Winkie is a pig and I'll put his picture on here as soon as I download my camera along with the back story to our traveling pigs (btw: these are stuffed pigs...not the real kind!) He travels with us and last year sometime I was thinking of having a blog that followed our travels called "Wanders With Winkie". That never happened and truly, we don't travel often enough to have a blog devoted to travel, but I thought I would incorporate those adventures here.
We just had our first travel adventure of the new year: a long weekend to Las Vegas with a side trip to a local town to visit an uncle and aunt I hadn't seen in 35 years. I was a fun adventure. The day we left the east coast was having a terrible rain storm. The plane we were scheduled to fly on was overweight and we volunteered to be rerouted to help lighten the plan. Our reward was $500 in travel vouchers EACH. Our Las Vegas arrival was delayed by just one hour and our seats were actually better than our original ones. We spent some of our layover time dreaming about where to go with our new windfall.
Our visit with my aunt and uncle was wonderful! We got to hear many old family stories and share pictures and stories about my family over the past many years. They fed us and fed us and fed us so much that we thought we would have to be rolled to the car! They live about an hour west of Vegas and the drive gave us a little view of the more natural side of Nevada without the glitz and glam of Vegas. We drove past Red Rock Canyon and through lots of desert. That was the only part of the trip we really needed a rental car for and if we make a similar trip we will probably only rent the car for a day and take taxis for the rest of the trip.
We visited The Gold and Silver Pawn Shop, site of the History Channel series, Pawn Stars. This was a bit disappointing. The store was much smaller than it appears online, there was a line to get in and none of the stars from the show were there. There wasn't much merchandise either. But, I"m glad we went, just to be able to say that I was there. On the way we passed a row of wedding chapels, many with bridal parties going on. It was a show in itself!
We did our share of feeding the slot machines and discovered that our favorite machine was themed with The Wizard of Oz. That happens to be one of my all time favorite movies. The game was entertaining and understandable and seemed to provide you with wins often enough to keep you coming back.
We also toured an exhibition of the salvaged remains of The Titanic at the Luxor. It was very well done and enjoyable. The exhibit was made to make you feel that you were actually onboard the ship right down to a real iceberg!
The last night I did my "nervous" thing about traveling. Sometimes I get so worried that we won't get to the airport on time or will miss the plane or whatever. Our flight left at 6am so I hardly slept worried that I wouldn't wake up in time. I know it's silly, but I have trouble breaking out of that once I'm in the middle of the worry. When we got to the airport we had the option to upgrade to first class. I've never flown first class, but I may now be hooked on this luxury! You go through a separate security check point, you board first, they feed you, your seats are comfortable and big, you get pillows. I was able to relax, sleep and arrive refreshed. It made traveling so much more enjoyable.
So....next post....pictures of winkie, and back story.....stay tuned.
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