I brought back many stories from Vegas, but let's start
with the ride home.
3:30am Sunday, September 12th, I took my suitcases to the
front of Excalibur and hailed a cab. Climbed in with the
cab driver and told him, "Airport the fastest way please."
He asked me, "Do you know the fastest way?" I replied that
I was familiar with the area and yes, but offered nothing
more than that.
So on the way to the airport cab driver tells me he is
from Indonesia, and I am his very first fare EVER. Wow.
Driving along on Tropicana, we suddenly encounter police
cars with at least 3 blocks of the road closed due to
an accident or something. Cab driver curses under his
breath. He makes a turn around and goes up a side road
to bypass those blocks. When he gets on the detour, a
residential street, he floors it. I'm not sure what the
speed limit is supposed to be but I'm pretty sure it wasn't
as fast as we were traveling! Get to the airport, he
drops me and my luggage at the door. I give him a good
tip as I am his very first fare. Yes I wondered if he told
all his passengers this, but oh well. He'll remember me.
Checking in was uneventful. Made my way to security.
Security.
I was patted down in security.
O-kay. I really don't care at 4:15am.
Get to my gate somewhere around 4:45. How did I do this
so quickly? Oh yeah the cab driver :) Okay plane leaves
at 6:30, that leaves snooze time.
EXCEPT for the Allegiant gate employee. Little Miss Chipper.
She arrives, coffee in hand, saying a loud boisterous 'Good
Morning' to everyone she passes. I hate morning people!
Then she starts announcing everything about the flight - and it
isn't even 5am yet. By 5am I knew how long the flight lasts,
who the pilots were, how much potato chips sell for on the
flight, and much much more.
FINALLY we board.
Found my seat, buckled my seatbelt, and settled in for a
snooze. Oh wait. Miss Pissed Off gets on the plane and
wouldn't you know it - her seat is directly in front of
mine. She starts off bitching to her poor husband how
someone else's suitcase is in her assigned luggage bin.
She sits down and it's just yip yip yip for awhile.
Then the pilot announces we have a mechanical problem and would
be delayed. Seems there was no water pressure in the bathroom
sink. 5 minute delay he says. Right I say. Sigh. 15 minutes
later the mechanical people decide they don't know what's wrong
and need to just drain the tank and put wet wipes in the bathroom.
5 more minutes they say.
We take off over 1/2 hour late.
'Not a problem' the pilot says. We'll make it up in the air.
Okay time for that snooze.
Halfway through the flight, I'm guessing somewhere over Kansas,
Miss Pissed Off starts yelling for help. Seems another man in
her row was having a reaction of some sort. Flight attendants
come, pilot comes. I thought for sure we'd be landing in Kansas
so he may get medical attention but he fortunately was okay.
We arrive at the intended destination about 20 minutes late, but
otherwise alive.
