We left home about 9:00a.m. Saturday morning and made it to New Orleans after a 5 hour trip, with stops for a traffic jam where we were stopped at the top of a very high bridge over the Pearl River near the MS/LA border. The bridge had apparently been damaged during Katrina, because there was a temporary repair that seemed very unstable while we sat there watching the road heaving. Pretty unsettling, but not to be compared with the heights where we will be standing at the Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon, etc. We also stopped to eat a “picnic” lunch, but couldn’t find a suitable picnic area in the damaged city of New Orleans, so we ate in the van.
After we arrived at the airport parking lot and loaded our luggage onto the shuttle bus, we started for the airport. The picture below is of our luggage on the shuttle. We were the only ones on the bus and we had quite the load: 6 checked bags, 9 carry-ons, a car seat and a stroller, not to mention a little one that needed carried or pushed along the way. I realized at the airport that the only person without a coat (for the cold evenings in the desert and by the ocean) was Kathy. I had set hers out, but then it got hung up and left at home.
We arrived at the airport in plenty of time to go through security and get checked in before our flight (in fact we had to wait 1 1/2 hours after we were settled before they boarded). We found they had wireless service, so we were able to check email, but didn’t get our blog page set up adequately to really get it going. We hadn’t thought to do that at home. The girls entertained themselves watching the planes take off and land. About 30 minutes before we boarded, Robyn Kramer walked by with her kids. They were on their way home to Tucson after a visit with her mom. Pastor Kramer was Rob’s youth pastor until last summer. We had a nice visit with them, and we told them we would see them on Thursday evening for church.
We saw the Mississippi on the way out of New Orleans. Rob took pictures along the way beginning in New Orleans. I hope to include some along with the journal as we go along. We arrived in Chicago at 7:00p.m. and we let nearly everyone deplane before us, since we would take so much time to collect our bags. We had nearly 2 hours in the Chicago airport before reboarding. We ran into one of my nursing students, rising senior, Brandy Conway. She lives in Chicago and was flying to Las Vegas to attend a wedding in Phoenix on Friday. She was going to spend time with friends during the week. We had a good visit, but then we separated. She was taking the same flight, so we saw her again later. The flight agent in Chicago was able to block a seat for Kathy, since the plane didn’t have as many passengers as were originally booked. That was great. We had another good flight and arrived in Las Vegas (home of the neon lights) about 11:30p.m. local time (it was 1:30a.m.) by our internal clocks.
By the time we picked up the rental van and made it to the hotel where we were to stay, it was nearly 2:00a.m. We found out when we arrived that the hotel was overbooked so we had to turn around and go 40 miles back to the southwest to Boulder City to stay (for free) in the only available hotel in the valley. We found out after we were headed there that this hotel was Hacienda Hotel & CASINO... During Sunday, we learned that people in Las Vegas have to deal with Casinos just about everywhere they go, so they do use the hotels and restaurants of the casino resorts. It was just another thing to deal with at 2:00a.m. We finally got checked in and had everyone in bed by 3:30a.m.
After we arrived at the airport parking lot and loaded our luggage onto the shuttle bus, we started for the airport. The picture below is of our luggage on the shuttle. We were the only ones on the bus and we had quite the load: 6 checked bags, 9 carry-ons, a car seat and a stroller, not to mention a little one that needed carried or pushed along the way. I realized at the airport that the only person without a coat (for the cold evenings in the desert and by the ocean) was Kathy. I had set hers out, but then it got hung up and left at home.
We arrived at the airport in plenty of time to go through security and get checked in before our flight (in fact we had to wait 1 1/2 hours after we were settled before they boarded). We found they had wireless service, so we were able to check email, but didn’t get our blog page set up adequately to really get it going. We hadn’t thought to do that at home. The girls entertained themselves watching the planes take off and land. About 30 minutes before we boarded, Robyn Kramer walked by with her kids. They were on their way home to Tucson after a visit with her mom. Pastor Kramer was Rob’s youth pastor until last summer. We had a nice visit with them, and we told them we would see them on Thursday evening for church. 
We saw the Mississippi on the way out of New Orleans. Rob took pictures along the way beginning in New Orleans. I hope to include some along with the journal as we go along. We arrived in Chicago at 7:00p.m. and we let nearly everyone deplane before us, since we would take so much time to collect our bags. We had nearly 2 hours in the Chicago airport before reboarding. We ran into one of my nursing students, rising senior, Brandy Conway. She lives in Chicago and was flying to Las Vegas to attend a wedding in Phoenix on Friday. She was going to spend time with friends during the week. We had a good visit, but then we separated. She was taking the same flight, so we saw her again later. The flight agent in Chicago was able to block a seat for Kathy, since the plane didn’t have as many passengers as were originally booked. That was great. We had another good flight and arrived in Las Vegas (home of the neon lights) about 11:30p.m. local time (it was 1:30a.m.) by our internal clocks.
By the time we picked up the rental van and made it to the hotel where we were to stay, it was nearly 2:00a.m. We found out when we arrived that the hotel was overbooked so we had to turn around and go 40 miles back to the southwest to Boulder City to stay (for free) in the only available hotel in the valley. We found out after we were headed there that this hotel was Hacienda Hotel & CASINO... During Sunday, we learned that people in Las Vegas have to deal with Casinos just about everywhere they go, so they do use the hotels and restaurants of the casino resorts. It was just another thing to deal with at 2:00a.m. We finally got checked in and had everyone in bed by 3:30a.m.
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