Day 1
Wednesday December 26, 2018
This trip started off by making a trip to the local airport to get a rental car that I'd be dropping down in Newark later today. Normally I would have done this yesterday but it was Christmas and I was with my family. I parked my car where I work and walked up to the terminal.

I usually book with Avis or Budget but they were sold out and since I booked on such short notice I ended up with Hertz. I reserved a full sized for the rip off rate of $83 plus taxes and fees that brought it to $115. They asked if I would be ok with a pick up truck. Uh, ok, why not. The gave me a 2019 Dodge Ram with all of the features one would ever need. It was like new with only 3389 miles on it.

I left Hertz and stopped back at the plant to get my luggage out of the car and then I was off to Newark. Nothing major along the way. I stopped off at McDonald's in Ramsey for a quick bite of a Bacon McDouble, chicken tenders and a soda.

Traffic was heavy on Route 17 through Paramus, NJ but was moving. I had plenty of time and wasn't worried about it.

I stopped at my normal gas station right outside the Meadowlands and topped off the tank. It didn't take much, just $7 worth.

From there it was on to Newark to return the truck. All went well here and in just minutes I was off to the monorail. This was a cluster fuck. People are just clueless, lost and have no regard for others. I managed to squeeze into one of the cars and made it to terminal c.

Tonight I'd be flying on United. I bought this ticket just a few days ago and got raped, paying an amount for a 1 way ticket that I'd normally pay for a round trip at $370.

Checking in was also a cluster fuck because no one knows WTF they are doing. The airlines continue to cut staff and force people to use kiosks. People that shouldn't even attempt to use a kiosk do nothing but hold things up. One family was at their kiosk for 25 minutes while others were taking far less time. I paid the rip off luggage fee of $30 and was off to drop off my bag. That went well and it was onward to security.

Security wasn't bad at all with exception of them being set up for the holiday rush. I walked through about 46 miles of zig zag lines and finally got to the podium. To ease lines they were sending lots of people (including me) through the pre check line. It sure was nice to not have to take off the shoes or take the computer out of the bag. They didn't even have the nude o scanner going and were only using the regular metal detectors. It was probably the smoothest trip through security I ever had.

I had plenty of time to get to the gate and wandered around the terminal for a while before parking my ass at a table where I used free internet in the airport and wrote this trip report up to this point.

It was now time to board and that went fairly well. Typical bullshit that goes with flying. Mainly people that just don't listen and follow simple instruction. I can say it was strange not pre-boarding with Dee.

This is flight 665 with non stop service to Las Vegas. It's scheduled for 5 hours and 42 minutes. It's scheduled to depart at 7:30pm and arrive at 10:18pm. While we were boarding we were informed that it would take 5:10. The worst part was pushing back right on time but not taking off until 8:30pm. There was a lot of traffic in Newark tonight.

The flight was the flight from hell. This was probably the worst flight I've ever been on. The issues weren't from the air travel or the airline. That part of the flight was excellent. The problem was the passengers. I was surrounded by a bunch of tools. I passed the time playing on my tablet, and sleeping. I was having trouble getting comfortable to sleep but I finally found the sweet spot. Then just as I was about to enter dreamland the ass effing hole next to me spills his cup of tea. Now that is not that big of a deal until you realize most of it landed on me. There's nothing like being woken up by hot tea being dumped all over your leg. Then to top that off having to sit there like I wet my pants for what was still over 3 hours of flight time left.

Despite being wet I finally did get a little bit of sleep and before I knew it we were approaching Las Vegas. After the flight the lady behind me said to her husband “Wow, that was a long flight but it wasn't too bad”. I shook my head and though yeah, not too bad if you don't mind the guy next to you spilling hot tea on you, leaning over into your space because the guy next to him was sneezing, coughing and blowing his nose the whole flight, you rattling a cellophane bag the whole time, your kids kicking the seat and slamming the tray tables constantly, whining, crying and singing for 5 straight hours. Combine that with the other idiots that don't follow simple instruction and yeah, it wasn't too bad. Eff you.

Once we landed it was about 15 minutes later than scheduled and we taxied for 965 miles. I was in the back of the plane so it took a while to get off but I figured it would give my suitcase plenty of time to get there.

Once I was off the plane I made the customary stop at the can and then onward to baggage claim. Just as I approached the carousel an announcement was made that flight 665 was on number 19. So the first thing that went right this whole flight was my suitcase being one of the first out.

Next up was the rental car shuttle. There was quite a line here and since we were in terminal 3 the shuttles aren't as frequent as they are at terminal 1. The shuttle finally came and once again people couldn't listen to simple instruction. After the driver told a lady 4 times she couldn't keep her bag on the floor in front of her he finally came back and shoved it under her seat. WTF is wrong with people?

This time around I'm renting from Avis. Again for booking so close to the rental date I got raped paying about double what I normally pay. I reserved a premium car which was cheaper than everything else for a price of $274. All in with taxes and fees and after a $25 coupon we're looking at $388.

They didn't have my name up on the scoreboard so I stopped by the preferred desk and checked in. This took about 3 minutes. I was offered a Nissan Maxima or a Chevy Impala. I too the Chevy and the car was in spot D7. The car in this spot was a Silver Impala with 12,000 miles on it. I gave it a once over and headed off to security.

Since it was late I went straight to my hotel which tonight would be the Golden Nugget. I booked it for 2 nights even though I only need one so I wouldn't have to run out first thing in the morning. The offer also comes with a whopping $15 in free play. Checking in was a breeze at this time of day. My confirmation was for a room in the Carson Tower. I was surprised when the agent said he had me in a Rush Tower Room. I was given room 11*221 in the Rush Tower. This is a king room with a nightstands, TV, sectional sofa, wall unit with work desk area, dresser and even a DVD player. It's got a view of the Other Towers and the North end of the Strip. The bathroom is large with a tub, dual sink vanity and toilet room.

I hadn't eaten in a long time other than the microscopic bag of pretzels they gave us on the flight. I decided to go over to the Fremont to use some of the points I still had left from when I used to actually play at Boyd properties. I got an order of Saimen and some Pineapple Orange Juice. This did the trick for sure.

Next up I wanted to put a few points on my card to keep my points from expiring. I ran a little play on a penny slot and cashed out with a 26˘ profit! Screw you Boyd Gaming.

It was late and even later for me since I was still on east coast time so I came upstairs and went to bed around 3:00am local time.