Day 2
Thursday June 12, 2014
We were up early today and started off with the Econo-Lodge deluxe continental breakfast. They had everything from pastry and cereal to waffles. I loaded up on stuff and went back up to the room to eat and gather our things. It was too early to go to the airport so we took a short drive and stopped at a T-Shirt shop.

We left the Lake area and headed back south to Albany. On the way to the airport I stopped off at a bakery/cafe called Bella Napoli to pick up some lunch for the flight. I've wanted to try this place for a long time but couldn't remember the name of it. One of the vendors at my job brings us donuts from here when he visits the plant. I grabbed an All American hero with roast beef, turkey and cheese for us to share and a few donuts.

Next we were off to gas up the car and then onward to the airport to catch our flight. I'd never returned a car here before but it was quick and easy and only took a few minutes.

From there we went to the Southwest counter. I booked this flight back in March for the fare of $228 one way. This was pretty high to me for the months leading up to booking the fare never changed. I checked regularly even after I booked and the fares still didn't move. I paid for these tickets with Rapid Rewards points, most of which were earned from using the Southwest Visa card. We only had one suitcase between us and checking in was fast.

Our next stop was to the security check point. Today things were good here. We got to go through the wheelchair line and |Dee was whisked of for her body cavity search. After me going through the nude-o-scanner and catching back up with Dee we headed to the terminal.

We pre-boarded with Dee in her wheelchair and took the front seats like we usually do these days. Soon after everyone else was boarded and we were pushing back right on time.

This is Southwest flight 1478 non-stop into Las Vegas. We were supposed to depart at 3pm and arrive at 5:20pm Las Vegas time. It is scheduled to be 5 hours and 20 minutes but the captain came on and said it would be only 5 hours. It's still too long as far as I'm concerned.

Since I hate this flight so much I try to sleep through a good portion of it between some reading and eating. Speaking of eating today's snack was a host of Nabisco snacks and small bags of peanuts. Even these have gotten smaller. Luckily we brought some of our own food too.

I eventually felt us start descending and then the announcement was made we'd be there soon. Not soon enough as far as I was concerned.

We landed early and taxied to the gate for a while. We were one of the last off the plane because we had to wait for the wheelchair to come up. That was fine though because when we got to baggage claim, not only was the luggage there already, it was already removed from the carousel. I honestly don't know how they not only got it there so fast but removed it from the belt and had it secured.

After I got the suitcase off the belt I found Dee a place to sit and I went and hopped on the rental car shuttle over to the car facility. This works out better than dragging her and the chair up onto the shuttle and through the garage and only takes about 20 minutes longer.

For this trip the rental car rates were ridiculously high with rates ranging from $600 for the month to $1100 for a full sized depending on the company. No matter what I tried the rates wouldn't change. Finally in late March things loosened up for a few days but I had to break the rental down into a 1 day rental and a separate 4 week rental. Today's rental is for one day and I have a coupon for 1 free day that I earned through their frequent renter club. There was no minimum on this so today's rental that listed for $40 will be free with exception of some of the taxes.

When I arrived my name was on the screen and my car was waiting in space 23. It was a Nissan Altima with 63,472 miles on it and it was in fair condition. Yes, that says sixty three thousand four hundred seventy two miles. WTF is up with that. Had this been a longer rental I wouldn't have taken this car. After giving it a once over it was beat to shit on the back bumper and the gas tank wasn't filled up. I had it added to the contract at the security booth and then it was back to the airport to get Dee.

Our first stop was off to CVS store on the Strip at Blue diamond Rd to load up on some supplies for the first part of the trip.

Once we were loaded up with supplies it was on to our first hotel for the trip, Main Street Station. I booked this back in April when the offer arrived. The offer is for 4 complimentary nights, $75 free play and 24 free meals (Hawaiian Package). I booked this through host Ipo and she swapped the food coupons for their silver card. The silver card is good for meals at all of the downtown Boyd properties in their casual restaurants but excludes the higher end places. I also asked her to block the room we'd had the last few visits 1724. Checking in was a little slow tonight especially for 7pm. I still to this day do not understand why it takes people so long to check into a hotel. The 3 guests ahead of me took over 20 minutes to check in. I was checked in with keys in my hands in under 3 minutes.

We were given the room I requested #1724. This is a handicap accessible room. These rooms are the same as the standard rooms here at Main Street Station with a king bed, nightstands, table with chairs, dresser, 32 inch flat screen TV, closet, fridge and a work desk. The bathroom is laid out similar to the regular rooms as well except it's all one room instead of being split into two. It also has safety bars around the toilet and in the tub.

We got to the room, freshened up and we going to go out but Dee was beat from a long day of travel. We got some of our things out of the suitcase and took it easy for a while. It was only 8pm but our bodies are saying it's 11pm. Refused to go to bed because I would end up waking up at 2am wide awake. Instead I worked on this report and chilled for a while before heading downstairs to activate my free play, get a bite to eat and then play.

I started off with five play and couldn't hit much. I finally got dealt a few three of a kinds to stay alive and then hit a set of aces followed by a few other quads as well as the dreaded straight flush to the king. I even scored a $5 scratch card which is pretty rare these days. I switched to ten play and hit a fair amount of quads to stay alive. When I was dealt 4 to a royal I thought “wow, I've been in town for 3 hours and playing for less than one, wouldn't this be cool?”

I hit the draw button and on line 6 I had scored the first royal of the trip, and my first drawn quarter royal in almost a year. I say drawn because back in March I got dealt a royal flush on a triple play machine at Bally's Atlantic City that had a super jackpot of over 5 grand.

I went over to the California to the snack bar and got an order of saimen noodles. This was tasty and filling and it was back to Main Street Station to run my free play through. I selected the 50˘ 8/5 bonus progressives and couldn't hit anything. A dealt straight allowed me to cash out $52.50 of the original $75. It was now 11:00pm and my body is saying it's 3 hours later than that so it's time to hit the pillow. Goodnight from Las Vegas.

Total win/loss for the day $1100
Total Comps for the day $146