Day 2
Thursday July 13, 2000
Up early at 5:15 am to go and pick up my truck and then head home to finish up packing for today’s flight. I checked my e-mail one last time before leaving and talked to TRW in PA. T and D wouldn’t be going out to Las Vegas. On my last trip we met out there and had a good time. I also talked to VG who is a frequent poster on the Las Vegas Talk Discussion board. He lives in Las Vegas and I told him the next time he heard from me it would be live and in person.
I left the house at 10:45am. My flight out of Newark was at 2:30pm. I have to have the car back to Avis between noon and 1pm. Things were smooth sailing on the way and I stopped about 10 miles before the airport to fill up the gas tank on the car. If you don’t the crooks at Avis charge $2.99 a gallon for gas. As I entered the ramp to get on the New Jersey Turnpike they only had one lane open at the tollbooth handing out tickets. I wasted about 20 minutes here. It was ok though as I still had plenty of time.
When I got to the Avis drop off an agent met me and took care of all the details right there in the lot. He told me I was all set and I got my receipt and headed over to the monorail that takes you to the terminals. While I was waiting for the monorail I looked at my receipt and it said my transaction couldn’t be completed and see an agent at the counter. So, I had to go all of the way back downstairs to the rental office and wait in line to see what happened. Turns out the brain surgeon that handled my return punched in that the return mileage on the odometer was 101. A little bit hard to understand when the car had over 18,000 miles on it when I picked it up. The agent said that’s what the problem was and I told her that had to be the trip odometer. It’s about a 70 mile drive to Newark from my house and I used the car for a while the day before. She fixed that problem and just shook her head. Now I finally headed back to the monorail so I could head to the terminal and check in for my flight.
I got to the Delta counter and there was only one person in front of me. This was the shortest line I ever saw in Newark, although I never flew Delta out of here before. I was on flight 475 and my change of planes would be in Atlanta. On the way to the gate I stopped off at a Burger King Express to grab a quick snack since I knew they weren’t going to feed us on this flight. The itinerary said a beverage was what the meal would be. A Whopper Junior with cheese was $1.49. Not a bad price for the airport. I didn’t order a drink and just drank some water at the fountain down by the gate.
When I got to the metal detectors there was, as always, some asshole with a carry on that was way too big and it wouldn’t fit on the conveyor. Finally this jerk off decided to move out of everyone’s way and we got to go through.
The plane boarded and left right on time. The original flight time was going to be almost 2 ½ hours but was shortened to only 1 hour and 45 minutes. The flight was good the whole way except for a few little bumps along the way and the smelly bastard that was sitting next to me. This really caught me off guard though since this guy looked pretty clean cut and had clean clothes on. It just seemed like he didn’t have a liking for deodorant. Why is it that I always get to sit next to these people though?
When they brought out our beverages we also got a snack of Summer Harvest mix from the King Nut company. This stuff was pretty good and consisted of Pretzels, Sweet Maui Onion Bagel Chips, Honey Wheat Squares (these were Wheat Chex with honey on them), Salsa Corn Sticks, and peanuts. If only the bag they gave out was about 3 times the size!
Atlanta was having some scattered thunderstorms when we got to the area and we had to circle for a while. According to my father who was tracking my flight on TheTrip.com he said we were 20 miles from Atlanta then 40 miles then 23 miles then 38 miles and then finally came in for our landing at the Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport. My friend T was also tracking my flight and provided a little bit of info to me as well. We landed at about 4:40pm and that was still earlier than originally planned.
When I got to my next gate where my connecting flight was all of the signs said flight 689 was leaving at 7pm. This was wrong since my itinerary said 6pm. The agent made an announcement to the people that just arrived that the flight was delayed because the incoming flight from Seattle was running late and would be in at 5:55pm. I thought ok, that leaves 1 hour and 5 minutes to land the plane, taxi, have the passengers get off the plane, have the plane cleaned, serviced and re-boarded and pushed back. Yeah sure. That’s going to happen. Finally we started to board the plane at about 7:10pm and actually left by about 7:30. This flight had to stop in Phoenix before continuing to Las Vegas. Normally I don’t take flights that have double layovers but my mother gave me her frequent flier miles and this was actually the best flight I could get going out.
On this flight we were served dinner for our meal. The main course was a chicken breast with some type of glaze on it, a dinner salad, an S. Rosen dinner roll from Alpha Bakeries, green beans and squash with tomato sauce and some sort of chocolate mousse cake. The meal was actually pretty good. The in-flight move was Return To Me with Minnie Driver and David Duchovny. (The guy from X-Files). They gave everyone a free headset on this flight. OOPS! Complimentary is actually the correct word.
We made it to Sky Harbor International in Phoenix in 3 hours and then the plane taxied for what seemed like 20 miles. This was a short layover and we weren’t allowed to get off the plane. As soon as everyone was off the cleaning crew came through and did a half-assed job of cleaning up and then boarding began. Originally I was going to e-mail Poppi and Vinny from Las Vegas Talk to meet me at the airport for a quick mini meet. I’m glad I never did that though because I would have felt bad about not being able to be there. Maybe another time though.
