to the gate. The flight attendant gave us a countdown to the New Year and we all cheered. We took our time getting off the plane and then to baggage claim. We only had to wait for a few minutes and our things were already out.
Next up was the monorail to the rental car area. I booked a one way rental from Avis as I usually do. I had originally booked this car back in August and the rate was high. Recently though I was able to rebook it for $51 and saved about $20 off the original rate. When we got to Avis my name was up on the scoreboard and I found our Grand Marquis in spot 123 with 3,600 miles on it.
From here it was off to the Courtyard by Marriott Liberty International Airport. I got a rate of $124 through hotels.com. I thought this was pretty good considering it’s a holiday and right at the airport. There were cheaper rates at other hotels but they didn’t get good ratings and I didn’t want to stay in a scary place. The rate on Marriott’s website was $149. I also got an extra 3% off by booking through my credit card’s shopping website.
Check in was quick. We were given room 101 with a view of the parking lot. This hotel was pretty nice and not a bad deal for $124 although I felt the room was pretty small and cramped.
This room had free internet so I hooked up the laptop and we watched the celebration on the strip on the KLAS website as well as the NY celebration on replay. It was really odd watching the celebration in a place that we were in just hours ago. Even funnier was a shot of the Las Vegas Hilton where we were still registered and actually on the guest list for the NYE party that was going on as we watched. We finally got to bed around 3:30am. I didn’t sleep much but it was still better than sitting in the terminal all night.
When we got up and got motivated we had plenty of time before Dee’s flight so relaxed in the room and watched the news. During this time I divided up the money I had in our little pot from all of our match play coupons. I had a general idea of how much there was but I hadn’t counted it in a few days. All in all if my calculations were right we played 70 coupons and won 40 of them. A count of the cash showed up with a $1005 profit and I was pretty happy with this and I know Dee was as I handed her $705 ($500 in winnings, her original $200 buy in, and I gave her the extra $5). We were both happy with this and didn’t even go totally crazy with the coupon runs.
At about 10am we left for the airport and I parked in the short term parking and we went in. She didn’t have to check in but we had to wait in line to re-check her luggage. This went quickly even though the line was fairly long. From here it was to security. The main security line was huge but I used the old trick of going to one of the other check points and there was no one there. She had over 2 hours before her flight but she just wanted to get in the terminal and read and relax before her flight. We said our final good-byes and it was tough after spending almost 2 weeks together. I was very sad to be leaving Dee behind at the airport and I’d probably be home before she even boarded.
For me it was back to the rental car and onto the NJ Turnpike to go home. Traffic was pretty light today since it is a holiday and I made pretty good time. I finally pulled into my driveway at 11:30am as the 11th Annual Christmas/Birthday trip came to an end.
After I unloaded my luggage I took the car back to the local airport and returned it to Avis. That was quick and easy and I walked down the hill to my job and picked up my car. From here it was back home and I logged onto the computer and was able to track Dee’s flight from Newark back to Canada. This was neat but sucked too. She landed and it was official. This trip was over for both of us! Although, the trip was over, we were still registered guests at the Las Vegas Hilton, for about one more hour.
Total win/loss for the day $0
Total comps for the day $176
Final Thoughts
Eff Yous
Total win/loss for the trip $4250
Total comps for the trip $3913
Total comps without rooms for the trip $2026