Vegas I

A good friend from college got married in Las Vegas over the weekend, and the wife and I got home last night at about 11:45 PM after a three-day and two-night excursion to Sin City.

I'll try to break things down a little bit at a time by category and not chronologically over the next little while. First up-- the traveling itself.

First thing Saturday morning was 3 o'clock, and we left the house a little after 4:00, stopping at the fast food joint on the way out of town. We got our order in decently enough, but decided to punt after sitting in the same line, in the same place for ten minutes.

So we headed into Birmingham without breakfast, and no prospect of it. Our Delta flight left the gate on time but took off 30 minutes late, which didn't help us, since we had to catch a connecting flight. The original plan was to fly into Memphis and then head west, but then the plan changed (and so did our seating assignment, thanks) and we flew into Atlanta and followed a half-hour flight with a 3:47 trip across the country. The vibe on a plane headed for Vegas is upbeat, and there were lots of folks with energy to burn. Given when our day started, we weren't among them. No checked baggage, so we went from the gate to the cab line and off to Excalibur.

American Airlines flew us home, leaving McCarran International at 2:45 Monday. We flew into Dallas and then to Birmingham-Shuttlesworth at 10:40 PM. It was really weird walking into an airport that was basically closed. All the shops were shuttered for the night and there were very few people who weren't travelers. It seemed like a ghost town. We headed west on Interstate 20/59, driving home in just under an hour.

We would also like to take this time to thank the Department of Homeland Security, who is keeping our country safe. They're also keeping a half-empty bottle of the wife's shampoo in the name of national security. They even ran a test on her contact lens solution on the way out of town Saturday morning. The bottles weren't the required size, I realize, but come on.

Anyhow, more to follow, including people watching, the wedding, my friends, the scenery, and more.