We finally landed at McCarran in Las Vegas at 9:40pm local time. This was only 26 minutes late, which I didn’t think was bad considering the delays coming out of Atlanta and Phoenix. (Oh yeah, I forgot to mention we arrived in Phoenix late and took off late too. I’m still deciding whether or not to write a letter to Delta about the poor service we were given that day).
I got off the plane fairly quickly and my first stop was the bathroom! Of course while we were waiting to get off the plane there, as always, was a silent farter somewhere nearby. You know the ones. These are the people that squeak one out and make nearly everyone on the plane gag. After my quick stop in the bathroom it was on to the shuttle to the main terminal to get my luggage. This was a terrible experience as it took over 30 minutes before the bags started coming out. This was about triple the longest time I had ever waited for my luggage here. Of course there’s always the effing idiot that has to try to squeeze in right in front of you at the carousel. I mean, I’m literally less than 1 foot away from the thing and this guy has to try to squeeze in that little bit of space.
When I finally got my suitcase I went out and the Alamo shuttle was there waiting. It was just me and another couple on board and when I got to the office there was no one in line. I never ever saw this place so dead. I liked it though! I went right up to the agent and he had everything set for me in a hurry. He didn’t even try to hard sell me on the insurance. Asked me if I wanted it and I declined and he said ok. This was really odd to me too.
They must have my rental history right there in front of them though and saw I never take it. I reserved a full sized car for $265.98 off their website for the 2-week period. This was only a few more dollars than the smaller compact and economy sized cars. I also had a coupon good for 15% off my base price. This coupon was worth $39.89 off my rate. The total after taxes (airport fee $18.08, Rental fee $13.56 and sales taxes of $16.39) was $274.09. I thought this was a really great price. I had an emerald green 2000 Buick Century. It was a nice car that rode well but was poorly designed.
I pulled out of the lot and headed up to the strip even though I was staying at the Reserve for the next 3 nights. I just like to drive down the strip when I first get there so I actually know I’m in Vegas! I turned down Flamingo since traffic was getting pretty backed up and jumped on the 95 freeway up to Henderson. When I got to the check in desk I was the only one there but the clerk seemed more interested in bullshitting on the phone than taking care of me. Is it me or are employees at the casinos starting to suck at their jobs? Once she got off the phone check in was a breeze as I was already pre checked in and all they needed was my ID and credit card number.
I got room 4114. This is a standard room with a king bed. The bedspread and curtains are done in leopard skin prints and the bed lamps look like giraffes. There is also a table and chairs, 2 nightstands and a dresser with TV on it. There was also a great view of a wall outside my window. This didn’t really bother me though since the views from the Reserve are nothing great anyway. The bathroom isn’t large but it’s not a closet like the bathrooms at the Flamingo Hilton are.
They offer a variety of Pro-Terra soaps and shampoos, a coffee maker with a supply of coffee and real mugs as well as a hair dryer. The only thing I didn’t really like about the room was the view, like I said. The views from here are nothing great anyway.
I was starving and didn’t bother to unpack. Instead I headed down to the casino and got a comp for Congo Jacks Café. I had about 80,000 points in my account from my previous play here. 4X points on the weekends sure does help build up points. I ordered a BBQ cheddar burger. This was a large burger with cheddar cheese, BBQ sauce and bacon. It was very good even though they forgot to add the bacon. Service was very slow here tonight even though there weren’t many people here. I saw someone’s order sit under the heat lamps for about 25 minutes before the waitress came and got their order. To me this is unacceptable. Even the cook was wondering what she was doing. One thing that worked out was I didn’t get charged for my soda. This is a little trick that many times will save you a buck or 2. In a restaurant that has someone serve you your beverages other than the waiter or waitress order a lemon lime soda. (Slice, Storm, 7-Up, Sprite etc.) Don’t use a straw and your server will think its just water. I discovered this by accident a few trips ago and experimented a few times with it. It works about 90% of the time. Give it a try next time you’re out!
I felt good after eating and played some video poker. They have the new 50-play machines here so I played them for nickels. Even on nickels it’s still $12.50 a hand. The good thing is you usually get a pretty decent return even if you don’t get dealt a good hand. The great thing about these is if you’re dealt a winner you get it 50 times. I was playing short pay Deuces Wild. (I know, bad James. But these are fun). I lost $100 and tried another. I finally got dealt 3 deuces and pulled multiple hands of 4 deuces. This really built up my meter. A little while later something good happened though. I was dealt a flush. This was good for a 750 coin win but the flush consisted of JQKA of spades. Of course the correct play on any game would be to dump the odd card and go for the Royal Flush. That’s exactly what I did hitting royal flushes on lines 12,21,30,35 and 42. I also hit a bunch of wild royals and some straights and flushes too. I won over 20,000 coins on this one hand. I now had the credit meter up over $1700 and decided to try a few hands at the quarter level. This isn’t for the weak as each hand is $62.50. I’d win a few and lose a few but then I picked up a few dealt 4 of a kinds each worth 1000 coins or $250. I had the credits up over $2400 now and then decided to cash out at the $2200 level. I ran over $23,000 through this machine and won $2000 on my first night here. I finally went to bed at about 3am which was 6am my time and except for a very small amount of sleep I got on the planes I have been up over 24 hours.
Total win/loss for the day $2000
Total comps for the day $67